Why My Business Is Fitness Will Help You Build YOUR Business And Increase Your Income

• If you want to convert more leads into clients, then you've come to the right place

• If you're lacking the motivation to succeed with your goals, then look no further.

You see:

Nobody out there is happy with the way they look or feel; which means EVERYBODY is a potential client.

How do you get more clients and start earning the money that you deserve?

I post several articles each week detailing marketing and promotion strategies, using traditional and social media; as well as self development articles on how to become more productive and even general health and fitness tips.

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What Other People Say About My Business Is Fitness

"Have been Personal Training a few months now and your site has really helped me and given me some great ideas. Keep up the good work!" - Matt Jupp, Owner Bootcamp SS

"Hey Ben, love the blog!" My PT Profile

"I love the honest, tell-it-like-it-is style of My Business Is Fitness!" Jodie Arnot, Healthy Balance Personal Training

"Love your work Ben!" Karen McKeown, Revive Fitness

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About Ben London

My 20 year obsession with the fitness industry doesn’t have a remarkable motive behind it. It never began because of any life changing situation or a desire to help the world be a thinner and fitter place; I was just a 14 year old kid that needed a job to buy new wheels for my BMX.

I approached the owner of my local fitness centre for a position (I don't know what kind of job I thought I was looking for exactly, but the gym was down the road) and she offered me a free gym membership if I cleaned mirrors, wiped down equipment and put away weights a few days a week.

Not exactly what I was looking for; i.e. money, nor a glamorous introduction to what has become my life, but definitely the beginning of what has been a very rewarding, exciting and challenging career.

That first gym job was way back in 1987 and though I never became formally qualified as a personal trainer until 10 years later in 1997, I had been consistently training myself, my friends and family the whole time.

Once qualified, my first official fitness job was as a gym floor attendant and weekend front desk guy. At the time I was also juggling my studies in a physiology and sports conditioning diploma as well as a part time small business diploma. The gym job afforded me the opportunity to work odd hours and also sneak in my studies when it was quiet, as long as I’d swept the squash courts. (That’s another story)

It was difficult to find a decent full time position in a fitness centre back then and with little experience and personal training still not as commercially accepted as it is these days, I worked shifts between 3 different clubs at this time to pay the rent.

Even though I was making decent money, this experience lasted all of about two years before I became run down and frustrated at the lack of opportunities I was finding through traditional career planning. It was at this point that I decided to take things into my own hands and learn to sell and promote.

I enrolled in a business college and concentrated my studies on marketing and advertising. I also took a part time job as a door to door sales person selling roof restorations in order to really learn how to sell at ground level and to overcome my fear of rejection.

I was a skinny kid and had always been fascinated by the bodybuilding lifestyle and being ‘bigger’ and decided one day to compete; which I did in 1999...twice. It was quite disastrous in terms of placing’s, but it was another notch on my belt and I was able to get a few good physique photographs for my new personal training business.

A few weeks before my first bodybuilding show

With my new credentials it was time to try my hand at full time personal training. I teamed up with a friend who had built a fantastic studio and off we went. We attended breakfasts with local business people, did flyer drops and promoted in every way we could think of at the time.

After a short while I became the studio manager, which included such responsibilities as answering the phone and vacuuming. I had managed to generate quite a few regular clients who I would train in the early mornings and in the evenings, as well as holding down a full time job as a delivery driver.

It was while I was at this job that I new there had to be more to the fitness industry so I began planning to pack up and move to the US where things must have been more exciting.

Unfortunately it’s not as easy as I thought to move to the US, so I applied and was accepted a temporary working visa for Canada. I figured I was close enough to the US to commute in and out and see as many gyms as I could.

My first gym job in Canada was with the Montreal YMCA. It was a great facility with a great team of trainers and equipment. I also began studying for my ACE accreditation to supplement my Australian qualifications.

I then moved to the west coast and landed a membership consultant job with a very progressive and innovative chain of clubs. I’d never sold gym memberships full time before but it appeared I had a knack. My manager was an exceptional sales person and I learned as much as I could from her. We eventually began to have inter-gym competitions and at one stage I closed 23 walk-ins in a row.

Showtime! Oh, I came in about last...

After about 3 months, an opportunity came up for me to manage the club which I took without hesitation. Since my gym management background consisted of answering phones and vacuuming at that stage, it wasn’t as smooth a transition as I would have hoped, though I did manage to remain the highest selling membership consultant the entire time I was with the club.

The owner took me under his wing while I was there and I learned more in that twelve months than in the three years preceding; from different kinds of promotional activities, sales techniques and marketing and planning.

While I was in North America, I was able to see quite a few of the worlds most famous gyms not to mention personal training sessions with some of the worlds best trainers, Milos Sarcev, Shawn Ray, Melvin Anthony and Charles Glass at Gold's Gym in Venice California.

In 2002 while on holiday in Australia, a friend of mine showed me an opportunity to buy a small gym. I decided to make an offer and after two weeks I was doing paperwork and the proud owner of my own fitness centre.

I discovered very quickly that managing a gym and owning a gym are two completely different activities. In the beginning I was wearing many different hats in the fitness centre as well as working a part time job in a restaurant to have a consistent income stream.

I was the personal trainer, club manager, marketing and promotions manager, membership consultant, maintenance guy, janitor, group fitness instructor and receptionist all in one and I loved every second of it.

