OK, make yourself a cuppa and settle in. It’s time for the next edition of our PT Business Builder interview series. This month I sat down and asked Luke Scott from Revolution Health and Lifestyle a few questions about how he got started and what has been the secret to his success.
Luke is a real student of the personal training industry and is one dude who (as you will see in the interview) is always committed to learning new ways to further develop his business. This continual self-motivated learning and his years of industry experience now find him in the well-earned position of running one of Melbourne’s premier personal training companies. Check out what he has to say…..
So Luke, tell me how you first got into personal training?
Whilst I was working my way through my degree at RMIT University we had a compulsory field work component that I decided to do at a local gym. The gym owner, Travis Fitzpatrick is a great role model of mine and he was always willing to throw me into new situations, because of this he got me into the personal training pretty quickly after my field work was finished. A visit from Travis Bell of New Level Personal Training to the gym to give all of us fresh personal trainers a rev up was another little push in the personal training direction. He came down and had a chat to all of the staff about what personal training should be and where is can take you.
To me it seemed like the ultimate job. Except for the whole up at 4:30am every morning and finishing at 9:00pm every night… But these are the things you don’t learn until you get started! I really enjoyed working as a personal trainer even though the mornings were early – its great being able to inspire people to get results and aim for a healthier lifestyle. Another thing I love is people, all sorts of people and dealing with different personalities.
So this is a great way just to interact with people all day whilst making a difference in their lives and getting paid for it!
Yeah, that is one of the great things about our work. Then from there, why did you want to go into business for yourself and how did you do it?
Whilst working at the gym full time, finishing my degree and playing a heap of sport, myself a very close friend of mine and I started Revolution Health and Lifestyle. First just as a hobby in the obvious ample spare time we had!
I think this was the best option for us, as it allowed us the get where we are today, by building on a hobby we both enjoyed. Doing it this way rather than throwing ourselves into it head over heels with very limited financial backing was crucial for us.
We invested very little into the business initially but took very little out as the business started making a little money. We were preferred to let the turn over grow the business. I think this was only achievable as we had full time jobs already to support ourselves. It gave us the option to build our business without too much of the initial financial burden most small businesses face at start up. Using the turn over to develop and grow the business is the key to our success today as we really appreciate how much hard work, time and money it takes to develop a business.
So who were your target market, what service did you provide and how did you market your business when you first started?
Our target market was and continues to be time poor professionals, both male and female from the ages of 30 to 50. However the biggest grow sector for us is in the retired sector of the market. They are great customers to work with, very reliable and keen to improve.
We stated out marketing through very time consuming but inexpensive campaigns. We received return for time we invested in the process but it enabled us to pay for a website and from there the majority of our advertising has been online.
Our focus has always been to continually improve our online presence. It is what provides us with probably 90% of our enquiries, so rather than spending money elsewhere trying to make other forms of advertising work for us, we have decided to invest into improving what we know works well. It seems that an online presence is essential these days for most business as everyone uses the net as first port of call when buying just about anything, so why no capture that as best as you can.
We have tried everything along the way but I think it is crucial that you track the progress of every campaign you run. It is always good to look back over your successful campaigns every now and then and use them to improve on what you are currently doing.
Thnking again back to those times, what was your biggest business challenge back then?
MARKETING. Knowing a lot about training clients but nothing about how to get them was a massive challenge! Also having the very limited budget made a lot of things out of our reach. Over time I have learnt what has and hasn’t worked. After all, it’s not worth being a fantastic trainer if you have nobody to train!
What does your business look like today?
The business looks very different from back then. I run the business with the help of my two very dedicated managers. We have 12 trainers operating through Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsular. We work predominately with private mobile clients but have a growing interest in small group training, bootcamps and corporate work, but one on one will always remain our focus.
I am always opened mined to new ideas as it is important to keep changing as the industry changes.
What are your most successful marketing strategies for your business now?
Letting people know as much as we can about who our trainers are and what they do well before a new customer starts with us is key. People want to be able to relate well to their trainer. So by using social media marketing, blogging, video and in depth profiles of our trainer’s potential customer get the feeling they know the trainer before getting started.
This has been a crucial thing for us as we need to create something real and tangible for our customer as we are a mobile service and many of our competitors struggle with this.
Yeah, you have a great web-presence. What is your biggest business challenge now?
Strategic direction. We have many varied options which we can head the business in and making sure we choose the best one is crucial to our continued success.
Finding trainers committed to want to grow our brand with us is also tough. We have a great team at the moment that we want to grow and keep. I try to keep my trainers motivated to grow our brand and themselves as trainers but it has shown to be a challenge at times.
So the million-dollar question: where do you and your business want to be in 5 years from now?
This is a tough one as it is highly reflective of which direction we choose to head in. Whether it is personal training studios, expand our mobile personal training business or move more into corporate health and wellness.
Not too sure just yet but I know mobile personal training will always remain our core business and focus as it has gotten us to where we are. I can only see mobile personal training growing as major sector of the fitness industry into the future as people see it as the most convenient solution to reaching their goals.
As you can see, Luke has developed and awesome web presence to the point where he predominately generate all his leads from the internet. He has just recently taken this to the next level by only last week launching his brand new website www.revolutionpersonaltraining.com.au that is a thing of beauty and something that every personal trainer should check out and learn from.
Luke and his team are also really good and devleoping relationships with the potential and active clients through social media, so to check out an example of using social media to build your business effectively, make sure you become a fan of their Facebook Fanpage and learn from one of the best.
You can see by Lukes example, if you put a little time and effort into developing your online presence that the rewards will definately follow. If you have any questions for Luke about his business, feel free to leave a comment and he will be happy to help you out.
Have a great week,
Rick :-)
P.S: The response to my work/life balance program for personal trainers has been bloody awesome. If your haven’t enrolled yet (yes, it’s free), check out the big blue box up in the corner of the page and leave your deets. I know you will enjoy it….
