Personal Training Business Tips

Learn This For Instantly Cheaper Advertising

Learn This For Instantly Cheaper Advertising

Published by on October 21, 2014 | Leave a response

_AMC8836Thanks to technology as small entrepreneurs we have more opportunity than we have ever had before to prosper; if you understand the cost dynamics of your personal trainer marketing.

I find most trainers are very afraid to spend money on marketing, yet when they do it’s often on high dollar, unpredictable, hard to measure things that seem to “feel right” or make sense at the time. Things like direct mail, print ads, billboards and flyers.

Personally I much prefer more direct response driven channels where I have nearly instantaneous measurability and control. Things like social media ads, pay per click, and email marketing.

But no matter the medium you choose there are some basic things you should understand:

  • Leverage group programs. For group programs your cost of operation is generally near static whether you have one person or twenty five, which means that you can technically “afford” to discount a trial to any dollar amount you choose, even free, without occurring a flurry of additional cost.
  • Realize you have to use compelling offers that appeal to the world’s desire for instantaneous gratification. Low cost and high value trials, the ability to book instantaneously, the enticement of an additional desirable gift if I take action right now.
  • Combine with tangible items to drive up the cost of your service trials. Because we can’t see, touch or feel a service as a consumer it’s normal to have a hard time conceptualizing it’s value, but add a tangible hard good and that changes entirely.
  • Understand the basic metrics of conversion. How many people see the ad, how many people take the next step (such as contacting you or leaving contact info), and finally how many people purchase your short-term offer as a result. All the people that see your ad divided by those that pay is your conversion rate, there’s not a right or wrong number, but the goal is to meet or beat your previous best each time you use that medium.
  • Most importantly understand your upfront cost per lead. Take the total number of purchases and divide it by the total cost of the campaign. Any time you can breakeven or nearly breakeven you are doing great. It’s usually here that many people get squeamish, they cringe at the cost of the ad without realizing that when total sales are considered (and combined with group training in particular) each lead may have only cost a few dollars or in cases if only mediums may even have generated a small return.

Beyond the initial response of the promotion authors like Jay Abraham will get you thinking about the lifetime value of each client. So each one of those leads that moves from a trial to a long-term client brings tremendous value to your business.

Previously if the costs of marketing have frightened you, as you follow along here you might be starting to think that all this is suddenly a lot less scary. Well truth is, it is, at least conceptually.

The problem arises when you spend to the edge of your budget on that campaign that’s a zero performer; we’ve all had them. This is why I love most digital mediums so much. Most digital mediums allow you to progressively change budget and make nearly real time changes periodically through your campaign, talk about increasing your chances of success!

At the end of the day all you can do is make your best guess, try and try again, but the great news is with a little application of simple math and a basic understanding of the items above you can greatly reduce your margin of error.

Hope this helps, the more successful you are the greater hope that together we can change the world!

Cabel

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How-to: Real Time Management for Entrepreneurs.

Published by on June 17, 2014 | 1 Response

You might believe you are already effective at managing your time. If there’s anything I’ve learned it’s that when it comes to time management it’s a continual work of improvement.

There are 3 keys to time management.

Most important, always make sure you decide what you need to do tomorrow at the end of today.

This may seem like a small thing, and it’s really easy to say, “I’ll make a list first thing in the morning,” but don’t do it. If you make your list in the morning it’s like skipping breakfast, you’ve conditioned your mind to start the day unfocused. It’s like going for a hard workout with low blood sugar because not only are you unfocused you’re forced to complete a very difficult series of tasks in rapid succession. You’ll be accessing creative centers, problem solving, and organization just to get your list for the day. It may not seem like a lot but the resources required to complete this (just to decide what to do first) will seriously limit your ability to complete the list you’ve just worked so hard to make.

Maxwell Maltz, author of a must read book called Psycho Cybernetics talks about what he calls “rehearsal within the theatre of the mind.” By outlining your tasks the night before your subconscious mind goes immediately to work preparing for the first task you will complete the next morning. This sets the stage for immediate productivity and easier completion of pre-arranged tasks because your subconscious mind has already been planning solutions.

