As a gym owner, personal trainer, or health professional, you’ve already dealt with the principles of behavior change science. A perfect example is: most of your members will start New Year’s resolutions. And a good majority of them will fail on their goals.

Why?

Because they failed to change the behaviors in order to be successful. Instead of focusing on one or two small changes, they focused on the big picture—and didn’t have a clear path to success.

That’s where you come in. As a trainer or even a gym owner, you know how to change a person’s behavior by focusing on the small steps they need to get to the bigger prize. But, in order for them to be successful, you first need to understand where they are in the change process. Once you’ve determined what stage they are in, it’s time to give the proper guidance so they can move closer to their ultimate goal.

In order for you to be successful, you need a basic understanding of the behavior change stages, and how to navigate them.

The stages include:

Pre-Contemplation—the earliest and hardest stage to navigate. In this stage, the person is unaware they have a problem, so they don’t understand how damaging their behavior actually is.

Contemplation—in this stage, people are more aware of their behavior, and how making a change could benefit them.

Preparation—this stage is where they make small changes towards making a big life change. This is the “baby step” stage where a person is making changes, but needs to be motivated to keep going.

Action stage—in this stage, the person is committed to changing and is taking direct action to accomplish their goals. A person will need internal and external motivation to keep moving in the right direction.

Maintenance—during this stage, the client focuses on avoiding the same mistakes they made in the past. This is where they focus on adopting new habits and avoiding temptation.

Relapse—this often happens during any behavior change. Although it may lead to feelings of failure and frustration, it’s important for them to maintain their confidence. Obstacles will happen, but they can’t let them deter them from future success.

If you can help someone make the changes they need to be healthier, then you will ultimately secure a long-term customer and lead generation source.

It’s important to note, however, that behavior change is not just geared to developing healthier habits. It can be an important tool for getting someone to buy your product or service. If they are unaware there is a problem, they won’t look for solutions.

But if you can help them see the problem, and how they can benefit from your services, it may make the process of selling a membership or training package a lot easier.

If you want to see how you can apply Behavior Change Science to grow your business, schedule your complimentary strategy session below. But do so soon, spots are filling up fast:

CLICK HERE To Schedule Your Complimentary Strategy Session To Discuss How You Can Benefit From Behavior Change Science >>

As a gym owner, you that in order to succeed, you need to have plenty of leads coming through your door. Not just any leads, but the leads you know will join your gym, and become lifelong ambassadors for your program.  And this is why you have a lead generation marketing strategy in place.

If your lead generation marketing game isn’t up to snuff, then the people you want to attract may not see your message. Before you start to pick apart your current systems, you may need to look at some common lead generation mistakes gym owners make when trying to attract quality leads.

Assessing Your Lead Generation Strategies

Lead generation is one of the most important metrics in sales and marketing. Although the message you deliver is important…

If you don’t have any leads coming through your door…then your sales team doesn’t have anyone to sell too.
And this becomes a problem since your message may be muddled with every other gym or personal trainer marketing to them.

So how can you tell if your lead generation strategies are working or not? Testing and tracking each lead generation tactic you’re currently running.

If you track your metrics right, you can uncover what’s working—and what’s not working—so you can make the adjustments needed.

Let Us Help You Fix Your Lead Generation Mistakes For FREE

The 5 Lead Generation Mistakes Gym Owners Make

Everyone, business owners included, make mistakes. It’s a part of life. But when it starts to impact your revenue and business growth, then eliminating the mistakes is extremely important.

Take a look at these 5 mistakes and see if any of them you can eliminate:

1. You’re Targeting The WRONG People

If you want your message to resonate with the people you want to walk through the door, you need to be sure you’re marketing to them—and not to everyone.

And, if you have built your customer avatar correctly, then you know exactly who you want to work out on your facility. Once you know who you want to target, it will become easier to market and attract them.

2. The Customers Aren’t In The Right “Buying” Frame of Mind

When potential clients come into your gym, they are obviously looking for a solution to a problem they have.
But, depending on where the buyer is on the buying spectrum, one person may not need a lot of coaxing to sign up, while another person does.

Knowing where your prospect is on the buying spectrum can make selling the right service, or providing the right information for an informed decision, will go a long way to making the sale.

3. Your Marketing Isn’t Clear

You need to make sure your marketing message is clear—and easy-to-understand, concise, and cuts through the fluff.

4. You Haven’t Segmented Your List

First off, if you don’t have an email list, you need to start one. Email marketing is one of the easiest ways to communicate with your audience. And building a list of potential buyers can be a goldmine for your business.

But, this doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. You still have to have a clear message—and it needs to go to the right segment on your list.

People are interested in what THEY want…not what you think they want. Be sure to segment your list, so you can send the right message each time.

5. It’s All About You…and Not About Them

As great as you are, your prospective clients don’t really care. They only care about what you can do for them, and how much it will cost to get what they want.

The more your marketing message stresses YOU, and less about what your prospect wants, the more they will tune you out.

Catering your message to the prospective client, you may find it easier to lead them through the buying process.

Fix These Common Lead Generation Mistakes

If you’ve been in business a long time, then you already know that getting more people through your door will ultimately grow your membership and revenue.

Most gym owners commit certain lead generation mistakes that could cost them clients and revenue.

But if you’re able to correct these mistakes, you may see people respond to your message, come through your door, and become a new member. And if you can repeat this process, your business is going to grow, and you will have more freedom to do other things.

Remember…

Having the right strategies for Lead generation is only one part of the problem. There are other mistakes in marketing…sales…and referrals that could keep you from growing your business.

That’s why our CEO, Nick Berry, created a short video highlighting some areas our coaches are hearing about now…and how we can fix them together.

We’d Really Enjoy Your Feedback On This Video

There are some really scary stats out there when it comes to sales follow up…

According to the National Sales Executives Association only 48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect. Yet, 80% of all sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact with a prospect.

Here are the stats for sales people’s activity in follow up:

• 48% of sales people never follow up
• 25% of sales people make a second contact and stop
• 12% of sales people only make three contacts and stop
• 10% of sales people make more than three contacts

Now, check out the stats on closing deals:

• 2% of sales are made on the first contact
• 3% of sales are made on the second contact
• 5% of sales are made on the third contact
• 10% of sales are made on the fourth contact
• 80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact

You can either look at that and think “why do I have to follow up so much” or look at it and see all the amazing opportunity because most sales people are lazy.

But, we get it…

Follow up is tough. It’s grueling work that can wear you down.  

So, we’re always looking for ways to shorten the follow up cycle and engage with a prospect sooner. That’s why we recently implemented a text message follow up for new prospects (like brand new) that has doubled our engagement results and conversions to a Discovery Call.

This is best used for a new lead or prospect within a day (hours if you are able) of them entering your pipeline.  

Here’s the script:

Hi [Prospect First Name],

Its [YOUR NAME] from [YOUR BUSINESS NAME].  You recently [action they took].

I wanted to see if/when we could set up a quick 5 min call to discuss [results they want]?

There are few reasons this works…

First, text follow up is best for those prospects who are familiar with you and your brand. The fact that a new prospect just took action on something (click an ad, complete a form, download a guide, etc) means that they are primed to solve a problem and know who you are.

Second, you identify yourself and your brand right out of the gate.

Third, you keep it short and sweet.

Finally, you add some value. The call to action of setting up a call to help them brings value to the relationship.

Implementing this text message into our first contact with a prospect helped us get them engaged in a conversation and moved them to a Discovery Call or quick qualifying call.

BONUS

If that single message doesn’t work you can follow up 2 days later with this…

Hey, just checking back in to see when we can chat.

That simple follow up helped us to move 4 prospects further down the sales pipeline in our first attempt at using it.

Feel free to personalize and adjust these texts to fit your business and your Ideal Client.  

If you want some help putting together a follow up system schedule a 60 min Discovery Call with us and we’ll breakdown your sales pipeline and get a solution in place.

This is part 3 of our “How To Overcome Objections” blog series. You can see Part 1: Price Objections and Part 2: Think About It Objections by clicking the links.

One of the most difficult objections to overcome is the decision maker objection. Outside of being incredibly pushy or borderline arrogant trying to get someone to make a significant purchase without speaking with a spouse or significant other is difficult.

The best way to avoid this objection is to defuse it earlier in your sales process. During your Discovery Call with the prospect make sure that you let them know that you expect them to make a decision at the end of your Success Session.  

If you do that and still get the decision maker objection that shows up as “I need to talk it over with…”  you can use these start questions. Remember, these are questions to get the conversation started not pushy ways to get someone to buy.

That’s fair. What do you think they will need to know to support your decision?

This question allows you to answer any unknown questions the prospect has and is masking as someone else’s. It also helps you prepare them to persuade the other individual to support them.

If the decision was 100% up to you would you join today?

It’s always easier to put the pressure of telling you no on someone else. This question will help you determine if the prospect wants to join but really needs to talk it over with someone or if they are just afraid to tell you no.

Listen closely to the answer and any indication they are uncomfortable giving you an answer. If you sense that it is the prospect’s way of not having to upset you or tell you no remind them that it’s okay to come to that decision.

Have you mentioned to [person] that we were meeting today?

Most of the time if a person mentions that they are meeting with a personal trainer to another decision maker in their life they would discuss the possibility of signing up. So, if the answer is no you can ask why they didn’t mention it. If the answer is yes you ask if they talked about the criteria that would need to be met for them to sign up and where you missed the mark.

Do this in a very nurturing way to gain understanding. Avoid being confrontational.

What would make [person] say no?

You want to smoke out anything that would be a deal breaker for the prospect and the decision maker. Find out what these deal breakers are and prepare your prospect to overcome them or get around them in the discussion with the other decision maker.

How can I help you prepare to talk with them?

This is a great way to advocate for your prospect. Show them that you are there to help them get through this and make a great decision. Provide them information, talking points and assistance in any way possible.  

Get Your FREE Closing Scripts…

If you have trouble closing sales or need a powerful script to help you overcome objections download our free scripts and audio now.  

Want more client referrals? Here’s a quick checklist to make sure your referral program is on point.

You can improve your personal training sales by honing in one simple skill that you are already doing every day.

There’s nothing more frustrating than having a client throw up an objection that you weren’t expecting and can’t overcome it. Instead of convincing them and pushing them to make a decision take this approach.

One of the fastest ways to grow your business is to look at what others have done to grow and find success in theirs. That doesn’t mean you copy exactly what they do, or that your business has to look exactly like their business…

Growing, or scaling your fitness business isn’t easy. It takes more than a FB ad, a couple checklists and great training. If you would look at many fitness businesses that have found some success, usually in the $10,000/mo-$25,000/mo revenue range, there is one thing that really holds them back…systems.

Train your team how to handle difficult situations, think on their feet and help grow your fitness business with these role playing tips.

Learning more about pre- and postnatal coaching is one thing, but turning that knowledge into results for your clients (and growing your business) is another.

As you are faced with new challenges as a fitness business owner it’s critical that you develop the courage and confidence to make the decisions required to get your fitness business to the next level.

If you want to move up to the front of the pack and transform from a self employed fitness pro to a fitness business owner you need to follow these 3 rules.

You spend a lot of time and energy in your marketing. You need to know what is working and what’s not. We cover how to determine your marketing success in this blog.

When your growth stops how do you get ‘unstuck’ in your fitness business? There are 4 key areas you need to focus on as the business to kickstart your growth again.

Getting more clients and adding revenue is challenging for any business, but fitness business marketing can particularly difficult due to low budgets, manpower and time. Here’s what will work for you in 2019.

Don’t make these 3 critical fitness business mistakes if you want to maximize your growth and get fast results.

High performing fitness business owners ‘always be marketing’, even when it’s hard, because it’s a necessary behavior for their success.

If you want to transition from being self-employed to being a business owner you need to build a great team. Your business should be able to run without you there 100% of the time. Unfortunately, many fitness business owners who start off as great trainers or coaches struggle to let go of the day to day operations in their business

You’ve got some big goals for your personal training business. Most of those goals are probably tied to increase your personal training revenue or profits.  

To increase your revenue you have to:

• Increase the number of new customers
• Increase the value of each sale
• Increase the frequency of sales

Let’s take a look at 3 simple ways to increase your personal training revenue.

Raise Your Prices

When is the last time you raised your rates? I know, I know…it can a scary proposition to increase the cost of your services. The little voices in your head start telling you that you’ll lose clients or won’t be able to sell new clients because of your increased rates.

For most personal training businesses the opposite is true! It will be no more challenging to sell at your new rates than your previous rates. And, your current clients won’t all jump ship.

Look at increasing your current client’s rates by $5-20/mo. That small price increase won’t be enough to drive anyone away. For new clients you can increase your rates by $20-50/mo or 10-25% depending your comfort level.  

Invest In Your Marketing

There’s a good chance that you aren’t investing enough into your marketing. The best way for most personal training businesses to increase revenues is by creating more opportunities to sell their services. Those opportunities need to come in the form of new leads.  

Learn how to run Facebook ads, expand your social media marketing, increase your networking, start your email list, etc. If you don’t have the time to learn how to do it or don’t want to learn how to do it then outsource it.

Lead Engine Marketing is the lead gen secret weapon for many of our best coaching clients here at Fitness Revolution. For a small fee you can have someone set up your Facebook ads and send leads into your funnel so that you can focus on closing those leads.   

Offer High End Services

There’s a good chance 10% of your current clients would be willing to spend more money with you for high end services. Putting together a premium offer, with big margins, for your best customers can help you generate some revenue easily.

You could offer nutrition coaching/planning services, individualized training (such as a few 1-1 sessions month), all access passes to your workshops/challenge, or concierge level services. With the concierge level services you would partner with meal prep companies, massage therapists, chiros, etc to create a package for this individual at a premium.

Increase Your Wallet Share

This is a term that I recently heard and didn’t really get until I spent some time thinking about it. Your current clients, your entire market really, has a set amount of money they are going to spend each month. If you can provide valuable services or products to increase the share of that money then you’ll have no issue growing your business.

This is not about being greedy! These clients are going to spend the money either way. They would love to spend it with someone they already know, like and trust (THAT’S YOU!)

If you need a little help increasing your personal training revenues book a complimentary call with a member of the Fitness Revolution team to uncover hidden opportunities in your business.

Discovering the opportunities that will put your fitness business on the fast track for success can be a challenge. Always staying caught up in the day to day of running your business can distract you from the strategic level thinking required for breakthroughs.

The Fitness Revolution Fitness Business Alignment System™, the most effective strategic approach to running your fitness business, is set up to allow you to step out of your business at key periods during the year to plan and adjust as needed to hit your goals.

No matter how this past year has turned out for you a solid Annual Business Review can help you get the momentum you want for the coming year.  

If you want a complete overview of the annual planning session check out this blog post.

Your Annual Business Review will be a success if you follow this simple advice…

Step Away From The Gym

Trying to evaluate your current progress and strategically think about what you need to accomplish next is extremely challenging if you do it in your daily environment. Get outside of the gym for a few hours to prepare for and complete your Annual Business Review.

You will be tempted to check off a few tasks or complete your daily work if you try to do this in the gym.  

Find a place where you can settle in for a few hours to think.

Don’t Rush It

Transitioning from your daily routine to strategic thinking can be difficult. Often times I’ll find myself struggling for close to an hour to get in the flow of thinking strategically. It takes practice and is definitely a skill to develop.

Make sure you give yourself ample time to make this transition. Avoid giving up when things seem difficult or you get stuck on a thought. Often times the moments after that, if you are willing to grind through it, are where the magic happens.

Don’t Worry About How

You’ll be tempted to fix a problem right away or might get tripped up because you don’t know how to accomplish something that you think is really important. Stay out of the ‘how’ and on the ‘what’ in your review and planning sessions.

What the heck does that mean?  

Don’t worry about the steps needed to take to get your plan done or accomplish a goal. You can figure out HOW you will do it later. The most important thing to focus on during these sessions is WHAT you need to accomplish or fix.  

If you stick to that your mind will open up and you can explore out of the box solutions to your problems and attack them from different angles.  

That change in approach is what leads to big breakthroughs.

Need help…

It’s not easy to get through this alone. Oftentimes a business owner is too close the issues to really be able to step back and see the path to hitting their goals. That’s why a coach is so valuable when creating your plans. They challenge you to look at things differently and help you develop as a business owner. If you’d like to see if coaching could be a good fit for you let’s give it a test run! Schedule a complimentary Discovery Call today…

The fastest way to help more people is to learn how to attract more of them into your personal training business. If you’d like to get more personal training clients for your business, and who wouldn’t, then marketing is critical.  

Let’s assume you have the required credentials, certifications or education to deliver great results (and that you are doing it with the clients that you have now). You won’t extend your reach, help more people and, in turn, make more money if you don’t learn to promote yourself and your business.  

There are 3 simple steps you can take to improve your marketing and get more personal training clients! Keep reading to find out what they are…

Get Clear On Your Ideal Client

The power of identifying your ideal client isn’t in having a nice avatar or profile to add to your business strategy. You get the biggest benefit by learning how to understand the pains, challenges and fears that your Ideal Client deals with on a daily basis.

Luckily, your training programs solve those problems for them!  

Here’s a short list of info you need to build into your Ideal Client Profile:

• Name
• Age
• Family
• Occupation
• Income
• Home Type
• Neighborhood/Subdivision
• Hobbies
• Activities
• Pains
• Goals
• Challenges
• Fears
• Objections

Build Your Ideal Client Marketing Plan

Now that you are clear on who you are marketing to and what problems you can help them solve with your training programs getting your marketing in front of them will be much easier.  

