How To Network Your Gym Christmas Party For Leads And Business Opportunities

Christmas is a time for joy, giving and making money. Today's post in my series of personal training Christmas promotions is about how to network at your gym or fitness center Xmas events to generate new business opportunities for the upcoming year.

"More business decisions occur over lunch and dinner than at any other time, yet no MBA courses are given on the subject." - Peter Drucker

There aren't too many occasions throughout the year where you find yourself in a room full of potential clients and business associates; so you want to take full advantage and have a strategy in place.

Don't take this article the wrong way either; I'm not suggesting you don't relax and have a good time, but more often than not we find ourselves in situations where people offer us business and we're not prepared.

Here's a list of proven ways to network for the most efficiency and make your fitness center Christmas party not only a lot of fun, but a profitable experience as well.

Find Out Who's Coming:

Speak to the gym reception staff to get an idea who is going to the party. Maybe there's someone that you've been trying to tie down for some time, make a point to catch up with them.

Business Cards:

Have a pocketful ready to go. Make sure that they're up to date and the correct details are displayed. Business cards are cheap enough that you could even get 100 or so made with a Christmas theme printed on them or even a New Years promotion printed on the reverse. People will be more likely to keep them if the cards present value.

Take a pen with as well; just because you have business cards does not mean that the people you speak to will. Write their names on cards and put them in a different pocket.

Be Punctual:

Arrive at your Christmas party on time if not slightly early and offer to help the host with any last minute setting up. It's far easier to get a round a room that's filling with people than one that's full of people already in full party mode.

Introduce Yourself:

Shake hands and introduce yourself as a personal trainer at the gym but don't leave the conversation there...

Have Topics Prepared:

Networking comes naturally to some people and for others it's simply terrifying; for the latter, prepare some conversational topics like:

• What do they have planned for the holidays?
• How long have they been at the gym?
• What do they do for a living?

Listen:

Keep your ears open for buying signals like "I've been thinking of hiring a personal trainer". Mention an upcoming promotion that you've planned that they may be interested in.

Not only are you networking for potential clients, you should be networking for potential mentors or business associates. If the person you speak to is a GP or a hairdresser for example, grab their details as they will come in handy later for referrals and promotions.

Remember Names:

Here's a short video on the basics of how to remember names:



Be Helpful:

As mentioned in my post 'How To Sell Yourself And Not Sell Out', people will inherently start asking you for health and fitness advice in social environments, no where more so than at a gym Christmas party.

Don't get stuck in one place talking to one person for too long though. Offer advice along with a business card.

Don't get drunk:

Seriously.

Move Around:

Don't stay in one place with your safe friends or clients. Definitely spend time with them, but have a goal to shake 30 new hands or to give out 20 business cards for example.

Have Fun:

You've earned it. And of course:

Follow Up:

Don't let all that hard work go to waste. If you generated some leads, follow up on them within a few days and make them an offer.

Ben

Additional Reading:
20 Personal Trainer Christmas Promotion Ideas
5 More Christmas Promotion Ideas
Christmas Gifts For Personal Trainers

4 Ways To Sell Yourself And Not Sell Out

Have you ever compromised who you are to try and fit in? It's tough enough to stand out in the fitness industry, so the last thing you'd want to do is blend in right?

"Show class, have pride, and display character. If you do, winning takes care of itself." - Paul Bryant

The key to being successful and being happy is to promote who you are as an individual, your service and the benefits clients and members will receive when they train with you or at your center.

I grew up in a small town but always wanted more, so I moved to a large city and one of the first things I did was try to blend in.

I watched successful people in my field and copied them; the way they dressed, acted with their clients all of these things but soon discovered that I wasn't growing my business, at least the way I wanted to.

Apparently I did a pretty good job because I essentially disappeared off the radar.

You see, I simply created competition for myself by copying other people and reduced my potential business opportunities because there were two or three or four of me already.

I didn't focus on my individual goals because I was always looking around rather than forward.

So here's 4 things I learnt pretty quickly before I went broke and had to move home...

1. Discover your Unique Selling Point, or 'USP'.

What makes you you and different from all of the other fitness professionals out there? Communicate and promote a recognizable and consistent voice that will brand you and your fitness business.

2. Look For Holes In Your Competition.

Instead of looking at what your competition IS doing, fill the voids that they're not.