Second, make sure that you begin with the most difficult thing first.

It’s been proven in my own action, and I’ve seen it in countless others, avoiding hard tasks leads to procrastination or continual distraction. As the days wear on we’re undoubtedly met with resistance, adversity or unexpected events (maybe all of the above.) Each requires a great deal of emotional energy to conquer and as a result it means less emotional energy to tackle daily tasks. If you avoid completing the most difficult thing first you will avoid it all day, every day an onward forever. Difficult tasks build up; these lead to major roadblocks and crush the momentum of any business.

The third and final critical component of time management is chunking.

Chunking is simply the act of grouping like tasks together. The time it takes to become creative, to think of an idea and write this column is lost if I immediately move on to something else. So rather than moving on to a different task I group writing tasks together. Prior to writing this article I wrote a blog post, which lead to this column idea and in the last few paragraphs has manifested into other ideas. I’ll chunk a couple hours together and write three to five pieces of content, this satisfies one of my tasks for the next ten days. Now I can move on to the next chunk which could be sixty minutes of responding to emails, a list of follow up calls, or if it’s on my list ideally more creative work like promotional copy, etc.

It’s not surprising that employees congregate around the water cooler in late morning or mid afternoon. I believe even committed people have a hard time maintaining razor focus and productivity for long periods. And as events occur and the day wears on our reserve of emotional energy is quickly drained. Working longer is not realistic, working smarter and more efficiently is; and it leaves a lot more time for fun.

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Get out of a sublease and get your own location!

Get out of a sublease and get your own location!

Published by on June 12, 2014 | Leave a response

imageHey guys! Stoked to be invited back to the blog to share my experiences with you all. In case you missed my last post, I’ll reintroduce myself. I’m Dallas Wicker, and I own Santa Rosa Fit Body Bootcamp with my partner, Katie Switzer.

 

In my last post, I shared some of our business experiences that led to developing the strategies we’ve used to cultivate a tribe-like following of clients who are genuinely excited to be affiliated with us. My hope is that in this new post you’ll find a few useful nuggets of information to help you move from a sublease into your own permanent location. This post may also prove to be helpful for you if you’ve got plans to open a second, third or forth location.

 

So, a little background. When we started our fitness boot camp, we subleased space in a karate dojo. This was a difficult arrangement for us because our growth was restricted by the constant competition for use of the space during prime-time hours. After 3 months, we made the decision to move so we could expand our training schedule.  We chose a large public gym that also rented to freelance trainers. While our scheduling limitations were pretty much solved by moving to the gym, we realized that our growing business was infringing on the territory of some of the long-time trainers who also called this gym “home”.  As tension built, we moved yet again to sublet space from a CrossFit studio. But unfortunately, we again found ourselves competing for use of the space during prime hours.

 

It became abundantly clear that running our business in subleased space was creating a huge bottleneck. Being the optimists that we are, we decided to start looking for our own space to allow for the huge expansion we were forecasting for our business. We knew that renting our own building would create an increase in overhead, but we also knew that we could afford to make that leap by effectively removing the restraints that had been confining business.

 

So, in October 2011, we employed the services of a commercial real estate to begin looking for suitable locations to house our boot camp. Surprisingly, he found only a few that fell into our rather broad search of spaces ranging from 1800 square feet – 3000sf. And most of which were cost prohibitive due to their location or cost per square foot.

 

Shocked that there were so few options to choose from, Katie and I decided to do a little searching of our own. We spent a weekend driving up and down every street, dirt road and back alley in town (I highly recommend doing this – many commercial spaces are not listed on the internet) and we found a couple possible spots that we decided to look into.

 

One of the spaced we found was a large retail space, smack dab in the heart of downtown Santa Rosa. In the front window we saw a hand written “For Lease” sign hanging. Clearly the space was being advertised directly by the owner – this was likely why the place didn’t come up in the search our agent performed.

