Hiring Bad Trainers

Hiring trainers is one of the quickest ways to bring monies into your business. In fact not many business owners realize that hiring trainers is a revenue stream. In fact it is often looked at as one of the business headaches. Here are some quick pointers to identify if you are in fact ‘Hiring Bad Trainers’. Do your trainers:

 

• Consistently making excuses for low or no sales?
• Procrastinate on performing sales or marketing-related activities?
• Ignoring directions and only doing what they feel comfortable doing?
• Measuring success not by the number of sales closed, but by how much time or effort is put into something?
• Creating conflict with others in order to deflect attention from their own non-existent or low production/performance?
• Sabotaging co-workers or stealing prospects and sales leads?

Do your trainers work the training room floor, speak with prospects and go the extra distance. Are the:

 

• Trainers sitting at their desk or on the internet?
• Studio floor is cluttered with weight or weights not be racked?
• Fitness equipment is dusty or not working properly?
• Engaging the members on a first name basis?

 

Mind you this is certainly a short check list. But the point here is that there if far more to being a successful trainer. As the owner or department head that hires trainers expectations need to be clearly stated. The end goal would be to have the trainers develop a clients list and earn a good living. This would make both the trainer and owner happy. But often time what gets lost is what the expected of the trainer that will lead them down the road to ultimate goal and that is obtaining clients.

Take a moment and evaluate your current trainers to see if they are meeting the minimum requirements list above. Tune in next time for some tips on how to set up the expectations for your training staff.

 

Do You Have Control Over Your Time?

The answer to this question for the vast majority is, NO! We seem to be a slave to time. But this need not be the case. If you take the time to plan out your day in detail and create a start and end time to your day you will find that you can in fact have control over YOUR time.


Breaking your day up in to manageable sections will help you be more effective, efficient and productive.

First Step
Take a realistic view of your business and define the needs of the business. Once you have defined the needs categorize the needs into 3 or 4 sections. For example the sections could be broken down by departments; In-Home Personal Training, Corporate Fitness, and Bootcamps

Second Step
Create a weekly Calendar and insert all known weekly appointments or commitments. Such as; personal training sessions, bootcamp class, and Corporate fitness.

Third Step
Identify all unused time(s). On Monday’s you find that you have a gap in time from 10-1pm. You have three hours to commit to growing you business. This time can be used to address 1 or 2 of the defined sections of your business. So for example if you decided to commit 2 hours to the business side of In-Home Training and 1 hour to Bootcamps.

Fourth Step
Once you have identified your available times and plugged the time(s) you plan to dedicate towards specific sections you can not create a ‘To Do List’ for each section. With in the ‘To Do List’ would include follow up emails, phone calls, marketing and program developments.

Once you have this system set up the goal is to use focused effort on each specific section in to increase your effectiveness, efficiency and production. Hold firm to the time you have allotted. Exceptions may arise and in fact can be account for as you implement this system. Feel free to give it a try. If you have additional questions or something better feel free to share it.

Are we 'Too Focused' on the Bad Economy?

There is no doubt that if you have watched the news, chatted with friends and talked with fellow business owners, the economy is certainly a heated topic.  The fact is we are seeing higher rates of unemployment, forclosures, and businesses going under.  Everyone has an opinion as to what is the cause of thie 'Bad Economy' and what might be the solution.  The truth is, no really knows.  In fact, even the smartest and most influential minds in our country can't seem to come to an agreement to fix our current economic situation.  Is this maily due to political issues? That's beyond the scope of this article.  Despite the variety of opinions you may have or have read, you need to take a hard look at your business. Don't soley focus on this economic situation and "Ask yourself" the following questions:

1. Is my business still meeting the needs/demands of my clientele?
2. If yes, can I continue to improve?
3. If no, how have the needs of my clients changed?
4. What services/products can I add to my business to generate additional revenue?

As business owners, we need to be able to filter out the negative information related to the bad economy and our own businesses.  Don't be so quick to blame the economy as the reason your business is declining.  As you read this article right now, businesses are making money and you can be making money too!!  Take the time to evaluate your current business.  Be sure that you are meeting the current and future needs of your clientele base.  Seek out additional opportunities to add revenue streams to your business.  And never stop looking for new and creative ideas to build clientele and your business profit margin.

