After you complete your personal training course there are so many different avenues to take in the fitness industry, so many exciting opportunities to explore and so many dreams to be realised.

Now whether you are currently completing your personal trainer certification or you are already out there cutting your teeth in the industry, this simple rule that I will explain today will increase your chances of success.

Period

There are now so many different experts all sharing their valid opinions on what is the most effective way to shape your personal training career and build your fitness business.

For current and new personal trainers, the amount of information available to help your career and business has never been greater and more readily available then it is right at this very moment. Many wise people in our industry are all churning out amazing levels of (free) content through blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter feeds and e-newsletter subscriptions.

Information is now a currency.

But who do you believe?

Who do you religiously follow?

Is one person more “right” then the other?

Now while, like you, I have some people that I like and resonate with more than others but I honestly believe that everyone has something good to offer.

But as a new trainer who has just completed their course or as someone who has been in the industry for a while, you are consistently bombarded with all of this information to “help” you and your personal training business.

Now don’t get me wrong – I think this is a great learning opportunity for trainers but one thing that I am seeing more and more of are trainers being overwhelmed into a corner and not knowing which way to turn.

Do a business plan, choose a niche, structure your service, stand out in the crowd, generate leads, convert those leads into sales, sell your current clients more stuff, build your team, systemise your service, build an online product…

FARK – take a bloody breath.

Being able to spin all of the plates in my business at once does my head in sometimes and I have been comfortably kicking around this industry for nearly 14 years now.

I can’t begin to imagine how new trainers feel as they step into the un-familiar role and start to question what to do and when. So in the name of simplicity and to make the first stage of your business a positive one not a career-scarring one, I have come up with one simple rule.

One rule that if every new and current personal trainer follows then they will have a successful business (shit, I better back this up). This rule is the one clear thing that I have discovered as being the Holy Grail of trainers evolving from good trainers to amazing business owners.

That rule is…

Just DO something

OK, so I may not win the Nobel Peace Prize for my theory on successful personal training businesses but hear me out on why I see this as your secret weapon.

1) Your First Business Is Just Like An Apprenticeship

This is probably your first stab at running your own business and more than likely your first attempt is not going to be a raging success. It is really just a great opportunity to make a shit-load of mistakes and learn what works and what doesn’t.

You can go through this learning experience as quickly as possible (by doing lots of things) or you can delay it by “thinking” about everything.

My experience tells me that your first business (or first attempt at a new arm of your business if you are diversifying) is like an apprenticeship. You learn lots of cool stuff that you can apply to your next business or venture and as long as you are always doing, learning and progressing then big success is just around the corner.

2) Your Market Will Tell You What Works And What Doesn’t.

Now as a business coach, I like to think I know a bit about this personal training caper but in all reality I am just have a very keen interest in what different clients respond to and what they don’t.

I could come up with what I think is the best business plan, 12 month marketing campaign and service delivery but if the target market does not like or buy it then it is essentially a piece of useless information.

Do some research into what your people want and then do your best to deliver it. If you are off the mark, give them opportunities to tell you how you can do things better.
This leads me to my final point…

3) Waiting Until Til Everything Is Perfect Will Kill You And Your Business.

Too many times I hear great ideas that never develop into great businesses. Why? Because in an effort to have everything perfect nothing gets done.

Take the PT Fight Club as an example. Now it is predominately a video business coaching program for personal trainers but the one thing I feared more than anything else was making videos.

This fact nearly made me abort the whole project.

I hated how uncomfortable it made me when I was in front of camera, I didn’t know how to light the room correctly and my sound quality was absolutely terrible.

The very first PT Fight Club video is an absolute shambles.

Now in a perfect world – I would have practiced all of these elements and made sure that everything was faultless. But I simply didn’t have time between marketing the program, building the site and creating the content. This project was already encroaching in my viscously protected family time.

So I delivered a less than perfect product for my first ever video. But I made a simple commitment to myself that every video was going to be a little bit better than the last.