3. Extraordinary Customer Service.

Besides adhering to the number one rule of customer service and doing what you say you're going to do; go above and beyond what your clients or members expect.

4. Respect Yourself.

If you're not happy with what you're representing or the way you do business (even if it is earning you money), you simply can't last in this industry.

Clients are more intuitive than we give them credit for. They pick up on positives and negatives and if you're giving mixed signals then people will inevitably see straight through you and stop doing business.

Try this.

Forget about money and these six figure fantasies for a moment, step back and have a look at yourself and your fitness business and ask if it's what you imagined when you started.

Are you delivering what your clients deserve, not what you think they deserve?

Sell yourself first and the rest will follow.

Ben

Additional Reading:
What Does Your Brand Say About You?

Awesome New Years Resolution Promotion That Converts

Christmas promotions have been the hot topic on My Business Is Fitness over the past few weeks (I still have a few ideas up my sleeve), but now it's time to start looking beyond December and how you're going to capitalize on the ultra, yet short-term New Years Resolution (NYR) crowd.

Before we get started, I want you to imagine that these New Years Resolution people are like graceful wild geese, migrating around the world in a huge beautiful flock and the only time you can hunt them is between mid January to around early March.

(For those of you who think hunting isn't cool and that this is a poor choice of metaphor you're probably right; but hang in there, because I'll make it up to you with an awesome New Years promotion idea!)

Keep in mind that there will be a lot of other hunters out there wanting a piece of the action as well, so if you want to catch as many of these geese as you can in the short window that's available, you need to start by doing two things:

1. Get yourself into a great position by planning and being prepared
2. Get yourself a big gun and our big gun is:

The Mother/Daughter Promotion - Personal Trainer Style

This is a tried and tested promotion, it's been around forever and the concept couldn't be simpler; Mother brings daughter (or vice verse) to the gym or training session; daughter or mother trains free...for a little while anyway.

This promotion targets your existing clientele by encouraging them to bring along their daughter or mother but it's also a great way to get a ton of easy to convert leads.

It's a great referral promotion that's not too obvious, because your message is about these women encouraging each other to finally change their lifestyle and to stop procrastinating and what better time than now?

Now that we have our message all that's left is to get your marketing material in front of the mother or daughters and create an offer they can't refuse.

NB: I also like to run a small competition (first 10 to sign up go in the draw, so each entrant has a great chance of winning, but try and get enough prizes for everyone) in conjunction with any reasonable promotion to create urgency. This is a great time to call up any favors or develop relationships with surrounding businesses like restaurants, movie theatres and beauty type businesses...gift certificates and freebies are what you want.

Like any marketing activity, we want to scatter your promotional material across quite a few channels specific to your target market, in this case women in their mid 40's, so things like:

• Internet: Blog, facebook and twitter updates for word of mouth and internal referrals from existing clients; you may even consider a small facebook advertising campaign for this one to entice even more fresh faces.
• Posters/marketing material: Stick up branded and clearly designed posters in your gym or fitness centre, local health food stores, hairdressers, beauty therapists etc. (offer them some training in return for their cooperation). Your message is simple so keep your posters that way.
• Local media: Send a press release to your community newspaper along with some images describing your promotion and associated competition. In your press release specify your unique selling point.

How long you offer free training to the guest is entirely up to you. I would suggest no more than three sessions for the super generous of you, but usually one is enough (technically they're only getting 50% off because someone is paying).

This promotion is really very easy to set up so there's still tons of time before the New Years Resolution rush starts calling, so get your thinking caps on and make it happen!

Happy New Year?

Ben

Additional Reading:

20 Christmas Promotion Ideas
5 More Christmas Promotion Ideas
How I Turned Two Hours Work Turned Into Ten New Clients

Facebook Deals Will Change The Way You Market Your Fitness Business

I rarely talk about newsy type things on My Business Is Fitness, but something very exciting happened today in the marketing world that's going to change the way you promote your brick and mortar personal training business or fitness center forever and the best part is, you have the opportunity to get in at the very beginning.

Facebook Deals

If you're like the other 499,999,999 people in the world that have a Facebook account, you may already be familiar with their places application, which is a way for you to log your location to your profile using your Smartphone (iphone, Android, Blackberry).