A great marketing plan will include marketing activities that work to get the attention of your Ideal Client and motivate them to take the next step with you. This plan also needs to be diversified. You don’t want to rely on one source of leads to get more personal training clients.

You should have an internal, offline and online marketing activity in play at all times. The minimum acceptable is one activity per channel. The perfect amount of marketing is the amount that helps you reach your sales and growth goals.

Figure out how you will get your marketing message out to your Ideal Client. This includes referral programs, social media, Facebook ads, networking, public speaking, writing, podcasts, etc.

When creating your marketing plan consider how your Ideal Client will see your marketing and what you’ll ask them to do to take the next step with you. It’s easy to say you’re going to write blogs for your marketing, but if no one sees the blogs you write they aren’t going to produce for you.

The most effective marketing activities usually require the biggest investment of your time, energy or money. For example networking is still very effective (when done right) but it requires time or Facebook ads can get you a lot of leads but require a financial investment.   

Measure Your Results

There’s no way to know what is working or how to speed up your growth if you don’t measure your results. Tracking your leads, where those leads come from and your conversion rate from lead to client will give you a lot of insight into your marketing.

Remember, the real outcome we want to achieve with marketing is more personal training clients. Getting 1,000 leads is great, but not if none of them become clients.   

You want to be able to look back and know what marketing activities brought in the most leads, which produced the most clients, and your overall conversion rate. With this information you can identify bottlenecks or key areas to improve your marketing and sales.

The Best Plan Needs Action…

A perfect marketing plan is only good if you implement. Imagine creating the perfect workout for your client, guaranteed to get them the results they want in record time, but they didn’t show up to the gym to actually put in the work.  

They end up with the same poor results they’ve always got from training, right?  

That’s how many fitness business owners treat a marketing plan. They create it, spend time building a marketing calendar and never get out to actual market!  

If you need some help creating a great plan and a little accountability to ensure you implement it schedule a complimentary call today where we’ll discuss your current marketing and put a plan together to get you more clients and increase revenues.

Running a personal training business is tough work! From the day you decide to start you will be faced with challenges, obstacles and difficult decisions that you’ve likely never thought about or been prepared to handle.

Taking action and implementing the following 5 key elements into your personal training business will give you the best shot for fast growth and success.    

A Sales System That Delivers Predictable Results

The fastest way to fail in your personal training business is not being able to get clients to pay you for your services. You have to be able to get clients to pay you, and pay you what you’re worth, if you want to grow.  

The first step is creating a system that you can use during your consultations that increase your chances of success with the sale. Here are 7 sales tips from fitness pros who have crushed their sales goals.  

A Marketing Plan To Generate New Leads

Learning how to implement marketing systems and put a marketing plan in place for your personal training business gives you control over your growth. You can’t survive off word of mouth marketing and referrals forever.  

The best marketing plan for personal training businesses is the Triple A Marketing Method. In less than an hour you can create a plan to attract more leads that is based on your strengths and allows you to focus your efforts on the highest return activities.

You have to take action if you want to get more clients. This plan show you how to get crystal clear on what actions to take.

A Productivity Routine

You don’t have an endless amount of time or energy to run your personal training business. The busy you get the tougher it will be to get it all done. This is why you need an operating routine in your business that allows you maximize your productivity.

Your productivity routine should improve communication within your business, allow you to stay focused on the most important projects and get more done in less time. If you feel like you are always running around with your hair on fire your current routine isn’t working.

Delegate Lower Level Tasks

Every minute you spend on a task that keeps you from marketing, selling, training or falls outside of your highest priorities as the business owner is lost opportunity. It’s costing you money!

Enter the skill of delegation. From the solopreneur to the business owner with a large team delegation is a skill that must be developed and implemented to grow the business. There will be a time where you’ll have to ‘wear all the hats’ in your business, but it shouldn’t last long.

Systemize & Scale

Developing systems and scaling a personal training business is often misunderstood. These are typically buzzwords that get thrown around in the industry.   

Systems are a set of tasks completed to deliver predictable results. However, systems shouldn’t be built out so in depth that they hinder the people trying to implement them. The systems you put in place should empower the people running them to do their job more effectively.  

Here’s a short article showing you how to create systems using the 20/80 rule.

To scale you need to be able to replicate those predictable results your systems create.  That requires that you hire the right people or outsource the right tasks so that others are getting results for you.

BONUS: Get A Coach

A business coach can help you get results faster.  They will have the experience and expertise to know what questions to ask you, understand the solutions to your problems, and teach you how to think like a business owner.  

Having a coach is like having a cheat code for a video game.  It removes a lot of the obstacles that keep you from having success.  Your clients hire you to help them devise a plan to reach their fitness goals and a business coach can do the same for your business/personal income goals.

If you want to see how a coach can help or where to start click the button below to schedule a complimentary call…

Learning how to properly qualify a prospect in your personal training sales process is a skill that all fitness pros need to acquire. Avoiding the trap of qualifying off budget alone will help you convert more prospects into clients.   

Many prospects ask about price or what type of programs you offer because they don’t know where to start in their discovery process. You need to step up and take the lead in these conversations by redirecting the questions and focusing on their needs.

If you need a more indepth review of a process for qualifying prospects make sure to watch our How To Qualify Leads And Close More Sales For Your Fitness Business Video.

You don’t need to ask all 20 of the questions below when qualifying a prospect. Use this list as a guide to help you accomplish your end goal and booking a Success Session or consult.

20 PERSONAL TRAINING SALES QUALIFICATION QUESTIONS

1. Why are you looking to join a training program now? What triggered your decision to join? What’s made this so urgent or important?
2. What experiences, good and bad, have you had with other fitness programs? What do you want to be different this time?
3. What results do you expect to see from the work we do in our programs?
4. What are your personal goals?
5. What’s your most important and urgent priority?
6. What’s keeping you from overcoming or your challenges?
7. What have you been doing to overcome this challenge?
8. What have you done in the past that you would like to be doing today?
9. What do you want to be the best at?
10. What’s is the value of your health and fitness?
11. Are your current efforts showing results?
12. What do you struggle with most?
13. How could you improve your relationship with health and fitness?
14. How did you discover us? Have you taken the time to look at similar services?
15. Who’s involved in making the decision?
16. If you don’t join this program, how will you meet your goal? What will you do?
17. How will you determine if we have been successful?
18. If you don’t reach your goals, how will it affect your life?
19. If we are able to help you reach your goals, how much is that worth to your quality of life?
20. What makes you lose sleep at night? Or what do you need so you can sleep at night?

Need Help Growing Your Sales & Income?

Schedule a complimentary 60-Minute Discovery Call with an expert on the Fitness Revolution Team to help you find a solution to your growth challenges. On this call, you’ll be able to uncover the obstacles holding you back from reaching your goals and put a plan in place to overcome them. It’s time to end the guesswork and frustration so that you finally create the income and business you want.

Most fitness business owners dread the holiday season that ends the year. Client consistency declines and new clients are holding out until the start of the New Year to make any changes.   

You can still increase sales and get more personal training clients during this notoriously slow time of year. Here are a few tips to ramp up your marketing and get more clients…

Run a Holiday Challenge

Back when I was running my studio there was a statistic that came out stating the average person gains 10 lbs between Thanksgiving and the New Year. To help our community combat this weight gain we ran a short 21 day challenge between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  

People are busy during this time of year and fitness is usually a second thought, but if you can make it easy for someone to maintain their weight or even lose a few pounds over the holidays with a small challenge you can bring in some extra revenue and get some great Front End Offer clients to convert to Core Offer clients in the New Year.

Reactivate Previous Clients

There’s a good chance that former clients are going to be looking for a fitness solution in the coming year. Comb through your list of former clients and create a reactivation campaign for those who left on good terms or just fell off from your programs to bring them back. \

Holiday Gift Card Programs

During Black Friday or Cyber Monday you can sell holiday gift cards to your current clients to provide as gifts or to use themselves for upgrades. You can sell gift cards for a specific Front End Offer, pre-sell a New Year Challenge, offer discounts on gift cards or provide upgrade packages to generate some new sales.

Premium Programs

Many of your best clients are willing to invest a little more with you for a premium level program. Run a few specials to your best clients to offer them additional training, premium level services or paid in full packages that generate some extra revenue for you at the end of the year.

Be careful here not to discount too heavily or to take a big hit on your monthly recurring revenue coming in from these clients.  

Give Back To Your Community

Find an organization to partner with during the holidays to give back to your community. You can volunteer your (and your client’s) time, donate money, or collect food/gifts/money for an organization.  

This is a great way to get some exposure but also to help those who need a little help. Each year in my studio we did food drive, charity bootcamps, adopted a family and a ran a toy drive during the holidays. Our clients were always happy to participate, we got some good exposure in the media and from the organizations we helped and collected a few leads along the way.  

It’s up to you…

You can sit around and complain about the holidays being slow or people not wanting to start their fitness programs during this time of year or you can take action. With the right plan and some focused marketing activities you can grow your business during this traditionally slow time of year for personal trainers.

Pick one or two of the tips from above and include them in your marketing plan for the rest of the year.

Need Help Growing Your Business?

Schedule a complimentary 60-Minute Discovery Call with an expert on the Fitness Revolution Team to help you find a solution to your growth challenges. On this call, you’ll be able to uncover the obstacles holding you back from reaching your goals and put a plan in place to overcome them. It’s time to end the guesswork and frustration so that you finally create the income and business you want.

As a business owner you can only grow your business to a certain level by yourself. The long hours and endless tasks will burn you out if you don’t find a way to build a fitness business team to help you out.

Most fitness business owners make their hires out of desperation, especially at first. You let the stress pile up, push burnout right to the brink and then finally decide you’ll make a hire. You quickly find someone you think can ‘do it all’ and bring them on. Instead of planning their onboarding you throw everything you don’t want to do at them and hope they figure it out.

It may not seem that unplanned while you are going through it but very few first time managers and new business owners make a great first hire. They end up having to replace that person within a few months and end up right back where they started.

If you want to make a great hire check out our “How to Hire The First Employee For Your Fitness Business” article and implement the process laid out there. Once you have that person in place it’s time to build them up and reinvest the time you spent on the tasks they will take on into developing them.

A great team member, one who is going to help drive your business growth, will want 3 things:

1. What should I be doing and how well
2. How will I be rewarded
3. How can I improve my performance?

What Should I Do & How Well?

Clarity provides energy. When your team knows exactly what they should be doing and what you expect of them they can do their job well. Usually, when you have someone underperforming in their role the first place to look is at their manager…that would be you!

The best place to lay out your expectations is in their job description. Instead of relying on a long list of tasks and responsibilities for the position we recommend that you clearly state 1-3 Core Responsibilities.  

These Core Responsibilities are the priorities for the position and will provide clarity for the team member who needs to perform them. These are usually listed out in 2-5 word statements such as “New Core Offer Client Growth” or “Deliver Training Sessions”.   

But, that’s not enough. You need to let them know how you measure their performance in these areas and so right under the Core Responsibilities on the job description you will list the metrics you will use to assess their performance in each. These should be something you are already measuring as a KPI or something that you can easily measure.

These won’t be meaningful if you list them but don’t follow through with managing to them!

Once you have defined the Core Responsibilities and Metrics for the position you’ll need to review them and clearly explain them to the team member. Once they have a solid understanding of what to do and how they will be assessed its time to set goals for them.

Each of your metrics should have a quarterly, monthly or weekly goal that you are reviewing with this team member in your Weekly Individual Meeting. These goals are the performance expectations for your team member.  

This clarity and weekly management of the metrics will allow you to get ahead of any issues and help your team member improve their performance.

How Will I Be Rewarded?

If a team member exceeds your performance expectations and knocks it out of the park with their goals they want to know how they will be rewarded. This isn’t always in the form of monetary compensation, but letting them know exactly what they can expect is important.

You can reward your team members with bonuses, incentives in pay, extra time off, gifts, or even simple recognition to the rest of the team. How you reward your team members is up to you and your budget, but you need to recognize and reward great performance.

Don’t confuse this with giving them extra for meeting expectations! You are paying them to do a job, so you expect them to hit your goals. However, if you have a superstar that comes along they will anticipate exceeding your goals and want to be rewarded for it.  

Save your rewards for exceptional performance! Reward and recognize more of what you want to see from your team.

How Can I Improve My Performance

Superstars are constantly looking to improve their performance, learn and grow. You need to nurture that need and help them with continued education and performance development.  

Working with your team members to identify the areas they need to work on to see improvements in their performance is critical. Much of your time as a manager is spent thinking about how to help your team and this is one of the best ways to do it.

Investing in professional development through certifications, courses, workshops or coaching can pay off big time for you as a business owner.

Business owners fear investing in their team members and having them leave. In most cases when you invest in your team they will become very loyal to you and your business. There are instances where a team member outgrows your business and needs to take the next step in their career which you aren’t able to provide at the time. That’s okay, and you should encourage them to do so.

If you get the reputation of developing superstars and helping the accelerate their career you will have no trouble finding great people to help grow your business.

But, if you don’t develop your team for fear that they may leave you will be stuck with subpar team members.  

I’d take my chances with superstars!

Put together plans to help each of your team members develop as a professional in this industry and become superstars in their position. You won’t regret it.

Hiring is the first step…

Hiring great people is just the first step as a manager to building a team of superstars. There’s a good chance you won’t be hiring team members that are already great at the job you hiring them for and they will require some development and training.   

You need to reinvest your time, energy and money into developing them so that they can help you grow your business.   

Want Help Developing & Building A Team?

Schedule a complimentary 60-Minute Discovery Call with an expert on the Fitness Revolution Team to help you find a solution to your growth challenges. On this call, you’ll be able to uncover the obstacles holding you back from reaching your goals and put a plan in place to overcome them. It’s time to end the guesswork and frustration so that you finally create the income and business you want.

Growth comes in many forms. One of the keys for your success as you build a fitness business will be transitioning from the technician to the manager to the entrepreneur. Adding staff to your business will be a challenge at first, but the biggest challenge will come in the form of you transitioning to a manager role.

There’s a good chance you’ve never managed a team before now. You’ve always ‘just got things done’ because that’s what you do. As you bring on staff to fill in for all the non-management level tasks, your role will change more and more to manager. At some point, these positions will be highly developed so that on any single day, your business should be able function without you being there, as the everyday tasks will be taken care of by your well-trained staff.

However, you are still required to hold the business together when it comes to systems and people management. Systems management requires that you constantly evaluate that the systems you have in place function as you want and that you have developed and documented the systems required for smooth operation of the daily work that needs to get done in your business.

Systems management requires that:

• The completion plans you have are as detailed as necessary for both accuracy and ease of use
• Your filing systems (where people put documents and when) and client management systems are consistent and prevent loss of client information
• Your personal training systems not only optimize clients’ results but also are able to be understood and re-created by your coaches
• Your marketing systems bring in new leads
• Your sales systems to convert leads into clients

People management requires that:

• You consistently evaluate your staff to ensure they are able to follow your systems as written
• They are put in the best possible positions to be successful
• They are engaged and inspired to do their best every day
• They are empowered to develop personally and professionally to be more effective employees

During this phase of your business owners journey, you should be optimizing your management systems so that you can hire and train managers to replace you. Managers you hire should be trained on how to carry out these systems, manage their teams and delegate accordingly.

Want Help Developing Systems & Building A Team?

Schedule complimentary 60-Minute Discovery Call with an expert on the Fitness Revolution Team to help you find a solution to your growth challenges. On this call, you’ll be able to uncover the obstacles holding you back from reaching your goals and put a plan in place to overcome them. It’s time to end the guesswork and frustration so that you finally create the income and business you want.

We’ve all seen those “As Featured In…” lists on the websites of experts. Why do they put them on there? Who the heck cares?

It’s all for credibility and positioning. Letting your target market know that you’ve been featured in a magazine, newspaper, online information site or other media channel automatically gives you expert status in the mind of your visitors.  

Listing top media outlets on your website and marketing materials is a great status boost. Don’t miss the opportunity to leverage your local media outlets to improve your marketing and get more clients.   

There are a lot benefits to staying local when it comes to Public Relations or PR. First, it’s often easier to get opportunities in your local market than it is to chase national or international media. Second, there’s a good chance your target market will recognize you and search you out when seeing you on local media. Finally, it can serve as a stepping stone to get bigger opportunities later on.

How Do You Get Media Attention?

Networking your way onto to TV, radio, podcasts or in print media is the easiest way to get your foot in the door. Leveraging those you already know to make introductions to the hosts, individuals who work for the media or simply finding ways to get in the same room as these media personalities or decision makers can set you apart.

But, you need to have a story that is worth talking about! Too many business owners send out press releases or pitch stories that serve better as commercials or promotions than actual newsworthy content. These media outlets are looking for stories that appeal to their target viewer. You need to be able to deliver something worth airing or printing.

Here are some tips to create a great story pitch:

• Have real news to share. Don’t think everything needs to be “Breaking News” material but don’t solely rely on pitching your upcoming challenge. If you’ve read some new research or helped someone with a new concept or method for delivering results share it with your network.
• Be the first to the party. If you’re business is the first to integrate something new that helps people get results and you think it’s newsworthy make sure to share it. People love innovative companies and their ideas.
• Play off trends and hot topics. If there is a national or world wide trend that you are noticing popping up in media offer your help to provide a local perspective on the topic. Be available to provide content and you’ll get more publicity.
• Post people stories. Success stories, new hires, recognition gained, etc are all great chances to share success stories about people in the community with the media. It may not get picked up for the headline on the 6pm news but it will make the local business section.