As time went on, I gradually felt more comfortable in front of the camera. I got my lighting and sound sorted out and I now enjoy making 20–30 minute videos in one take.

Three months ago I would lose sleep over that very concept.

But – the fact remains that I was extremely close to not running my (now full) online coaching program at all because I wanted it to be perfect. It was the doing that built my confidence and allowed me to move forward.

So when it comes to your business, just DO something and DO something regularly. Build your service, market it, convert clients and train them to get great results but for Gods sake just keep doing.

Understand that not everything is going to be perfect right from the start and that is OK.

Here is a wicked quote that sums up this simple rule for new trainers (or anyone really)….

Its not the size of your dreams that determine all the things your going to BE, all the things you are going to DO, and all the things you are going to HAVE in this lifetime.

It’s the size of your actions.

So if in doubt, act BIGGER

To wrap things up, I would love to hear about a time when you went about DOING something in your business even though everything was not perfect.

Did the world end or did you continue to move forward?

Catch ya in the comments section,

Rick

About the author: Rick Watson is the surfing, smiling personal training business guy who tells it like it is. He blogs, coaches and runs a PT Fight Club teaching personal trainers how to fill their books but most of all he is a father and husband (with a healthy respect for road trips). If you like what you read and would be up for some daily banter, you can check out his Facebook page.

Starting your own personal training business is a very cool thing; stepping out from the comforts of a 9-5 job and bringing a service to your clients that will change the way they look and feel for the better. That is definitely a very cool thing…

During the week, I got an email from a trainer who is starting his mobile personal training business and he asked me where he was going to get his first 10 clients from.

Now from a new trainers perspective, this is a common dilemma.

You have become certified as a trainer, you are just starting to get good at your craft and then you are faced with learning a whole new set of skills. Generating new prospects, converting those prospects into clients and keeping those clients happy and getting great results are some of the first “business” challenges that you have to become proficient in when starting up your own show.

The Cheeky Truth….

Now to set-up your personal training business you really should be doing all these things before you even start looking for clients:

• identify your perfect niche,

• done your research on your competition,

• shape your service to meet the needs of your target market,

• worked out what makes you different from the rest,

• put together training packages with various price points and

• get your overall business plan in place.

But today I am not going to rabbit on about all of these planning aspects of starting your business. Instead, I am going straight to the good stuff – explaining exactly how you can get your first ten clients without spending a cent. So ideally, I would love you to have completed all the points above but if not, well that’s OK too…

Step 1: Make Friends With A Hairdresser

No, I am not talking about scoring a discount cut and color but rather getting a strong networker from your local community talking you up. Get to know your local hairdresser and ask them if they would like to train for free with you in exchange for providing you with two referrals per month.

Do an amazing job making the hairdresser look awesome and they willl do the rest.

Total cost: $0

Step 2: Join Forces With A Masseur

When teaming up with local masseur from your community, you should have two major goals in mind. Firstly, you are looking to build a solid relationship that allows the both of you to pass on referrals within your business. Secondly, you are looking to get a collection of 30 hr free massage vouchers that you can use with your clients.

Obviously going in and demanding these two things is probably not the best approach.

Ask what you can do for them to help build there business and then go from there.

Total coast: $0

Step 3: Design, Print & Use Referral Cards

A referral card is a card that you give to a new client  who begins training with you so that they can simply refer their friends and family to your service. Asking your new client who do they know that would benefit the most from a week of free personal training and using the cards to set an expiry date and follow up with each person.

To cover the cost of design and printing, see if you can hook up a contra deal with your designer and create a win/win for both of you. Also use the 30 minute free massages you have organised as gifts for your current clients who refer someone to your business.

Total cost: $0

Step 4: Build Up Reciprocal Alliance’s With Other Local Businesses

Now you have a hair-dresser and a masseur as part of marketing team, it is time to get out into the community and establish some more relationships with other potential businesses. For this process, simply think about what businesses that share a similar target market but are in a non-competitive industry.

