What a BS day....

**jules_d1** · 05-30-2008, 03:46 AM

Today just solidified how much i need to get out on my own. I;ve been training at a big gym since Feb.

This is a multiple of agitating things here. Get this:

I have two girls (sisters) I train together. They come twice a week. They are in their 30/40's and can NEVER be wrong. In each session they think they can call the shots and decided how hard they work and when they rest. If you say something they don?t agree with, you'll hear about it. This really frustrates me as i'm not a "feel good" trainer and I feel they are a bad reflection on my training for outsiders looking in. If business was booming (getting there..) I would drop them/ refer them to someone else rather quickly.

Anyway, today they came in half an hour early (10:30am, booked in for 11am) while i was with another client. With a friendly tone i said "you girls are in early today" and they snapped back "no we're not". I kindly explained to them (while i was with my regular client at this time slot) that I couldn?t have booked them in at this time as this is a time slot of a regular client. They swore black and blue that I told them this time and said in front of the whole cardio area of the gym that i "****ed up and double booked? (spoke to the gym manager later and she distinctively remembers me telling them 11am...the right time, but they cant be wrong!).

I didn?t want to cause a scene so i just politely said they could either wait until 11 or just do their own session today (pay as you go situation..sucks i know). They muttered a few things under their breath and i focused on my regular client (5 X 1HR a week DEDICATED client).

Anyway, 10 mins later I see the two girls being trained by ANOTHER PT AT THE GYM. There is a big rule about training/stealing other peoples clients without asking. I couldn?t believe what i was seeing as she knew they were my clients.

Anyway, we finished training at the same time. The two girls did not even acknowledge i was at the front desk and continued to book in with the other trainer next week! i had a word to the other trainer and she just said "they just asked me to train them so i said OK...are you mad at me?". She acknowledged the fact that they were clients and I told her that I thought it was unethical and unprofessional to train and ultimately take someone else?s clients without asking. She didn?t say too much after that.

Long story short- i lost regular clients when I did nothing wrong. I mean if i had to lose someone, it would be those girls but still, i'm not quite at the point where i can pick and choose who i train.

Do you think I handled this situation well?

END RANT!!!!!

Anyway, the REAL question I am asking is- how much capital do you think one would need to realistically set up their own studio/business? I live in Ballarat, VIC- a City of ~90,000 about 1.5hrs from Melbourne but living is nowhere near as expensive as the big smoke.

I know its tough but just throw a number out there but i;m looking for a ballpark figure.

**hublife** · 05-30-2008, 05:41 AM

To start your own facility and lease equipment etc... it really depends on the square footage and price per square foot. For me to start a studio out here in Scottsdale it was going to take about 150k start up. Now I probably didn't need that much but I wanted to ensure I had enough to advertise like crazy and be successful.

**drooks10** · 05-30-2008, 06:33 AM

Does your management not get involved when other trainers take your clients (especially under the circumstances that you described in your op)?

**jules_d1** · 05-30-2008, 06:57 AM

Originally Posted by drooks10

Does your management not get involved when other trainers take your clients (especially under the circumstances that you described in your op)?

well the manager was basically the one who but the hard word on the client to go with the other trainer as she knew that things would be kinda icy if i started training them again.

have not sat down and discussed it with her in full yet.

**John Prophet** · 05-30-2008, 10:05 AM

well, on the one hand im sure u arent too dissapointed that u lost those particular clients. On the other hand u dont want the precedent set that other trainers can steal your clients.

Why not ask the manager to help u get replacement clients for those 2

ask the other trainer how she would feel if the situation was reversed

**drooks10** · 05-30-2008, 11:11 AM

better yet, tell her you want a percentage of her session with your clients (at least for that day).

**billy** · 05-30-2008, 12:09 PM

That was just wrong on her part. Good thing you told her or else she would just keep on doing it. You should talk to the manager about having some kind of ethic agreement among the trainers.

**EMISGOD** · 05-30-2008, 07:22 PM

Originally Posted by jules_d1

Today just solidified how much i need to get out on my own. I;ve been training at a big gym since Feb.