Build Your PR Calendar

If you’re going to use PR as a way to get new leads you need a plan. Simply hoping you’ll remember to send out press releases or network with media won’t deliver results. You’re going to need to be persistent and consistent with your marketing via this channel.

Using a marketing calendar will help and aligning this with the Triple A Marketing Method will give you a great chance for success.   

Here’s how to tie your PR Calendar into your marketing calendar:

• Create 3-4 media themes for the year that relate to your Ideal Client
• Create a list of 10-12 small interesting marketing related themes for ongoing press releases
• Add in the media themes and press releases to your marketing calendar as a “promotion”
• Create a template for your one-page press releases to use
• Connect with your media network monthly by sending them your pitch or press release

Maximize Your PR Plan

The above PR calendar will help you stay top of mind with the media and give you a great shot at getting published or featured. However, if you want to maximize your success make sure you build relationships with your local media.

The first step is following up individually with the members of your network in the media. Start by following up monthly with them to check in and even congratulating them on a successful story. You can set up Google Alerts for articles or published content created by them or follow them and the media outlets on social media.

Once you get a feature or a little PR love from your network make sure to send them a hand written thank you note. This will go a long way in standing out and them remembering you the next time a fitness, nutrition or health story rolls across their desk.  

Share their content and amplify their reach with your social media. Comment on their posts, share their content, and make sure you are seen interacting with them when it doesn’t involve promoting you or your business.   

Want Help Building A Plan To Grow Your Business?

Schedule complimentary 60-Minute Discovery Call with an expert on the Fitness Revolution Team to help you find a solution to your growth challenges. On this call, you’ll be able to uncover the obstacles holding you back from reaching your goals and put a plan in place to overcome them. It’s time to end the guesswork and frustration so that you finally create the income and business you want.

As you grow your fitness business the responsibilities you have can quickly get overwhelming. You have more clients to manage, administrative tasks pile up, you put in countless hours trying to keep your head above water and there’s a good chance you’ve just started to make a little money.

You’re in the difficult position of having to figure out if you want to invest in a staff member or tackle all this on your own for a little while longer.  

How do you know when to make the first hire for your fitness business?

There are 4 key indicators you can look for:

1. When the workload of the administrative assistant roles you are filling reaches critical mass (10+ hours/wk doing routine administrative tasks), then you should hire an administrative assistant.
2. When the demand for your training services outgrows your ability to provide a quality training experience (e.g. the client to coach ratio in a class or classes is too great for you to provide excellent coaching to every individual), you should hire an assistant coach.
3. When a demonstrated weakness of yours in a certain job position is negatively impacting business growth and you realize another person could perform the position’s responsibilities more efficiently and effectively.
4. When you no longer wish to fill a certain position AND have the revenue to support hiring someone for that position.

You want to hire your first staff member to fill a specific position, but there’s a good chance you’ll be asking them to take on a bit of a hybrid position. What you want to avoid is creating a unique position around this individual, but rather have them fill two positions on your organization chart. As your business grows, you can easily transition the person into just one of the roles that best suits them and their desired career path.  

There are going to be some financial requirements to consider before making your first hire. You need to be profitable and able to afford paying this individual. There’s a good chance your margins will have to take a small hit for a short period of time as you get this individual up to speed and into their position but within a short time frame, say 90 days, you should see a return on your investment.  

Your investing in staff to create your capacity for you to focus on growing the business and performing revenue generating activities. The time you save once your new staff member is in place should be reallocated to marketing, sales and training so that you can replace the expense of this first hire with new revenue.

Are you ready to grow?

Schedule complimentary 60-Minute Discovery Call with an expert on the Fitness Revolution Team to help you find a solution to your growth challenges. On this call, you’ll be able to uncover the obstacles holding you back from reaching your goals and put a plan in place to overcome them. It’s time to end the guesswork and frustration so that you finally create the income and business you want.

All businesses have competition, even if you’re the only trainer in your area. You have to compete with local gyms, other trainers, Yoga, Pilates, online training and streaming videos.

There are lots of options your Ideal Client has to choose from to help them reach their goals. You need to be aware of these options so that you can position yourself against them and make your business the obvious choice for your Ideal Client.

This IS NOT about changing your strategy based on the competition. Instead, look at this as a guide to help you understand your competition and your differentiators.  

Where Do You Find Out About The Competition?

There is competition everywhere fighting for your Ideal Client’s attention. Don’t rely on your memory or current knowledge of the competition to do your review. Dig in and spend an hour or so researching the options available to your target market.

You can get clues to the existence of competitors from:

• Local business directories
• Your local Chamber of Commerce
• Advertising
• Press reports
• Exhibitions and trade fairs
• Questionnaires
• Searching on the Internet for similar services
• Information provided by customers
• Flyers and marketing literature that have been sent to you

Questions To Ask Yourself…

Once you’ve got the list of competitors ask yourself the following questions to help you complete your review:

• Who are your competitors?
• What products or services do they sell?
• What is each competitor’s market share?
• What price points do they sell their products or services at?
• What are their past strategies?
• What are their current strategies?
• What type of methods are used to market their products or services?
• What are each competitor’s strengths and weaknesses?
• What potential threats do your competitors pose?
• What potential opportunities do they make available for you?

A competitive analysis is a critical part of your marketing strategy and Local Market Positioning™. Using this article to help you identify and evaluate your competition will give you a clear path to differentiate your business.

Want Help Creating A Marketing Plan To Grow?

Schedule complimentary 60-Minute Discovery Call with an expert on the Fitness Revolution Team to help you find a solution to your growth challenges. On this call, you’ll be able to uncover the obstacles holding you back from reaching your goals and put a plan in place to overcome them. It’s time to end the guesswork and frustration so that you finally create the income and business you want.

Sometimes all you need is an extra set of eyes and a little guidance to propel you forward in your business. So many fitness business owners wander around, aimlessly trying to out work their problems and ‘hustle’ for growth.

And while hard work can’t be ignored, it shouldn’t disrupt your life. You created your business to provide a better life for you, your loved ones and create more impact with your clients. When your business starts to degrade your life, adding stress and frustration, it may be time to take a different approach.

That’s what Garrett McLaughlin chose to do after attending the Elite FItness & Performance Summit last year. He jumped into a coaching program that was able to transform his business. 6 months later here’s what he has to say…

Before finding FR what was your struggle? What were your biggest frustrations?

Before finding FR, I was doing a million things and trying to reinvent the wheel. Hard work was not the problem, but I lacked the systems and metrics to be successful.

One of my biggest frustrations was how hard and how much I was working for what it produced.

I knew that if I could only learn how to fine tune the process to the most valuable strategies that produced results, then I could ‘turn on’ and ‘turn off’ the switch when needed. This would lead to more efficiency in my business and allow me to be more present outside of it with the people I love.

How did that affect your life? What did you feel like before you joined the Coaching Program?

This has really hit my life hard over the last few years. There have been times where I didn’t travel home to see family, missed weddings with close friends, and stressed constantly to the point where I was never fully present in the moment. I knew I had the potential to run a great business, but I needed the guidance to get out of my own way.

When you’re constantly wondering how much you’ll make that month it becomes hard to think long-term and get out of your own way.

How did the FR Coaching Program help you?

The FR High Performance Coaching Program has helped me tremendously and I can’t overstate how thankful I am to be a part of it. I only wish I joined sooner!

The areas where the program has really helped is having the guidance and accountability of a personal coach, properly tracking the right metrics which clearly show the health of my business, and having tons of educational content to reference in order to better operate a successful business.

Pearla has done a great job in helping me develop programs and services that fit my strengths while simplifying my business.

Every day I know exactly what tasks I need to complete and have clearly established goals to work towards. This has lead to less stress and more clarity in my day-to-day.

How is life different for you now?

Life has been a lot less stressful!

I am now working smarter in a systematic way and have seen more reliable and sustainable results. Plus, I’m able to enjoy things outside of the business on a daily basis. Instead of constantly being stressed out about money or generating new leads, I know I have the systems in the place to work for me even when I am not working.

Join The Waitlist for EFPS 2018 and let it be the start of your business transformation!

Want to build a personal training business that provides you the income and freedom you want without sacrificing your values? Most ‘gurus’ would tell you to build a lifestyle business, maybe take things online, or some other form of that bad advice.

Somewhere along the way being a business owner that has a brick and mortar personal training business was bad. It’s as if you gave yourself a life sentence of working 18 hour days and being broke.

That’s simply not true! You can make a six figure or more income, not just revenue, from your personal training business if you take the right approach. This approach requires that you make the scary transition from fitness pro to business pro.

The transformation is only scary because many fitness pros jump right into it without a plan and without a clue of what’s really needed to become a business pro. The unknown is what scares us.

Think of it like this…

Your clients are scared to start their fitness journey because the things they’ve tried haven’t worked and they don’t know what to do next.

The exact same applies to you as a business owner. You’ve probably tried a lot to grow your business or escape the endless cycle of chaos in your business. If it didn’t work well, or you’ve found yourself back in that cycle, what’s next?

Creating a plan for a successful personal training business is a lot like designing a great program for your clients.

You must assess your weaknesses, identify your strengths and then develop a plan that helps you accomplish a clear goal. Instead of trying to tackle everything at once, you focus on a 4-12 week program that puts you on pace to hit your long term goals and adjust your programs when needed.

Prescribing a training program and nutrition plan that will help a client lose 20 lbs is easy for you. The steps are clear and the path is obvious. But, when it comes to ramping up sales, building systems and developing into a leader that clarity is lost.

We’ve laid out the steps in The Journey Of A Fitness Business Owner.

The final big factor in making a successful transformation from fitness pro to business pro is your mindset. Negative self talk and head trash can keep you from developing the skills and having the courage to do what is needed to become a successful business pro.

What’s holding you back? What is your next step in your own transformation from fitness pro to business pro?

Maybe it’s just getting around the right people and having the right plan laid out for you.

One guaranteed way to take a step forward in your transformation is to attend EFPS 2018! This is Fitness Revolution’s annual summit for personal trainers and personal training business owners who want access to the best info to grow their business.

Jump on our waitlist to get VIP pricing and early registration for this amazing event. Join us on September 14-15th in Indianapolis this year!

How To Use the 20/80 Rule To Create Fitness Business Systems

Systems…they are like Bigfoot or a unicorn.  Every fitness business owner is chasing them, working to put them in place, but very few have actually succeeded in defining and implementing them well.   They are a mysterious component of a fitness business that seems to always be just outside the reach of most fitness business owners.

Without systems in place, you will be reliant on either doing everything yourself or hoping that your people can figure it out.  Both of those situations put you on the fast track to burn out.

There’s got to be a better way, right?

Fitness Business Systems The Easy Way

Before we dive into systems we need to address the elephant in the room…

A system is NOT JUST a checklist of tasks to be done.

Let’s zoom out really quick, okay?   Without getting caught in the details of all the checklists and tasks that must get done in your business it’s important to note the 20/80 rule.

The rule states that 20% or your actions will deliver 80% of the desired results.  It’s likely that 20% of your clients make up 80% of your profits, 20% of your program design system delivers 80% of the results you get, etc.

Every business has a set of common processes that are required for them to operate and be sustainable.   You need to get leads, sell services/products, deliver those services/products and manage your finances.   While there are many different approaches to fulfilling those process, they all must be done for a business to be successful.

The Core Processes in your business are the 20% that make up 80% of the business activity.

A few examples of these Core Processes are:

• Marketing Process
• Sales Process
• Service Delivery Process
• Retention Process
• Accounting Process
• Human Resources Process

Simple Fitness Business Systems Deliver Big Results

Identifying your Core Processes isn’t enough.  Now, you need to zoom in a bit closer to figure out how each of these processes gets completed or delivered in your business.  Remember, avoid creating a checklist (at least for now) and keep things really high level.  Trust me, you’ll have a lot more success by following this method.

For each of your Core Processes document a maximum of 5 steps for each.

Here’s an example of the Marketing Process:

1. Create Your Core Offer
2. Define Your Ideal Client
3. Local Market Positioning
4. Build Your Core Marketing Funnel
5. Create Your Triple A Marketing Plan & Marketing Calendar

These 5 steps would put any business owner in a great spot to go get leads for their business.  But, it’s not a checklist or step by step blueprint for running a lead generation campaign.

Each of these 5 steps would eventually need to be broken down into smaller steps and eventually, checklists or step by step instructions would be developed and documented for each of them.   The key is not doing that until it’s absolutely needed.

Building Out Your Fitness Business Systems

If you try to build out all of your systems at once there’s a good chance you’re going to struggle through this process.  It’ll leave you stuck and frustrated with your business for a long time.  Instead, take a similar approach you would use with a client through their training process.  Complete an assessment, identify the #1 problem and then take the time to focus on creating the process that will solve that problem for good.

If you did this each quarter, and let’s say you got 2 processes and systems developed and documented in your business, that would equate to 8 big problems solved.  How would your life and business be different if you got rid of 8 big problems in the next year?

From there you can evaluate your systems each quarter to make sure that things are working the way they should for your business right now (they will never be perfect, and that’s okay).

Want help building out your Fitness Business Systems?

Trying to get this all accomplished as a business owner by yourself is a challenge.  Often times you need an experienced coach and the right set of tools to help you navigate the craziness that you experience every day and identify the biggest needs in your business.  We’d love the opportunity to talk with you and figure out if we can help you implement better systems in your business and help you get to the next level.

If you’d like the opportunity to talk with a coach here’s what you need to do:

Step 1: Download Your Fitness Business Assessment (Click The Button Below) 

Step 2: Schedule Your FREE Coaching Call 

Step 3: Implement and Take Action!!!

Experts are paid more and get clients easier.

I’m pretty comfortable making that statement, but there is one catch…

People have to see you as an expert.  You can be the absolute best at what you do, be the most educated or deliver the best results but if no one knows about it or percieves you as an expert then it’s not going to help you grow your business.

What is Expert Status?

You know the Instagram fitness celeb that can persuade your clients to do ridiculous exercises and try stupid diets?  They have expert status.

Expert is defined as a person who has a comprehensive and authorative knowledge of a skill in a particluar area.

Being an expert is one thing, have that status and perception is another.   There’s good news though!  It’s easier than ever to establish yourself as an expert, as proven by the Instagram fitness celebrity.

How to build Your Expert Status

There are a few key ways to build your expert status, but before we dig into the how I think it’s important to recognize that you don’t need to be seen as an expert by the entire world.  As a fitness business owner your focus should be on your community.   Be the most well known personal trainer in your area and business will be good!

Even more important than being an expert is being an influential expert.  You want to be able to persuade people to take action and follow your advice.

This all starts with know what sets you apart!

Digging in and establishing your Local Marketing Positioning™ is going to be critical for your success, especially at first.  While everyone else is chasing every type of client and branding themselves as a personal trainer you can focus on branding yourself as a stand out fitness professional.

You need to determine what makes you different, why that matters to your prospective clients and how you will convey that message to them.

Once you have a clear picture of your position in the market it’s time to secure it and be the GO-TO fitness pro for it.

Sharing Your Message

Workshops, seminars, blog posts, videos, media appearances and social media can all be used to build up your local expert status.  If you’re just getting started I recommend that you focus on one key area, especially if time is limited.

Blog posts, videos and social media require you to market those items to ensure people see them.  If no one is reading or watching your message it’s going to be tough to be thought of as the expert.

Launching workshops or networking your way to media appearances can be a quick jump start to gaining expert status.  And because you have a clear list of differnetiators and a positioning statement it’s going to be easy to show people why you are the one they should listen to or highlight.

To run workshops it’s usually best to partner up with other local businesses or organizations at first.  Perfect your presentation, perfect your pitch at the end and do it for free to get some experience.  By partning with these other organizations you can put the burden of filling the workshops on them.

As you gain experience it will be easier to figure out how to run your own workshops at your studio or at other locations in your community.  You’ll figure out the marketing and be able to fill them up and get lots of new leads that see you as THE EXPERT.

Don’t get to caught up if only a few people show up for your events in the first few months.  Be consistent and treat every workshop you run like there are 100 people in the audience.

Creating content and sharing it online is another great way to build up your expert status.  It can take more time to build an audience but it’s still possible.  If you’re going to use online channels like Youtube, your blog, and social media to create content and build up an audience that sees you as an expert also take the time to build up an email list so that you can communicate with them and share your content with them as you create it.

Tips For Success

Be consistent, keep your Ideal Client in mind, and go to work.  It’s not difficult to outperform your local competition and be seen as an expert.  However, it will take discipline to get it done.  You’ve got to be willing to put yourself out there at workshops when no one may show up, write blogs every week when no one is reading them or get on camera and feel like a fool for a while.

It’s all part of the process.  You’ll get better at delivering workshops, writing and video overtime.  Consistently putting out the content (and some of it will suck) is going to be the key to your success.

Your abililty to reach a lot of people in your local community has never been better.   It’s time you start sharing your expertise with them!

Need help growing your business?

We’d love to chat with you on a COMPLIMENTARY Discovery Call to see if we can help you grow your business.  All you have to do is click the button below and apply for your call.  NO OBLIGATIONS, NO TRICKS….Only a 60 minute call to find out how we can help you take your business to the next level.

Maximize Fitness Business Growth Through Joint Ventures

Imagine having a team of other businesses and organizations out there promoting your offers and programs to their clients.  Sounds pretty amazing right?