Check out this post to see exactly how to set-up host beneficiaries.

Total cost: $0

Step 5: Get Your Arse On Facebook And Twitter

Social media is an amazing way to build relationships with your clients – both potential and current. I know Facebook and Twitter may not be your “thing”, but when it comes to building your business you may have to take one for the team. Start a Facebook profile, join Twitter, build a fan page and start building your personal and business brand.

Check out this link to see how other trainers use Facebook to build their personal training business and this one to get you started on Twitter.

Total cost: $0

So as you can see, by focusing your efforts on building relationships with key people in your local community and within your business getting your first 10 clients is not only cost effective but also great fun. These strategies are all no-cost options and can be combined with many other methods (eg: getting a website and sorting out your online presence).

What are you still doing here…?

Time to go and get busy!

Cheers,

Rick

About the author: Rick Watson is the surfing, smiling personal training business guy who tells it like it is. He blogs, coaches and writes books for personal trainers but most of all he is a father and husband (with a healthy respect for road trips). If you like what you read and would be up for some daily banter, you can follow him on Twitter @ptbusiness or check out his Facebook page.

A Guest Post By Matt Collins

It is great to see so many new personal trainers jumping into our fantastic industry! With the number of new PT’s out there it is very important that we are as different as possible in order to stand out in a VERY big crowd!

I read somewhere the average ‘working life’ of a personal trainer is less than two years! Some of us spent longer than that on the actual course.

Why is the average life of a trainer so short?

I believe there are a few reasons.

First of all, we are REALLY good at the ‘getting fit’ thing and because we are good at this we spend all our time on it.

In the famous business book “The E-Myth” Michael Gerber talks about ‘technicians’ versus ‘business owners’. We get into business because we are good at that technical skill (he uses the example of the woman who starts a pie business because she is good at baking pies, but she has little knowledge of how to actually run a business)

This is a big mistake that a lot of people make (including me, maybe even including you?)

Because we enjoy fitness so much, we think starting our pt business is going to be easy!

We are so passionate about our industry and we get so excited about exercise that we believe as soon as we get our business cards printed that there will be a host of people ‘banging down the door’ to train with us!

This unfortunately is not true.

No one actually cares that you are a personal trainer.

I’ll repeat that because it’s important that it sinks in…

No one actually cares that you are a personal trainer.

The trick is to get them to care that you are a personal trainer!

(This is where it gets exciting)

The old saying goes “customers don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”.

A good example is some of the guys I went to uni with. These guys were as smart as they come, knew all the answers to all the questions BUT when it came to communicating with the majority of people in the classroom they really struggled.

So building a relationship with your customer is crucial.

Know who your perfect client (P.C) is, know what they want, know what they DON’T want, know what they like, know what they dislike, know what they love, know what they hate!

(see the bottom of this article to download my free template on “Who is my perfect client!”)

Once you know these things, 99% of the work is done.

I think we are involved in the most important industry there is. Period!

Warren Buffett (one of the richest men on the planet) once said “The most valuable thing I have is my health”.  So, it’s great to know that there are so many fitness professionals that can help to improve the most important industry!

But, to keep all these great trainers in the industry long term, we all must find a way of working as one.

Currently there are too many ‘me too’ trainers.

Whereby we all offer the same services, to the same people at the same price!

Therefore only the few survive!

“If you say you train everyone, you have no idea who you train!”

My suggestion is work out what your P.C wants, give it to them, give MASSIVE value (and then give even more MASSIVE value) and watch your PT business explode!

Kick Arse!

Matt Collins

About The Author: Matt Collins runs two successful fitness centres on the Sunshine Coast, QLD (arguably the most competitive region  for personal trainers in the country!) His team trains over 200 people each week, has 8 trainers and a full time personal assistant. Matt has been in the fitness industry since the 1990’s when his goal was to be a trainer for supermodels! Since his naïve teenage years, Matt has worked with the NSW and QLD Police, Qld TAFE, NRL Rugby League teams, Biggest Loser trainer Shannan Ponton, weight loss guru Annette Sym and many others.