Because I use Foursquare (a location marketing site), I never really took to the Facebook application; however, it seems that places was all part of Facebook's major plan to join the location based social network marketing bandwagon.

Take a look at this short Facebook Deals video which should bring you up to speed:



As you can see in the video, Facebook Deals will finally provide offline businesses social media value.

From Facebook's Jon Fougner:

"Everyone likes getting a good deal, but it's not always easy to find the right one at the moment you could use one. Imagine that while you're looking for a new place to try for lunch, you could see offers from restaurants nearby on your phone. On the other hand, I already love Zachary's Pizza, so imagine if I were rewarded for coming back there every week with my friends.

Starting today, local businesses will be able to offer you deals when you check in to their place on Facebook. Deals will be rolling out over the next few days and will only be available in the United States at this time."

Obviously since this is so new and I don't have access to the application yet, I'm only speculating at the awesome potential Facebook Deals can have for all offline fitness businesses.

What this is all about and why you want to make your 'Deals' so attractive is so people 'check in' to your business and essentially expose your brand, service, location to everyone of their friends and their friends friends when someone 'likes' what they're up to i.e at your business.

Even though the immediate and long-term impact of Facebook Deals is undetermined, I'm going to be watching it's development very closely and genuinely encourage all offline fitness businesses to take a look at this with an eye toward becoming an early adopter; so watch this space.

Are any of you guys currently using any of the other location based social media marketing sites like Foursquare, Loopt or Gowalla and have you found them useful to promote your fitness businesses?

Ben

Can Fitness Professionals Offer A Money Back Guarantee?

One of my favorite blogs to read is Kaiser Serajuddin's Super Trainer and last week he posted an awesome article on what fitness professionals can learn from those dreadfully annoying, yet unbelievably successful television infomercials.

Like any great article; after reading Kaiser's I got to thinking about the subject in more depth and one thing in particular that occurred to me, is that every single infomercial has one tremendously powerful sales tactic in common.

The Money Back Guarantee.

The money back guarantee is the nuts and bolts of any solid infomercial; it's right up there along side 'Buy in the next 15 minutes and receive TWO for the price of ONE!'

The money back guarantee gives the consumer piece of mind; it reduces buyer anxiety and removes perceived risk for a purchaser and when you can offer a potential customer zero risk, the odds of a sales conversion increase dramatically.

So why don't fitness professionals routinely offer a money back guarantee on client/member results?

It would make sense don't you think? If you can't stand behind your product or service then why are you in the fitness business?

The problem with service and consultancy professions is that your clients cooperation is necessary for them to achieve the results that they want, not to mention the fact that their goals may be unrealistic (that would be a first).

There are different types of guarantees you can offer your clients, besides giving back their money:

Satisfaction Guarantee: Similar to a money back guarantee, but you can use your personal training or fitness center service as reimbursement instead of cash. For example, you could promise a client that they will lose 10 pounds or 5 kilos in their first month or the second month free.

On-Time Guarantee: Dominoes Pizza made this a standard in the pizza delivery business with their 30 minutes or it's free campaign, however, you could offer that you will never be late for a session or it's free.

Price-Protection Guarantee: This could mean that you lock in a price for as long as they continually do business with you. Competitor price matching is another way you could offer a price-protection guarantee.

I have to say straight up that I've never offered a money back guarantee to my personal training clients or gym members, but that's not to say I wouldn't try it now if I gave it some careful thought and planning.

You have to admit, it would be a very powerful promotion to take to market and it would definitely cause a stir in the industry.

What do you think; could a personal trainer or fitness center offer a money back guarantee, would it be feasible, would the risk outweigh the reward, would you consider offering one?

I'd be very interested to hear your opinions.

Ben

5 More FREE Christmas Fitness Promotion Ideas!

Thanks to everyone who made last weeks post 20 Personal Trainer Christmas Promotion Ideas such a success and in keeping with the theme; here's another 5 FREE Christmas promotion ideas for your personal training and fitness businesses!

1. Use Craigslist To Promote Your Fitness Business:

Craigslist is a free classifieds directory that many personal trainers use to promote their businesses around the world. You can link to your website or blog and update your ad as often as you like and it's free free free!

