I LOVE Fiverr.com. I use it at least on a weekly basis to get simple tasks done on the cheap …
From setting up a basic WordPress blog, to designing a customized Twitter background, to making a slick promo video for your business – you can find someone who’ll do it for ‘ya on Fiverr – for just five bucks!
Check out this video for five tips on outsourcing effectively with Fiverr:
Thanks, and talk soon –
Forest
Been getting a lot of questions lately from folks who are looking to get into the fitness business.
So we’re going to shift gears a bit and talk about how to “turn your fitness passion into profits” in today’s article.
If you’ve ever thought about starting up a career in fitness in some shape or form … today’s article is for YOU!
###
First – WHY do I have any business giving advice to you on the topic? Well, I am CERTAINLY not a fitness business “guru” or anything close to it … but since starting my fitness business in 2008, I have been pretty successful by most standards.
— I own a fitness facility here in Sacramento, CA
— We currently have a staff of five employees, and we’re growing and adding new talent to the team every few months
— We’re on track to be at about 150 total boot camp / personal training clients by the end of 2014
— I also have an online business where I maintain a network of blogs, YouTube accounts, maintain a social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, etc and have dozens of different products / training programs as well as an online coaching program
I have a hand in a lot of other smaller projects as well – like workshops, physical books and DVDs, apparel …. bottom line is, I am still improving and learning every day just like you … but I have learned some valuable stuff along the way that could most def help someone just starting out in the business.
SO … probably the #1 question I get is … what would you do if you had to start all over again? Where would you start?
And my answer is … I’d start a fitness boot camp.
Why?
Well, the online business stuff is AWESOME, and I know a lot of folks hear about it, and want to start there … and you can influence SO many more people around the world with your message, and you can work from literally anywhere with just an internet connection, which is AMAZING … BUT … there is a STEEP learning curve.
The reality is, it takes some time to develop the specialized knowledge to succeed online. It has taken me four years of working on this stuff to FINALLY “break through” this year and do really well.
You need to:
— Learn how to write sales copy that converts
— Learn how to drive traffic
— Learn how to create products
— Get at least some basic technical skills
— Make some contacts in the industry
Etc. before you’re going to make a full time business out of it. VERY do-able … but it takes time. And it is NOT easy, it is NOT for everyone and it takes a lot of hard work, to make it work. So that is NOT where I would start from day one.
Working with clients one on one in person is great too, but from a business standpoint, it doesn’t make a ton of sense. There is no leverage in working with folks one on one for an hour at a time. It is very hard to earn solid income from doing just one on one training sessions all day, and nothing else. And even if you could, you’d end up at the gym from morning ’till night and burnt out in a short time. So that’s not where I’d start either.
Again, what I’d do if I was beginning all over again, is start a fitness boot camp.
Just a few benefits of starting a boot camp:
— You can reach and help more people (one on one you could handle 20 or 30 people by yourself TOPS … with a boot camp you could easily handle 50,60,70 clients or more – without having to hire staff to help at all)
— MUCH higher leverage (I know several boot camp owners that make a great, full-time income working two or three hours per day, five days per week)
— Higher energy and more FUN
The other thing I’d do if I was starting all over again is get some SYSTEMS in place from the start, instead of wasting TONS of time trying to figure it out myself.
Systems to help you do things like:
– Get new folks in the door on a consistent basis
– Convert them to paying clients
– Get them awesome results
– Bill people on a consistent basis
– Get them scheduled for their training properly
– Keep track of their sessions
– Get them to stay a long time
– Get them to refer their friends, family, and co-workers
=> Here is the system I recommend you follow if you’re looking to start up a boot camp yourself
*Enter the coupon code “specialforforest” at checkout!*
The system I recommend you follow if you’re looking to start up a boot camp yourself is put together by my good friend and business partner Georgette Pann.
