The Personal Trainer Technician

I want you to look at your schedule today and for the next few weeks and I want you to schedule a few hours each week to work on the most critical project for your business, your business plan. I would say the majority of personal trainers I’ve met as well as other entrepreneurs don’t have a functional business plan. I think the reason for this is that we are all (as Michael Gerber says in his book the E-Myth) technicians at heart. We are very good at doing the work but in the transition to entrepreneur we struggle to duplicate ourselves or grasp the idea of repeat systems as opposed to just doing it ourselves because we will do it right.

Many people feel that if they are not looking for funding of some sort that they don’t really need to spend time drafting a length and in depth proposal. If this applies to you it’s time to shift your mindset. Though after three years of operating One-to-1 Fitness I’ve rarely referred to our business plan I can assure you that plan has been a strong contributor to our success.

Writing a business plan will identify many problems before you face them, before they cost you thousands of dollars. The budgeting and financial projections provide clear and concise goals and allow you to answer the question, “is this business viable and worthwhile?” You will begin to generate ideas about systems and marketing based on sales projections as you can’t help but think, “how will I handle that many people?” or “if we grow this fast I can’t possibly handle it all who will I need to hire? How am I going to hire them?”

Even if your business is already up and running you need to write your business plan, the value of being able to look at present and future is a critical component of your system for long term success as a Profitable Personal Trainer, fitness marketer, and entrepreneur.

Some of the resources I’ve found valuable for writing my business plan were:

1. Business Plan Pro a small piece of software that helps you get out of the gate by simply completing the blanks and forming the base structure of your business plan.
2. A simple spreadsheet to being estimating revenues and expenses. If you’d like my current budgeting spreadsheet I am happy to share it with you simply contact me with ‘Budget Spreadsheet’ in the subject line.
3. A book called Building a Dream (actually a textbook from a college class) by Walter S. Good
4. And another book called Business for Beginners by Frances McGuckin