How to instantly earn an extra $5760 a year or more.
Today we had our monthly team meeting. Our discussion had a very important focus for everyone to consider, is it easier to attract new clients or retain the ones you have? You guessed it, keep the ones you have, but have you ever considered the math behind it?
In any given geographical area there are only so many people. Of those people it’s generally accepted that 8-13% of the total population will possibly be looking or using a service like ours. For easy numbers use 10%. Now list out all of your competition, it’s easy to see these numbers dwindle.
Now consider how many people are left for you to draw from and attract as personal training clients. People are going to come and go but the question becomes can you keep them longer? It may not seem like much to lose 1-3 clients a month but when you start to do the mat it can be pretty staggering. Let’s use the average of 2 per month. On average the majority of our clients see us 3 times per week for 30 minute sessions, let’s assume your training rates are the national average of about a $1/min. So each client lost is costing you about $360/month or a grand total of $8640 over the course of the year! ($30X3X2X12)
Now you won’t prevent everyone from quitting but let me tell you, and we know this from tracking within our facility, that only about 1/3 of people quit for reasons other than they are not getting enough value. Sure they may tell they can’t afford it or they are just ready to work on their own but in truth all they are saying is that your services are no longer providing enough value for them to justify the cost. A classic example of this is that thing you want so bad you scrimp, save, cut corners and get it anyways. We all do it, and we will all do it again.
Simple steps to retaining clients:
- Recognize their successes more often. Not just during their sessions, make a point to give them a quick call, send them an email, congratulate them on Facebook or make some kind of simple silly little award.
- Ask yourself can you feel 100% sincere and comfortable and believe that you deserve to mention at the end of every session, “great job today! By the way I am never too busy for referrals, I’d really like to train more people like you.” You might think it weird to say this all the time but in truth you need to because your clients are talking about you or thinking about what they are doing but many won’t actively think to refer if you don’t remind them.
- Deliver over the top service, the next time a client cancels suddenly just take 1/3 of the time you had planned to be with them to call, email, or Facebook them and other clients to tell them how great they are and how much you appreciate them. If you just invested these few precious minutes all the time you will be the busiest trainer in your area in no time.
- As my buddy Steve Hochman says go “APE” shit in every session with your clients. Appreciate them, be Passionate and Enthusiastic.
It’s really that simple, we always make things harder than they are. I see the numbers and the math behind our business every day; I know if you just work on these things and make them habit you will retain more clients longer. After all wouldn’t you like to instantly increase your earnings by $5760 a year? ($8460 less the 1/3 of client cancels for reasons beyond your control.)
Your Own Personal Training Studio – The Grass is Greener Part 3
In 2007 One-to-1 Fitness came to be, 2000 square feet, every penny we had to our names on the line and nothing but hopes, dreams and healthy dose of fear for the future. What a ride it has been, from 3 trainers and no staff, barely 100 appointments a week to now 11 trainers, 2 support staff, 2 massage therapists and routinely over 500 appointments a week in double the space. Last year I am proud to say we were a strong finalist for the local chamber awards for Small Business of the Year.
The question on your mind might be would I recommend opening your own studio to everyone? That’s an easy answer, no.
I wouldn’t change for a moment any decision we have made (even though there are plenty we could have done better or done without.) the experience we’ve gained at every step has been invaluable and will shape multiple new opportunities in the future.
The main advantages of owning your own studio are:
1) Leverage – You may now hopefully leverage your time and the time of others to produce bigger results, higher volume leading to greater sales and a very predictable income.
2) Flexibility – If you focus on building a proper business plan and work to systemize your business throughout you enjoy the flexibility of being away when you wish, possibly for extended periods, or being able to leave on a moment’s notice always knowing your clients will be taken care of.
3) Assets – All the money you have tied up in equipment, your regular volume of sales (if you use EFT) will provide value to financial institutions allowing you to continue to grow fast than you could without.
4) Income Potential – Within a system you now have the opportunity to earn significantly more income. To a degree your income potential is only limited by your ability to push the business forward but this potential also comes with a price, sometimes worry and responsibility.
5) Something Saleable – And of course the big goal for any business owner, someday being able to sell your product to someone else and finally enjoy the fruits of your labours monetarily.