If you haven't used Craigslist before, simply Google it (or follow the link) along with your city and it will send you to the most relevant site by location (there's no point advertising in Craigslist Los Angeles if you're located in Sydney).

Narrow down your ad placement under 'services' or whatever you believe is the most relevant description and I guarantee you will get calls/emails.

2. Bathroom Posters:

The most valuable real estate for any marketing material in a gym or fitness center is in the bathrooms.

I'm sure you've seen newsletters or advertisements behind the doors in toilet stalls and even at the urinals (ladies, don't act like you don't know). These posters receive undivided attention for anywhere between two to ten minutes; depending if there was an all you can eat Mexican buffet the night before.

Produce something catchy and easy to read, themed with Christmas or anything you like and work to get your material in there.

3. Pull A Publicity Stunt:

Publicity stunts have been around forever and continue to work brilliantly. The phrase generally conjures thoughts of doing something illegal and I'm sure you could, but that's not what I'm encouraging today.

Using the Christmas theme, a cool stunt could be to dress as Santa (or Mrs.) Claus and hand out coupons or something from a sack to members in your gym or even out the front of your club.

Rip off the sleeves and get the guns out, or show off your Santa legs, you just want to differentiate from the uncool mall Santa's.

4. Thank You Christmas Cards:

Anyone that signs up between now and December for example, send them a thank you card as usual, but instead, send them a Christmas card with a free session voucher.

Create some urgency by giving the voucher a 'use by' date and they'll be the easiest referrals you've ever generated.

5. Text Message Alerts To Clients:

Text message marketing is very popular and socially accepted these days with Video Stores and other places keeping us posted, so what's to stop you sending out a 'Merry Xmas' text message with an offer attached?

Most people read things that start out with Merry Xmas because they associate that a gift will follow, so give them one.

You could offer the first ten clients who reply to your text message an invitation to bring along a friend for free to their next session.

If nothing else, I hope that these ideas or the ones mentioned in last weeks post set off a light bulb in your head for something better or more relevant, because it doesn't really matter how or what you do to promote your fitness business this Christmas, as long as you do something awesome.

So what do you think? I genuinely appreciate your feedback, so please leave me a comment down below with questions, thoughts, or feedback. And please share this post with your Twitter and Facebook friends by clicking on the share buttons at the top of the post.

Have an awesome day!

Ben

Additional Reading:

20 Personal Trainer Christmas Promotion Ideas
102 Blog Post Ideas For Personal Trainers And Fitness Professionals

20 Personal Trainer Christmas Promotion Ideas

With Christmas right around the corner; now is the time to start planning and implementing your holiday season personal training and fitness center promotional strategies to take advantage of this often difficult but very lucrative spendthrift market.

I've listed 20 promotional ideas that you can sift through and hopefully find a few that will suit your niche market and/or demographic.

1. Gift Certificates:

Whoever invented gift certificates was a genius, however I rarely see personal trainers offer these simple, yet very easily produced little cash cows.

They're a great way for your clients to introduce your services to their friends and family, so design a variety of packages from one session to 100 if you like.

2. Speaking Engagements:

Try holding a free 'christmas healthy eating' seminar at your local fitness center or gym. Talk about things like how best to get through the overindulgent period in a healthy way etc. Hand out business cards and flyer's etc.

3. Go To Your Local Library And Sneak Business Cards In Relevant Books:

Look for books about weight loss and the like and place your gyms or personal training business cards in them. Even better, run a promotion in conjunction with this 'mystery prize' promotion.

4. Hold A Competition:

It doesn't really matter what the competition is about, but offering some free personal training or gym membership as the prize always generates some interest.

You can also diversify depending on your skills; offer a weight loss prize, a muscle gain program prize or even a nutrition prize. The more you offer the more potential leads you can generate.

5. Spend Some Time Adding Your Business To Local Directories:

Are you listed on the Google Business Directory or Foursquare for example?

6. Press Release:

Is there something interesting about your business that you think the media or public at large would be interested in? If you can come up with an original concept or angle for a Christmas promotion, present it well and send it out to your local media.

7. Print A New Year Calendar:

It doesn't have to be anything too flash or expensive. Put a few healthy tips and quotes on there and hand them out methodically.

8. Print A Christmas/New Year Newsletter:

Again, fill it with helpful hints and bonus offers. Find some affiliates to co promote with and do a letter box drop.