This is a multiple of agitating things here. Get this:

I have two girls (sisters) I train together. They come twice a week. They are in their 30/40's and can NEVER be wrong. In each session they think they can call the shots and decided how hard they work and when they rest. If you say something they don?t agree with, you'll hear about it.

This is where I would have dropped them.

Anyway, today they came in half an hour early (10:30am, booked in for 11am) while i was with another client. With a friendly tone i said "you girls are in early today" and they snapped back "no we're not". I kindly explained to them (while i was with my regular client at this time slot) that I couldn?t have booked them in at this time as this is a time slot of a regular client. They swore black and blue that I told them this time and said in front of the whole cardio area of the gym that i "****ed up and double booked? (spoke to the gym manager later and she distinctively remembers me telling them 11am...the right time, but they cant be wrong!).

This is where I would have had them ejected from the gym (or tried to) and had their membership revoked.

I didn?t want to cause a scene so i just politely said they could either wait until 11 or just do their own session today (pay as you go situation..sucks i know). They muttered a few things under their breath and i focused on my regular client (5 X 1HR a week DEDICATED client).

Anyway, 10 mins later I see the two girls being trained by ANOTHER PT AT THE GYM. There is a big rule about training/stealing other peoples clients without asking. I couldn?t believe what i was seeing as she knew they were my clients.

Did you offer this as an option or just either train themselves or wait?

Anyway, we finished training at the same time. The two girls did not even acknowledge i was at the front desk and continued to book in with the other trainer next week! i had a word to the other trainer and she just said "they just asked me to train them so i said OK...are you mad at me?". She acknowledged the fact that they were clients and I told her that I thought it was unethical and unprofessional to train and ultimately take someone else?s clients without asking. She didn?t say too much after that.

I would have asked the girl for whatever money she made off of them that day + a percentage of any future trainings of them and would get management to back me on this. Or I would have tried to have their memberships revoked.

Long story short- i lost regular clients when I did nothing wrong. I mean if i had to lose someone, it would be those girls but still, i'm not quite at the point where i can pick and choose who i train.

You are always at that point. Remember...your reputation is paramount.

Do you think I handled this situation well?

I don't think you handled it badly, but let this be a lesson to you as the very one thing a personal trainer cannot allow themselves to be, at any time, is a doormat.

**nickmanzoni** · 05-30-2008, 07:29 PM

I guess the best way to prevent this is to have a physical schedule in which they can see and then shut them up if they mess up appointments.

**kserajuddin** · 05-30-2008, 09:26 PM

Wow Jules - this story's horrendous and nearly brought tears to my eyes (jk btw)

We've talked about this before - you don't need to get a studio - the quick and dirty of what you need to do is this -

1. develop a signature training style and technique - you know a specialty
2. create an attractive website that is branded well (nice logo, nice pictures, etc.) - you also need to market yourself as "the man" - look at my site to see how to do this - www.gohardfitness.com - I have much less specialized credentials than you, and people get nervous and very gratefeul for the opportunity to speak to me, just because of my branding - if you need help with this pm me
3. start some basic online marketing - use craigslist, start to seo your site so that it creeps up in the search engines (takes about 3 months but you'll soon hit the first page of google for your location) - and you can even do a little PPC (pay per click) - PM me if you need help writing CL ads that convert, or need some good PPC strategies to save money -

Assuming you don't dress in rags, have a horrendous personality (talking to you online I know you don't), or have very low self-esteem to believe that people will want to train with you outside of a gym, you can get this all going in a few months -

I always get compliments from trainers, even top international trainers, on my websites and was planning to share my design guys for free with somebody - I was going to have a contest where people submit there stories and we pick a winner - but after this one, I think you won! - I'll let you know man and try to send you more info - and if you need any help let me know -

This profession is essentially fu@ked in the gym setting - it can't be salvaged - but you still see the amazing success potential from the "celebrity trainers" in the media - the key is to make (market) yourself one of these trainers - it has nothing to do with training celebrities -

**jules_d1** · 05-30-2008, 10:57 PM