Remember, don't focus on the economy, focus on you and your growing business!

How Much Marketing is the 'Right' Amount?

When you begin to market your services and/or products, consider using multiple methods of marketing.  not one method of marketing is giong to deliver all the desired results.  The best results will come from multiple market strategies that enable the services and/or products to be exposed to the maximum number of people.

Listed below are 10 ways to market your services and products:

• Word of Mouth
• Referrals
• Website
• Facebook
• Twitter
• You Tube
• Flyers
• Posters
• Workshops
• Groupon / Living Social

The more marketing methods that you use the more likely you will succeed.  Be aware that the speicific methods you 'choose' to market your products must be unified and cohesive.  Make sure your marketing efforts are not confusing or incomplete.

Remember, the goal of any marketing effort is three fold.

First, using the methods listed above, drive the customer to your products and services building awareness and recognition.  Second, convert tehm into a paying customer and third, make them repeat and loyal customer.

As we have discussed before, it is better to have 60 clients who train once a month than 12 clients who train five times per month.  In effoct, the more people who understand and appreciate your product/services, the more successful you will be each month.

Most importantly, treat all your marketing strategies the same.  You will be far more successful using multiple marketing approaches to secure a profitable business for years to come!

Preparing For A Leave Of Absence

Taking vacations or time off is a necessity to maintain your sanity and to refresh your mindset both in life and in business. The difficulty in taking this time is preparing your business for when you are gone.

This brings up a very important concept. The concept of “automation”. Simply put this means that you need to your business set up in such a matter that the majority of the day to day activities can take place with out your direct involvement.

For you to be a true business owner and not just someone that owns a job you need to be able to take time away from the business and the business should create money. Does this describe your business? If not, you have work ahead of you.

Make a list of all the day to day activities that you as the business owner currently handle. Once you have prepared the list it is time to go over the list and identify what tasks can either be delegated to other staff or outsourced.

During the first round of evaluations place an “x” by all the activities that take 20 minutes or longer to complete.

Re-evaluate the list a second time. This time place an “*” by all activities that you wish you didn’t have to do.

Re-evaluate the list a third time. This time place an “+” by all activities that cause you to procrastinate doing the activity.

For each activity that you placed a symbol “x, *, +” write down what it would take for you to delegate or out source this item.

Hold on to your list, next week I will share with you how to begin delegating and/or outsourcing those activities.

Implementation VS Procrastination

Implantation
Business Success
Creative Thinking
Taking Action
Ownership
Responsibility
Go Getter
Motivated

Procrastination
Wait and See
Non Committal
Criticizer
Fault Seeker
Excuse Maker
Slacker
Lack of Knowledge
Seeking Perfection

The battle between Implementation versus Procrastination resides in the minds of every business owner. This is a battle upon which must be won if the business is to survive and succeed.

In my experience I have found two major reasons why business owners are losing the battle.
1. Lack of Knowledge
2. Seeking Perfection

The first, “Lack of Knowledge,” is a simple concept to address. In today’s world, we have instant access to information. In most cases, the initial information is available to us at little or no cost. As a Fitness Business Owner, more than likely you are getting constant email blasts from resources that can help improve and/or grow your business. The key is to determine what resources really speak to you and that are relatable. For instance, through many years as a fitness professional I have sought advice from books by Phil Kaplan, Jamie Atlas, Bedros Keuilian, Pat Rigsby, Scott Colby, Eric Ruth, Mark Cibrario, Paul Chek, Annette Lang, Rick Olderman, Charlie Hugo, Melissa Mantak, Linda Burris, Len Kravitz, Doug and Patti Glock, Jeremy Silage and Peter Twist (just to name a few) to guide me in my development. As a business person, you need to make it a daily habit to improve your knowledge. Face the facts… you don’t know everything! Luckily everything you want to know is at your finger tips.