9. Send Out A Christmas Email Blast:

You should have a database of all of your current and past clients and members. Like your newsletter, fill it with quality content and send it out.

10. Trade Shows:

Are there any trade shows coming up? The beauty of the fitness industry is that there is almost always an angle to align yourself with every other industry. Book a table and get your information out.

11. Christmas Cards:

Sending Christmas cards to current and past personal training clients or gym members is 'welcome' mail, meaning that most people open it and read it. Thank your existing clients and offer your past clients and members a coupon and make them personalised.

12. Cross Promote With Similar Businesses:

Speak to your local health food store, physiotherapist, respected massage therapist or sports store about offering a 'complete health and fitness gift pack promotion.

13. Take A Short Course:

It doesn't even have to be fitness related. Take a short small business course; not only are you increasing your business knowledge and skills, you're sitting in a room full of potential clients.

14. Walking Billboard:

Once you've decided on your Christmas promotion, get a few t-shirts printed up with your branding and the promotion information on them.

15. Update Your Blog And Or Website:

How long has it been since you wrote a new article or publicly thanked your clients and or members? It doesn't have to be a masterpiece, but get up some fresh content.

16. Offer A Cheaper Alternative To Your Regular Services:

If you normally charge $50 for a half hour session, try running a $30 fifteen minute training session. Sell it by explaining that the fifteen minute session will focus on specifics and not include cardio time etc.

17. Put A New Christmas Focused Video On YouTube:

Like your Christmas newsletter, do the same thing but a video version. Hints tips and solutions for maintaining all the hard work that your clients and members have put in over the past 12 months.

18.Update Your Social Media Pages:

Start a stream of Christmas focused Facebook and Twitter posts. Obviously direct them back to your blog or website but try running two or three each week up to the holiday period.

19. Update Your Testimonials Page:

Testimonial pages on blogs, websites and even in your sales presentation material are probably the most viewed items. Get some updated ones from clients who worked with you last Christmas and how you helped keep them on the straight and narrow.

20. Offer A Guarantee Promotion:

These are often tricky so plan your guarantee carefully. Don't over promise, but make your service more appealing than anyone else.

I hope that this is a timely post for you guys and gets your mind ticking over for how you can prepare for the upcoming Christmas period.

Traditionally; personal training businesses, gyms and pretty much the entire fitness industry suffer over this time unless you implement some sound, inexpensive strategies to make sure you stand out and come through a winner.

So what do you think? I genuinely appreciate your feedback, so please leave me a comment down below with questions, thoughts, or feedback. And please share this post with your Twitter and Facebook friends by clicking on the share buttons at the top of the post.

Have an awesome day!

Ben

UPDATE:

5 MORE Free Christmas Fitness Promotions!

Additional Reading:
Awesome New Years Resolution Promotion That Converts
10 Personal Training Business Tips
50 Things To Do Before You Open A Personal Training Business
How To Write A Rate Increase Letter
10 Ways To Build Your Personal Training Business Today
5 More FREE Christmas Fitness Promotion Ideas

The 'Cook It Up' Promotion (One Of My Favorites)

This post is a promotional idea how you can use your nutritional knowledge and kitchen prowess to dazzle your existing and potential personal training clients into utilizing and taking your calorie controlled meal plans more seriously.

Training clients is easy and one of the best parts of being a personal trainer and it's also easy for your clients because all they have to do is turn up to your sessions and do the work.

The Problem With Weight Loss

If weight loss and good health was 80% working out then a lot more people would be in shape; unfortunately nutrition holds that major percentage in the equation and that's the biggest challenge to incorporate and monitor within the trainer/client relationship.

Without appropriate nutritional training and education, handing out copies of recommended meal plans is about as much as a personal trainer can do in their business with regards to a clients eating habits and your recommendations.

You can't stand and watch them eat like you do a set of squats and you can't follow them around the supermarket and put the biscuits back on the shelf like a mother does to their kids (or partners).

So you have to get a little creative and proactive and this cheap and simple promotion worked great every time.

Can you cook healthy foods?

Through my senior years of high school I worked in kitchens for pocket money and after finishing school I began a chef's apprenticeship.

I worked in kitchens for a few years until I realised that while it was a fun job socially, it wasn't going to be a lasting career choice based on my passion for health and fitness.

