Do you think Oprah Winfrey cleans the bathroom in her sound stage? Have you ever heard of Bill Gates dusting the furniture in his office? Can you picture Mark Cuban polishing a basketball court?
I thought not.
When I Imagine the lives of major businesspeople, movies stars, successful money-makers, I don’t see them doing mundane tasks. And yes, that’s because they’re filthy rich. They have shmucks like us do anything that isn’t glamorous enough for them.
But there’s more to it than that.
How does Bill Gates bring success to his massive entrepreneurial empire? It definitely isn’t by dusting his office furniture.
He’s brokering mergers, making deals, approving new project developments— he’s doing the big stuff. Everything that really matters, the jobs and the decisions that make him the big-bucks, those are the only things he spends his valuable time doing.
And this isn’t just because he’s too good for chores. Sure, ego and sense of self-worth probably factor in, but this attitude is more practical than you might realize.
Whenever Gates or Winfrey or Cuban commit time to anything other than a major, important business decision, their inefficiency is losing them massive amounts of dollars. Menial tasks, while absolutely crucial, are not going to help these leaders live up to their managerial responsibilities.
It isn’t just that they are to good for this kind of work, it’s that they shouldn’t ever do this kind of work. Time worth millions of dollars should never be spent on tasks that bring a few cents.
And while these examples are quite extreme, the exact same principle applies to you and your business.
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Usually when we think about boosting our boot camp revenues, we’re talking about bringing in new clients, either by increasing the number of sessions we do, opening another location or just putting a big marketing campaign into play.
But there is a really cool new way to increase your income by thousands of dollars per year in the next six days, without doing one more thing as far as boot camp marketing. One of the coolest things about it is that you don’t even need one new client.
There is a fantastic new program available to us that was created by the brilliant Jeff Sherman. It’s called the Fitness Game Changer and it’s something that you can offer your existing clients right now to really boost your revenue. In fact, the holidays are the perfect time to roll it out.
Jeff has made an additional $48,000 so far by offering the program to his existing clients.
The Fitness Game Changer is an 8-week program that will help your clients blast through plateaus, reboot their motivation or get ready for a special event by turbo-charging their results. It’s a fantastic nutrition and accountability program that is getting great results for clients all over the country.
While they’re getting great results, you’re making money and getting a ton of testimonials, social proof and word of mouth.
The beauty of it is that you don’t need to do anything other than show it to your existing clients, sign them up and then copy/paste/send the program components to the participants. (more…)
There is definitely a huge difference between the way that successful people think and the way that unsuccessful think. In fact there are several huge differences. In working with and getting to know a lot of very successful fitness business owners and also coaching and mentoring some unsuccessful entrepreneurs, I’ve found that the way people think has everything to do with the way they run their businesses and how well they do it. If you’re starting a fitness business, you want to do so with a mindset that is programmed for success.
Let me share with you some of the really important differences in mindset between the successful and the rest of the world.
Successful people don’t focus on the problem, they focus on creating the solution.
How many meetings have you been to where everybody sat around griping about a problem – all the money it was going to cost, how much of a hassle it was going to be, what kind of doom and gloom might result – and no one actually offered any solutions?
Truly successful people identify the problem and then move right on to creating the solution(s) to it. No doom and gloom. Just answers and a mindset that was already focused on being past the problem. They think outside the box and even have the courage to break all the rules in order to keep on the path to success.
Have you ever really watched a track athlete take the hurdles? Look closely. They’re not looking at the hurdle that’s right in front of them. They’re looking ahead to the next one.
Successful people understand that it’s okay to make money – the more their business grows, the more people they can help.
People have a preconceived notion that really successful people are totally focused on the money. In a way they are, but it’s more that they’ve given themselves permission to make more money. They know that the more money they’re making, the more clients they can help, the more staff they can employ and the more charitable work they can do. (more…)
If you’ve never been to one of the annual Fitness Business Summits or to one of the Fit Body Boot Camp World Conferences, this needs to be the year you change that. It very well could be the shot in the arm that your fitness boot camp marketing needs.
While the Fitness Business Summit is open to fitness entrepreneurs of all kinds, the Fit Body Boot Camp World Conference is open only to Fit Body Boot Camp owners. This is a learning and motivational event that many six and seven-figure FBBC owners swear by and the fact that most of them still attend it every year is awesome proof of its value.
During the two-day conference, you’ll have the opportunity to meet, get to know and learn from FBBC owners who have been where you are, and are now where you want to be. It’s a great time to ask questions, brainstorm solutions, find out which mistakes to avoid and which strategies are working really well for people who are extremely successful.
Many Fit Body Boot Camp owners have very close and longstanding friendships that were formed at one of the World Conferences and they count those relationships as not only important to their personal lives, but also to their growth as fitness business owners and trainers. (more…)
At a recent meeting with several Fit Body Boot Camp owners, the question of when to open a second Fit Body Boot Camp location was a hot topic. This was completely understandable, since everyone present had attained a comfortable level of success. By this I mean that they had a decent membership, they were paying the bills and making a decent income. But almost none of them were happy when I suggested that they really needed to consider whether they needed another location or just better boot camp marketing.
