Succeeding in the business world is tough in any department, but competition in the fitness industry in particular is greater than ever. With an ever-growing number of personal trainers qualifying, gyms opening and online trainers making appearances, it can be hard to set yourself apart. In this blog, we consider five ways in which personal trainer software can support your business growth.
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Business planning: setting goals and overcoming challenges
If you leave your business growth to chance, you’ll be lucky to ever get out of the blocks and off that starting line. The success of your business depends on your planning, strategies, goals and level of proactivity in completing these tasks.
You will also need to factor in reactivity and re-evaluate at regular intervals; what if the fitness industry suddenly takes a dramatic turn, which directs you completely off track in terms of your planning? You need to be versatile and be prepared to change your game plan in order to stay on that path towards success.
Try working backwards: get your end goal down on paper in terms of profit you would like to be achieving, and by when. Make sure it’s realistic and attainable, but equally push yourself to achieve the best you possibly can from your business. From there, you can calculate how many clients you need to be working with in order to achieve this, based on your outgoings. This stage essentially forms your business plan.
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Know your target audience
Knowing your USP will help you in establishing your target audience. Don’t spread yourself too thinly across 10 different areas and be ‘jack of all trades’. Be a master in one! Know what you are good at, and work towards achieving financial success in that area.
It’s all very well and good trying to run 8-week boot camps, programs for pre-natal women, programs for those suffering with back problems and programs for people with type 2 diabetes. However, you can’t realistically be the best trainer in all of those different areas.
If your specialism is working with clients that have back problems, focus on that audience and work on developing the best possible service for them. Then you will see repeat business, customer loyalty and positive word of mouth.
With the majority of the world’s population having a digital presence, the best way to grow your personal training business is by going online. If you are successful, you can grow your client database tenfold…and then some! Use personal trainer software to develop individual training and meal plans that are suitable to share online with your target audience.
Communicate with them on their level – don’t throw loads of fitness jargon at your clients. They want to feel that they can talk to you and understand what you are asking them to do. Depending on which personal trainer software you use, you can even tailor the platform’s colours, design and logos to mirror your branding.
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Your Team
Having the right team around you is essential, but it has to make financial sense. We all have aspects of our jobs that we don’t enjoy – unfortunately that isn’t a good enough reason to warrant paying someone else to do those jobs for us.
Until the cash is in the bank and the business can afford to take on an employee to do the admin for example, you need to keep the outgoings down. However, you also need to be ‘business smart’.
In order for your business to work, you need to properly manage your clients. This is where personal trainer software can act as a great tool; it acts as a member of your team, and is a very versatile one at that! Use it to schedule and send mass emails, and capture data from prospects that can be used when you touch base.Â
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Maintaining profit
Ultimately, success in business is deemed by profit, and your personal training business is no different. There comes a point in personal training when you run out of hours in the day to cater for the demands of your client database.
As your business grows, you need to ensure that you have a healthy amount of cash in the bank. Successful businesses are judged by gross profit (and ideally the gross profit left over once paying yourself a reasonable salary), not gross revenue.
In business, you face financial decisions every day. You may need to expand your team, push out more marketing, or upgrade your personal trainer software. As long as you review your accounts and make smart business decisions based on what you can afford and what income is due in, then you will be doing all you can to maintain profit.
Profit margins will often have peaks and troughs, so make sure you analyse your funds over time at regular intervals. Depending of the personal trainer software system, you can use you software to help you keep track of your business finances and statistics.
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Remaining sane
Finally, and perhaps the governing factor for success or failure in the business world, is ensuring you have enough quality downtime.
Training clients 1-1 in person is extremely draining on time as well as energy. You may need a 4:30am alarm to get to the gym and see your first client at 6am. After being on your feet all day delivering fitness classes and a busy evening of back to back PT sessions once clients have finished work, before you know it, it’s 9pm and you’ve worked a 15-hour day! But what do you have to show for it?
It’s great if you enjoy what you do. But are you really making enough money to warrant a 15-hour day? Do you have any downtime for yourself, or time for friends and family? How long will you realistically be able to keep this up for before you burn out?
When finances are involved, it is always hard to switch off. However, if you are staying on top of your tasks and planning, and you are on track with regards to your goal setting, then the finances should look after themselves.
Having an effective personal trainer software system underpinning your business will be a huge help in enabling you to switch off. After a little effort in establishing automated emails, training and nutrition plans, in the long run you can relax and be confident that your business is running itself during your downtime.Â
Live the ‘work hard, play hard’ motto and trust your business planning. Don’t ever underestimate the importance that a life/work balance has in achieving, and maintaining, financial success in business.
Adopting personal trainer software
Your personal training business will evolve every day in one way or another. Whether you’re giving a new client their training plan, sending out an email or a new block of training, or you have a call with a prospective client scheduled, personal trainer software can help.
It all comes back to planning and reviewing, and the right management software will help to make your personal training business as fluid, lucrative and organised as possible. But don’t just take my word for it – do your own research, and find out how personal trainer software can work for your business.