His passion now lies with helping personal trainers that are new to the fitness industry. He helps them get clear on who their Perfect Client (P.C) is and how to stand out in a flood of personal trainers. He loves seeing the little guy overcome and succeed against the big gyms. Because big gyms SUCK!

To access your FREE DOWNLOAD “Who is my Perfect Client?” check out Matt’s Facebook page.

I don’t know about you, but for me the idea of a business plan makes me gag. For most of my personal training business life, they have been a useless tool that I have felt very detached from (I know, that’s terrible isn’t it?). Traditional business talk about SWOT analysis’, cash flow predictions and lines of credit – all of which are topics that really don’t rock my boat.

As a passionate personal training business owner, I was more interested in who I should focus my business at, what problems they have and how my service was going to solve those problems. I figured if I could sort that out then half the battle would be won.

So I came up with my own “no B.S” business plan that cuts the crap, keeps things simple and has a really strong focus on action. A plan that makes you think about the everything that is important when starting out your personal training business, things like:

• really looking at why you want to run your business.
• identifying who you are going to aim your service at and how they think.
• discovering how your service is going to solve real problems for your target market.
• identifying your equipment and facility needs.
• what your most effective conversion method is to get lots of clients.
• what other products and services can you sell to increase your profits.
• what on-line and off-line ways will you attract leads.
• how to become a local fitness identity in your area.
• what strategies do you have in place to overcome stress.
• what are the reasons your business will fail and how will you stop them.
• and what actions will you make right now to move things forward.

As you can see, these are all REALLY practical issues that I think are important to all trainers whether you are just starting out or have been in the business for a while now.

So if you feel like you have been drifting at sea with your business and need a little direction, you can download your own version of the “No B.S Business Plan For Personal Trainers” by throwing your details in the box below (it’s a 13 page workbook so it’s a bit too big for this page):

Oh, I  forgot to mention a couple of things…

a) It’s free and that’s just because I get a sh#tload of e-mails from trainers asking me about about business plans so I thought that I would just put the basic one that I use into a down-loadable format for everyone to access.

b) As part of the workbook, I have also included my Three Secrets To A Mildly Wildly Successful Personal Training Business which gives you my insight into why some trainers smash it and others shrug their shoulders in disappointment – this little gem might (re: will) surprise you.

c) The “business plan” bit of the workbook consists of 20 simple questions that I ask you in order to help move your business forward with structure. I have also included some cues for each question to help with your answers and to make this process as easy as possible for you. Alright, I think that is just about everything. I really hope that you get as much out of using this simple “no B.S” business plan as I do and if you have any questions or comments just leave them below and I will get straight back to you.

Cheers Rick :-)

P.S: Here is the box again to get your business plan workbook and if you like like what you read then feel free to share the plan with other trainers using the buttons below.  

When you are about to launch into your fitness industry, it is always a good idea to find out first exactly how much money personal trainers really earn. Now you obviously have a great passion for exercise and helping others get fit and healthy but can you convert that passion into a viable, long-term career.  Lets’ find out.

But before we do, I have a quick announcement:

If you are looking interested in making a serious career and lifestyle from personal training, download your free No B.S Business Plan For Personal Trainers. It is a 20 step process, explaining exactly what you need to do to make real money in this industry.

Ok, back to the post….

So in how many other industries’ can you step out of your 6 month certification course and begin to charge $70 per hour? Not many. Trainers find themselves in a truly unique situation. Certified first-year personal trainers have the potential to earn a lot more money than fully qualified first-year accountants and lawyers. Very few other workers can start their career at $70 per hour……

Ok, so let’s bring it back to reality for a little while.  Yes, personal trainers DO have the potential to make a lot of money per hour and really make an amazing income, business and life from this great industry. BUT, there are a few little (big) hurdles that have to be overcome before we get to start smoking $100 bills.