Now, even though I've been trained in 'throwing the pans' (as one of my chefs use to say) cooking good, clean foods is pretty easy and I'm sure you do it daily anyway.

So with that background, I use to promote a cooking night about once every three months where I'd set up a grill and a few burners and basically hold my own cooking show right there in the gym.

It was free for everyone to come along and I'd promote it with flyer's and posters in strategic locations (like the gym bathrooms) a few weeks before each one.

I don't know what it is, but people love cooking shows

There's something about watching other people cook that you can't look away from and television ratings are all the social proof you need.

For my cooking nights, I'd prepare two dinner meals and a desert and that would take about 45 minutes to an hour max. I'd also incorporate vegetarian versions if there was a call for it.

About 20 minutes before starting I'd hand out 'menus' to selected people (from my marketing avatar) in the gym to create a little buzz highlighting  the dishes I was going to prepare, the ingredients, cost, serving sizes and nutritional information.

People would stop and watch as they arrived and left the gym and it really was a fantastic promotion for drumming up new business (have plenty of business cards ready).

As I prepared the meals I'd talk about how much it cost, why I was using certain ingredients, throw in some sweet knife tricks and try to get the people juiced and after I prepared each meal I'd hand out small samples to everyone.

My clients loved these nights and I always had a great turnout. They would tell me how they have started to prepare the meals at home for themselves and their families, because they'd seen how simple the meals were to make.

Click Image To Enlarge

The only consideration with this promotion, is to clarify that your gym or fitness center has the appropriate legal structure where you can prepare food on the premises. If they don't and you still want to run this promotion. just don't put any flyer's in your local councils office :).

Wear an apron, take it seriously and your clients will respond positively. You'll also find that this is a very lucrative and inexpensive promotion for your personal training business, so have fun with it.

Ben

Additional Reading:
How To Create A Client Marketing Avatar
I'm The World's Best Personal Trainer
How I Turned Two Hours Work Into Ten New Clients

Religiously Personal Training

Religion isn't a topic that's been openly discussed at the many gyms I've trained at over the years. Besides the odd Creed or Live track on the radio and some occasional blasphemy, that's about the extent of my sweat session spirituality.

I had a conversation today about religion, the fitness industry and personal training (the person I was speaking to is particularly religious and also a personal trainer) and he told me that he's never once discussed his beliefs with his clients (or asked his clients theirs) for fear of somehow creating an awkward conversation or situation.

Religion is fairly popular around the world (about 4 billion people subscribe) and if you watch any major sporting event or weight loss TV show, someone will inevitably thank god for something; so how can you prophet from this relatively untapped gold mine niche?

I stumbled on a story about a book recently called 'The Catholic Workout' and that's exactly what the author, Canadian personal trainer Michael Carrera is doing and good for him:

"There are a lot of people out there who, like me, want to include prayer and fitness into their lives, but seem to struggle," said Carrera. "Combining faith and fitness into a short routine is a practical and purposeful way of creating balance of mind, body and spirit and in opening ourselves to the Lord."

I haven't read the book and the last time I went to church I thought pulpit was a dirty word, so I'm all for balancing my mind, body and spirit while I train (as long as my arms get bigger), it's just the 'opening ourselves to the lord' part that doesn't personally interest me.

Looking at this concept from another angle, could a personal trainer operate a successful business by exclusively appealing to their particular religion for clients? It would certainly eliminate any chance of an awkward client, trainer religious conversation.

Assuming that there's a strong representation in your community and you're particularly passionate about your religion then what's to stop you incorporating your beliefs into a training package as Michael has?

Another consideration I've seen operators neglect and consequently fail because of, is not taking the time to develop their business with respect to the local religious majority. Depending on the area you operate your fitness business out of, regardless of your personal beliefs, you should take the time to realise and research the local market, especially if you're not from there.

In the end, it's up to you how you express yourself and your beliefs. I've had religious conversations with clients, but like any topic, I prefer to remain impartial and focus on keeping the workout moving along.