 

After meeting the owner for a walk through, we learned that the space was only $1.00/sf, which was approximately half of the cost per foot of the space we were comparing it to. And not to mention, the downtown location of this less expensive space was far superior. I have to admit, the size of the space made me pucker my behind a little since (it was almost 4000sf ) we’d be signing a lease to rent a space that was $3000 more per month than what we had grown accustomed to paying for our sublet.

 

With the advice of our business coach, Bedros Keuilian, we made a full price offer with the caveat that we needed a $10,000 tenant improvement allowance and 6 months of free rent so we could get up and running. (My advice: don’t do that – you’ll likely piss off the landlord and they’ll either tell you to get bent or not respond at all).

 

But, we did get a call back from the landlord. By the tone of his shouting voice, I could tell just how absurd he found our terms. Nonetheless, we were able to negotiate back and forth until we settled at 4 months of free rent. Unfortunately we were not granted the tenant improvement allowance, but we were able to sign a lease that allowed us enough time to ramp up our revenue to cover the expense.

 

Moving out of the sublease and into our own spot is a decision we’ll never regret. In fact, being in our own space has allowed us faster growth in the last 12 months than we’ve had in all the rest of the time we’ve been in the industry.  So much so that we’ve recently began negotiations on a second location in Petaluma. Needless to say, the experiences we had during the search for our first space have proven useful in procuring the space needed for this second location.

 

So if you’ve hit a sticking point in your business, figure out what you want and make it happen, don’t let your fear hold you back.

 

If your business is evolving into something new, believe in yourself, dive in headfirst and make it happen.

 

If you see a roadblock looming, don’t procrastinate on finding a solution. Figure out what ideal circumstances look like for your business, then reverse engineer the process to get you there. Move the puzzle pieces one at a time until you get it right.

 

It required a few stepping stones for us to finally end up with our own space, but it was the solution our business needed in order to continue rapidly growing. And I’ll reiterate, there were definitely times (like right after closing the deal) where we wondered if we’d bitten off more than we could chew. We were a little apprehensive signing a lease for a 3700sf of commercial space that added over $3K to our monthly overhead expenses, but it’s like Cabel always says: the magic happens just outside your comfort zone.

 

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Build your tribe of athletes that live and breathe your brand

Build your tribe of athletes that live and breathe your brand

Published by on May 22, 2014 | 1 Response

1965010_735879253089415_1558161115_nHey guys! I’m Dallas Wicker, and I own Santa Rosa Fit Body Bootcamp with my partner, Katie Switzer. I’m so freaking excited that Cabel asked me to write a post today, I hope that you’ll be able to find something here that will help you with your business.

 

So, how do I start?

…Well, in the beginning, we sucked. We started out 5 years ago (under a different name before we adopted the FBBC model), and in the beginning, our intake process was totally disorganized. We all know that first impressions are everything, and we quickly realized that we had to systematize our process.

 

If you’re great at marketing, that’s a huge plus, but like Bedros says, at some point, you’re actually going to meet people. If you’re not delivering an A+ experience from the onset, you’re going to have a hard time retaining clients. There’s far too much competition for you to give anything but your best performance – every single day.

 

Marketing these days is easier than ever. Now we’ve got dozens of platforms to broadcast our USP (unique selling proposition). And as fitness pros, it’s easier to drum up new clients than in years past.

 

Now, if you don’t mind having a continuous stream of new people filtering in and out of your program, this might sounds great. But for me, I’d far prefer having a steady client base to build on and not have to worry about getting 40-60 new sign ups every month.

 

So how do you go about building a tribe of athletes who live and breathe your brand? It all boils down to the experience you deliver. If you’re part of an organization with a prescribed format, you might feel like you’ve got “client experience” dialed. But following a system doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re delivering an experience that people are going to want to write home about.

 

Going above and beyond with every client is what’s going to set you apart from your competition. Have you ever had a client tell you they are considering discontinuing your program to join the local gym because they offer a similar “class”? If so, you’re doing it wrong – you’re not delivering “the experience”.

