How to Overcome Growth Challenges
No matter what stage or level of business you are in right now I can guarantee you one thing…
You’re going to face growth challenges.
They occur at every level, and they change as you become a better business owner. Your growth and success depend on being able to overcome these challenges so that your business is more fun to run, more profitable for you and allows you to create a huge impact.
Most likely you got into this industry to help others. You want to change their lives through fitness.
Running a business just so happens to be the way that you’ve chosen to do it. You may have realized that you needed more than working for someone else or that training at a big box gym wasn’t going to allow you to reach your goals.
Congratulations for coming to the realization and stepping out on your own. And if you haven’t yet, you’re at least considering it or you wouldn’t be reading this article.
3 Stages of Business Growth
As you start building your own business as a trainer there’s a pretty clear path to success. While you may not see it right now, I can tell you that it exists.
Stage 1: Hustle & Grow
As you start your business, you need clients. You’ve got to prove that you can deliver the results you promise and that there is a market for what you have to offer.
You must master your marketing and sales.
To be successful when you’re starting up you need to be GREAT at what you do and WORK HARD to prove it. Your focus during this stage is to master your training systems, ensuring that you deliver results and create a great experience. At the same time you MUST attract clients to you.
Marketing should be your primary focus. If you’re not working with clients then you’re working on your marketing. There’s a pretty simple solution as well.
Create THREE marketing channels and ONE great Front End Offer (FEO). You need an online, offline and internal marketing channel all directing your prospects to one very appealing Front End Offer.
Online Marketing Options
Don’t get overwhelmed with online marketing options. It could be as simple as having a social media strategy where you post client results and videos or pictures of your sessions throughout the week.
Here’s a quick list of your options:
- Social Media
- Email Marketing
- Webinars
- Search Engine Optimization
- Blog Posting
- YouTube
- FB Ads
Offline Marketing Options
Offline marketing will likely be your highest producing channel at first. Play to your strengths and make this one count.
Here’s a quick list of your options:
- Joint Ventures
- Workshops/Seminars
- Networking
- Business of the Month
- School of the Month
- Public Speaking
- Public Relations (Radio, TV, Newspaper Appearances)
- Participating in Community Events
- Direct Mail/Paid Advertising
Internal Marketing Options
Internal marketing is basically getting referrals. Generating referrals may be tough if you only have a few clients, so provide lots of options for your clients to refer others and make it easy on them.
Here’s a quick list of your options:
- Point of Sale Referrals
- Bring A Friend Days/Weeks
- Referral Contests
- Charity Boot Camps/Workshops
- Referral Rewards Programs
Your Amazing Front End Offer (FEO)
A Front End Offer is a low barrier to entry offer that allows a prospect to experience what you have to offer before committing to your regular program or Core Offer.
Typically they are 7-21 days long and are a lower price point than your regular training. The sweet spot for your Front End Offer is 14-21 days long, and you want it to be about 75% of your regular training program costs.
For example, if you charge $200 per month for training and your Front End Offer is 14 days, then the regular price of your training for the FEO is $100. The sweet spot for pricing would be 75% of that, so $75. This pricing strategy helps you pre-qualify your prospects and eliminates a lot of deal seekers.
Your Front End Offer should be specific to your Ideal Client.
Your FEO needs to be specific to the type of client that you want to work with or your Ideal Client Profile. An Ideal Client Profile is a fictional bio of your ideal prospect for your business. It allows you to know them intimately including their fears, frustrations, challenges and goals.
Your FEO should describe the specific results your prospect should expect and the time they can expect them in. The more detailed and specific you can make it, the more powerful and attractive it will be for your prospects.
By using your 3 marketing channels to promote your FEO, you’ll be able to attract great clients that are willing to pay you to test drive your services. Once they are in your FEO you can follow a simple sales process to convert them to clients.
If you master this simple process you’ll be able to grow your business to the six figure level relatively quickly. But what happens then…
Stage 2: Systemize & Expand
Once you’ve proven that you can market your business and you’ve got a great service that people want, then it’s time to start creating systems to become more efficient.
In Stage 1 you have to work hard and hustle. However, as it grows you’re going to be pulled in more directions and will need to create efficiency and start building your team.
As you start to grow past the six figure mark in your business you need to first create some simple systems to help you replicate yourself in your business. This will also help you eliminate some of the chaos that goes on with having to figure it out every time you do a task.
When creating systems, here’s a good place to start:
- Training and Program Design Systems
- Sales Systems
- Marketing Systems
- Client Management Systems
- Billing Systems
- Bookkeeping and Accounting Systems
- Office/Gym Management Systems
Focus on the things you are doing at a high frequency first and find ways to create efficient systems. Then focus on the things you don’t enjoy doing to make them as painless as possible so you can delegate them quickly.
Once you’ve started creating systems it’s time to get some of the tasks that aren’t revenue producing off your plate. Outsourcing bookkeeping/accounting, hiring an admin for follow up and customer service, using automated billing systems or having your bookkeeper pay your bills for you might be where you start.
As you delegate tasks that you don’t love or that don’t produce revenue for your business you can focus on your role within the business and spend more time training, marketing, selling and leading your team. When you focus on those your business will grow.
The sky’s the limit if you continue to master your marketing, create systems and expand your team. You can easily get to $20,000/mo or even $60,000/mo by just focusing on these areas in your business.
Stage 3: What’s Next
As you continue to grow your business and build your team, at some point you’ll ask yourself the question, “What’s next?”
It may be expanding into another location, leasing a bigger space, adding new offers to your program, or even exploring things outside of training to give you a deeper sense of purpose and fulfillment.
This is where you need a great peer group and mentors around you to bounce ideas off of, evaluate the ideas and help you navigate these decisions.
If you don’t start exploring new things to keep you motivated and driving you to growth, you’ll end up breaking things in your business, getting in your team’s way and frustrating them as you try to meddle.
This stage is very individual. For some it happens early and for others it takes years to get there. You don’t have to be here to be successful, but the more success you create for yourself the more likely it is that you’ll be asking yourself this question.
Wrapping Up
Every business will go through these growth challenges. If you don’t master the stages of growth you’ll find that business becomes harder and more frustrating.
Take a good look at where you are now and then take action on overcoming the growth challenges that are keeping you there.