Ben

Additional Reading
What Does Your Brand Say About You?
Do You Market Yourself Or Your Business?
How To Brand Your Personal Training Business
My Business Is Fitness Home Page

Personal Training Brainstorm

Off the top of my head, I just came up with 10 different ways someone could make money from their personal training business and not actually do any personal training:

1. Ebook
2. Blog
3. Personal Training Consultation
4. Affiliates
5. Sponsorship
6. Endorsements
7. YouTube
8. Promotions
9. Modelling
10. Outsourcing

Admittedly, I've written about several of these activities before, but that wasn't brainstorming, that was just thinking of a few things that I've done to earn extra money over the years.

Today's goal is to come up with 10 or 20 or 100 different ways that YOU can make extra money with your fitness business. You could just copy that list and call it a day, but that won't give you any value and we're all about value here!

I've mentioned this before on my business is fitness; you can only train so many clients a day, a week, a year; so your income is limited by the hands of time and your own physical and mental well being.

Wouldn't it be great if you could earn more money doing something you love; better yet, earn money while you're sleeping?

I don't know you, but I think you're awesome; so we're going to do some brainstorming on what you think you could do within your business that would generate extra cash and also build your authority in your community and also the fitness industry.

What I've noticed with brainstorming is that you can't force it or just make the magic happen; but often when the magic appears, you're driving, or you don't have a pen and paper, or it's three o'clock in the morning or you're holding a ladder for someone, so sometimes you have to get yourself set then get into the zone.

My formula for a productive brainstorming session is as follows:

• Workout: Nothing clears your head like a hard workout or run. 
• Eat: After the workout, you have to eat, so have something light and nutritious. Nothing fatty or high in sugars as that will bog you down fast and we want this session to go longer than 15 minutes!
• Take A Shower: You probably smell, that's why! A shower will also invigorate you and get you juiced to come up with some ideas.
• Get Some Big Sheets Of Paper Or Cardboard And A Magic Marker Or Fat Pencil: You won't need an eraser, there are no wrong answers in brainstorming!
• MUSIC: I put on something I really like that gets my mind off everything else. I like to start writing down ideas while the music is on and just go with it.

While you're brainstorming money making ideas you want to write down EVERYTHING you can think of that could net you more sweet cash; you can't stop or judge yourself, for that split second you thought your idea was worthy, so get it down!

Once you have your list, look over it and write a dollar amount next to each activity. 

This amount could be what you think you could earn if you did it for 12 months or 5 years. The activities with the highest amounts are generally a good indication of what you will most enjoy doing.

For me, writing and helping people is what I love. My latest brainstorm list for this blog resulted in ebooks and consultations having the highest dollar amounts next to them and that tells me that's what I should be doing...so I am.

I have just finished the first my business is fitness ebook on client retention which will be available quite soon and my free consultation offer is also proving very successful (and almost finished, so get on it!).

Since then I have started another ebook which is a 'how to' for a particular personal trainer promotion that I always had great results with in my business.

These ideas, the blog itself, the t-shirts I'm having printed and the hundred or so other things I have brewing are all the result of brainstorming and taking action.

Opportunities are endless, time isn't, so get started!

Ben

Additional Reading:

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10 Personal Training Business Tips

HALF A TONNE OF FAT AND COUNTING!

This post is about matching your marketing toward the clients you want to attract and that handy little phrase "HALF A TONNE OF FAT AND COUNTING" generated more interest and got me booked out faster than mentioning any personal training course I'd completed or sport I'd played in the past.

Depending on your background and reputation in the fitness industry, most newly accredited personal trainers can't afford to be overly choosy in who they take on as a client.

So the key is to gear all of your advertising material toward a specific group of people, let's say weight loss for example; as I did with that headline, then your precious time and marketing budget should be directed right in the faces of that market.

Most men and women that join gyms are trying to achieve some kind of weight loss, but at the same time have no idea how to achieve it or a realistic idea of how long it will take.

Overweight members get their weight loss information from general media like magazines and television and by looking around the gym and copying what 'skinny' people are doing.

If you take some time to observe these members, you'll notice that they isolate themselves to the machine circuits and cardio areas and rarely venture into the free weight sections.

The simple reason for this and it's basic human nature, is that they're looking for their comfort zone. There are no mirrors, no hero's throwing weights around and everyone else is just like them.

So how do you capitalize on this information? The first place to look, is ask yourself how you present yourself on your profile plaque that you display in the gym you operate from and where is it hanging?

Think about who you designed your profile to impress.