That’s one of the methods I used to grow my fitness studio and extend my reach in the community without having to spend money on advertising.  Building up a list of Joint Ventures, basically Referral Partners, that are willing to promote you and your business is one of the fastest ways to gain traction.  But, there’s a trick to making it work and most fitness business owners approach this the wrong way and kill the relationships before they start.

You may be more familiar with the terms strategic relationships or strategic partnerships.   For now, assume these are all the same but we’ll be using Joint Ventures to refer to any business or organization that you will work with to help promote each other.

Finding A Common Interest

Many fitness business owners look to physical therapists, chiropractors, and other health professionals to establish these Joint Venture relationships.  While this seems like an obvious partnership, most of the time it produces very few clients for the fitness professional.  It’s not top of mind for these individuals to refer you clients and even if they do most of the time the patients or clients they work with are just trying to get out of pain.  There’s a gap in their needs.

You can, however, greatly benefit these individuals businesses as your clients are often seeking solutions to enhance their performance in the gym.  Getting them feeling and moving great helps you out.   Don’t rely solely on these relationships to grow your business, but don’t disregard them either.

As you being planning your Joint Venture strategy the best place to look is with your current clients.  Find out what businesses or organizations they current frequent.  A simple question you can ask is “Hey [First Name], I’m looking to partner with a few other businesses or organizations in the community to help more clients.  Who do you think would be a good fit for us?”

It’s funny how you’re clients will tell you exactly where to go if you want to find more people like them…but, you have to ask!

Dream 100

Chet Holmes, author of the Ultimate Sales Machine, recommends that business owners and sales people create a list of 100 other businesses or people they want to work with, no matter how outrageous.  It’s called your Dream 100 and it’s your hot list for Joint Ventures.

Take a look at your community and make a list, even if you can’t get to 100, of the businesses, organizations or people you want to create Joint Ventures with to help each other.

Define Your Offers

Just like we have you define your Core Offer to help you plan your marketing it’s important to create a basic list of offerings for your Joint Venture partners.  Now, you shouldn’t go and create new programs specific for them.  You should create a promotional plan that you both can agree to following so that the relationship is beneficial.

One of the things that derails a Joint Venture partnership is a lack of clarity on what is supposed to be done and what the expectations are for each business or partner.  If you go into a meeting trying to come up with a plan on the spot you’ll likely overcommit or leave things too vague to deliver a consistent result.

Create a few templates of a promotional schedule or Joint Venture agreements that you can present to the possible partner.  This makes you look experienced and creates a respect from the other business owner or partner.  Having a couple options for a Joint Venture agreement gives the impression you’ve done this before and removes the thinking for the possible partner.

Now, if the opportunity presents itself to get more creative you still have the option to add in terms to the agreement.  It’s much easier to start with a foundation than create something from scratch.

This also leads into our bigger picture… THE STRATEGY!

Using Joint Ventures To Grow Your Business

Having a few partners to promote your offers is great, but having a Joint Venture Strategy that fits into your overall Marketing Strategy and that allows you to hit your business goals is even better.

If you are going to use Joint Ventures in your marketing put the time and effort into creating a strategy for it.

The first part of your strategy should be “how will I get these Joint Venture partners?”

You can start by mining your network, asking for introductions to your clients or even cold calling businesses from groups like BNI or the Chamber of Commerce.  Set a goal for the number of new Joint Venture partners you will reach out to each week.  The goal is to set a meeting to learn about their needs and present your agreement to them.

For example if you reach out to 5 new Joint Venture partners each week there’s a good chance you’ll set at least 1 meeting.  If you hvae 1 meeting per week it’s likely you’ll get 1 new agreement and Joint Venture partner each month.

Working this system week after week will build up your bench of Joint Venture partners.

That’s a strategy at work!  Now all you have to do is track the leads you get from Joint Ventures and optimize your marketing.

Value Exchange For Long Term Success

There must be a value exchange for this partnership to work!  If you ask, ask, ask and never give back to your Joint Venture partners then the relationship won’t last long.  Take time to do a lot of the front end work such as building out the promtoion schedule, creating cotnent and delivering ready-to-use, easy marketing materials.

Hey, I never said this was easy…

When you’re creating your agreement terms make sure you put something in of value for the Joint Venture partner.

Here are a few ideas:

• Exclusivity
• Challenge/Content Sponsorships
• Email Promotions
• Social Media Promotions
• Special Promotions

There are endless ways to get creative with your offers.  Figure out what will get the best results and max exposure without disrupting your own marketing calendar.

What now?

If you read through all this and your stomach turned a little bit thinking of all the work and connections with other business owners then this probably isn’t for you!  Find another offline marketing channel that is better suited to your skills and assets in your business.

When used correctly and the plan followed diligently Joint Ventures can be a very productive marketing method for a fitness business.

If you are excited by the idea of creating partnerships with other businesses then set your target for new contacts each week and start working the system!

Download A FREE Marketing Calendar To Get You Started

What’s Going To Help You Grow Your Fitness Business, Get More Clients & Bring In More Revenue…

Every business and every industry evolves and adapts over time.  The fitness industry is quickly evolving with an increase in competition and leveling up of the business owners involved.  More money is being put into franchises which makes things a bit more challenging for the small business owner and private studio owner who want to make a real difference.

How can you out market your competition and clearly show your community why you are the best?

Here’s a few ideas for marketing your business in the coming year.

Paid Facebook Marketing

You can’t get away with throwing a few bucks into a boosted post or hoping to put $10 into a FB ad and get a good return on your investment any more.  The good news is that there is still time to have a big impact in your local community through paid advertising on social media platforms.

However, it’s now costing between $7-10 to get a lead!

For most fitness business owners taking the time to learn Facebook marketing strategy and create the marketing that is required to make it successful takes too much time.  It’s why many fail when they try to run FB ads or other paid social media marketing.

Instead of trying it yourself, outsource! Invest in someone to run your ads and create your funnels for you.  Take the time you save and put it back into your business by focusing on converting the leads that get delivered to you.

If you want a simple solution check out Lead Enginge Marketing.

Strategic Partnerships

Joint ventures and other strategic partnership attempts fail for many fitness business owners.  The biggest reason is a lack of clarity on the purpose and plan of each relationship!

You go in and hope that the other party will promote you and bring in a flood of new clients.  That rarely happens.  Typically the other business owner isn’t great at marketing and they are busy running their own business.   These ideas sound great at first, but then fizzle out.

Instead of relying on hope to build your business create a plan…

Invest a few hours to map out a few levels of strategic partnerships with your business.  Brainstorm all the ways that you can add value to a business and how they may be able to provide you leads.

Here’s a few examples:

• Basic Partnership:   Each party sends out 1 email per quarter to their respective email list and social media audiences.
• Premium Partnership:  Sponsorship opportunities for challenges,  discounts provided to all new clients, 1 sponsored email or video per month
• Exclusive VIP Partnership: Exclusivity (no other related business will partner with you), Premier sponsorship of all challenges, Ads or banners in gym/business,  1 sponsored email and social media post per month to audience.

There’s obviously more details to be hashed out to make this work, but that gives you a good start.   If you treat this like a true partnership and invest time to building these relationships and managing them they can provide you a lot of exposure and leads.

Seminars

If you love to educate your target market and position yourself as a subject matter expert in your community there’s no better way than getting in front of people.

This idea takes a bit more work to get right, but it can pay off big time for you and your business.   You have to be able to market and fill the seminars or workshops you do and then be able to conver those individuals into prospects for your business.

Using seminars to generate leads is the equivalent of online marketers using webinars.  You have a captive audience that is invested (with their time) in listening to you present on a topic you are the expert in and that they need to solve a problem for themselves.   The hardest part is usually finding the right topic to attract lots of people and then filling the seats.

Start small, even 5-10 people in a seminar is a great start.

Use your joint ventures, paid marketing and your email list to promote the seminars.  I’d recommend hosting this for free at first to get more leads.  After you get registrations put a system in place to follow up with each lead and confirm their post.  You can expect a few to not show up after registering for free, but if you market well and keep them engaged between registration and the seminar you should get a good turn out.

The conversion strategy at the seminar isn’t to sell a higher ticket item or even your Front End Offer to the audience.  Instead, offer a free Success Session to everyone in the audience and provide a special incentive to them for booking it right then and there.

Now you’ll have qualified prospects committed to sitting with you 1-1 where you can conver them to clients.

Content Marketing

This is a longer term play, especially if you aren’t going to spend a lot of time and money to really promote your content.  However, putting out amazing and helpful content that benefits your audience is a great way to establish yourself as an expert and be the go to when someone needs help reaching their goals.

The best part about this is 99% of business owners won’t do this consistently enough to make a real difference.  If you can be that 1% and commit to a year of content creation on a consistent schedule you can absolutely stand out.

Content can be video (a really good choice right now), written or audio.  A combination is even better!   Think about how many podcasts are also on YouTube.  When you have video content it’s easy to get it transcribed and turn into a blog, add to multiple platforms to share and audio can be pulled and put into a pdocast.

Commit to putting out at least 1 peice of great content each week for a year and track the results.  Again, this is a long term play, but those that can accomplish it will have a leg up on the competition.

Do a quick brain dump of the questions you get asked in session or by prospects and you’ll have  great start to your content.    Don’t worry about impressing your peers and other business owners, this is about helping your target market and potential clients solve a problem.

Planning, Tracking and Optimizing

The number of business owners that I speak with who aren’t using any type of marketing calendar or tracking system for their business is amazing.  How can you possibly expect to identify what’s working or systemize your business if you arne’t planning, tracking and optimizing your marketing?

Successful fitness business, those with High Performing Fitness Businesses, are going to be planning out a content marketing schedule, promtional plan and tracking their marketing activities consistently.  They will also take the time and see the value in tracking their leads and creating some accountability around themselves for the follow up needed to convert those leads.

When you track the right things and plan appropriately optimization is easy.  You simply look at the data and it will tell you what’s working.

If you’re not planning, tracking and optimizing your marketing each quarter then there’s a good chance you’ll not hit your growth goals and all of these other marketing ideas are worthless.

Your Marketing Systems Are Here…

Inside The Academy we’ve worked hard to put together modules, courses, curriculum and tools that help you become a better marketer and business owner.  If you want to ramp up your marketing and grow your business in the coming year and aren’t in the The Academy you better hope that your competition isn’t either…

Check it out for a full 30 days for fust $1!

Achieve More Faster With This Planning Routine

“A goal without a plan is just a dream…”

I had to look it up but Antoine de Saint Exupery is creditted with that well-known quote.  You probably use some form of it to motivate your clients and explain the difference between what you do and what they may find in typical gyms, from typical trainers.

But, do you approach your business the same way?

Most business owners get so caught up in working in their business they never take a breath, look up and plan for their future success.  They hope that someday they hit their goals.

Now, don’t get me wrong…

Doing the daily work is what allows you to accomplish your goals.  However, if you’re working on the wrong stuff it’s all for nothing!  Let’s make sure you have a great plan to help you reach your goals and build a business you love.

The Fitness Business Owners Annual Planning Session

Do you spend more time programming for your client’s than you do creating a plan for your business?

That ends today!  Because we’re going to lay out your Annual Business Review™ and all the steps you need to take if you want a great plan for the year ahead.

If you’re reading this and it’s not time to do your annual planning, that’s okay too!  You can easily use this in your Quarterly planning.

You can do this no matter the time of year, size of busienss or type of business.  The best time to start is now!

During your Annual Business Review (ABR) there are a few prerequisites:

1. Complete your Annual Business Analysis™
2. Compile your Financials Metrics and 4 Marketing and Sales Pillars™
3. Review your Strategic Alignment Plan™ (if you don’t have one, you’ll create it during your ABR)

These simple tasks will help prepare you for a successful ABR session.  It’s possible to complete your ABR ahead of time, but it’s kinda like jumping into your workout with doing your movement prep or warm up.

How Long Should Your Annual Planning Last?

This differs depending on the size of the business, not just in revenue but in team members.  At Fitness Revolution we plan for a full 2 days out of the office for our Annual Business Reveiw.

If you’re familiar with our 5 Stages of A Business Owner’s Journey here’s what I’d suggest for each stage:

• Stage 1: 2 Hours of dedicated planning time
• Stage 2: 1/2 Day of dedicated planning time
• Stage 3: 1 Full day of dedicated planning time
• Stage 4: 1-2 full days of dedicated planning time
• Stage 5: 1-2 full days of dedicated planning time

As your grow your business and start venturing into Stage 3 and beyond there’s a good chance you’ll need to bring in members of your Leadership Team to participate in your ABR.   With a coach you may be able to expedite the process a bit and get a crisp plan in place quicker, but it’s still recommended that you dedicate some time to reflect on your business without having to worry about your day to day tasks.

You’re probably thinking “Ryan, your NUTS! That’s too much time…”

This will be some of the most valuable time you spend working on your business and it’s the foundation for all the work you’re going to put in over the next 90 days and beyond.  It’s where you build your plan to hit your goals!

At first it will be difficult, almost painful to step away from the business.  It gets easier and you get better at doing it.

This is why we give you these frameworks and processes to follow, it allows you to make the most of this time without having to figure it all out on your own.

No matter the amount of time that you spend on your ABR the framework is still the same…

How To Run A Successful Annual Business Review

It’s best to start with the outcome in mind.  At the end of your ABR you want to have:

• Your Annual Gross Revenue Goal
• Identify Metric Goals such as New Clients, Net Clients, Operating Margin or Retention that are important for your business success
• 2-4 key objectives for the year
• 1-3 Quarterly Rocks that align with your annual objectives
• An updated Strategic Alignment Plan

Step 1: Check In

During this time check in with yourself and your team, if involved, and rate your business, life and health.  This allows you to evaluate where you see yourself, good or bad, and increase your self awareness.  This works particularly well with your team or a business coach as they can get a pulse for where mindset is and where some potential issues could be in your life/business.

It’s always great to starting a positive as well.  Typically not all of these areas are going to be in dumps.  There’s a good chacne at least one great thing is going on in your life and you get to celebrate it here.

Step 2: Rock Reporting

This section of your Annual Business Review is designed to get a Done/Not Done status report on your previous Quarterly Rocks.  Remember, these were supposed to be the MOST IMPORTANT projects or benchmarks in your business for the pervious quarter.  We want to keep tabs on them and hold yourself and team accountable for getting them done.

If you follow our process for setting these SMARTR Rocks™ you’ll have a clear picture of where they stand.

Step 3: Previous To-Dos

If you had meeting to-dos or tasks that needed to be done from a previous Monthly or Quarterly Business Review check in on their status and get an update from the responsible individual.  This allows for continuity from meeting to meeting and establishes a culture of accountability.

Step 4: Strategic Alignment Plan Review

At this point you want to to either fill in your Strategic Alignment Plan or review your completed plan to ensure it is updated and accurate.  Go through step by step to evaluate your Core Values, Long Term Vision, Core Offer, Local Market Positioning, Ideal Client and check in on your yearly/quarterly goals.

If you are missing a key component or need to update one of the sections typically we would coach you to create a Rock or establish a to-do to use one of our tools to help you get it up to date.  It’s typically not a valuable use of your time to try and crowdsource the information and get it completed in this meeting.  Assign it to the responsible individual and let them take it and run.

Step 5: Set Your 1 year Goals

Now it’s time to set your targets for the coming year!  These should get you a little bit (or a lot) closer to your Long Term Vision.  You will look at your projections for Gross Revenue, evaluate your marketing plan  and create mielstones for your big projects.

This can be a tricky task the first few times.  If you have trouble this goal setting post may help you out.

Step 6: Set Your Quarterly Rocks

Now it’s time to drill down and focus on the next 90 days.  What has to happen for you to be on pace to hit your annual goals at the end of the quarter?

If you can clearly answer that question you’ll be off to a great start.

Avoid the mistake of taking on too much at this stage.  You’ll overestimate what you can get done in 90 days the first few times.  Focus on the most important items and leave the rest for later.   Heck, if you get all your Rocks done early you can always tackle more projects.

Step 7: Evaluate your Issues and Opportunities

Your SAP is a great place to keep tabs of issues and opportunities you don’t want to lose but can’t focus on right now.  Evaluate this list and prioritize the items you can solve right now that will have a big impact on your business.

This is the time to really dig in and find solutions to make these go away forver.

Step 8: Review Rocks and Goals

It’s time to wrap up your planning session!  Review your Rocks and Goals to ensure they are still accurate after completing your ABR and then get to work on putting together your SMARTR Rock Planning Sheets™.   Typically, if it’s not done before the ABR you can spend a few days planning out the steps to get your Rocks done.

What’s next?

Get to work on implementing your plan!  A great business coach can take a well prepared coaching client through this exercise in about 60 minutes, especially after they have built a good working relationship.  It does require work on both the coach and the fitness business owner’s part to make that 60 minutes effective.

Spending some time with your team or on your own going through this exercise ahead of time will make any time you have with a coach more effective.

If you have a team it’s time to head back to them and cascade the plan so they can help you hit your goals.

Need help…

It’s not easy to get through this alone.  Often times a business owner is too close the issues to really be able to step back and see the path to hitting their goals.  That’s why a coach is so valuable when creating your plans.  They challenge you to look at things differently and help you develop as a business owner.   If you’d like to see if coaching could be a good fit for you let’s give it a test run!  Apply for a complimentary coaching call today…

How To Be A Forward Thinking Fitness Business Owner And Develop A High Performing Fitness Business

Most fitness professionals jump into business ownership with no formal training in business.  Heck, I nearly failed the two business classes I took in college (probably because I never showed up to them…)

You can find some success with sheer willpower early on.  Grinding through the challenges and outworking or outsmarting them.  But, eventually you’re going to face bigger challenges as you grow your business.  These challenges require a more strategic approach to overcome.