 

It’s human nature to reciprocate positive behavior, so when you have an upbeat client who’s referring their friends and posting about you on Facebook, it’s only natural that you’d go out of your way to give them an outstanding experience. And that’s exactly what I’m talking about. It’s the client who comes to you clearly displaying their reservations and apprehensions to exercise – that’s the client you really need to “wow” if you want to be successful. At SR-FBBC, we refer to our members at Athletes – because if you have a body and you work it out, you’re an Athlete. Our clients feel a sense of pride when our coaches refer to them this way.

 

So, like I was saying, you can’t cater to only the friendly, hardworking people. You’ve got to find a way to key into the grumpy, overweight and not-so-hardworking client. This will clearly demonstrate to everyone in your program that you care and that you’re going to go the distance to ensure that every member gets the support they need to reach their goals.

 

Half the people in our program started because they hated working out so much that they gained dozens of pounds. Almost everyone has had some sort of failure with fitness. No wonder some people are grumpy when they get started. They’re in an uncomfortable situation with people they’ve never met and they’ve committed themselves to being put up on display (or so they feel) and be judged. They feel overweight, sluggish and more out of shape than anyone in the room. That’s why it’s important that you clue them in to the fact that everyone has been there.

 

Building a strong community of likeminded individuals is tantamount to keeping people committed to your program. There MUST be a strong sense of camaraderie in the group or people aren’t going to stick around. Your clients must be programmed to be supportive and encouraging to new members. Here are a few ideas on how we do that:

 

  • Introduce first timers to one or two of your veterans and ask them to keep an eye on them during the workout.
  • Call out for them to high-five their “workout partner” before switching workout stations and after the workout.
  • Get the group to give a round of applause to the “newbie” after the workout.
  • Use color-coded shirts or wristbands to establish certain levels of accomplishment within the group and have a ceremony when people graduate to the next level.
  • Do partner workouts
  • Reward a hard working athlete by allowing them to train the coach in front of everyone for 5 or 10 minutes of “pay back”.
  • Put up a Rock Star board or designate an entire wall to athletes who’ve done something spectacular. This could be a list of the current record holders for certain exercises, (longest plank, most pushups in 2 minutes, most Burpees for time, etc.)
  • Take photos of your athletes and their accomplishments (I’m Jody and I lost 28lbs since I started in February!) Post them on Facebook and start covering an entire wall with these types of success stories.
  • Print out certificates for every challenge. When athletes complete the challenge, award them a certificate of completion. Frame the cert and cover a wall with these.
  • Ask athletes what muscle group they want to work or what specific exercises have they been missing. Helps them feel like a bigger part of the organization.
  • Bring a DJ in to mix up the music every few weeks.
  • When you complete a Transformation Challenge, throw an “After Party” at a local nightclub or restaurant. Most local establishments will welcome you bringing all of your clients in to patronize their spot. See if you can get them to offer a skinny drink branded with a variation of your business name or get them to offer a shot that requires a certain exercise to be done when it’s ordered (example: floppy Burpee shot, gotta do 5 floppy Burpees to order). We were able to put a slide show up on their tv screens with before and after photos with our logo. They even did wristbands for drink discounts for all of our clients.

 

So, these are just a few of the ways we’ve worked to build culture into our program. People want to be a part of something bigger. If you can introduce even one of these types of culture builders, people will take notice and you’ll feel a higher sense of camaraderie within the group. Build on that success and continue improving. As entrepreneurs, we MUST be continuously innovating and creating. Don’t get comfortable and rest on your laurels because before you know it, your clients will move on to the next big thing.

 

#Boom

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Personal Trainer Business Tip: Get referrals even if it didn’t work for them

Published by on April 22, 2014 | Leave a response

http://www.profitablepersonaltrainer.com Recently my wife and I were looking at using a product/service that’s really expensive and beyond our comfort zone.

Ultimately what sold us was the testimonial of someone that the product didn’t work for, how odd is that?

That even though they had

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Personal Trainer Business Tips: List Revival and easy SEO

Published by on April 8, 2014 | 1 Response

http://www.ProfitablePersonalTrainer.com Did you know that an email list of just 500 is enough usually to generate more than 6 figures of annual income?