The crew from the Sydney Shawn Ray - Muscle Camp

While I owned the club I was involved in a few exciting side projects including bodybuilding show promotions as well as national fitness camps which I promoted in Melbourne and Sydney.

Melvin Anthony, Shawn and Kristie Ray, Ben London, Richard Jones and Milos Sarcev

It was tough at first, very tough, but with a lot of hours and hard work I sold the gym almost 3 years later for a nice profit.

Once I sold the gym I wanted to pursue my dream of working in the sports supplement industry. I chased an opportunity across the country and have been involved in wholesale distribution of sports and bodybuilding supplements for the last 5 years.

This has given me the opportunity to meet so many industry people and have developed friendships with some of Australia’s finest fitness industry leaders, personal trainers and sports people.

‘My Business Is Fitness’ is a blog that I have wanted to write for the last few years. That being said, it’s only now after a solid 15 years in the fitness industry and in so many different facets, do I truly feel that I have the expertise to share something of value.

Follow your passion.

Ben

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Why I Love The Fitness Industry

Let me be honest with you right off the bat; before I started working in the fitness industry, my life was going nowhere fast.

When I left school I had no idea what to do...so I did nothing. I was on unemployment, worked odd jobs here and there and lived the life of no direction.

I'd worked in kitchens during my senior high school years so took a chefs apprenticeship which I held down until I decided I wanted to be a professional skateboarder. The only problem with that dream was while I loved skateboarding and dare I say was OK at it...I was not going to earn a living doing it.

Pretty Sweet 360 Flip Off A Hip ;)

Again, I worked odd jobs and just existed. I'd always dreamed of having my own business; I've always had an all consuming entrepreneurial drive and tried my hand at several endeavours, but at that stage of my life, never had the confidence to really follow through with anything.

I don't regret these younger years, because even though there was a lack of career progression...I was having one hell of a good time! I had lots of friends, I got to go surfing and skating whenever I wanted and I did quite a bit of travelling around Australia.

I call those few years 'the years I had to have'. Granted, I watched friends finish degrees, complete trades and 'settle down'; I learnt a lot about myself and ticked off a lot of boxes of careers that I thought I wanted, but turns out I didn't!

In 1997 I was working in a factory in the western suburbs of Sydney and one of my managers worked as a group fitness instructor in the evenings. We got along quite well because we trained at the same gym and when I mentioned one day that I wanted to become a personal trainer, he encouraged me to enroll and adjusted my shifts to suit the classes...Was this a sign?

I still remember sitting in class on the first day, looking around the room and feeling like I was 'home'. To quote Ben Stiller's character White Goodman from the movie Dodgeball, you could 'smell the fitness'! Here we were, a group of people talking about working out and learning how to help people get in shape without killing them...Fantastic.

Back then, there wasn't a business module...well not in my course. We learned how to do exercises properly and basic nutrition. I'm sure there was other stuff, but I can't remember. I do remember one day during my course quite vividly though and that was walking on a treadmill watching the television when I found out Princess Dianna had died.

Anyway, besides that tragic day, I loved my course...I loved being surrounded by other people that loved fitness and nutrition and learning about anatomy and physiology as much as I did. It was like a different world for me, I'd do my course then have to go back to the reality of my factory job and it was at that point that I knew what I REALLY wanted to do with my life.

In a way I'm eternally grateful that I took that job at the factory and met someone that encouraged me to follow a dream and helped me achieve it. I have no idea what I'd be doing now if I hadn't...I do know that I wouldn't be as happy as I am, that's for sure.

Since completing my course I've devoted my life to the fitness industry. Sure I've taken short breaks at times, but I always end up back and better for it.

How many industries evolve as rapidly as ours? How many other industries have so much diversity and scope to challenge yourself in so many different ways?

Over the past 13 years I've worked as a personal trainer, I've sold gym memberships, I've managed small and large gyms, I've sold sports supplements retail and wholesale, I've worked overseas running gyms, I've owned a gym, I've promoted major fitness events and now I work as the social media manager of one of Australia's largest and most dynamic fitness companies and this my friends is why I love the fitness industry.

Thanks for reading :)

Ben

Free Personal Training/Fitness Business Consultation

That's right! A FREE, PERSONALISED CONSULTATION to help you grow your personal training or fitness business!

Here's why...

Since I started writing the 'my business is fitness' blog, I've received hundreds of emails from fitness professionals all over the world asking me for marketing and promotional advice for their different types of personal training businesses and fitness centres; so I've decided to extend this offer to ANYONE who would like a FREE marketing and promotional consultation.

I've answered some of the emails I've received anonymously via articles or posts on the blog, some have simply been email consultations and some phone/skype conversations, it doesn't really matter how you would prefer to communicate, all I ask is for some background information beforehand to get a better idea about your business and goals and so I can better be of assistance.

Simply send me an email 'Attention: Free Consultation' at ben.londons@gmail.com and I will send you a simple questionnaire (which is far less intrusive than a pre-exercise questionnaire FYI) to fill out that just gives me a brief overview of the type of business you are currently operating, a little about your business and fitness industry experience and what type of outcome you would like to achieve. From there, we can assess the most convenient time to put some ideas together.

How long?

I actually haven't decided how long I'll run this free offer so please get your emails to me ASAP and I look forward to helping you take the next step, or your first in your fitness career.

NB. I value your privacy as much as I do my own, so any and ALL communication will be held in the strictest confidence.

Regards.

Ben


Attention: Free Consultation to ben.londons@gmail.com