Georgette is a an ACE-certified trainer who specializes in weight loss and nutrition, bodybuilding, post rehab and fitness boot camps. She’s also the co-owner of NutriFitness LLC, which runs many boot camps each year. Plus, she’s a FiTour Certified Boot Camp Trainer, a sports nutritionist, and certified outdoor fitness trainer.
Her program covers:
– Complete instructions for planning and designing your boot camp
– All the registration forms and liability waivers you need — no need to hire an expensive attorney!
– Complete sample workouts and exercise descriptions – your trainees will love the variety, and you’ll love having the planning done for you!
– All the marketing materials, samples and templates you need to create sold-out boot camps!
At the end of the day, if I had to start over again in my fitness business, I’d start a fitness boot camp. But I’d also make sure I knew what I was doing, by getting a system to put it all together, instead of making the mistakes myself and doing it the hard way 😉
– Forest
PS – Georgette actually has shared with us a special link where you can get her program for a discounted price. So if you’re interested in grabbing a copy, make sure to do it through the link below:
=> Grab your copy of Georgette’s program at a discount here
*Enter the coupon code “specialforforest” at checkout!*
You can get a GREAT workout with very little or even zero equipment. And particularly if you train folks in a group setting, body weight training will end up being a staple of what you do.
I just put together a “master list” of 22 different body weight exercise substitutes … it’s a great reference for what moves to sub for ones you would typically do w added equipment.
Check it out here:
=> Body Weight Exercise Substitutes
Thanks, and talk soon –
Forest Vance
ForestVance.com
I remember about five and a half years ago when the idea first struck me to start up a fitness boot camp.
I was an independent personal trainer at the time, working out of a small local gym. I would train folks, pay the owner of the facility a portion of each session, and keep the rest for myself. It was a fine set up at the time. But I knew there had to be something more.
I saw a guy running a boot camp out of a park that I would drive by every day. I thought it was kind of a neat idea, that maybe I could do something like that myself.
Boot camps in the park would mean low overhead – no rent or per session fee to pay to anyone. It also meant I could train a bunch of people at once, charge THEM a lot ess than a personal training session would cost, and *I* would end up making a lot more money per hour.
I remember doing the math and how excited I got. If I could just train 10 folks at a time, and charge them 15 dollars each … that would be 150 bucks I would make for a one hour workout. Ten of those per week – one in the am, one in the pm, Mon thru Fri – and I would be making some decent dough. Around 6k per month, working like two hours a day! Wow!
So I decided to make it happen. I told my friends and family and got some fliers printed up and stuck them everywhere I could think of around town. I think I got 11 or 12 folks to come out and was PUMPED. It was a lot of fun actually, I remember it like it was yesterday.
Thing was, I made no money. It was free 🙂
And then when I tried to get folks to actually pay for it moving forward, it didn’t work out very well. I had like three people sign up. Not as easy as I thought 😉
Honestly I struggled with my boot camps for a good two years. I couldn’t figure out how to get clients in the door. Our boot camps would often end up having two or three people in them.
Then, it was also tough to know how to best structure the workouts so clients of different ability levels could still get a good workout and get the results they were looking for. So people didn’t end up staying around that long.
AND I didn’t really have systems in place to bill clients, or keep track of their sessions, or schedule their workouts, etc. etc. …
I can honestly say that it wasn’t until I got a system to follow – with a plan for how to design the workouts, for how to attract and retain clients – that I started to succeed. Now I have a pretty rockin boot camp business with well over 100 paying clients, and it’s growing every month. But the foundational SYSTEM is the base I have built it all off of.
=> Here is the system I recommend you follow if you’re looking to start up a boot camp yourself
See, if I’ve learned anything in the last few years, it’s that it is all about having systems in place to help you:
– get new folks in the door on a consistent basis
– convert them to paying clients
– get them awesome results
– bill people on a consistent basis
– get them scheduled for their training properly
– keep track of their sessions
– get them to stay a long time
– get them to refer their friends, family, and co-workers
Not rocket science. BUT requires that you know what the hell you are doing. Which I do MORE now (always still learning and getting better), but when I started did not at ALL.