In this personal trainer business tip I share with you my “mechanic” breakdown of how to revitalize your list, provide tonnes of

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2 Personal Trainer Business Tips to Improve Sales and Service Today

Published by on April 1, 2014 | Leave a response

http://www.ProfitablePersonalTrainer.com Today I share two quick tips to improve sales and service. The first is to stop constantly creating new “packages” to get your clients through the door. By rotating between two to three solid ones you can perfect the next steps, which leads to better customer

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5 tips on finding the right space

5 tips on finding the right space

Published by on March 25, 2014 | 1 Response

10006807_10151998830822361_521350083_oOk so you’re training a few people and getting a taste for this idea of being “self-employed.” At some point you start thinking how great it would be to have your own space, one where you make the rules, where you control the environment. It seems like a grand plan, it feels as good as when you thought about moving out from mom’s house and taking control of your life once and for all. Then you start thinking about all the costs, get scared, keep doing what you’re doing and think to yourself, “those other trainers just got lucky…somehow.”

In the past sixteen months my coaching program has seen seventeen new studios open. People just like you, people that had the same fears as you the only difference being a little knowledge and a group of colleagues for support.

I may not be able to help you today with the support you need to overcome your fears about opening your own space but maybe I can help a little with the knowledge.

Here’s 5 tips that can help:

1)   Don’t be distracted by high traffic locations

You may not yet have figured out how to capture an audience through multiple marketing channels like social media, email and events to name a few. As a result you might think that it would be a massive benefit to be in a location that’s visible, that has a lot of immediate traffic or visitors. Though this is logical it’s one of the things I’ve seen sink new studios really fast. The premium you pay for these locations is never justified in the sales that are produced as a result. Look for locations that are 1-2 blocks off the main arteries, we’re a destination location. A fraction of the cost savings invested in efficient marketing campaigns will way out perform that high traffic location.

2)   The drive radius

The ideal location is really easy to access but off the beaten path. Next consider how far you can drive in 15 minutes at the worst time of day for traffic. Look at a city map and draw the boundary of how far you can go in those brutal 15 minutes; this will give you a very realistic idea of your real customer area. In fancy technical terms we call this your Isochrome.

3)   How far can I get with paint and mirrors?

Don’t look for perfect, look for usable potential. Does it have a small reception and/or an office space? Does it already have 1-2 bathrooms and a big open space? Is there ample parking? Look for the space that you can get started with just paint, mirrors and equipment. Don’t think it needs to be perfect or look like the million dollar facility; truth is that’s a prehistoric business philosophy. Today people want to be involved in the story of your growth and development; they want to experience it as it happens. Even more importantly people are looking for places that present that “down to earth culture” and not the big box “I’m a number” environment. Hence the success of the garage gym!

4)   Don’t sign a long lease

Now this might be more my opinion then sound advice, but then heck so are all the others tips in this column. I’ve signed a long lease and I’d never do it again. I believe the key to success in our industry is to be continually evolving. You never know how fast your business is going to grow (I outgrew my initial space in just 5 months), or the challenges you may face in dealing with a building owner (just ask me about unpredictable building operating costs.) I’d never want to be this restricted again I’d much rather face the risk of renegotiating costs every 3-5 years in an effort to keep my options open. Additionally here is where risk is a consideration, what can you carry for an extended period of time?

5)   The secret sauce of where to look

Here’s the real gem of how to find that right space. Start by looking for all the dance and martial arts studios in your area of interest. Generally where these types of businesses are located you will find spaces in the appropriate price range for your business. They are often just off the beaten path and yet within realistic drive reach of people you wish to cater to. Additionally, sad but true, a number of these types of businesses often fail. This is important because their space is 90% setup for what you need; they’ve done the work and absorbed the cost for you!

Map out your plan, getting into your own space isn’t as difficult or as expensive as you first believed. The old adage of business was it cost a lot of money to get started, that you weren’t profitable for months or years. I don’t subscribe to this philosophy, if you’ve done your homework you can be breakeven or cash flow positive either by the time you open or soon after. Remember fortune favors the bold!

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