Maybe a client was late.
Maybe you had to explain the same exercise to someone for what felt like the 376th time and now you feel bad because she’s an incredibly nice woman, but why can’t she just remember to keep her shoulders back?
Maybe it’s a Monday morning at 10:22 and you’re already tired but you still have 5 ½ days before you can take your next day off.
Maybe your admin forgot to follow up on the leads for the last few days and now you have to do it…again.
Maybe it’s because you have a staff but you STILL can’t get them to do what you need them to do.
“What’s the f**king point of all this?”
Maybe you feel this way because you’ve reached a fork in the road and you don’t even know where the different paths lead.
Not the kind of Hybrid we’re talking about.
Feel Familiar?
Ultimately they lead to one of two outcomes:
- You’ll build a business that fits your values, gives you the time you need, and that you LOVE running.
- You’ll burn out and feel tired, stressed, and irritable every step along the way.
If you want to go down path number 1, it’s time to take control.
Watch this very short clip of Meagan Sbat of Get Fit New Hampshire talking about what she needed to do to move her business forward.
This will require one of the largest shifts of your journey so far — the move from being a front-of-house “technician” to becoming a behind-the-scenes “manager.”
It won’t be easy, but developing a management skillset will fundamentally change the way you solve problems. You can’t do everything yourself anymore and you have to learn how to get results through others.
You’ll do that by:
- Creating systems.
- Developing staff.
- Training them the right way.
- Holding them accountable.
You may know that already, but you may not know how to get there.
Maybe you even have staff now, but if you don’t know how to train them or don’t really know what they should be doing…well you know what path that goes down.
This will help.
In this blog post I’m going to talk about:
- The three most important positions in your business (other than yourself).
- When you should be thinking about hiring for those positions.
- What you should be thinking about before and after you hire.
These are listed in no particular order. Every business’s needs are different, but there are business fundamentals that never change.
Maybe you’ve already hired for these positions, but still haven’t quite figured out how to use your staff to build the business you want. If this is the case, your skillset has to change.
If you’ve ever read The E-Myth (and if you haven’t, you need to) you know that when people open a business they generally do it because they enjoy performing the technical part of whatever that business offers.
In other words, you likely opened a gym because you enjoy training people.
While that may never change, once you reach that fork in the road we talked about earlier, you have a decision to make.
Coach
When should you hire?
- The time you spend coaching is taking time away from other tasks you should be doing such as marketing, lead follow-up, financial planning, etc.
- You are overtired due to the physical and emotional toll coaching takes.
- There are opportunities to open up new time slots or add new clients that you are unable to fulfill on your own.
- When the benefits of an additional coach outweigh the expense.
What you should be thinking about before you hire.
- Will this person connect with your clientele?
- What is their full job description? Will they be taking on sales, lead generation or follow-up, for example.
- Do you have a training system in place so they will coach the way you want?
- How experienced do you need or want them to be?
- Do you have a system in place for continued training?
- Do you have a system in place for communicating with them on a regular basis?
- How will you measure their performance?
What you should be thinking about after you hire.
- Do you feel comfortable with this person as a face of your business?
- Are they comfortable receiving feedback?
- Are they developing a comfort level with your clients and culture?
- Are there any red-flags that have come up? Lateness, repeated mistakes, for example.
Admin
When should you hire?
- When the time you are spending on lower-level tasks is taking away from the time you should be spending on higher-level tasks.
- When there are opportunities you’re not able to take advantage of due to a lack of time.
- When the benefits of an admin outweigh the expense.
What you should be thinking about before you hire.
- Do you have a detailed job description?
- Do you have a training system in place so they will perform their tasks the way you want them done?
- Do they appear professional and reliable?
- Do you have a system in place for continued training?
- Do you have a system in place for communicating with them on a regular basis?
- How will you measure their performance?
What you should be thinking about after you hire.
- Are they comfortable receiving feedback?
- Are they developing a comfort level with your culture?
- Are there any red-flags that have come up? Lateness, repeated mistakes, for example.
Salesperson
When should you hire?
- You are generating more leads than you can handle on your own.
What you should be thinking about before you hire.
- Do you have a detailed job description?
- Do you have a training system in place so they will perform their tasks the way you want them done?
- Do they appear professional and reliable?
- Is someone currently on your staff a good fit for this position?
- Do you have a system in place for continued training?
- Do you have a system in place for communicating with them on a regular basis?
- How will you measure their performance?
What you should be thinking about after you hire.
- Are they comfortable receiving feedback?
- Do they understand your culture?
- Are there any red-flags that have come up? Lateness, repeated mistakes, for example.
There are obviously many similarities between the thought process of hiring all these positions.
One of the most important is the idea that hiring is an investment, not an expense.
In other words, a new hire should allow you to do something valuable, whether that’s generating more revenue, allowing you more freedom and time off, or something else. Remember that value can be measured in different ways.
What about a General Manager?
Good question.
All of these hires are appropriate for businesses in various stages. Once a business reaches a higher level of maturity, you will need to start hiring leadership positions, and a General Manager may be the way to go. This would be a big move and signify a pretty big step back for you as the owner, but one that may allow many different opportunities for you to explore both in and out of your business.
Hiring a GM, or any leadership role, is a little bit of a different animal from the positions I’ve covered here, and talking about that is out of the scope of this blog, but I’d love to talk with you about how you may approach this kind of hire, the kind of person you should look for and if this is the right move for you and your business.
Email me at justin@frnation.com with the subject line HIRING A GM and we’ll talk through it.
Justin Hanover
Success Coach
Fitness Revolution
We’ll be discussing this in our Fitness Business Mastermind group this week. Come join us!