A secret behind the success of many of our coaching clients is a simple tool called the Strategic Alignment Plan™.  This resource allows you to share your culture, vision and goals with your team, keep them top of mind for yourself and get everyone moving in the right direction.

We’re going to take a look at what’s behind the Strategic Alignment Plan throughout this article, but before we do let’s get a few other things out of the way.

What is Strategic Planning?

This is the business management activity that is used to set priorities, focus your energy and resources, strengthen your operations, and ensure that everyone in the organization is working together to achieve the same goals.

During your Strategic Planning sessions you’ll adjust the path of your business, reset goals, and define key objectives that must be accomplished for the business to accomplish it’s bigger vision or mission.

You’ll be able to look forward to see where the business is going and how you’ll get there, but more importantly you’ll be able to identify how you’ll know your successful.

You should be holding Strategic Planning sessions in your business once per quarter. We call them Quarterly Business Reviews, one of these being an Annual Business Review.

Why do I need a Strategic Alignment Plan?

It’s easy to get lost in the day to day of running your business and lose sight of your bigger picture objectives. Having a simple resources to align your vision, culture, goals and plans is key to maintaining continuity between your planning sessions.

This also helps you refresh and recenter when you get a little off track. Often times as a business owner you’ll find yourself chasing the next shiny object in front of you. It’s times like these that a quick review of your Strategic Alignment Plan can help you evaluate if that shiny object is pulling you closer to your goals or further way.

This tool also helps you share your vision, culture, goals and plans with your team. They can clearly see where you want the business to go and the impact they can have on your business in their day to day operations. Too many business owners assume their team and employees know why what they are doing is important. If you don’t tell them and show them, they won’t.

The Strategic Alignment Plan

The Strategic Alignment Plan was created to support implementation of the Fitness Business Alignment System™.  It’s composed of 5 Alignment Principles™ that are required to be in place for any business that wants to be a High Performing Business.   

These Alignment Principles are:

• Culture
• Communication
• Goals and Metrics
• Systems
• Strategy

Here’s a look at each section of the Strategic Alignment Plan…

NOTE: From here on out the Strategic Alignment Plan will be referred to as the SAP.

Core Values

At the very top of your SAP are the Core Values of your business.  These values will drive the decisions you make in your business, the people you hire and how you interact with clients.  Placing them at the top of your SAP ensures you review them each quarter during your Quarterly Business Review.  

Another side benefit, assuming you share your SAP with your team, is that it keeps your Core Values front and center for everyone.  This ensures they are living in the day to day operations of your business.

Long Term Vision

Your Long Term Vision is the statement that reflects where you are going. Your statement can be reflective of anywhere from 3 to 30 years. Most are between 5 and 10.

It’s important to know that developing your Long Term Vision is a process, not a single event. You’re not looking for perfect; you’re looking for the first version. Complete the following exercise to help generate your Long Term Vision.

Your Long Term Vision will shift overtime. It’s a constantly moving target, like the horizon. It’s not critical you get it perfect, but it should serve as a compass for you to determine your shorter term goals.

Core Offer

Your Core Offer is the service that you are going to build your business around. It’s the one that you would want all of your clients to end up in if you had that choice, and it’s the one that you should be known for.

Your Marketing Strategy will be built around this, so it’s critical to stay focused on what drives your business revenue.

Local Market Positioning

Your Local Market Positioning and Differentiators are the answer to the question, “Why should a customer choose your business over someone else’s?”

Local Market Positioning consists of two parts: Market Differentiators and Positioning Statement. These are both clearly display on the SAP to guide your overall Marketing Strategy.

Ideal Client

Your Ideal Client is the prototype of the individuals that you could build your entire business around. This isn’t your favorite client but instead is a set of characteristics that we’re going to turn into a fictitious person.

You’ll even give that person a name. If your ideal client is Roger, then Roger should be the type of client who, if you could find people just like him, would fill your entire Core Offer and support a high-performing business.

Avoid thinking about specific clients you have now so you don’t get stuck on them. Your ideal client will probably be a blend of several really good clients.

1 Year Goals

It’s time to zoom in and start thinking about what you need to accomplish in the next for you to be happy with your business growth.  The annual goals you set for your business should help you move one step closer to your Long Term Vision.   

Typically, in this section you’ll find that you need to identify 2-4 objectives to accomplish in your business, clearly defined goals for each of your 4 Sales & Marketing Pillars and your 4 KPIs.

The 4 Sales & Marketing Pillars are:

• Leads
• Front End Offers
• New Core Offer Clients
• Retention Rate

The KPIs are:

• Operating Margin
• Autopay to Expense Ratio
• Core Offer Conversion Rate
• Core Offer Growth Rate

These give you clear target to aim at for the year.

Quarterly Rocks

Now that you know what needs to happen in the next year we have to zoom in one more time to focus on what you should accomplish in the next 90 days to keep you track.

Rocks are the big projects or initiatives in your business. Outside of the day to day activities required to run your business these are your top priorities.
Set 2-4 Rocks per Quarter for your business and aggressively attack them!

Quarterly Goals

Again, you’ll need to drill down into your annual goals and determine what needs to happen in the next 90 day for you to be on track to reach them.

You’ll determine what your 4 Marketing and Sales Pillars and KPIs need to be for the upcoming quarter and list them in this section.

Issues/Opportunities List

There’s always going to be more issues to handle and opportunities to assess than you can tackle in a given quarter, and possibly year. Instead of trying to keep tabs on them in your head drop them onto this list on your SAP so that you can spend your energy working on your quarterly Rocks and goals.

This is a running list that you can reevaluate at each planning session.

How To Get Started With Your Own Strategic Alignment Plan

I’ve yet to meet a business owner who knocks it out of the park in their first run through of creating an SAP. It takes practice and time to develop the skills and understanding needed to have a really good SAP.

The key to success is just getting started. Go through our blog posts, videos and articles to develop each section. We’ve covered them in depth here on this site.

Or, you can jump into Fitness Business Mastery when we release it in a few days 🙂

The fastest path to getting your SAP created is jumping into a coaching program and using our tools and coaching to build it out with you.

No matter what you choose, I urge you to get started and begin using your SAP in your strategic planning sessions right away.

If you want some help complete the application below and schedule a FREE call with us…

Evaluating Your Fitness Business Performance And Planning Your Next Steps

Success in business doesn’t happen by accident!  There’s a lot of hard work and planning that goes on behind the scenes of every successful business, no matter the stage you are in on your business journey.  That all starts with a Fitness Business Assessment.

When you’re caught up in the day to day running of your business, focused on just getting stuff done it’s easy to let planning slip by the wayside.  Who has an extra hour or two, let alone an entire day to set aside for planning out your next moves?

That thought process is exactly what keeps many fitness business owners stuck in the same old routine, getting the same old results.

At the end of each year and quarter you’ll want to block off a day to sit down, reflect on the past 3 to 12 months and begin planning your next steps.   If a day is too much to manage right now, give yourself at least 2 hours.

Trust me, this time you spend planning will be a worthwhile investment.  

Disclaimer: Your first planning session will be difficult.  There’s a good chance you’ll fumble through it.  Strategic Planning is a skill that must be developed, stick with the process.  

Our coaching clients find that having a Success Coach go through your planning with you makes things a lot easier.  It’s great to have an outside, expert perspective to help you.  

Want some help with this? Schedule a free coaching call today.

Prior to your Annual Business Review (the planning day), you’ll want to complete an assessment of your business.  This is a great exercise to go through with yourself, and your team if applicable, a few days prior to your planning session.  

Now, let’s get into the nuts of bolts of your Annual Business Analysis…

Assessing The Last 12 Months

It’s important that you look back at both the wins and losses in your business over the past 12 months.  Celebrate what went well and learn from what didn’t.

In your Annual Business Analysis ask yourself the following questions:

1. What has gone well in the business in the past year?  
2. What didn’t go well in the past year?
3. What has gotten clearer to you about where you see your business in 3-5 years?

Departmental Reviews

After you have evaluated the overall performance of the business and areas for improvement you’ll want to zoom in and take a look at a few key areas of the business.  Each will be rated on a 1-5 scale and have a few clarifying questions to help you discover any blind spots in your game.

Finance

Which best describes your feelings on your business’s financial performance?

1. I am unsure of how our business is doing financially
2. I’m not happy with how our business is doing financially
3. I’m okay with how our business is doing financially
4. I’m happy with how our business is doing financially
5. We’re doing well financially, and we are tracking all the numbers to prove it

After your rating answer the following:

• What do you think is needed to make this a 5?
• Do you review your financials monthly?
• Do you have a budget in place?
• Do you know how well your expenses compare to other similar businesses in our industry?

Marketing & Sales

Which best describes your feelings on your marketing and sales performance?

1. I’m unsure of how our marketing and sales performance is doing.
2. I’m not happy with our marketing and sales performance
3. I’m okay with our marketing and sales performance
4. I’m happy with our marketing and sales performance
5. Our marketing and sales performance is strong, and we are tracking the numbers to prove it.

After your rating answer the following:

• What do you think is needed to make this a 5?
• Are your Local Market Positioning Statement and Differentiators clear and in use in all of your marketing?
• Are you tracking all incoming leads?
• Do you have a marketing calendar in place and followed in each quarter?
• Do you know your ROI on leads from various lead sources?
• Do you have a follow up process with leads that is used every time?
• Are you consistently meeting your sales goals each month/quarter?

Operations

Which best describes your feelings on your product and service quality?

1. I’m unsure of our product and service quality.
2. I’m not happy with our product and service quality.
3. I’m okay with our product and service quality.
4. I’m happy with our product and service quality.
5. Our deliverables are high quality, our customers are very happy and we’re tracking the numbers to prove it.

After your rating answer the following:

• What do you think is needed to make this a 5?
• Are you clear on what your Core Offer is?
• Do you have a process in place that measures and ensures your customers are consistently receiving high quality service?
• Do you have a process in place that collects feedback from customers?

Management

On a scale of 1-5 how would you rate your effectiveness as a manager?

1. Not effective at all
2. Rarely effective
3. Average
4. Above Average
5. Very Good

After your ratings answer the following:

• What do you think is needed to make this a 5?
• Do you have regular and effective communication with your staff?
• Do you and everyone on your staff regularly set and meet goals for themselves?
• Do you measure the performance of everyone on your staff?
• Do you have systems in place for hiring, training, performance improvement and staff exits?

What’s next…

After reviewing those specific areas of your business you’ll have a great idea of what is needed for you to take your business to the next level and meet your upcoming goals.

Get crystal clear by answering the following:

• In order for the next year to be successful, list 2-4 objectives you need to accomplish and 2-4 metric goals you need to hit.
• What areas do you need help in to meet these objectives and goals?

Next week we’ll take a deeper dive into the actual Annual Business Review and how to plan for a successful year.

If you’d like to get a bit of help going through this business analysis and talk to a coach to help you figure out what you need to do for you to have the best year ever apply for a FREE coaching call below…

The Skills You Need To Go From Struggling Start-Up To High Performing Entrepreneur

One of the scariest parts of being a business owner is the unknown.  There’s nothing guaranteed when you make the courageous, often times scary leap to running your own fitness business.  

Do you ever find yourself wondering what’s next in your journey as a fitness business owner?

What should I be focused on?

What should my business look like?

What should I focus on to get to the next stage of my business?

You’re not alone!  After working with hundreds of fitness businesses we laid out what your business will look like at each stage, the challenges you are going to face, common reasons for failure and what success looks like, including the skills you need to develop at each stage to prepare for what’s next.

The Business Owner’s Journey

We’re going to take a deep dive into each of the 5 Stages through this article, but first let’s do a quick overview of each.

You may find it valuable to read through each of the stages, or if you’d rather skip right to the stage you are in now and figure out how to get to the next stage of your journey that’s cool too.  This article is a lot like a choose your own adventure. Read it and use it however you see fit to help you.

Stage 1: Sell, Sell, Sell

Facility Type/Space:  Independent Contractor

Gross Revenue (monthly):  $0-$2,000

Major Earnings Benchmark: Make enough to pay the bills

Values: Being a great technician

Stage 2: Marketing Machine

Facility Type/Space:  Independent Contractor

Gross Revenue (monthly):  $2,000-$12,000

Major Earnings Benchmark: Income is 50% of revenue, paid on a regular basis

Values:  Going from technician to marketing and sales

Stage 3: System-wise

Facility Type/Space:  Leased space

Gross Revenue (monthly):  $10,000-$25,000

Major Earnings Benchmark: Income is 30-45% of the revenue, start earning market based wage

Values:  Going from marketing/sales to business

Stage 4: Manager-Leader

Facility Type/Space:  Leased space

Gross Revenue (monthly):  $25,000-$50,000

Major Earnings Benchmark: Six figure icome 

Values: Going from creating results to getting results through others

Stage 5: Entrepreneur

Facility Type/Space:  Leased space or property ownership as investment

Gross Revenue (monthly):  $50,000+

Major Earnings Benchmark: >50% income from profits, working less and making more, getting paid your highest dollar per hour amount 

Values: Opportunity, balance, family, experience, retirement

Take an honest assessment of where you are and let’s dive in and look at what each stage looks like and how to get from one to the next.

Stage 1: Sell, Sell, Sell

When you are first getting started one of the most valuable skills you can develop is sales, outside of being a great trainer/coach…of course.

You won’t last long in this industry if you can’t get people to pay you for your services. Many fitness business owners are forced out of business quickly because they never learn to sell their services.  It’s an easily avoidable fate.

The Challenges

At this point you’re asking questions like:

• What should I be doing each day? 
• Who do I listen to?
• I need clients…where are they?

These questions along with overcoming your internal fears about sales will need to be addressed as you continue to grow your business.  As you gain new clients you’ll also build your credibility.  

Common Causes of Failure

If you never learn to sell it will be impossible to stay in business.  Not developing sales skills and utilizing a system that will get you predictable results will leave you clientless and penniless.  

This is a stage where you are most vulnerable to bad advice.  You are working diligently to make your business work and open to taking advice or coaching from just about anyone.  This advice could be detrimental to your growth.

A bad lease at any stage can put the strain on a business, but when you’re just starting out and trying to generate (and keep) as much revenue as you it can put you out of business.   

Many times Word of Mouth marketing drives a Stage 1 business, if that doesn’t take off because your clients aren’t willing to talk about you or you can’t deliver results worthy of referrals it’s going to be a long, tough uphill battle.

What Does Success Look Like?

You’ll know you’re having success in this stage when you have happy clients and you’re seeing steady, continuous growth.  

This success is built on the foundation of you acquiring the proper credentials to deliver training services and have a big focus on getting better at delivering results.

To support your growth you’ll need a polished and consistent sales process in place that allows you to hit your daily and weekly goals.   

Congratulations if you can check off all these boxes…

YOU’VE PROVEN YOU CAN SURVIVE!  

What Competencies and Resources Will You Need?

Getting out of this stage isn’t going to happen by accident.  You’ll need to focus on developing certain competencies that will be the foundation for future success.  It’s also important that you seek out resources to make success a little easier.

Here are a list of competencies:

• Closing sales
• Setting short term goals
• Delivering results

The resources to support you:

• The Triple A Marketing Method
• Priority Tracker
• Training Systems (Program design templates, etc)
• Certifications

Your Support Systems

Very few, if anyone can do this alone.  The road to success in the fitness industry is too challenging to have to figure it all out.  Learn from those who have been there before and build a support system that will help you when you get stuck.

At this stage you’ll find this support in:

• Online Forums/Groups
• Your Personal Network
• A Business Coach  

Understanding the value of a business coach at this stage will give you a distinct advantage!  They will help you implement systems faster, avoid the mistakes that put many fitness businesses out of business and get results quickly.  

By having a coach early you will build a solid foundation for your future success.   

Key Performance Indicators

With sales being the biggest factor to success in Stage 1 your KPIs are tied directly to your ability to add new clients.  Focus on New Core Offer (new clients) and New Front End Offers (trials, etc) during this stage.  

The faster you can bring in new clients the quicker you’ll be able to move to the next stage.

Stage 2: Marketing Machine

Congratulations!  If you’re in Stage 2 you’ve got your business off the ground and are making a bit of money.  Many fitness pros never get to this stage, you should be proud of yourself.

But, there’s more work to do…

In Stage 2 you’re going to need to ramp up your marketing.  It’s critical that you develop a plan to attract and acquire new potential clients for your business.   By learning how to predictably bring in new leads you will be able to support your business through the future growth stages.  

Without the ability to market you will be vulnerable.  

The Challenges

You’re getting busier now and there’s a good chance that you’ve said ‘yes’ to every opportunity that came your way to get to this point.  That’s going to be a risk for you.  You’ll have to learn to assess the right opportunities so that you have a focused plan for growth and aren’t chasing the idea of ‘busy for busy’s sake’.

You’re now more comfortable selling, but are starting to wonder how this whole trading dollars for time thing is going to work for you in the future.  There’s a good chance you’re starting to ask the question “how much should I be charging”.

It’s easy to be a victim of your own success in this stage.  If you continue to sell it means you’ll have more clients to train.  That’s great, but if you are spending all your time training you can’t sell any more.  Your revenue growth stops!  

Marketing can be tricky, especially in a competitive industry like fitness.  You’ll need to hone in on your target market and learn how to create a plan that gets you in front of the right people.  Spreading your message and attracting more leads is crucial if you want to grow.  