Here’s why.
There were basically two groups of FBBC owners thinking about opening new locations. One group was asking because they were making decent money and figured that opening a second location would double that income. The second group was asking because they weren’t making enough money and figured that a second location would double their income.
There are two problems with this thinking: 1) When you open a second location, you also double your expenses, roughly speaking. 2) When you open a second location, you potentially double the amount of time you spend running your business.
So I asked the group these two questions:
First: Have you absolutely outgrown your first location? In other words, are you full to capacity, taking care of as many clients as you can with the space and staff you have?
Second: Have you completely maxed out the income potential of your present location?
Every single one of the boot camp owners considering opening a second location answered “No” to at least one of those questions. None of them were all that happy when I told them that, in this case, what they really needed was more and better boot camp marketing, better sales and closing strategies and maybe to explore opening up other streams of income instead of opening another location.
If you’re not struggling to squeeze in more trainers and more sessions and more new clients, then you probably aren’t ready to expand. The word “expand” indicates that you’ve grown to the point where you can’t function well in your current space. (more…)
One of the very best personal trainer marketing tools in the world is your own fitness info product. With it, you can build your email list, build up a customer following for future products, set yourself up as a subject matter expert, bring attention to your skills and your business and earn some impressive cash. How many tools can you do all of that with? That’s why fitness info products are one of the hottest fitness business trends of 2014.
A lot of people who have great ideas for topics or really useful knowledge about one favorite topic are still held back from launching their first fitness information product because they think it takes months to do. But I can tell you that you can very easily create and launch your first fitness info product in less than two weeks.
How do I know this?
Shawna Kaminski, owner of Calgary NW FBBC did it on a dare from Craig Ballantyne. He challenged her to launch a new jump rope program info product in twelve days and she not only did it, she exceeded the sales goal by 50% and made $8,000 in one week.
What’s really important to note here is that she didn’t have this kind of success after brainstorming for a few months, then creating for a few months and then spending another few months getting everything set up.
She just did it.
It all goes back to what Bedros calls “imperfect action.” Let it be less than perfect, just act. Just get it done. You cannot make money on anything until it’s done. That project sitting on the back burner until you get it perfect? It’s making you no money at all. All of those fitness info products that are out there making money? Almost none of them are perfect.
So here’s how you can get your first info product into customers’ hands within two weeks, just like Shawna did.
Decide on an idea or topic.
You probably already have a few ideas in your head about what you’d like to cover. Even if you don’t, you can spend a few hours on Google finding out what people are looking for. The time of year has a huge effect on that. Fat loss programs and diets are hot anytime, but especially in January, when people have set their New Year’s resolutions and feeling that holiday weight gain. Summer is a great time for outdoor workouts and spring is a great time to launch a bikini transformation program.
Along with deciding your topic, you need to decide on the delivery method. Will it be a downloadable e-book? A video workout program? A “course” you sell by subscription?
E-books are simplest, but choose the medium that works best for your topic or change your topic to utilize the medium that’s most available to you. (more…)
You’re not going to do everything right when you’re starting your boot camp business. You’re going to make mistakes, just as I have and just as every other successful boot camp owner I know has done. Nobody’s born knowing how to start a fitness boot camp business. That’s one of the purposes of the annual Fitness Business Summit – to allow very successful people to share what they’ve learned so that others can avoid many mistakes and do some things right from the beginning.
One of the most popular speakers at the Summit has been Corporal Sean Francis and one of the most popular talks he’s given was about working with what Bedros calls the 95/5 or the 5% Rule. What that boils down to is focusing your time, energy and attention on the things that are priorities in your business and also working as much as possible within your zone of genius, doing the things that you love the most and are best at. This is the key to constant growth of your boot camp business.
Granted, in some ways, this is easier to do once your business is established and your income allows you to hire a full staff of trainers and other help. But there are a number of things you can do now, to not only get your business started on the right foot but also go into it with a 5% mindset that will help you at every level of success in the years to come. So I’d like to share with you two important things about how to start a fitness boot camp business using the 5% rule, with credit to Sean Francis for many of the ideas he shared at a recent FBS.
Hire an assistant as soon as possible.
An assistant may sound like an expensive luxury that a new entrepreneur can’t really afford. But one of the smartest things you can do, even as a start-up, is find even one person to take care of less important or less demanding tasks so that you can focus on the things you really need to do, like getting clients signed up for your new boot camp. The more you’re able to market your boot camp and sell new memberships, the sooner you can afford more help, like great trainers. You don’t need an executive assistant, at least not yet, so you can find plenty of people who would rather make halfway decent pay in a fitness center than make it in a fast food place.
Start creating systems for everything now.