The second reason, “Seeking Perfection,” was a huge hindrance early in my career and the reason I often struggled. Several times, I wanted to know all the details. I had to learn that sometimes “the goal” needs to be good enough. One doesn’t need perfection to be successful.
Signs of a Procrastinator:
 You want to avoid an unpleasant activity
 You make excuses
 You look for distractions
 You don’t manage time well
 You don’t feel confident about the task

When you find yourself in a position of not getting the task done, take a quick moment and see if any of the signs above can explain why the task isn’t getting done. If so, then you know what needs to be done.

Will you win every battle between Implementation and Procrastination, probably not. But the quicker you can identify when you are procrastinating the better your chances of gaining the knowledge needed to overcome your own adversities to be on the winning side!

21 Days To A Better Business

I hope this title sounds familar, its a blog posted by Pat Rigsby. I can't say that I know Pat Rigsby personally but I can say that I do read through his blog posts and find the information extremely beneficial. Mr. Rigsby' thoughts on improving your business in 21 days I found enjoyable and thought I would share it with our owners. Here is the link to the posting:

http://fitbusinessinsider.com/21-days-to-a-better-fitness-business/

Mind Your Own Business

Guest Post: Michael Libercci

Through some very real practical experience Michael Libercci shares his thoughts on paying attention to your business... record keeping is a vital component to any business.

Disconnection Between Planning and Doing

Planning is extremely important to the success of any business after all we have all heard the saying, “Fail to plan means planning to fail”

However, I have found a huge disconnect between planning and doing. Often time we can get so caught up in planning that we don’t DO!



There comes a point when we need to accept our plan as good enough and begin to focus on the DOING!

You must be willing to make the leap of faith if you will that will take you from the planning stage to the doing stage.

Here are a few quick things to remember:

 Planning is important because it provides direction
 Doing is equally as vital because it tests the plan and it is the component that will bring the desired results to your business.

The more you plan and the more you do you will find yourself on the short track

Following Up

The ability to follow up isn’t god given. It simply takes effort. Anyone can improve their follow up skills. Now I’m not one for the complicated. I have seen a dozen or so programs that all promise to help you improve ones follow up skills. However, for me it comes down to just a few quick things:

1. Any time I speak with someone, I want to create a reason to follow up. When I capture their contact info I make some brief notes as to what we talked about and what I want to follow up with.
2. During our conversation ask them when would be a good time to follow up and how would they like me to follow up (phone, email, text)
3. Follow up as scheduled.

Follow up comes down to doing what you said you were going to do.

CHAOS

Who has not had Chaos in their life? Heck often time my clients will describe chaos with a different term “Drama” either way it means disorder and confusion. In business, in your business there are no doubts that you have had chaos. Chaos serves a couple of purposes. It can serve as a destructive force that can destroy your business or it can serve as a catalyst for growth. Every business grows through a cycle of chaos. Think of it this way as you grew from an infant to a toddler, to an adolescent, to a teenager, to an adult your body went through several stages and at each stage there was chaos for example most men out grew their clothes before they could wear them out and they constantly had to be replaced or upgraded. The same will hold true for your business as your business grows you will out grow certain aspects of your business. Perhaps you have too many clients and in order to meet the demand you need to hire another personal trainer. The hiring of a new trainer can create chaos as you try to pass along clients who are emotionally attached to you and/or trying to train the new trainer on how to do business under your business.

This blog/video is far too short to go into detail on chaos, but the point I want you to understand here is that everyone business goes through chaos multiple times as it grows. Your business is no different. The difference comes down to this, do you have a support system in place to help you through the stages of chaos your business will go through?

Residual Income

Trainers if you want to have a successful business you need to come to the realization and the understanding that you business can not be dependent solely upon the monies you bring in.

If your business is solely based on the monies you directly bring in you are limited the growth of your business. After all there are only some many hours in a day, days in a week, weeks in a month, and months in a year. If you want to maximize your earning potential you have to create residual income. You have to have a way to generate income with out your direct involvement. Think about, Bill Gates can not personally create and sell every item his company produces. It’s impossible.