=> Here is the system I recommend you follow if you’re looking to start up a boot camp yourself
The system I recommend you follow if you’re looking to start up a boot camp yourself is put together by my good friend and business partner Georgette Pann.
Georgette is a an ACE-certified trainer who specializes in weight loss and nutrition, bodybuilding, post rehab and fitness boot camps. She’s also the co-owner of NutriFitness LLC, which runs many boot camps each year. Plus, she’s a FiTour Certified Boot Camp Trainer, a sports nutritionist, and certified outdoor fitness trainer.
Her program covers:
– Complete instructions for planning and designing your boot camp
– All the registration forms and liability waivers you need — no need to hire an expensive attorney!
– Complete sample workouts and exercise descriptions – your trainees will love the variety, and you’ll love having the planning done for you!
– All the marketing materials, samples and templates you need to create sold-out boot camps!
At the end of the day, I truly believe training folks in a group format is the way to go. They pay less, get better results, and you make more. BUT you have to knowwhat the hell you are doing to make the system work. Otherwise you’ll be like I was and have a HOBBY, but not a BUSINESS, with your fitness boot camp. Grab Georgette’s program if you need some direction – and would love to hear how it works for you!!
Thanks
Forest
PS – Georgette has put her program on sale for MY readers only for a limited time. The link in this message is special though, so please don’t tell everyone you knowabout it because it is a significant discount from the regular price. Thanks!!
=> Grab your copy of Georgette’s program at a huge discount here
If you really think about it, you probably rely on one or two lead sources for the majority of your new clients. Such as:
– referals/word of mouth
– your website
– Facebook and/or Yelp
– deal-of-the-day promos
– ads in local publications
– etc.
Well, this is great – if it’s working for you, and you’re getting all the new business you want and need.
Odds are though that you need to diversify a bit. Best case senario, even if you ARE getting all the leads you can handle … you never know when one source will dry up. Your Facebook account could get shut down. Deal-of-the-day sites could stop working for you. Or whatever.
Point is you want to have multiple different sources going so that you get a steady stream of new clients throughout the year.
Today I have listed out for you 19 ways I personally got new clients in 2013.
I actually got leads from more than 19 sources over the course of the year … but these 19 sources I can track back and see that I have current clients that actually signed up through these channels.
We were able to get nearly 200 NEW clients through our doors last year and this is an outline of pretty much exactly how we did it.
Also this is by NO means an exhaustive list of ways to get boot camp and personal training client leads … just what is working for ME right now personally.
Of course once you GET the leads, you need to know how to sell and CONVERT them into paying clients … and get them to STAY in your program and REFER their friends … which are topics we’ll cover in future blog posts 😉
But for now, here are 19 ways I got new boot camp and personal training clients in 2013:
1 – Referrals
Once you get your business rolling and have a “critical mass” of maybe 50 or so clients, this absolutely should be your #1 source of new folks.
First you have to do an awesome job and get folks great results. That is the #1 thing you can do to get referrals. If your clients are not getting results, they probably won’t refer others. Simple. So get that fixed before anything else if it’s a problem.
THEN, there are a LOT of different strategies you can use to get them. Bottom line is that you should systematically be doing these things to get referrals into your biz on a regular basis.
A few things we do that work well:
– just be appreciative and thank your clients for sending you business
– give $50 cash to current clients who refer folks to one of our regular on-going programs, make a big deal about it in front of a boot camp group
– rotate through different events like charity boot camps, rapid fat loss challenges, bring-a-buddy boot camps, workshops, etc. each month and give folks a chance and reason to refer
– periodically ask for them via our email newsletter, on Facebook, in written thank you cards to new clients
Here is a link to a great post from Pat Rigsby with a bunch of other strategies as well:
=> 17 Fitness Referral Systems You Can Use
2 – Google Search
Our website pops up when you search for terms like “kettlebell training in Sacramento” … folks end up calling us, coming in for an intro session, and signing up.