There’s a good chance you’d train people for free, because you love it.  But, that’s not a great business model… A huge challenge for many fitness pros as they go through this stage in their journey is overcoming their own issues with money, self worth and fear of success.   

You are great at what you do!  If you earn it, you deserve success.

Common Causes of Failure

As you grow and move through the stages of your journey the risks become greater.  They continue to evolve with you and your business.  If you know what trips up many business owners you can take the steps to avoid the causes of failure

In Stage 2 common causes are:

• Not tracking performance of the business
• Not saving, frivolously spending
• Thinking “What got me here will get me there”
• Time management issues/Lack of clear priorities

What Does Success Look Like?

Success in Stage 2 is all about being able to control your marketing.  You must be able to bring in new leads when you need them, be consistent with your marketing activities and these activities allowing you to hit your quarterly goals.

As you grow and time becomes an issue it’s also key that you bring on your first new hire for your business, likely an administrative assistant to help with some of the office work tasks that are keeping you from revenue producing activities.

A successful Stage 2 business owner will also begin manage their time and priorities well.  They have a system in place and structure to create time in their day instead of hoping they can make time.

What Competencies and Resources Will You Need?

Getting out of this stage isn’t going to happen by accident.  You’ll need to focus on developing certain competencies that will be the foundation for future success.  It’s also important that you seek out resources to make success a little easier.

Here are a list of competencies:

• Marketing Strategy
  • Core Offer Defined
  • Prospect Profiles
  • Local Market Positioning

The resources to support you:

• Quarterly Marketing Calendar
• Annual and Quarterly Goals/Rocks
• Lead Tracker
• Follow Up Systems
• CRM Software (client management and EFT billing)

Your Support Systems

Very few, if anyone can do this alone.  The road to success in the fitness industry is too challenging to have to figure it all out.  Learn from those who have been there before and build a support system that will help you when you get stuck.

At this stage you’ll find this support in:

• A Business Coach
• Community
• Workshops
• Mentorship Programs

These require a bit of explaining…

The community that you’ll find the most support in is a network of your peers.  You want to find a group of fitness business owners who have been or are going through the same journey you’re on.  This allows you to feel connected and eliminate the feeling that you’re the only one experiencing the challenges and problems that arise in your business.

A community of your peers can lift you up and provide you support when you need it most.  

It’s also critical that you seek out and attend skill development workshops and mentorship programs.  These can be in person or online programs that are focused on helping you develop specific skills and competencies needed to move forward in your business.  

Key Performance Indicators

We’ll take a small shift in Stage 2 and start looking at the front end of your marketing funnel when evaluating performance metrics in your business.  

In Stage 2 you should be tracking and reviewing:

• New Leads
• Core Offer Conversion Rate (Lead to New Client)
• Expenses

Stage 3: Systems-wise

Things have really taken off for you!  It may have taken you 12 months to get to this stage in your journey or several years.  No matter the time it took, you’re here now and have proven that you want to create a successful, High Performing business.  

This is a pivotal stage for most fitness business owners.  It’s where you have to begin thinking of your business as an actual business!  You have to replicate the results you can get yourself through systems and structure.

The Challenges

In Stage 3 you’re going to be thinking…

• Not all of my customers are awesome…
• Is this the best use of my time?
• How can I get other people to do this well?
• I need a break!
• What’s important?  What are my priorities?
• How am I doing?

Things are going well in the business at this stage but you’re realizing not all opportunities are created equal and it’s quickly becoming evident that you’re going to have to develop a new set of competencies.

It’s critical that you begin to make the mindset shift from being a great trainer who can market and sell to a great business owner.

Common Causes of Failure

As you grow and move through the stages in your journey the risks become greater.  They continue to evolve with you and your business.  If you know what trips up many business owners you can take the steps to avoid the causes of failure.

In Stage 3 common causes are:

• You stop marketing because you are too busy
• You stay in this stage too long and never progress
• Open another location too quickly
• Hire reactively (too fast), fire too slow
• Disorganization/lack of priorities
• Burn out
• Can’t adapt to the business to shifts in the market
• Thinking a system is a checklist
• Bring on a partner or realize a current partnership is bad

What Does Success Look Like?

This stage is often the toughest for a fitness business owner to go through because what is required for success may not come naturally.  

When you’re in this Stage look for the signs of progress and success by recognizing the following:

• You have a budget and are using it
• An Annual Marketing Calendar is in place
• You are investing in services to outsource tasks
• You avoid saying “yes” to everything
• You’ve taken your first vacation in ______
• You are tracking and measuring performance
• Hitting frequent PRs in your business
• You are setting and accomplishing your goals
• You collect your first distribution check from your business (profits are there!!!!)
• Your staff is accountable for the outcomes they are responsible for

You can see there is a lot that goes into success in Stage 3.  There’s a reason many never make it out of this stage and it’s often the stage that sends good people packing in our industry.

This is where the hard work starts for your business.  But, if you can get through this you’ll have a solid foundation for growth and an ability to scale your business.

What Competencies and Resources Will You Need?

Getting out of this stage isn’t going to happen by accident.  You’ll need to focus on developing certain competencies that will be the foundation for future success.  It’s also important that you seek out resources to make success a little easier.

Here are a list of competencies:

• Budgeting/Basic Understanding of Finance
• Delegation
• Hiring
• Management
• Prioritization

The resources to support you:

• Budget Tools/System
• Annual Marketing Calendar
• Human Resources Processes
• Organizational Chart
• Meeting Cycle
• Marketing Services for Paid Advertising
• DDV List of Systems
• Scorecard
• High Performance Mastermind

Your Support Systems

Very few, if anyone can do this alone.  The road to success in the fitness industry is too challenging to have to figure it all out.  Learn from those who have been there before and build a support system that will help you when you get stuck.

At this stage you’ll find this support in:

• A Business Coach
• Peer Group
• Workshops
• Conferences

You’ll notice that a close knit peer group or High Performance Mastermind makes its first appearance in this stage. Now, more than ever, it’s critical that you have a close group of peers to help you develop as a business owner and speed up your results.  High Performers don’t want to stay in a stage longer than needed, and a good peer group will help hold you accountable and get you results quicker.

Stage 4: Manager-Leader

You’ve made the shift and now you have a business you are proud of and that you love running.  Congrats on your success thus far, but there’s still work to be done.  

It’s time to learn how to get results through other people. There’s a good chance you’ve built up a small team to get to this point and they are responsible for driving certain areas of your business.  How will you keep making progress and get the results through your team?

The Challenges

In Stage 4 you’re going to be facing things like:

• How do we perpetuate improvement?
• Early decisions to ‘bootstrap it’ are catching up to you
• Figuring out what investments you can afford to make
• What is your culture, really?
• What’s next for you as the business owner?
• Should you open a second location?

You’re now beginning to think forward and start realizing the decisions you make today greatly impact the direction of your business for the future.  You may also get a sense of dissatisfaction, or uneasiness from your team doing a lot of the work.  

Common Causes of Failure

Yes, even at this stage it’s possible to fail!  Many businesses take a step back when they attempt to transition to this stage.  Sometimes it’s because they didn’t take the time to develop the foundation in their previous stages or it could be because they resist the need to develop new competencies.  

In Stage 4 common causes are:

• Not evolving as a manager
• Trying to leave this stage too soon
• Not letting go of the technical work
• Getting in the way of your team
• Letting your ego keep you from being transparent about the real issues

If you refuse to allow others to help you grow your business it’s going to be difficult to move on to the final stage in your business journey.  You’ll have to set your ego aside and help others improve at their job to truly have success in this stage.

What Does Success Look Like?

Another big shift happens in Stage 4, you are now more focused on the people in your business than dominating tasks or mastering technical skills.  You’re undergoing the transformation into a High Performing Business Owner!

When you experience the following you’ll start to notice success:

• You are comfortable asking the tough questions
• Your focus is on people and building a Leadership Team
• You say ‘no’ more than you say ‘yes’
• You’re investing in solutions to fix any issues in your business
• You’re spending more time as a manager than a technician
• You have the opportunity to take multiple vacations per year
• You have the ability to calculate when you can afford to make investments
• You are honing in on your “Hedgehog Concept”
• Everyone in your business has a number their performance is assessed on
• You have identified your unique ability and focus you work on it

What Competencies and Resources Will You Need?

Getting out of this stage isn’t going to happen by accident.  You’ll need to focus on developing certain competencies that will be the foundation for future success.  It’s also important that you seek out resources to make success a little easier.

Here are a list of competencies:

• Long Term Vision
• Sustaining Your Culture
• Communication
• Performance Management and Development
• Improvement of Processes

The resources to support you:

• Performance Based Compensation (if applicable)

You’ll quickly notice this stage requires a lot of development for the business owner.  It’s a time where you will be required to develop your own competencies to support your team.   

Your Support Systems

Very few, if anyone can do this alone.  The road to success in the fitness industry is too challenging to have to figure it all out.  Learn from those who have been there before and build a support system that will help you when you get stuck.

At this stage you’ll find this support in:

• A Business Coach
• Peer Group
• Workshops
• Conferences

During this stage relying on a great business coach to help you develop the required competencies and uncover your blind spots will be critical.   Paired with a peer group, like the High Performance Mastermind, you’ll have the support you need to continue you journey.  

Stage 5: Entrepreneur

Finally, the coveted entrepreneur stage!  You’ve worked hard and and done the required work to get here.  Celebrate a little 🙂

All your hard work has it’s rewards if you stay focused on the right things.  But, you’re still not immune to failure or falling back into old habits that could set you back.  

A High Performer is constantly seeking to learn and develop as a business owner.  

The Challenges

In Stage 5 you’re going to be facing things like:

• How do I let go?
• What defines me?
• What can I break? Do they really not need me?
• What’s my job?

It can be tough when the entrepreneur to realizes their team is functioning well and they aren’t needed in the day to day operations for the business to be successful.  If you aren’t careful you will be your own worst enemy and sabotage your success.  You’ll find ways to break things your business so that you can jump back in and be the hero.  

You’ll need to focus on your new identity as a the entrepreneur.  

Common Causes of Failure

Yes, even at this stage it’s possible to fail!  Many business owners take a step back when they attempt to transition to this stage.  Sometimes it’s because they didn’t take the time to develop the foundation in their previous stages or it could be because they resist the need to develop new competencies.  

In Stage 5 common causes are:

• Not managing/holding the General Manager or Leadership Team accountable
• Not shifting management techniques used in Stage 4
• Not letting go

This stage requires that you have someone or a group of people in place in the business where the ‘buck stops’.  They have the final say in the day to day operations.  Learning how to manage them and letting go of the responsibilities  you have given them will be key for your success.

What Does Success Look Like?

Once you’ve got to this stage you’ve afforded yourself the opportunity to focus back on some balance in your life and meeting your bigger life goals.  It’s time where you can take on passion projects or pursue things that you’ve always been interested in because of the foundation you’ve built in your fitness business.

Here’s what you’ll need for success:

• You have a General Manager or Manager in place to make decisions on day to day operations, including hiring/firing
• An exit strategy is in place
• A gatekeeper says ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for you
• You are investing in inspiration
• Life goals are being met 

What Competencies and Resources Will You Need?

Your focus at this point may be to extending your impact and helping others.  That may mean mentoring other fitness business owners and or giving back to your community.  To be effective at this you’ll need to develop competencies that help you (and help your team).

Here are a list of competencies:

• Mentorship
• Social Responsibility

The resources to support you:

• Continuity Plan (what happens if something bad happens to you?)
• New Business Development Plans

This stage is about you ensuring you leave something behind that you are proud of and that can be sustained without you there.  

Your Support Systems

Very few, if anyone can do this alone.  The road to success in the fitness industry is too challenging to have to figure it all out.  Learn from those who have been there before and build a support system that will help you when you get stuck.

At this stage you’ll find this support in:

• A Business Coach
• Peer Group
• Conferences

What do I do with this info?

There’s a lot of information here, especially if you read from start to finish.  In fact, it’s over 4000 words on what it takes to be successful on your journey as a fitness business owner.

Using this to help you is easy…

1. Identify the stage you are in
2. Learn what it’s going to take to have success
3. Implement those things
4. Look ahead to the next stage so you know what to expect

Skipping stages will only result in you failing.  Looking too far ahead won’t give you a big benefit because you’re taking your eye off the ball.  It’s okay to know where you are going, but focus the majority of your precious time and energy on mastering the stage you’re in currently and building a solid foundation for success.

If you need a little help complete the application below and we’ll jump on a call to figure out how to get you unstuck or speed up your progress.

There are a variety of measurements that studio owners can and do use as indicators of success and, not surprisingly, these key performance indicators (KPIs) range from the obvious and simple to the more complex.  Each is important in its own way, revealing benchmarks for your business.

Each year, AFS measures KPI usage via its Fitness Studio Operating & Financial Benchmarks research study.  Many of those findings are reflected below, topically segmented.

Utilization

How your fitness studio is being utilized is an important consideration.  It is the intersection of your physical space and how many people are using it.  Is it being utilized as you imagined and planned?  

Square Feet per Client

Square Feet per Client tells you how effective your business is at generating clients/ customers based on the space your studio has available.  It is a measure of how well you address your businesses capacity.  For example, a 2,500 sq. ft. studio won’t have the capacity of a larger studio, likely meaning the Square Feet per Client will need to be a lower number to achieve the desired results.

To calculate your Square Feet per Client, divide the square footage of your facility by the number of clients at any given time.  If you have 250 clients in a 2,500 sq. ft. studio, your Square Feet per Client equals 10.

Marketing

There are three marketing adages that ring true in business yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  

Here they are:

• “Plan your work and work your plan”  – variously attributed to author Victor Hugo, legendary football coach Vince Lombardi, and Proverbs 21:5

• “He who fails to plan is planning to fail” – Winston Churchill

• “He who has a thing to sell and goes and whispers in a well, Is not so apt to get the dollars as he who climbs a tree and hollers” – Anonymous

You may know how many clients you need, you may have the best training available, your location is ideal, and you offer what nobody else has.  Great.  How do you get the word out?  How do you communicate your value proposition to your target market?  How can you ensure you don’t end up trying to sell shampoo to a bald man?  

The answer is Marketing.  If you’re not a marketing pro, go buy one.  It’s worth it.

Marketing Costs

One of the variables that can impact a studio’s marketing performance is the allocation of capital, typically falling between 3%-5% of revenue. According to AFS research, studios spend between 3-8% of revenue, usually depending on studio size and geographic location.

Translated to average annual studio revenues of roughly $300,000 – that’s a marketing budget between 3% ($9,000/year, $750/month) and 8% ($24,000/year, $2,000/month).

When you consider that one new client is worth $1,000 a year, if your marketing results in only one or two new clients each month – it more than pays for itself.

Cost to Acquire Clients

The thought of marketing costs – along with the unknown impact they will have – can be an intimidating concept, especially for studio owners untrained in Marketing, meaning the vast majority.

Some marketing strategies work better than others.  Some are obviously based on your target market. Your job is to try as many as possible to find the most cost effective ways to acquire new clients. Try everything (within budgetary constraints), accumulate the data, and let the numbers speak for themselves.

Retention

Retention – the percentage of clients you retain – is critical to long term profitability.  In many ways, it’s the most important KPI of all because it measures how well you’re delivering on your brand promise.  And as hard as it is to break through the marketing clutter to acquire clients, how painful it is to watch them go out the “back door.”

Client Retention Rate

The typical Client Retention Rate for the studio industry is roughly 76%.   Further data indicates that there’s nothing you can do with 8% of your loss – the reality is that some people relocate, and others have life experiences that take them out of the market.  And while that leaves a narrower band, it’s still 20%, which means (if we continue with the 300 client example above) 60 people that have to be replaced just to get you where you were a year ago).

Hello to marketing strategies, tactics, messaging, time, and expenditure along with the ongoing sales effort.  Better to keep them by:

• Delivering what you promised.  
• Making sure those who work in your studio (whether employee or independent contractor) have embraced your vision and generate the enthusiasm behind it.
• Understanding why they’re leaving.  Do exit interviews, call them, talk to them.  Let them know you value their opinion.  

Client Retention Rate is a strong, analytical KPI.  Keep measuring it.

Conclusion

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When it comes to KPIs there’s no one size fits all.  The most important thing is that you are in the habit of measuring something and once that becomes ingrained in your business, you can try different KPIs to determine which ones work best for you.  As best selling business author Tom Peters famously said, “what gets measured gets done.”

About the author:

Chuck Leve is a 40-year veteran of the fitness industry and proven successful developer of fitness industry associations. Currently he serves as the Executive Vice President of Business Development for the Association of Fitness Studios (AFS). He’s been involved in the creation and development of some of the most successful trade associations in the history of the fitness industry.

Need Help Maximizing Your Fitness Studio?

Let’s jump on a quick Discovery Call to uncover the hidden opportunities and a plan to overcome your biggest challenges!  Watch the video below to see how we can help you and then apply for your call now!

Eliminate Your “To-Do” List and Get More Stuff That Matters Done

As a business owner the amount of “stuff” that ends up on your plate is overwhelming.  This is especially true if you’re having some success, growing your business and have yet to really build up a solid team.

You end up in this success trap.  And then…overwhelm, anxiety, stress, burnout start to set in.

It sucks!  I’ve been there and sometimes still find myself there.  You’re not alone, many of our coaching clients and even our team here at FR battle with time management.  

The good news?  There’s a solution for you and today you’ll get an inside look at a time management tool designed for fitness business owners (any business owner really) who’s dead set on exceeding their goals and becoming a High Performing Business Owner.