Now before you go sign the lease on your studio location and open up shop don’t forget to review the potential obstacles in your way.
1) You are the last to eat – Heaven forbid business or the economy takes a down turn. As an employer you now have a responsibility to your staff all their needs must often be met before your own.
2) Does risk bother you? – Expect to sign general security agreements that tie every asset you own to the business, are you prepared to risk your home and every asset you own on your new venture?
3) Start up costs – Even a successful business will often owe its owners or shareholders a significant amount of money for years. Are you comfortable with the idea of tying up tens of thousands of dollars in your new venture?
4) Your success will be limited by the strength of your team. – Unfortunately your vision or opinion may not always be shared by others. Yes you are the boss but you can’t force anybody to do anything. Company culture is more important than you will ever know and not entirely in your control. How will you balance the social structure of a growing team?
5) You are the owner, manager, trainer, boss, crook, janitor, chief marketer, systems analyst, and nearly any other role, title or comment you can imagine. As soon as you apply director to your name you are the one that ever aspect of your business must matter the most to. To how clean your sinks and toilets are to when the vacuuming was last done, to how you will track and outpace rising employee costs (EI, CPP, holiday pay etc, on average every dollar you pay an employee will cost you 15-20 cents more. How money do you currently earn each month? Apply that math for a moment.), to customer service and quality control. Be prepared to make late night journeys for when the alarm goes off or the roof decides to leak, plan on dealing with any unhappy customer when someone makes a mistake, and be prepared to receive the least amount of appreciation.
Hmmm, after looking at just some of the aspects of the good and the bad how do you feel about the idea of owning your own personal training studio?
If you are now wondering, would Cabel do it all over again? The answer is a resounding yes, there are still far many more days I wake up excited about the potential before me than there are days I cringe in the corner in fear. Just be prepared for both!
Personal Training Inside a Public Gym – The Grass is Greener Part 2
This scenario can take on many forms. In many ways the in the gym trainer may have the greatest opportunity to organize and grow their business in just about any direction. Initially most trainers will become employees of the gym. In this scenario they will dictate your hours, your dress, possibly how you run your programming, your session rates, your wage (or portion of the session rate) and if you sell they will likely dictate how you sell and how much you sell it for.
The business within a business model can be the most flexible with the least risk, though there is one drawback...control
Of all the training scenarios, you can count on this employee position being the lowest per hour rate. Now the lower rate is really not as bad as many may seem to think as essentially think of it like the income tax we all pay to cover the costs of the social programs we enjoy. In the world of the employee personal trainer the portion of the session rate retained by your employer affords you things like the following: in house marketing and lead attraction, all overhead and expenses to stock, maintain and clean the training areas, often liability insurance, independent sales that are hopefully better at closing clients than you are, operational systems, payment and debt collection and maybe even appointment booking. If you are a solo trainer trying to do all of this on your own you likely have some measure of appreciation as to how nice it might be to be able to rely on others to handle these items for you. The downside to being an employee is your employer of course would like to make as much profit as possible which also means it’s going to be the most difficult for you to drastically increase your earning potential in a short period of time.
Now the big advantage I see to working inside of a gym is for the entrepreneurial trainer. Within a franchise this is likely difficult to impossible, but in an independent gym after establishing yourself as an employee it’s time to talk to your employer. You may be able to negotiate a position where any clients you attract through your own marketing you can retain a much higher percentage of session rates. Most employers understand that quality people may not stay long term and this is a position where working for your own gain will also benefit them, far more than if you were to open your own business. Or you may try to negotiate control of the whole personal training department so you move to begin developing and managing the systems of that end of the business providing the business owner with a steady predictable income stream with little effort or risk. These situations provide varying amount of risk to yourself but also substantial reward to the business owner. In this situation you would have many of the benefits (and headaches) of having your own studio without the huge opening costs or fixed overhead of your own brick and mortar location. The business within a business model is likely one of the lowest risk and highest reward scenarios for any personal trainer, the one factor you may find too limiting is you are still operating within someone else’s environment and for the most part they will dictate how you run your business which can be a real challenge if you don’t see entirely eye to eye. Next week I will complete this series with my own experiences of running your own stand a lone training studio.
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