3 – Walk-Ins
We are fortunate to be located in a good area of town with a reasonable amount of walk in and drive by traffic. We get at least a couple of new clients each month this way.
4 – Charity Boot Camps
Once per quarter we run a boot camp for a local charity. It’s a great and cool thing to do for the community and those in need. It also brings new folks into the studio and we end up getting exposure and new clients along the way.
5 – Yelp
Yelp is a huge lead source for us these days. We get at least a couple of new clients per month from it.
6 – Listing On RKC Website
We have become known as one of the go-to spots for KB training in our area … so if folks search around, they often find my RKC profile page. Then they come in and end up signing up.
7 – Workshops
Once per quarter or so we also run specialty workshops – on kettlebell training, flexibility and mobility, nutrition, etc. Not only is this an added benefit for our existing clients but we also attract new folks in this way too.
8 – Facebook
We post daily pics of classes in action, client success stories, etc.
BUT the most powerful for us anyway is always un-solicited feedback from happy training clients.
Best thing you can do here is, again, be awesome, have fun in your boot camps and get your peeps RESULTS!
9 – Rapid Fat Loss Challenges
A couple of times per year we run a 30 day rapid fat loss challenge. This is a huge way for current clients to refer their friends. Takes a lot of effort to put together but it is well worth it 😉 Here is the sign up page for our last one if you would like to see how we set it up:
=> FVT Rapid Fat Loss Challenge
10 – Postcard Mailing
We did a couple of postcard mailings last year and did get a few clients … but frankly the ROI was just okay. This is one that we are putting on pause for a little while. CAN be great but you have to know what you are doing 😉
11 – Door Hangers
Here is one that a lot of folks might not think of but can be effective. You get 500 or 1000 door hangers printed up, get out there yourself on a Saturday morning and maybe pay a couple of local high school kids 30 or 40 bucks to get them out in your neighborhood.
Real cheap, will cost you MAYBE a couple hundred bucks … we ended
up w three new clients last time we did this a few months ago. One to consider esp if you are just getting started.
12 – Bring-a-Buddy Boot Camps
Great opportunity for folks to bring their friends in to try your program. We try to do one of these every quarter.
13 – Yellow Pages Listing
Got a couple of clients from this one but cost us a lot of money (over 5k for the year).
Still have the free listing but do NOT recommend this one honestly … not a good ROI for us anyway.
Wanted to test it out but now we know 🙂
14 – Local Media – News, Magazine
We got on the news and also a spot in a local magazine in 2013 … both of these ended up resulting in getting a few new clients each.
15 – Lunch and Learn Presentations
Did several of these last year and am still perfecting the process. However, showing a lot of promise … and now have a prepared program I can do that 1) helps me practice my public speaking skills and 2) local businesses will actually pay a couple hundred bucks for a 30 minute talk AND I have the opp to get some new clients
from it too!
16 – Email Marketing
A MUST MUST MUST for your fitness business. We can track most of our sales back to this in some shape or form.
17 – Street Fair
We do a street fair with the other businesses in our complex … we just have a little booth and take people’s body fat and give away a free report in exchange for their contact info … and we get exposure and actually new sign ups typically when we run it.
18 – Inactive/past client re-activation
This is one that is DEF worth doing if you have been doing your thing for a little while. You have lots of inactive clients that left for whatever reason. This does not mean that they never want to train with you again though. An amazingly effective sequence you can use that my business coach Bedros came up with is what he calls the “Client Re-Activation Trifecta”. Here is a link to it – check it out and use it!
19 – Local biz JV cross – promos
When we do charity boot camps, rapid fat loss challenges, special events, etc., we get fliers in local small businesses where I have a relationship with the owner. Also occasionally we will get other business owners to send an email blast to their list about an event we have going or even just to a squeeze page where we can get prospects on our email list and then follow up and market to them with a special offer.
