all posts post new thread

Off-Topic Starting a KB gym/business

Status
Closed Thread. (Continue Discussion of This Topic by Starting a New Thread.)
Some great ideas and thoughts about this topic... This topic is also covered a bit in one of the StrongFirst podcasts with Rachel Cosgrove. She talks about the challenges of the fitness industry and about her experience with building and maintaining her own company, Results Fitness. Rachel and her husband have developed an educational program called Results Fitness University that aims to provide resources and education for individuals interested in creating their own business.
 
@Chrisdavisjr thanks for the insight. I would love to hear more about the lessons you learned.

The main lesson was that you won't get anywhere if you're not able to market and sell whatever it is you do effectively.

My problem was not having enough confidence in the service I was offering and consequently not being comfortable asking people to pay for it.

I had one paying client and, in my opinion, he was wasting his money. He clearly didn't think he was as he kept coming back but not being able to offer a service I believed in held me back in a lot of ways.
 
The main lesson was that you won't get anywhere if you're not able to market and sell whatever it is you do effectively.

My problem was not having enough confidence in the service I was offering and consequently not being comfortable asking people to pay for it.

I had one paying client and, in my opinion, he was wasting his money. He clearly didn't think he was as he kept coming back but not being able to offer a service I believed in held me back in a lot of ways.

This was something S Maxwell hammered repeatedly at my cert - this is a service worth paying for and you need to get paid. Customer compliance is another factor that a trainer has some influence over but not complete by any means. They have to believe in the process.

This is why he said it is relatively easy to train an aspiring athlete or similar, a whole different ballgame training someone with no history of fitness. I've run through mental drills of training people of different background and goals, and is easy to see where one could have considerable trouble making progress. Have seen enough of that with people I have informally coached as well, a couple made nice gains and many achieved little or nothing because they just didn't do the work.
 
The main lesson was that you won't get anywhere if you're not able to market and sell whatever it is you do effectively.

My problem was not having enough confidence in the service I was offering and consequently not being comfortable asking people to pay for it.

I had one paying client and, in my opinion, he was wasting his money. He clearly didn't think he was as he kept coming back but not being able to offer a service I believed in held me back in a lot of ways.

I assume marketing should not be as challenging now since there are so many ways to attract clients with social media.
 
I assume marketing should not be as challenging now since there are so many ways to attract clients with social media.

Don't assume anything; that was the other mistake I made! I could certainly have made better use of social media to market myself but there's no way of knowing now whether or not it would have made a significant difference.

Besides which, there are a lot of 'fitness professionals' on social media and trying to stand out from all the others presents an entirely different set of challenges. I'm not trying to put you down or discourage you from pursuing your business, I just want you to be prepared for the challenges you'll face.
 
Don't assume anything; that was the other mistake I made! ...
Besides which, there are a lot of 'fitness professionals' on social media and trying to stand out from all the others presents an entirely different set of challenges.

It seems so easy to say or post on social media, but if you do not have a strong (pun intended...) message and story behind it, you are likely are getting only likes and comments of those ‘fitness professionals’ without reaching (potential) clients.

The mentioned confidence is essential and you should be very much aware of what you consider to be your “target audience”. This is something I am trying to adapt to myself with my online services (at my current location I am not allowed to work (‘in person’)).

Some great ideas and thoughts about this topic... This topic is also covered a bit in one of the StrongFirst podcasts with Rachel Cosgrove. She talks about the challenges of the fitness industry and about her experience with building and maintaining her own company, Results Fitness. Rachel and her husband have developed an educational program called Results Fitness University that aims to provide resources and education for individuals interested in creating their own business.

The main focus of this was also the ‘creation’ or ‘initialization’ of a community. This would be something to get people more likely to come back and become ambassadors for your business. As with many aspects of starting for yourself: “easier said than done”, but also something you could end up ‘overanalyzing’.

I also am looking into the options of starting a physical location and finding a way to gradually scale it. But we first of all have to chance location in order to make things even possible to materialize. I am planning to write a feasibility study and business plan after I have done my NSCA-CPT exam, just in order to organize my thoughts and put things on paper. It is good to see upfront how many clients at what price you need to ‘break even’. This might be one of the first reality checks before you take the big leap.
 
Status
Closed Thread. (Continue Discussion of This Topic by Starting a New Thread.)
Back
Top Bottom