Let me paint a picture of an average, every-day trainer for you. His name is Dwayne, he wears a muscle shirt and running shorts every day of the week (sorry, I couldn’t resist). He does 35 hours of personal training a week at $75 per session for a weekly income of $2625. Not bad for a lazy 35 hour week…

So let’s see how much of that he actually puts in his pocket:

a)     If he works for someone else’s business, let’s say he gets a cut of 50% of his turnover. So he will be taking home $1312 minus some tax so you are probably now looking around the $1000 mark per week. This brings it down to under $28 per hour…ouch.

b)     If he runs his own business, say it is a mobile business with no facility costs. He pays his car costs, equipment, phone, internet, business registration, insurance, certification courses. Budgeted out, you are probably looking at $500 per week spread over a year, so minus a little bit of tax that leaves our business owner with about $1800 per week (or $51 per hour) after doing 35 hours of PT. That’s a little better.

Time for a little commercial PT reality:

• Personal trainers lose income when clients cancel (within the cancellation policy).
• Personal trainers lose income when their clients go on holidays.
• Personal trainers lose income when clients get injured.
• Personal trainers lose income when clients leave.

Now I don’t want to sound negative or state the obvious here, but walking into this industry thinking that you are going to jump-squat your way to easy money is straight out delusional (no matter what all the flash info products say). This industry will reward you if you serve your time and have a clear understanding of how the game works (you can subscribe to the blog here for more on this).

In saying all of that, there are also a bunch of ways to make your personal training or boot camp business extremely efficient and a great earner. Here are my tips to ensure you get to see most of the money that you make:

1)     Run your own business.

2)     Always market for new leads because some clients will always leave (resistance is futile).

3)     Get really good at converting your leads.

4)     Run a service that provides value, cares for their clients and gets great results.

5)     Leverage your training time: semi-private sessions, groups or boot camps.

6)     Make your cancellation policy water-tight.

7)     Stop selling packs and get all your clients on direct debit.

8)     Up-sell additional training, products and/or services.

9)     Always look for new ways to cut your expenses.

You can see that taking accountability in your personal training career can definitely increase your income. Build up your client base, one relationship at a time and in no time at all you will find yourself putting your prices up, leveraging your business and making great money (you can find out exactly how to do this in my new program How To Rock Your PT Business).

Now, this is where I need your help. I am really interested to see what you have to say about this topic of personal training and income. So let me know your answers to the following questions in the comment section:

-         Is the income of the PT industry what you expected it to be?

-         What are you currently doing to increase your PT income?

I can’t wait to see what you guys have to say on this one.

Cheers

Rick :-)

About the author: Rick Watson is the surfing, smiling personal training business guy who tells it like it is. He blogs, coaches, writes books and runs an online community for personal trainers but most of all he is a father and husband (with a healthy respect for road trips). If you like what you read, subscribe to the blog here or for more daily banter you can follow him on Twitter here or Facebook here.

]]> http://ptbusinessinabox.com.au/how-much-money-do-personal-trainers-really-make-2/feed/ 8 http://ptbusinessinabox.com.au/how-to-start-your-personal-training-business-part-1/ http://ptbusinessinabox.com.au/how-to-start-your-personal-training-business-part-1/#comments Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:56:43 +0000 ptadmin

This is the first in a series of posts that are focusing on how to start your very own personal training business. You can use this as part of your PT business plan, but it is more like a hands-on guide to turn that exciting idea in your head into a fully-functioning PT business with a strong client base.

The first step in the process is to research your target market. I know, I know… you’ve heard it all before and quite frankly it bores you. Market research is for people that don’t know what they are doing…right? You’re a personal trainer; of course you know what type of location, price, service and results people really want. You deal with clients every day.

Wrong……You think like a personal trainer, not a client – it’s only natural. Personal trainers have a very different mindset to their clients. It’s hard to step outside of your head and think like a 42 year old overweight female (if that’s who you are aiming your business at). So rather than even attempt that crazy mind trick, why not just ask?

