I read a disturbing & shocking statistic the other day.
Over 80% of personal trainers will fail in business within the next 5 years.
The great business philosopher Jim Rohn said the easiest way to check how well you are doing in business is to simply count the dollars in your bank account.
Truth is most personal trainers will struggle financially in 2016.
Which brings me to secrets 6 to 11 of this 3-part articles series. These secrets will help you stand out from the crowd and make 2016 your most profitable year ever.
Secret #6: Start Creating Money Making Assets That Will Free Up Your Time
You can set all the big income goals in the world, read every marketing & sales book on the planet, join all the fitness marketing coaching groups you can think off, use 2 step lead generation strategies, advertise all over facebook etc etc….. BUT nothing makes a damn bit of difference because YOUR income is limited to the number of clients you can actually physically fit into your schedule.
Time is a valuable resource and if you are ONLY training clients on a time-for-dollars business model sooner or later you will start to struggle.
There is nothing wrong with training clients Face-to-Face. Because I understand that this is what you may love doing and this is your passion.
All I am saying is that if you want to Escape Your Income Limitations & take you fitness business to a whole new level, part of your business needs to be able to generate an income without you trading your time for dollars.
And the only way to do that is through monetizing your fitness knowledge into Money Making Assets that will continue to pay you forever.
OK… listen up! If you have not grabbed a copy of my free book yet Fitness Evolution: The Personal Trainers Guide To Ultimate Profit, Success & Lifestyle.
Take out your credit card go here, pay the small shipping fee because the book is FREE and order yourself a copy right NOW! www.DigitalFitnessMarketer/totalcoaching
I’m not joking. Seriously. Come back and read the rest of this article in 5 minutes after you have ordered yourself a copy.
The concepts in this book will change the way you think about your fitness business forever.
Secret #7: Create Systems to Free Up Your Time So You Can Hire Other Trainers
Most trainers I speak to say they don’t have the time to create online fitness programs, books, videos and other assets because they are too busy training clients.
Early on in my fitness career a very wealthy mentor presented me with an analogy that changed the way I thought about business forever.
He said the key to business success is this: Do the Work Once, Get Paid Forever.
This philosophy can be applied to almost every part of your fitness business.
The fastest way to remove yourself from your fitness business so you can free up your time to start creating your money making assets is to hire other trainers to train your clients.
This is what my wife Nalisha and I did way back in 2005.
We created Systems.
You only need to create the system ONCE!
A marketing system is an asset, a training system is an asset, a book, dvd, podcast is an asset.
In 2005 Nalisha devised a unique 12 week system for training female clients incorporating the latest phycology, NLP, Nutrition & a supper efficient functional workout system that gave her clients unheard of results in their health & fitness.
We then documented the entire 12-week training process within a manual that we could teach any personal trainers.
The manual was so detailed that a trainer knew EXACTLY what they needed to do with a client on week by week basis.
We included exact scripts a trainer must use when they first call clients. The exact questions they must ask clients to determine their fitness goals and connect with them on an emotional level. Right through to providing a database of exercises complete with videos that they could use to build out client training programs…. Nothing was left to chance. This was all before the advanced PT software systems you see now days
Everything was designed and Engineered to work like a well-oiled Machine. (I suppose 10 years working as an engineer finally payed off).
You need a system for getting clients, you need a system for marketing and generating leads, and you need a system for making sales.
Once you free up your time you can then start creating money making assets like, books, dvd’s, videos and online fitness programs which will provide you with even more time and money.
Secret #8: Know Your Sales Statistics So You Can Go Into The Year With Realistic Expectations
I teach fitness professionals on the Digital Fitness Academy how to monetize their fitness expertise into an online business. A major part of this 12 week programs is dedicated to selling & marketing their fitness products & programs online and offline that I help them create.
A key component is to go into every selling situation with the very best intentions of making the sale but also having realistic expectations determined by industry sales statistics.
Just check out these statistics :
2% of Sales are made on the first contact.
80 % of Sales are made on the 5th to 12th Contact.
Isn’t that fascinating?
So giving up on someone who says NO to your offer the first time you present it to them could be the worst mistake you ever make.
This is why it’s more important than ever to have a 2 step lead generation strategy in place and a killer follow up strategy.
Remember step 1 is to collect their contact details. Step 2 is to follow up until you close.
Secret #9: Read 1 Book Per Month on Sales & Marketing
I tell my members Digital Fitness Academy this continuously. You can be the best personal trainer in the world with all the qualifications, have the best fitness products and online programs that give clients killer results…. BUT if you do not know how to market your products & services to acquire new clients you will still be BROKE!
Become a master at sales & marketing and your fitness business will thrive! Read at least 1 book per month on sales & marketing to pick up new ideas and strategies and your personal training profits will never be the same again.
Some great books I recommend for your library. You can find most of them on amazon.com :
- The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure – by Grant Cardone
- Sell or Be Sold: How to Get Your Way in Business and in Life – by Grant Cardone
- No B.S. Sales Success In The New Economy – by Dan Kennedy
- The Closers – The Most Famous and Powerful Book on Closing Sales ever written! – by Ben Gay 111
- The Compound Effect – by Darren Hardy
- The 4 Hour Work Week – by Tim Ferris
- Fitness Evolution – The Personal Trainers Guide to Ultimate Profit, Success & Lifestyle – by Janak Patel – Free for a limited time for all Total Coaching Subscribers –
Secret #10: Know Your Numbers So You Can Determine How Much To Spend On Acquiring a new Customer
I once read that the business who can spend the most money to acquire a new customer will always beat out their competition.
So knowing that, it makes sense to know your numbers in your fitness business to determine how much you can spend on marketing.
When we were building our in-home personal training business in 2005 we were the most expensive trainers in our market. We were charging on average a $100 per training session while most trainers were charging $30.
This gave us the ability to grow our business in a way that no other trainer could literally afford to.
Firstly we could hire dozens of other trainers all over the country to train our clients and still pay them their going rate of $30/session.
It also allowed us to advertise in magazines & publications to dominate our industry. Most trainers would normally think twice before placing a $2000 ad.
Secondly we could afford to give our business a professional image that attracted the right type of clients who could actually afford our services.
Secret #11: Seek Out People Who Have Achieved the Level Of Success You Want and Learn From Them
Tony Robbins the motivational guru once said that the easiest and fasted path to success in anything is to simply model other people who have already succeeded.
Throughout school and life we’ve had it continuously drummed into our head that we should not copy anybody and It’s wrong to cheat!
I’m telling you now it could also be the shortcut to success in almost anything.
Everybody is copying each other these days. Apple came out with the Iphone and now you have hundreds of copycats from Samsung, to Google, to Microsoft.
You can find hundreds of entrepreneurs on Amazon who have literally given you their blueprint to success for penny’s on the dollars.
Ray Kroc the founder of the McDonalds empire tells you the secrets of franchising in his biography “Grinding it Out”
Howard Shultz the founder of Starbuck reveals how he built the worlds largest coffee shop chain one cup at a time in his book “Pour Your Heart Into it”.
There are a ton of people who have made it and are teaching others how they did it.
Doesn’t it make sense to save yourself a ton of time and heartache trying to figure it out all on your own. Why not just seek out someone who has already accomplished what you want in life.
Closing
Hey I hope you got value from these 11 strategies over the past few weeks’. If you did then I encourage you to share these articles with other trainers.
If you want to connect on Facebook, here’s my personal page: www.Facebook.com/janak.p.patel
This is where I usually post where my wife Nalisha and I are in the world.
You can also find us on Instagram.
Don’t forget to leave your comment below!