Here is a short list of residual income streams that you can take advantage of:

 Hiring or contracting personal trainers
 Product sales (equipment, supplements, etc)
 Program sales such as wellness programs
 On line training

EXECUTION

The word execution can conjure up a wide variety of thoughts. Today I leave you with two:

• If you can not create a plan to carry out your goals then you will have literally sent you business to the executioner.
• If you can create a plan to carry out your goals then you will have put your but business on the path to success.

I’m sure the vast majority of use would prefer to create a plan that allows us to meet our goals. So with that in mind let me speak to the masses.

If you are interest in gaining 100 new clients over the course of 1 year you would need to do the following:

• Speak with 1,000 prospective clients (this is based on the previous article “NUMBERS”) over the course of 12 months
• That’s 20 prospects per week (I gave you two weeks off for good behavior)
• That’s 4 prospects per day (for an a five day work week)

Do you think you could speak to 4 new prospects each day if you knew it was going to allow you to reach your goal?

Great here’s what you do:

• Take out a sheet of paper
• Create the following columns:
• Name
• Email
• Phone #
• Area of Interest
•  For each day of the week (Monday-Friday) write the numbers 1-4 on the left.

Set a goal right now to meet 4 new prospects everyday.

 I have one more thing to leave you with, did you know if you could grow your business by 10% each month over a 12 month time period you will more than doubled your current business. No joke! Do the math!

NUMBERS

Often times I get questions such as:

• How do I get clients?
• How do I get more people to attend my workshops?
• How do I get more people to attend my classes?

I know when trainers are asking this question they are asking because they have struggled and they are frustrated with their own results.

I know how they feel I have been there.



But the answer is simple “NUMBERS”. If you are looking to attract more clients, workshop and class attendees you need to get you message out in front of as many people as possible.

Yeah, so what kind of numbers are we talking about?

In my experience 10% of the people you reach out to will become a paying customer. So if for example you would like to have:

• 100 new clients then you need to contact 1,000 prospects
• 10 attendees in your workshop then you need to contact 100 prospects
• 25 people in your classes then you need to contact 250 prospects

Get the picture?

So, what you need to do now is set some goals.

• How many clients do you want?
• How many workshop attendees do you want?
• How many people do you want to attend your classes?

Once you set the goal then you can begin the “EXECUTION” process.

As a side note 10% is a reachable number and my experience is based on face to face interactions. With the onset of the social media boom your percentages will drop I would say 1-3% is an obtainable goal.

The Power fo Purposeful Thinking

It is not uncommon for us to have thoughts that turn into reality. There are hundreds of books and articles from across a wide array of disciplines to back this up. The majority of the time this happens by accident. For example, “gee I haven’t seen any green cars today” generally what happens in a short period of time you start to see green cars. Now I am not going to go into any in depth analysis on the matter rather I am going to encourage you to take advantage of this phenomenon and purposefully think about what you would like to accomplish.

Take a moment right now to clear your mind. Once you have cleared your mind I want you to think about what you would like to accomplish. For example you could think of incorporating a wellness program or Twist workshops. Focus your mind.

By being focused you will begin to see opportunities that have always been there. You may ask yourself, “Well if they have always been there why did I not see them before?” The answer is simple; you had not taken the time to prepare your mind to identify those opportunities.

This past week I was teaching Achieve Fitness USA University in Philly. In our discussions on the wellness programs many questions where brought up regarding where do I find information such as facts and stats that I could use to promote the wellness program. Now we can and will supply you with some facts and stats it is also important being to develop your own knowledge and identify opportunities to do so. While I was in the airport waiting to catch my flight back to Denver, Colorado I stop by one of the news stands and wouldn’t you know it the magazine Scientific American (Feb 2011 www.ScientificAmerican.com) right on the cover had an article entitled “Scaling Back Obesity” Now with in the first paragraph it identified some facts and stats regarding obesity:

“Obesity is responsible for more than 160,000 excess deaths a year, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The average obese person costs society more than $7,000 a year in lost productivity and added medical treatment, say researchers at George Washington University. Lifetime added medical costs alone for a person 70 pounds or more overweight amount to as much as $30,000, depending on race and gender”

The ability to identify opportunities to grow your business certainly is closer than most of us think.