WHEW! That’s all 19 ways I got new clients in 2013. Hope this helps you and gives you some new ideas for YOUR biz in 2014.
Questions? Thoughts? Put ’em in the comments section below!!
– Forest
Maybe you’re a fitness pro, looking to bring your message to a larger audience – and make a few extra bucks on the side.
Maybe you’re just a fitness enthusiast who wants to blog about your own tips, successes and failures.
I’m here to tell you that there is a LOT of opportunity for you to start your own fitness blog for fun and profit.
I’ve been at it for about four years myself. And have built a nice little side business in the process, where I now reach tens of thousands of folks on a daily basis through various channels (my blog(s), various other websites, email newsletter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.).
Even cooler, I can work on this business ANYWHERE in the world with an internet connection. I make what most folks would consider a full time income – on the “side” – from my online business. And I do it in about two or three hours of work per day. Crazy stuff.
So, figured I’d put together a “top-level” view of how YOU can start a fitness blog – yourself! – for fun and profit. Let’s get right to it!
— side note: this post is a SUPER top-level view of my online business. If you are serious about doing this, I recommend you pick up a full program that will walk you through the process.
I have literally purchased dozens if not hundreds of programs and products on the topics I’m covering in today’s post … and the most comprehensive, and really the only need to get started, is my friend and mentor Craig Ballantyne’s Online Second Paycheck System. Get it here:
=> CB’s OSP
1 – Find an “untapped” niche
First figure out – Who do you want to service? What do you want to provide them?
Then you need to find a “hole” in the market where you can solve a big problem.
A good example is a project I partnered on with a friend of mine last year – Kettlebell Boot Camp Workouts.
Kettlebells are hot. Fitness boot camps are hot. No one had really put the two together into a product. By doing this we were able to sell almost 1,000 units and bring in over $25,000 in total revenue in a week’s time with this one product.
What unique idea do YOU have that you could bring to the world?
2 – Create your blog
Now, you need to create your blog around the big problem you’re looking to solve.
Maybe you want to help stay-at-home-moms lose fat with fast, efficient workouts they can do w minimal equipment.
Maybe you want to help people lose fat and get healthy with easy-to-prepare recipes.
Whatever topic you’ve picked, you’ll need to:
— get a domain name
— get hosting
— install WordPress (easiest solution)
You can do this yourself if you’re tech savvy. Or you can go to a site like elance.com and hire someone to do it cheaply.
Also. You’ll need to put together a free report or video or both to get folks to sign up for your email list. Something that solves one big problem for your prospects. As an example, I have a beginner’s guide to kettlebell training on my site at KettlebellBasics.net – and over 5,000 people over the last three years have signed up for my email list from this site along.
This is SUPER important to capture your visitors info, so you can email and follow up with them later on down the road.
3 – Get traffic
SO many ways to drive traffic to your site. But you gotta get folks to come check it out. And specifically, folks who are interested in what you got to come check it out.
Start by simply telling you friends, family and co-workers what you got going. And have them tell everyone they know too that might be interested.
Then the next easy place for most folks would be social media. Post a link on your personal Facebook page. You could also start a Fan Page for your blog specifically.
Also basic SEO for your blog posts will help you get some organic traffic (see the OSP system for instructions on how to do that)
YouTube is another great place to get traffic. Create videos around topics you cover on your blog, and direct folks back to your site in the videos, mentioning your free report or give-away.
4 – Content creation
You want to be consistent in your content creation. At LEAST once a week post to your blog. Two or three times would be even better.
Another easy way to get folks to your site would be to do guest posts for OTHER bloggers in your area of focus … and have them link back to your site and send THEIR readers your way.
When you post a new blog, email out a link to it to your growing email list (you ARE growing your email list, right?)
Then it’s time for …
5 – Monetization
Okay … all this sounds great so far … but how to you make money from it? 😉
Lots of ways actually.
The best are:
— create your OWN product – after you’ve been at the content creation thing for a little while, you can easily create a $7 or $9 product that solves a specific problem. Like maybe some recipes put together, or a six week workout program for a specific goal.