As someone who has started a lot of personal training businesses, this simple rule always seemed well….sort of like an insult to me. The over-enthusiastic confidence of youth mixed with a little bit of “no one can tell me how to run my business” was a dangerous combination for me as a young business owner. If left me with a number of inferior business models that resulted in years of learning my business lessons the hard way. I now humbly listen before I act.

Business Start Up Rule #1:

“The truth about this business ‘thing’ is to sell clients a service they already want. Because then your not really ‘selling’ it to them. You’re just simply giving them what they want.”

Ok, so we have established that asking your target market what they want in a service is a good thing. So how do we go about doing it?

In this technological age, we are blessed (sometimes I wonder) with more connections to more people through text, phone, email, IM, facebook, twitter, blogs and a variety of other methods through the net. Add this to the “real life’ relationships that you have and slowly you are gathering momentum with your collective network.

Even if you personally don’t have a huge network, I am sure that you know someone who does and they know someone who does so you just have to look a little laterally to ensure you reach enough people. So here is my 7 step process to gathering market research for your new business:

1) Write a feedback form that you will send out to the people in your network.

• In the introduction, let them know that you are developing a new PT business and would really value their input.

• Also make sure that you identify how long it is going to take someone to fill out the survey (eg: 4mins) so they know what they are in for.

• Ask them to identify age and sex but not name.

• Ask open question that will give you more information rather than yes / no answers.

• Ask questions about type of service (1 on 1, small group, boot camp), location (home, outdoors, studio, gym), price (explore different pricing structures), delivery schedule (how often) and their view on the important aspects of a pt service.

2) Make it look pretty.

• First impressions count. This is your first official impression so it would be nice to have an impact on all of those who complete your form.

• Check out www.surveymoneky.com which is a free software program that allows you to open an account, up-load your form and then it is completed by your contacts on-line. You simply get a link to the page and you send that out to your crew.

• If you’re not up for that, simply email everyone and get them to reply their answers to you.

3) Contact your network.

• Using all of the methods that I mentioned before, work hard at getting the word out.

• This may mean talking to people that you don’t normally talk to but it all for the greater good.

• Include a subtle time reference on the contact “If you get some spare time in the next 24 hours, I would really appreciate…” so that you are not getting responses back three months later.

4) Encourage sharing.

• To ensure that you get as much data as possible, encourage your people to share the form with their people.

• If you are targeting a specific demographic, make sure that you outline this in the introduction of the email so that your network knows not to send it to their little cousin in Tasmania for example.

5) Send a thank you email.

• Once a few days have passed and you have received a number of responses back (40% return is a good number if you can get it), make sure that you send a personal thank you email to each person who responded (this is the start of your business relationship building).

• In the email, let them know that you are grateful for their feedback and that you will let them know what your business ends up looking like.

6) Collate (and listen to) the information.

• Collate the data and look at the patterns and trends for each section.

• Sit down and plan the structure of your business based on the information you have been provided. If it is obvious that people want to train in groups, outdoors and for a low price then a group training or boot camp may be your business model.

• Your specific target demographic will decide your business model.

7) Present your new business to your contacts.

• Once your have built your basic structure of your business (covered in pt 2 of this series), you can then present it to your network.

• There are two approaches to take depending on what type of business owner you are or want to be. The first is the subtle approach which is a simple email letting them know that you have built your business, thanking them for their input and a link to your website so they can check out the finished product.

• The more direct approach is to again thank them and direct them to your site, but also offer them a free session or nutritional consult. Anything to get them to try your service.

• I am more of a subtle kind-of-guy but you can choose your own angle.

So there you have it. A really basic way to find out how your potential clients feel about your personal training business. Once you know this, you can then not only provide the service they want but you can also talk in their language with your future marketing.

What market research have you done in the past?

Cheers

Rick :-)

About the author: Rick Watson is the surfing, smiling personal training business guy who tells it like it is. He blogs, coaches, writes books and runs an online community for personal trainers but most of all he is a father and husband (with a healthy respect for road trips). If you like what you read, subscribe to the blog here or for more daily banter you can follow him on Twitter here or Facebook here.