What I notice, especially with male personal trainers is the plaques just look like a p!ssing competition between each other with no specific information that any general member will find useful.

Did you play football for 10 years, do you have a black belt in karate, do you have a degree in human movement, who cares? Think about what this means to the average person looking to lose weight; it means very very little.

HALF A TONNE OF FAT AND COUNTING!

What you need to do is specify how you can assist your target market. Tell them what they want to hear.

Most trainers have their names at the top of their profiles, I don't really know why, but why not try a headline across the top of your plaque?

A good headline draws people in, what's the point of having a profile that no one reads?

As I mentioned at the start, a phrase that worked great for me while I was targeting overweight clients was "HALF A TONNE OF FAT AND COUNTING!" It was in capitals, bold and had a great big exclamation point slapped on the end for good measure. I backed my claim with testimonials and before and after photographs.

I also had an offer for a free half an hour consultation to see if I could help them add their fat loss to my tally. It may sound a bit presumptuous, but believe me it generated interest.

Maybe you're new to the business and haven't had enough clients to make a claim like that so emphasize what you have achieved. Maybe you lost a lot of weight yourself or changed someones life for the better.

You could try headlines like:

"I LOST 30KGS, YOU CAN TOO!"
"I WAS FAT AND MISERABLE!"
"I FEEL GREAT!"

A snippet of a testimonial is also fantastic:

"[your name] changed my life!"
"I've never felt better!" (their name)"
"Hire [your name] you won't regret it!" (their name)

You can utilize this same principle to any target market. A personal trainer and bodybuilding competitor friend of mine that focuses on muscle gain for his clients tried "3 STATE CHAMPION BODYBUILDERS AND COUNTING" and offered a free consultation, needless to say that guys and girls looking for those kind of results made the call.

Lastly, look at where your profile is being displayed. Is it where your target market congregate? You may have to negotiate with the gym owner or manager, but if their interest is making money then they should pay attention to these basic marketing principles.

Work hard and good luck!

Additional Reading: THE PROBLEM WITH PERSONAL TRAINER PROFILE PLAQUES

Personal Trainers: Involve Your Clients In Charitable Activities And Create A Fitness Community

Another great way to build rapport with your personal training clients and to establish your fitness business in your community, is to encourage your clients to join you in charitable events and fundraising activities.

I was reading through my feeds this morning and came across an article about a gentleman by the name of Frank Fisher who has recruited several of his work colleagues to take part in a fundraising bike ride for multiple sclerosis.

Frank, a self confessed fitness nut says; "This is our first time in this event, we were looking for some way we could contribute back to the community and a lot of us in this office are fitness nuts so this ride was perfect."

There are so many opportunities for personal trainers to build their fitness business by investing some time into charitable events and activities and there are different kinds to suit all kinds of fitness levels.

I've noted four direct benefits to your business below, but encourage you to add more of your own in the comments section:

Set Up Specific Training Sessions For Your Clients: This can add new variety and challenges for them and their personal training sessions, like their running distance or time, their swimming ability or cycling skills.

When Your Clients Interact, You Build A Community: Your clients are all going to be at different fitness levels and when you have stronger clients mixed with not so strong, you will notice that they all get in and help each other. This kind of relationship building also gives you the added benefit of more targeted conversational topics, rather than just talking about TV shows and personal problems during your gym sessions.

Personal Training Client Referrals: When your clients sign up, encourage them to invite friends and family to take part. Can you think of a smoother or easier way to get your clients to bring prospects directly to you?

Advertising And Promotional Opportunities: Now, this blog wouldn't be called My BUSINESS Is Fitness if I didn't mention there were monetary opportunities in participating in these types of events. As the very article I posted shows, the media is very interested in these kinds of community services and that was just one example. Don't be afraid to contact newspapers and television stations to let them know what you are doing. Get t-shirts made up and make sure all of your contact details are correct and WORKING when the photographers turn up!

There are many resources online to find charitable events in your area (try searching 'Charitable Events Calendar'). Keep your eye on regular media also and take advantage of these great opportunities!

Also, don't forget to subcribe to My Business Is Fitness, by adding your email in the exciting white rectangle to the right of this article!

The Enerflex Brissie to the Bay ride is on June 27. For more information or to make a donation visit their website brissietothebay.