Once Sean hired an assistant, he started following great advice that he’d gotten from the summit. He started creating systems for every single thing that needed to be done, whether it was answering the phones, entering new members into the computer or paying the bills. Then he taught those systems to his assistant so that he never had to deal with those things again. (more…)
I’m sure you’ve heard the expression that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. But how many of you can look over the last couple of months and admit that you’ve spent more time wooing possible, potential new clients than you have wooing the ones that have signed up for your latest body transformation challenge? How many of you spend all your time after a session trying to sell personal training to the people that came in for a free session and almost no time at all interacting with the ones who are on their second week of a challenge? In other words, you set down the bird in your hand so you could reach for the two in the bushes.
I’m not coming down on you for it; it’s understandable that you’re so focused on bringing more people through the door that you lose sight of the ones that are already there. It’s a natural mistake to hope that the results of your transformation challenge or four-week special will somehow automatically result in those people signing up for six months or a year of training. But if you see yourself and your interactions in this scenario, then I’m betting your retention rate from those challenges and limited-time offers is much lower than it could or should be.
When you stop “romancing” your clients, the trainer around the corner starts looking really good. Even if your training is getting the results, they’ll eventually go somewhere they feel valued. I promise you that if you don’t deliver a sense of community and actual relationship, most of the people your marketing brings in will be gone before you know it. This leaves you having to reinvent the wheel every few weeks or months because you’re constantly trying to replenish your membership.
So how do you sell personal training in such a way that the retention factor is practically automatic?
Here’s a blueprint for turning that transformation challenge or low-barrier offer customer into a long-term client:
Make sure the customer is acknowledged and welcomed every time they walk in the door. Nothing is quite as alienating as walking into a group setting and feeling invisible. A smile from the person working out next to them isn’t enough. A wave from the trainer from across the room isn’t enough. Make sure that you or the trainer welcomes each and every customer.
Whenever possible, also try to make sure that one of you speaks with the customer after the session as well. Ask them how they’re doing, how the class was is there anything you can go over with them one-on-one.
Give special gifts and treats to the customer. Welcome them on their first day with a goodie bag full of stuff like water bottles, recipe cards, hand towels, supplement samples, anything you like. Every week or so give them a small token of your appreciation and their progress, such as a gift card for a smoothie or a free fat loss report you’ve written. This is one of the least expensive tools there is. When they fill out your questionnaire, make to put their birthday on your office calendar so that you can give them a card signed by the staff and can acknowledge their special day.
Keep in touch. One of the fastest tracks to dropping out is when a customer misses a couple of workouts and no one bothers to check on them. All of that talk you spouted about community and family and working together flies out the window. If someone misses more than one session, make sure you or one of your trainers calls to see if they’re okay. And use that call to get them back in the door. They might have a reason completely unrelated to you for missing a couple of sessions, but if they miss any more, there’s a good chance they’ll either lose their momentum (and drop out).
If they’ve been going into work early and couldn’t make their early morning sessions, invite them to come to your 7PM workout. If their boyfriend/girlfriend just dumped them, encourage them to come to a session later that day to work it off or just hang out and have a few laughs. If they’re too sore to work out, explain that you can easily modify their moves or weights so that they can ease into it a bit more slowly.
When you deliver a sense of community and of belonging to your low-barrier offer guests, you make it so much easier to sell them one of your long-term training programs. Not only will they want to keep getting results, but they’ll want to remain a part of the community you’ve built for them.
Most personal trainers aren’t experienced marketers or salespeople. In fact, many personal trainers are intimidated by the very idea of asking people for money. This is a shame because it keeps them from actually making a living at what they love.
The truth is that the biggest factor to successful personal trainer marketing is very simple and straightforward. It’s not a complicated system or a series of hoops you need to jump through. Not only that, but if you’re serious about your work and passionate about truly helping your clients change their lives, then this one thing will actually come very easily to you. It’s about selling the right thing.
Too many personal trainer marketing efforts are focused on selling a commodity – a workout, a system, a particular trainer or a specific type of class. The last thing you want to do is focus on selling a commodity. Commodities are cheap and prices fluctuate wildly, dependent on the economy, the time of year and so on. Commodities are also easily compared to other commodities like them, and the lowest priced commodity often wins.
Instead, you need to focus on selling outcomes and end results.
Let’s look at the difference between the two. Let’s say you’re selling six weeks of personal training sessions for $XX. The value of that six weeks for that price is going to vary between potential clients, because all they’re looking at is the commodity and then comparing it to five other personal trainers’ deals plus maybe the cost of six weeks of do-it-yourself training at the gym. You’ve got a lot of competition and the final decision will probably come down to price.
On the other hand, if you’re selling end results and outcomes, you’re selling something of high value to EVERY potential client, even though the exact nature of the end result may be different to each one. For one person, the end result may be a reversal of a new Type 2 diabetes diagnosis. For another, it may be going to their 20th high school reunion feeling sexy and confidant. For others, it may be fitting into the wedding dress of their dreams, being strong and healthy enough to get back into rock climbing or having the confidence to wear a bikini for the very first time. (more…)