— recommend other’s products – you can recommend other’s products as an affiliate and get a commission when other buy on your recommendation. Of course, the key is that the products you recommend are of TOP quality and will help improve your reader’s lives.
— sell a service – you could do online training or nutrition coaching, for example.
If you’re going to do any or all of these things, you’re going to need to know how to write the sales copy to sell the products. How to charge and deliver the products. And a lot more. You will find out how to do ALL of this in the OSP system, here:
=> Full online business “blueprint”
Whew. There you have a VERY top-level view of how to start a fitness blog for fun and profit. If you have questions or comments, please send them my way. And good luck in starting your own fitness blog!!
Forest Vance
FVTBiz.com
ForestVance.com
PS – If you are really serious about doing this – don’t waste time trying to search around the internet and get all the details on how to get everything set up. Get THIS product, study it like I did, read the manual, listen to the audios, and get your blog out there to the world!!
You’ve probably heard that training folks in a group setting is the way to go.
That it’s more fun for your clients, that they’ll stay longer and get better results.
And that you have more leverage than training folks one-on-one, so at the end of the day, your clients pays less and you make more.
All VERY true. This is why at FVT boot camp and personal training we have moved from about 70% one-on-one/30% group-based training to 10% one-on-one/90% group-based training at our facility in the
last two years. And we have more than doubled the size of our business in the process.
All this being said, it is a little trickier to train folks in a group than to train them one-on-one. It takes some special considerations. And if you do things WRONG, before you know it, folks are getting bored and frustrated with their workouts, NOT getting the results they should be, and leaving in droves. And all of a sudden you’re out of business.
BUT it doesn’t have to be that way – IF you follow my tips 😉 Here are three simple things you can do to set up your group training workouts for maximum success:
You NEED to make your workouts challenging. This is what your clients came to you for. If they wanted an easy workout they could do it on their own. So don’t be afraid to push them.
At the same time, you also need to know how to scale your workouts and exercises properly for clients of all different fitness levels – which takes study and time and training experience. You have to know how you can push someone who, for example, can’t lunge yet with perfect form or get their feet up smoothly coming out of a burpee (this is a topic we’ll cover in a future post, BTW).
You ALSO need to make your workouts FUN. The reality is that your clients probably don’t like exercise as much as you do. So if you do the same thing every time, they are going to get bored. And end up quitting.
So make your workouts fun. Program them intelligently over time and don’t just do random stuff each day, but also do partner drills, relays, etc. to get folks interacting w each other and having a good time. THAT will get your clients to stay longer, keep paying you money, and referring all their friends! 😉
Simple exercises work best in a group setting. They are easy to teach, you minimize injury risk and you just end up minimizing general group training chaos.
Now I did NOT say easy. I said simple.
Full Turkish get ups, for example, in MOST large group settings just don’t work. They are too technical and it ends up taking too long to teach the movement and it slows the class down, etc.
Burpees on the other hand are an example of a movement that is relatively simple to teach technique-wise but is quite challenging to perform.
If in doubt, keep it simple.
One basic thing I never thought of when I first started teaching groups is that having everyone starting a set at the same time and do a prescribed number of reps is a bad idea.
In other words, if you have, say, ten folks all do 15 body weight squats at the same time, some folks will finish sooner than others. Some folks will use great form and take their time, others will rush through it. Some folks may even cheat and do less reps than you tell them to!!
SO – to work around this – a good strategy is simply to use timed sets. So instead of 15 reps of body weight squats, you just have folks do as many squats as possible in 30 seconds. Then you rest and move on to the next exercise.
Simple tip but SUPER helpful to know, especially when you are just starting out.
To sum up, I truly believe group training is the way to go … but you have to make sure you know how to set up the workouts for maximum success. Hope this article helps you. Let me know in the comments section below. And I’ll be back soon with more great fitness business content!
– Forest