The Busy Fitness Business Owner’s Time Management Tool

Our team at Fitness Revolution quickly realized that managing time, planning your day and not getting sucked into the trap of “checking stuff off the list” was critical to the success of a fitness business owner.

You could easily try to knock of 15-20 items from your to-do list each day, but never really get anything done in your business.

When time is tight (and it almost always is) you have to stay focused at the top of the list.  Here’s a poster we have at FR Headquarters that reminds us to focus on what matters…

It currently sits right between my office and Nick’s…Kelly must have known we needed it most!

Your role as the business owner is to grow the business and then manage that growth so that you remain profitable and continue to move toward your vision for what it will become.

That’s not possible if you’re wasting your precious time on tedious mundane tasks that really don’t matter in the long run.  You may feel good for checking off a lot of tasks but your business won’t be operating at it’s best.

Watching several fitness business owners struggle with this and fail at using other day planners, led us to create a resource that fit our methodology and system for coaching business owners.

It’s called the Priority Tracker.

The Anatomy of a High Performance Day Planner

You can go online and search for day planners, time management systems and all that stuff, but you’ll rarely find one that works.  

Since you’re reading this I’ll assume you’re at least putting part of what we teach into practice for your business.  This Priority Tracker was designed for you…

It was designed for the fitness business owner who wants more from their business and is desperately seeking a way to escape their to-do list!

Your Priority Tracker is designed to be used weekly to help you make progress on the most important goals and projects in your business!

Here’s a post that goes into our goal setting process.  Let’s take a look at the sections of a Priority Tracker…

Positive Focus

The beginning of your Priority Tracker ,as you can see in the image below, always starts with a Personal and Professional Highlight.  It’s critical that you begin by focusing on the positive that happened in the past week.

This positive focus allows you to maintain the proper mindset needed to run your business.  No matter how challenging or bad things seem when you train yourself to find a positive, no matter how small, in your week you’ll be more productive.

Internally we use these highlights to kick off all our meetings at FR.  You can do the same for you and your team.

Goal and Project Status Checks

The next step is status checks on your most important projects and goals.  Your Rocks, what we call the most important projects or metric goals in your business, are front and center.  

You’ll write down the name of your Rock, the due date, status check and critical next steps.

This allows you to identify the most important activities in your business for the next week.  

Focusing on this before moving to the to-do list and tasks allows you to build in the time to get it done.  No more hoping that you’ll find time.  You create it.

After your Rock status report, it’s time to check in on the 4 Sales & Marketing Pillars in your business.  It’s important that you are on track to hit your growth or revenue goals.  Keeping your marketing and sales metrics in front of you at all times allows you to stay focused on moving them forward.

If you’re on pace, keep it up.  Off track?  It’s time to focus on your marketing and sales to get back on track with your goals.  

Help me?!

The next small section allows you to capture questions to ask your peer group.  Our coaching clients not only have their Success Coach, but also a group of peers to lean on when they need a bit of help or guidance.

As you’re planning out your week and identifying challenges or sticking points with your projects or growth you can capture your questions to post to the group here.

If you’re not in a coaching program what are you waiting for?  I’m kidding…a little.  

This could also be a place to post questions for your team or mentors that you need to get addressed.  Use it to eliminate sticking points.

Here’s what the top section of a Priority Tracker looks like:

Marketing Priorities

This is what drives your business.  It’s the behaviors and actions that will bring you new leads and get you new clients.  

We use the Triple A Marketing Method to create this list of activities.  You’ll input your marketing action items in your priority tracker and assign them days and time to get done.

These should be top of the list or right after your Rock next steps. 

Daily Priority List

To the right of the Marketing Priorities you’ll find your daily priority list.  This is where you begin to create time and plan your work days.  The goal is to stay focused on and start your day (if possible) with these activities.  

Obviously, you may have to train clients or run sessions in your day.  Those are predetermined activities that have to get done.  You’ll need to look at your schedule and figure out the remaining time you have left in the day and then assign that time to the items you’ll list here.

You may notice that there are only 5 line items in the image below.  That is very purposeful.  The sweet spot for high priority items to be completed is 1-3 per day, which leaves you two lines to focus on to-do tasks that you need to get done.

If you can leave for the day and cross off 5 extremely important items that moved your business forward, you’ll leave happy.  And you can rest easy knowing that you’re making progress towards your goals.

Resist the urge to turn this into a to-do list!

Meeting To-Dos

This section is designed to capture your weekly meeting to-dos or items that come up through the week that you’ll need to address.  It may be helping someone with a project, completing a follow up call or just getting something done that has to get done.

Capture your meet to-dos here and keep yourself accountable to getting them done each week.

If you find yourself with a little gap of time or extra time turn your focus to these and cross them off one by one.

Using The Priority Tracker

Each week, preferably at the end of your work week , take 30 minutes to review your previous week and begin filling in your Priority Tracker for the following week.   

This allows you to head into the weekend with a clear head and gives you the opportunity to relax and recharge.   Plus, when you come back into work on Monday you’ll hit the ground running, already knowing what the most important thing to do is for you and your business.

Using this system and resource will help you win back time and move your business forward faster than ever.  

Want Access To Your Own Priority Tracker?

Start your 30-Day Trial of The Academy for just $1 today and access our in depth module on using this resource and get your free download.  Plus, as a member of The Academy you’ll gain access to over 60 modules for marketing, sales and business management.  

It’s a guaranteed way to grow your fitness business and develop as a business owner.   Try if for just $1 today…

Avoid The Common Mistakes Made When Hiring Employees For Your Fitness Business

A huge issue for many trainers when they become extremely busy is hiring….

Recently a fitness business owner posed a question online about making his first hire.  After reading through the comments I felt compelled to add my two cents.  

See, a hiring mistake can cost you thousands in your business.   The U.S. Department of Labor estimates the cost of a bad hire is at least 30% of their first year earnings for that employee.

Think about that…

Even at just $30,000/year for your employee, a bad hire could cost you at least $10,000!   For a small business that could be devastating.

Your first few hires are always the toughest.  There’s no system in place, you’re drowning in tasks, and you are looking for a dynamic person to come in to help you out.  On top of all that you’re probably tired, stressed and a little burnt out.

Let’s address the biggest questions from fitness business owners looking to hire their first employee.

Should you bring on Independent Contractors or Employees?

It really depends on what your expectations are for the role/individual, but in most cases it’s better to bring this person on as an employee.  

There may be a little higher cost to this decision on the front-end, but it can save you a lot of headaches later.

Here are the rules from the IRS website about the difference in the two.

If culture is important to you then managing an employee will be much better for your business than a contractor.  You’ll have more control and buy in from an employee.

Specific questions for this should be taken to your accountant.

Do you hire a Personal Trainer or Admin first for your business?

It’s almost always the best decision to bring on an administrative position before a training position. Not only is it typically more cost effective to hire this type of role but it allows you to stay focused on the revenue generating activities in your business.

Another factor to consider is the pool of qualified candidates for the role. There’s a good chance in your community the number of people with the skills and capability to be a great admin for your business far outnumber those with the skills and capability to be a great trainer.

Part Time or Full Time?

Administrative work can take place on a flexible schedule for the most part. It’s prudent to bring on this new position in a part time role unless you are absolutely sure you have a full 40 hour work load for them.

You’ll be happier to find out that you need to increase hours than you will be if you find out you’re wasting a few hundred bucks a month for a position that doesn’t need to be full time.

What will they do?

The real question you’re asking here is “how do I figure out what to hand off”. You’re plate is full of tasks and to-dos that aren’t getting done, so it’s easiest to start with those things.

Don’t fall into the trap that many fitness business owners do and hire first then figure out what that role will be responsible for completing.

The best way to approach hiring is to create a position and position description for this role in your business ahead of time. You’ll want to give them a simple title and define their Core Responsibilities and metrics.

This allows you to know exactly what you want this role to do in your business and how you’ll assess their performance.

In an admin role it can be tricky to figure out the metrics. It’s not like a sales or marketing role where you can easily tie back performance to the 4 Sales & Marketing Pillars. Instead you’re probably looking at things like customer satisfaction ratings from a survey or On-Time/Accuracy benchmarks.

Where do I find prospects?

Hiring is a lot like marketing. You’ll have a Prospect Profile for the position and you need to figure out where you need to go to find them.

The first step is creating a compelling job posting that appeals to the individual you are trying to find. Use language that will repel the people you don’t want and attract those you do.

Next, figure out where these types of people are looking for jobs now.

Job boards, like Indeed/ZipRecruiter/etc, are a good resource if you have the budget to pay for their monthly services. The free versions most likely won’t produce great results.

Your best prospecting resource will be your network. Ask your clients, share your job posting with your email list and personally reach out to business professionals that may know someone who could be a good fit.

Aggressively attack your prospecting and do something everyday to find new prospects for your pipeline.

Social media can be a great resource for you, especially local groups that include the type of person you are looking to recruit.

What about after I hire?

Most hiring goes wrong in the first 30 days post hire. You get excited about finding this new employee to add to your team but forget that you need to dedicate time to training them and making sure they get their feet under them in this role.

Map out a thorough onboarding process to integrate the new hire into your culture and onboard them for their new position.

A little preparation goes a long way with your onboarding process, don’t think you’ll be able to keep up and do it after you hire the employee.

This person has a lot of potential for (insert the skill or asset), should I hire them?

Hire the person for the role and avoid creating a role for a person! I can’t stress this enough…

Many fitness business owners make the mistake of hiring a person they think will bring them a bunch of clients or that they hope can fill a lot of different roles in the business. For example the person is good on social media so you want them to be an admin, part time trainer and also run your social media marketing.

This hybrid position has a few big problems:

• Rarely do these types of hires pan out.  They usually leave the business owner disappointed and new hire frustrated.
• Even if they do work out, you now have a unique role in your business that will be next to impossible to fill if the person ever leaves (and they will).
• Too many responsibilities eventually leads to nothing getting done.  

To avoid this mistake create your position and then find the right person to fit it.  

What do I pay my employee?

The latest Association of Fitness Studio study showed that the average wage for administrative staff was $10.82/hour and training staff ranged from $27.84-$34.13/hour.

From my own personal experience when hiring administrative staff in my previous fitness business the $12-15/hour range was where I found the highest quality employees, but when I first started hiring the $9-10/hour range was what the budget allowed.

You need to know the budget and compensation plan for the new hire before starting. If you don’t there’s a good chance you’ll get a qualified candidate that wants to negotiate the compensation. If you’re in a big need to hire this may lead to overpaying for the position and put your profits in jeopardy.

It’s important to remember that you’re buying back time to spend on higher return, revenue producing activities so your profit margins may take a little hit at first when paying this employee, but you should be back on track or exceeding goals quickly.

Setting Up Your Hiring Process

By avoiding these mistakes you’ll save yourself a lot of headaches and lost money in the process. Take the time to educate yourself, prepare your hiring process and follow it to the letter and you’ll be much happier with the end result.

Most your pressing questions about hiring have been answered through this article but there’s a good chance you’re still overwhelmed by everything you’ll need to get setup and figure out.

If that’s the case and you’d like to save some time (and a lot of money from avoiding mistakes) apply below to schedule a Discovery Call. We can talk about your hiring challenges and tell you how to get access to our hiring systems and ready to use resources to make it a lot easier.

“Ryan’s one of those people that makes business, sales and marketing interesting…”

That’s literally what Rafal Matuszewski,the host of the Cut The S#!t, Get Fit Podcast, said about an interview we did recently.

On this podcast we talk everything from business to training to transformations.  There’s something in here for every fitness pro or business owner.

Here’s a few things we covered:

• Why I started my first fitness business and the mistakes I made
• Tips for having success with your own facility
• Finding your own path in the fitness industry
• The wild world of business partnerships and how to navigate them
• Why most fitness pros struggle with business
• The path for success in the fitness industry
• The biggest problems with Online Training and how to make it work for you
• How to leverage social media to create your own brand in the fitness industry

And a ton more!

Nick and Ryan were recently interviewed on the Profit First Podcast with Mike Michalowicz and his team. Ryan and Nick explain that, even in the extraordinarily competitive industry of fitness, you can make extraordinary profits. They walk us through a special way to build a funnel that attracts the best clients and keeps them coming back for more. Improve your fitness business, or any business, in this episode of the Profit First Podcast. 

Today’s article is a guest post from my friend Mike Robertson

When I first started in the world of strength and conditioning, I was, as the saying goes, “Broke as a joke.”

I had a commission-based (and poorly paying) job, school loans, AND credit card debt to pay off.

So basically, I had ZERO expendable income for my first 2-3 years out of college.

But here’s the thing – I didn’t care.

I had read somewhere that the best of the best in any industry spend at least 10% of their income on continuing education, and I took that to heart.

I still remember taking $200 (which was a HUGE amount of money for me at the time) and buying Ian King training videos that I thought would help my clients.

Crazy, right?

Maybe.

But, I sincerely think there are numerous reasons YOU should adopt this practice as well.

While I’m sure there are a ton more, here are three big benefits you get from making continuing education a habit in your life.

Benefit #1 – YOU Become a Better Coach or Trainer

The most obvious benefit of continuing education is that YOU get better as a coach.

I don’t know about you, but I literally cringe when I think about the things I did 5-10 years ago.

The fact of the matter is, our profession is incredibly young, and growing at a rapid pace.

We’re learning more about the human body almost every day.

So if you’re serious about making yourself a better coach, there’s really no way around dedicating yourself to continuing education.

There is no “Neutral” in our world – you’re either getting better or getting worse, and it’s a conscious decision you make every single day.

Benefit #2 – YOUR CLIENTS Get Better

I’m a big believer that when you take care of yourself, everything around you is better.

But when you take the time to educate yourself on best practices, not only do you benefit, but your clients and athletes benefit as well!

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been to a course, or read an article, and I pick up one thing that I can immediately apply to help one of my clients or athletes.

Now it doesn’t always work that way. There are definitely times when the material is bigger picture, and while it doesn’t have that “Monday Morning” impact, it makes you a better trainer or coach for the long haul.

At the end of the day, though, it’s not about us – it’s about the clients or athletes we’re training.

And if our con ed helps them get better results, then I’m all for it!

Benefit #3 – You Can GROW Your Business!

Now you may be thinking that this is off the beaten path a bit, but I think this is one of the biggest reasons you should carve out dedicated time for con ed every week.

When I learn something new that’s valuable to my clients or athletes, I’m excited about it.

I’m talking about it.

And without really trying, I’m selling my services a bit harder.

And not in a sleazy, snake oil salesman kind of way – but in a genuine, “I’ve got this awesome thing that I know can help you” kind of way.

Con ed not only helps me with my current clients and keeping them motivated, but it’s a great tool for content creation as well.

Let’s say I learned a cool new exercise at this week’s seminar, and I’m really fired up to use it.

I try it with a couple of my clients, and they love it as well.

Now I can take this exercise and write a short blog post about it, or maybe create a short video and email it to my newsletter list.

Now I’m not only impacting my current clients and athletes, but also letting potential prospects know that I’m:

1. Serious about my own continuing education and growth, and
2. Serious about finding ways to help THEM get better.

Summary

I think there’s a ton of value in constantly exposing yourself to new thoughts and ideas.

Whether it’s making yourself a better coach, helping your clients and athletse get better results, or simply using it to stimulate thought and produce content for your marketing, there’s a ton of upside to committing yourself to continuing education.

And if you want a great resource on single-leg training, I’ve got something today that can help.

Years ago, I had so many questions about single-leg training.

Who should be doing it?

What exercises should I use?

And how do I program and coach it for maximum effectiveness?

So over the past 17 years, I’ve created a system for single-leg training that I know can help you out.

It’s called Complete Single-Leg Training, and this week only, you can get it for only $97 ($50 off the standard price).

If you’re currently using single-leg training and want to get better, or if you’re new to this kind of work and want a proven system, I guarantee this product will make a huge impact on your business.

Check it out today!

We all get into this industry because we love helping people and fitness is our passion.  There comes a time in most trainer’s careers that they have to make a critical decision…

“Do I make the jump to being a business owner or not?”

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being an amazing trainer while working for someone else.  There’s a lot less risk in it.

But, that’s not enough for some trainers. They have a desire to create something of their own, that provides them the life they want.  You want to create an impact while being proud of the business you’ve built. 

Our 2017 High Performing Business Owner of the Year, William Savoy made that leap a few years ago.  The tipping point was the Elite Fitness & Performance Summit (you heard that in his video yesterday, if you missed it catch it here).  The secret to William’s success is in his ability to apply the information he learns quickly.  He’s an action taker.

William’s hard work and dedication to creating an amazing atmosphere in his two locations has led to incredible growth (see the graph below).  He’s grown by over 4x in the since 2015!

There’s more to William than his huge stature (he’s a BIG dude) and incredible success in business…

He’s also a very humble individual, willing to recognize those he’s learned from.  In fact, on stage at EFPS 2017, when William was announced as the winner of this year’s honor, he took time to thank the members of his mastermind program and his coaches for sharing tips and strategies that contributed to his growth.   That tells you a lot about his character!   It’s also why he’s a High Performer… His willingness to learn from others and apply what he’s learned to his own business has expedited his growth.  It’s not common to hear someone attribute much of their success to their peers.  Obviously, William had to implement the information and he’s one of the best marketers that I’ve seen in our industry, but he knows he is much more likely to succeed around others that lift him up.