]]> http://ptbusinessinabox.com.au/how-to-start-your-personal-training-business-part-1/feed/ 0 http://ptbusinessinabox.com.au/starting-your-personal-training-business/ http://ptbusinessinabox.com.au/starting-your-personal-training-business/#comments Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:01:13 +0000 ptadmin

Ok, so if you are out there and about to start own personal training business firstly “well done” for having the balls to stop working for someone else and putting your life in your own hands. But before you jump into the world of the personal training business owner, there a few basic rules of engagement that you should know to steer you away from any disappointments as you and your business grow.

I give you these pieces of advice freely because I know that starting a new and unfamiliar business can be a daunting task.

Start small and grow big

Lots of trainers have grand plans and grand dream and that’s OK. What is not OK is when your grand plan (for example: opening a PT studio) puts you $200k debt before you even have a client. I know because seven years ago I made this mistake; over time it has proven to be a great business but was the one business of mine with the highest expenses and lowest profit margin.

Your biggest asset is a loyal client base not a flash studio or a large collection of new vibrating equipment. Get good at building your client asset base and then you can do whatever the hell you like.

Pick your targets carefully

Many of my coaching clients come to me ready to start their business but not knowing who they are aiming there business at. “People trying to get fit and lose weight…” is the common response. Well that pretty much sums up the entire population….

You MUST identify specifically who you are aiming your business towards before you start your service. For example, training mums for weight loss or young guys for advanced fitness is definitely going to impact on what type of service you offer and the type and avenues of marketing that you use.

Get really good at one thing, don’t try to be a jack of all trades

The other thing that happens to new business owners when they start out (yes, I’m again speaking from experience here) is that they try to really good at all aspects of the personal training industry straight away. I am talking big picture here, not the little day-to-day running of your business but the development of multiple streams of income.

In my experience, it pays to get REALLY good at one thing (in my case it was mobile training) and then make sure that you have the ability to teach others to be REALLY good at your thing (creating leverage through your systems). When you have achieved that, then you can expand your horizons and start developing your multiple streams of income (groups, corporate training programs, online training, info products, boot camps, trainer education etc). Just taking on one thing at a time makes life much more approachable when you are starting out. Ahhh, we can all relax again.

Get really good at marketing

No matter how much you hate marketing and sales you cannot avoid the cold hard fact that you need to convince people that your business is the solution to their problem. Now many trainers have it in their heads that they are not good sales people or marketers but these skills are simply that, just skills like any other that can be learnt. Just like riding a bike or learning a language.

So accept the fact that you will need to understand the psychology of marketing and sales. Read books, go to workshops, get online and follow blogs (you are already on your way if you are ready this), just do what you have to do to become educated in the ways of the PT marketer.

Give away free training

So as you develop your ninja skills in personal training sales and marketing, the best thing to do in the mean time is to offer free training to your potential clients. If you are not yet completely confident that your words can convince people that you have what they need, simply let your actions speak for themselves.

Get them sweating, get them laughing, get them boxing, jumping, running, pushing, pulling. Let them feel what it is like to have someone push them past what they are used to. Once most people experience that, the sale becomes a walk in the park so the free session should become your best friend as you start your business (and their free).

So again, well done on following your passion and going out there and making sure you get what you want. There are always going to be people that tell you that you’re not going to make it but you only need one person to tell you that you can and that is you. Forget the rest and keep listening to that one person and you will have no possible way of failing.

Good Luck

Rick :-)

P.S: To help you get things moving in the right direction, I have put together a No B.S Business Plan for Personal Trainers. This free report will act as your guide when you are staring your business.

About the author: Rick Watson is the surfing, smiling personal training business guy who tells it like it is. He blogs, coaches and writes books for personal trainers but most of all he is a father and husband (with a healthy respect for road trips). If you like what you read, subscribe to the blog or for more daily banter you can follow him on Twitter or Facebook.

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