William started with FR producing about $2,000/mo in Gross Revenue.  As of January 2015 he was doing $7,000/mo and his most recent month was over $32,000!  His numbers weren’t the highest of all the finalist, but his growth has been rapid.

Here’s a snap shot of Williams dashboard (showing Gross Revenue) from our Coaching Program which gives you a visual of his rapid growth: 

Success Coach Tiffany Larson told us that Williams sucess can be directly attributed to 3 things..

1. Coachability: “If William has a question he asks.  So many times people don’t ask because they are afraid.  Even if you think you know the answer you should ask for another perspective.  Williams trusts in the coaching progress and does the work we agree upon.”
2. Humility: “William does not think that his growth equals a finish line.  He knows he has not made it yet.  He realizes that he needs to improve in many areas and keeps working towards them.”
3. Investment: “Not only does he work in his business, but he still makes that time to work ON the business. He puts in the time.  He has invested in coaching and our mastermind group which have accelerated his success.”

Congratulations to our 2017 High Performing Business Owner of the Year, William Savoy!

Out of 150 Coaching Partners at FR we selected 7 finalists based on business growth and displaying traits of High Performers.  Some grew very little from a top line perspective and instead focused on creating systems and building a team to free up more time and plan for future growth.  That displays incredibly maturity as a business owner and true High Performer status.  This was our most competitive line up of finalists, top to bottom, of any previous year.  It was anyone’s race to win, but our Success Coaches and Leadership Team selected William.

Here are the other 6 finalists for 2017 High Performing Business Owner of the Year:

• Johnny Fukumoto
• Adam Farrell
• Marshall Ray
• Chris and Jen Rhoades
• Jim Herrick
• Ryan Morgan

Each of them has a unique story and journey from personal trainer to business owner.  They all experienced bumps along the way and challenges that could have set them back, but they persevered.  A huge part of their success, by their own admission, is the Fitness Revolution Coaching Program (feel free to ask them!)

Next time you wonder if running your business is worth all the stress or feel alone in your journey, like no one understands what you’re going through, know that there are others out there dealing with the same things and there are places to connect with them so that you aren’t alone.

If that sounds like you, take the jump and schedule a Discovery Call today so that you can join our powerful network of High Performers and get the coaching you need to succeed.

Schedule Here ==> https://frnation.com/coaching-call-application

Nearly every business owner lists word of mouth and/or referrals at the top of their list for lead generation activities.

Would you do the same?

Then key to figuring out how successful this business is the answer to “How do you get referrals?”

The common answers include point of sale referral programs and sometimes referral rewards.  However, the business owner is usually taking a very passive approach to promoting the programs and getting referrals.

A Simple Personal Training Referral Program

If you want to maximize referrals in your business you need to implement a plan to market the program to your members and keep it in front of them at all times.

Your first step is creating the referral reward you will give out.  Discounts are rarely effective.  Instead, aim to hand out $25-50 in cash or gift cards to the client that produced the referral.  The impact lies in the act of recognition not the dollar amount of the reward.

After you’ve got your rewards program in place you must avoid theses common mistakes…

Referral Program Mistake #1

The biggest mistake that personal trainers make with their referral program is a lack of marketing.  They might mention it to their clients when they sign up or here and there, but an active marketing plan is not implemented.

Here’s how you should do it:

• Mention the rewards system and ask for referrals at the point of sale
• Integrate referral requests and reminders of the program in your new client follow up or onboarding
• Prepare a checklist for where you’ll announce and share images or mentions of referral rewards you are handing out

This allows you to reinforce the referral program early in the client/trainer relationship and also keep it in front of them throughout the year.

Referral Program Mistake #2

Do you clients know how to identify someone that would be a good fit?

Most trainers simply ask for a referral and don’t guide the client or give them any idea of who they should refer.  It’s best to be very specific in who you are asking a client to send your way.

“Hey Jane, I’m looking to help more women that want to lose 15lbs and just can’t seem to get it off or keep it off.  Do you know anyone like that?”

The above example is a great way to let your client know exactly who you are wanting them to refer into your program. It helps them eliminate a majority of the people they know and allows them to focus in on one type of person.

Referral Program Mistake #3

The final piece of a referral program and mistake to avoid is being crystal clear in how your clients can refer clients to you.  Most of your clients have no idea how to tell someone to connect with you or how to explain what you do for them.

Make referring business to you easy by providing your clients a simple way to refer their friends or family.  It may be $100 VIP Gift Cards, marketing material on your Front End Offer or something as simple as a referral sheet.

You don’t have to get overly creative here but you want to make it easy for clients to refer and keep the process simple.

Give Your Referral Program A Lift

Make sure you avoid these key personal training referral prorgram mistakes if you want to maximize the high quality leads it could produce for your business.  By implementing just a few simple steps in your program and making sure you give it the attention it deserves you’ll be able to see an increase in new clients quickly.

Launch Your Referral Program Quickly

If you want some help navigating the steps to launching or relaunching your referral program join The Academy today and get instant access to our training module that will walk you step by step through creating, launching and marketing a referral program that brings you new clients.

Throughout a fitness professionals professional career, there comes a time when business ownership, whether as a studio/gym owner, independent contractor or the like, becomes the logical next step.

When that time comes, it can be daunting. Going from the friendly confines of a health club, YMCA, JCC, etc. where you’ve built your clientele, have every piece of equipment you could ask for, and a bunch of adoring clients – to then make the leap into something completely brand new can be terrifying. Not to mention a new venture that comes with a completely different set of skills – business skills.

Many times those who make the leap soon realize that just because you took the chance, put your name on the lease and went out on your own, doesn’t mean you’re entitled to success.

But fear not…industry associations are born out of the desire to provide a unified voice, to drive growth and increase the success rate of its members. Think IDEA for fitness professionals, IHRSA for health clubs, APTA for physical therapists and so on.

Luckily for those entrepreneurial fitpros and current studio/gym owners, there’s an Association built (and priced) to be a home for you. The Association of Fitness Studios (AFS) is the world’s most powerful solution to succeed at the business of fitness.

With a turnkey success program that keeps you motivated
and on track, AFS provides a plan that works, the expertise to guide you, and a monthly assessment program/report to generate more clients and make more money.

Members of professional associations understand that success doesn’t just happen; it takes work, education, mentorship, and invaluable partnerships – the very foundation of AFS.  With partnerships with over 60 industry organizations, including every major certification company to dozens of others, AFS is built to be a hub for all things fitness business related.

Associations educate their members on the latest products, services, research trends, and business concepts not only for you to be successful, but for you to get your clients the results they expect. Associations empower their members that are trying to make America healthier, fitter, and happier!

AFS believes fitness studios and those fitpros working around the world are the answers to the obesity epidemic. You’re in business, doing what you love to do, because you’re doing what’s good for society.

But to run a successful fitness business, you need to know your numbers, how to calculate them, compare against industry averages, and get a clear understanding from a community of experts.

Association members, through the power of becoming part of a larger group, gain access to a wealth of new business opportunities, save hours by finding highly qualified answers all under one roof, and even tap into combined purchasing power to receive money saving opportunities on the most relevant products and services for the fitness industry.

While some key benefits include:

• Industry leading research that analyzes and benchmarks industry performance data
• Online CEC/CEU courses focused on building a successful fitness business
• Education events to drive industry growth
• Mentorship opportunities
• Insurance programs

What’s most important is that Associations are built to provide their members with the knowledge, resources and a voice that will allow them to prosper in the long term.

Stephen Tharrett, a former President of IHRSA, member of AFS’ Advisory Board, and member of the Club Industry Advisory board, who has also has served on the education, certification and health/fitness facility standards committees for the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and American Council on Exercise (ACE) states: “As an entrepreneurial fitpro or current studio/gym owner who is considering whether it’s worth it to join their industry Association, I would say to you unequivocally, it’s an investment you need to make if you want to grow as a professional, and just as importantly if you desire to have your business prosper now and in the future.”

About the Author:

Josh Leve is the Founder & CEO of the Association of Fitness Studios (AFS). AFS’ mission is to provide studio/gym owners running facilities up to 10,000 square feet and entrepreneurial fitness professionals with the platform to effectively start, manage, and grow their businesses.

With 13,000 members and over 60 industry partnerships – Josh’s success with AFS has translated into being featured in all major fitness publications, the Wall Street Journal and US News. He is also a featured speaker for events such as Club Industry, NSCA, NASM, EMPOWER!, Athletic Business and more.

Video is the king of all content right now and it’s not going away anytime soon.

Here are some crazy stats that show you how powerful video is:

• Video posts have a 135% greater organic reach on Facebook
• YouTube reaches more 18-49 year olds than any cable network in the US
• 93% of marketers use video to promote their services and products
• 55% of people watch videos online every day

If you want to learn how to create a great content that will get you more leads using video check this out…

Our friends over at Monkey Reel Media give you a few tips to helpyou get started here:

Check out Monkey Reel Media’s free training series here: http://monkeyreelmedia.com/training-series

Need More Marketing Help?

Check out the marketing courses and modules inside The Academy.  This is the industry’s top resource for growing your business.

Do you think goals are only for your clients?

Think again!

When is the last time you set tangible marketing goals for your business? You must coach yourself through marketing goals the same way you would with your clients…

Start with the end goal and work backwards!

Work with yourself the way you work with clients.

Just like your clients, your goal numbers cannot be arbitrary. They must be calculated and realistic yet motivating.

Let’s create hypothetical situation that a client’s goal is to lose 50 pounds in 6 months. You would probably start by breaking down that goal into monthly goals, 15 pounds per month for starters.

Then you would examine exactly what you must do for your client in the first month to ensure that they are on target for the sixth month. You would create a training plan with weekly workouts plus certain nutritional habit changes.

To break it down even further, you could break down the monthly goal into weekly goals to help your client lose 3 lbs. per week. You would then develop their training program according to those smaller goals you set to be on target to the big goal.

It’s simple!

Apply that exact process to your marketing

If you have a 3-6 month goal to increase your revenue by a certain amount, you have to do the math and set monthly and weekly goals to ensure you hit your big outcome.

Use the skills you developed helping clients set great goals to set (and hit) big marketing goals to grow your business.

Why work backwards?

• It allows you to set very accurate targets.
  • Working backwards ensures solid numbers and some security rather than the guessing game that comes with working forwards to the goal.
• You begin to learn and see trends.
  • You can examine your marketing calendar, see what works & what doesn’t and deploy new or proven methods to reach your goals more specifically.
• You can evaluate your goals.
  • Make otherwise overwhelming goals less difficult by working in increments. It helps you see what is possible so you can craft an amazing marketing plan.

We’ll show you how to set and reach marketing goals inside our Fitness Marketing Mastery curriculum when you join The Academy.

Once you’ve built up an understanding of the 4 Sales & Marketing Pillars and how Sales and Marketing work together as you move a lead to a client, you need to know how to determine if those moves were a success.

You must be able to measure your actions and calculate some metrics so you can zero in on the marketing area that needs work and perfect the areas that already do well.

That’s the where the 4 Pillars come into play. You will be able to identify mistakes in your marketing and/or sales process by looking at the numbers within the Pillars. Let’s start with leads!

Gain access to our Sales and Marketing resources when you register for The Academy

Measuring Success With Leads

A lead is someone who has expressed interest in your offer. You should define lead really tightly within your business to break it down. There are different types of leads in different stages of the buying process, from those only interested in email marketing to a highly qualified lead who buys into the FEO right off the bat.

Leads are at the front of the 4 Pillars because all clients begin as one; therefore, it is important to track each and every one of them throughout the buying process.

Here are some basic steps you can take to track the 4 Pillars, starting with leads.

1. Leads- Track how many people gave you info a given month but track it weekly.
2. How many of those leads bought into your challenge, jumpstart, or FEO (Front End Offer)? If you don’t have an FEO, I highly suggest you create one!
3. How many FEO clients sign up for your CO (Core Offer)?
4. Retention Tracking- Are your clients staying with your offer?

Each of these numbers tells you something a little different about each part of your Marketing and Sales process and makes it easy to measure your marketing success.

For example, with Lead to FEO conversion you need to look at trends over time because a one-month snapshot may not give you the entire story. Tracking trends over a quarterly basis is more effective.

With the FEO to CO conversion– You need to look at how well you are converting and how good the initial experience is for that person. You should be converting a high number of FEO into long-term CO. Finally, the fourth Pillar and metric you should track is your retention rate. Always aim for 100% retention.

For a closer look at specific percentages within your conversions, check out our Fitness Marketing Mastery curriculum inside The Academy! 

The Sales and Marketing Pipeline is the process someone goes through when they’re trying to make the decision to invest in your training and become a client. This process has four key stages which translate into the 4 Sales and Marketing Pillars—the foundation of the Fitness Revolution Client Management Model.

When utilized properly, they serve to inform the business owner and the management team of the state of the business and guide them to the appropriate solutions and actions.

For extensive info and your own PDF on the 4 Sales and Marketing Pillars Guide, join The Academy where you’ll get access to the Fitness Business Mastery and two more extensive curriculum plus over 45 training modules to help you grow your business.   

The 4 Pillars

Leads – It all starts when you aquire a lead.   Leads are the people you have contact information for so that you can follow up to determine their level of interest in your program.

The major components of this pillar are marketing/sales and operations, although your training team (assuming you have other coaches) should at least be aware of what is going on throughout the business.

Front End Offer (FEO) – The second step is getting your leads to try out your Front End Offer.  The FEO is a low barrier to entry offer that you use to provide leads that are one the fence about joining your program a test drive of your services.

Your one and only goal for front end clients is to provide an incredible experience so they convert into a Core Offer Client.

Core Offer (CO) – These are clients in your primary program, the one that is the economic driver for your business.

Regardless of which program(s) you offer as your core offering, your objective for all members remains the same: keep them coming back for more.

Retention – Client retention will tell you if you’re bringing in the right people and creating a great experience.

The best analogy for retention is a bucket with a hole at the bottom. You may be pouring lots of leads into the bucket, but if there is a hole or gap in your service delivery, you will lose clients and need to address the issue, which could even be in your marketing.

Being able to measure and track your 4 Sales and Marketing Pillars in your business will provide you with valuable insight into your future growth and help you manage your marketing and sales activities so that you hit your goals.

Get Access To Guides, Tools and Videos To Grow Your Business Inside The Academy…

The Academy is loaded with courses and resources to help apsiring high performing fitness business owners who want to elevate their game and increase their income.

When you position yourself as an expert and establish yourself as the most credible authority on fitness in your area it’s easier to attract great clients, charge more and grow your business.

Luckily, it’s not difficult to position yourself at the top when you follow the steps laid out inthis video:

If you’d like access to our complete Fitness Marketing Mastery curriculum join The Academy today and get started creating a powerful marketing message that puts you at the top.

Growing your business and making a living while pursuing your passion requires you to sell.  There’s no way around it, so the best thing to do is embrace it and get great at selling.

Instead of being afraid to sell follow the tips in this video to overcome your biggest sales obstacles, shift your mindset and become a great sales person.

Running a fitness business can be a tough and often lonely road. Building a powerful peer network can help you overcome your business challenges and build strong relationships that lead to bigger and better things. Here’s how to build them…

Do you have a list of leads or email subscribers that haven’t joined your personal training programs yet? Here’s a few ways to prospect that list and find some new clients.

As a personal trainer or fitness business owner you didn’t get in this game because you loved marketing, but it’s a necessity if you want to survive. Learn how to uncover your hidden strengths that will make marketing easier.

Your customers are on their phones everywhere, posting, tweeting, and texting. Do you understand what this increasingly pervasive behavior means for your business? If you haven’t been thinking about how to stay relevant in today’s mobile and social world, now’s the time.

Whether they’re on the go or at their desks, consumers are accessing their social networks more than any other online site, according to Nielsen*. And it’s not just to keep in touch. Consumers are incorporating social sites into various stages of their buying process: to search, book, and pay for services and products; and to listen to and share experiences: Follow these tips to make sure your business is in the right place at the right time to influence these consumers’ decision making process.

The Researchers

Search online for services you offer – using YouTube.  According to traffic reports, YouTube is the second most popular search engine.  Does your location appear on the first page of search results?   If not, try these techniques to improve your ranking: 

Make Videos – Create video introductions to your business: your location, services, and staff.  Show what your client experience is like.

Link to your social sites– Drive researchers toward your social sites to give them a peek into how you interact with customers away from your business location.

The Talkers

Search online for reviews of your location. Are people talking about your services or products? Do you like what they’re saying? If not, here’s how you can make sure you’re getting the reviews you deserve:

Update review sites – Populate your location’s review page with images, videos, and information about your services, then encourage your current customers to post reviews.

Post to your social sites – Keep your current customers engaged by posting interesting information on your Facebook, Twitter, and blog sites. Posts that work the best?

• Inspirational: quotes and images
• Fun: quizzes and questions of the day o Motivational: congratulate customers on milestones
• Informative: how-to blog articles that help your customers address challenges, positioning your services as the solution, when appropriate

By incorporating just a few of these suggestions, your services will be online in just the right places to attract new customers. After all, even in today’s online world, it’s still all about location, location, location!

To learn how MINDBODY can help your business attract more clients online schedule a free demo today.

*Source: The Social Media Report, Nielson

Building strong relationships with your clients is critical to your success as a business owner and trainer.  Those relationships result in clients staying long and buying more, which means more revenue for your business.

Plus, it’s just more fun to work with people to really like 🙂

MINDBODY has a great infographic below that will show you how using their app builds stronger, longer lasting relationships.

To schedule your Free Demo of MINDBODY and learn about using their app click below