Out on my own now, need some help building the business (ideas & actions) - long read

[md3sign]

First off, I want to thank everyone here who has been extremely helpful to others (including myself) with ideas, advice, and motivation to get started in fitness professionally.

Current Situation

At the beginning of this month I finally left my job to pursue a career in fitness. For the time being, I'm focusing on personal training - 1on1 and group fitness. I decided a few months into last year to make the switch and spent my free time getting certified, doing some research, making a website, coming up with some basic branding, and starting to do some independent training. I've been saving most of last year to hold me over for a few months while I get this rolling. So basically I now have all day, every day to make things happen.

I'm currently training as an independent contractor at a nearby studio, but I'm having trouble getting clients. At this point I have:

1 steady client
4 bootcamp participants (2 steady, 1 will probably drop off, 1 may become steady)
2 good potentials for 1on1
a few potentials for bootcamp

So - very little. I realize I haven't done much marketing, but all of this has been word of mouth thus far and all stemming from my first client. She has basically worked her entire social circle and gotten me the rest of the people, which is awesome, but the problem is that's just 1 small circle and I don't have another one like it, so I'm a little stuck. If I had 20 versions of her, I'd be set.

My current marketing consists of:

website (needs updating)
******** (personal page)
******** (business page)
******** (ongoing event for bootcamp)
business cards (latest version to arrive within the week)

Once I get a couple pages on the site updated I'm going to do craigslist/groupon and I have a business networking opportunity coming up, but I'm a little lost - or ADD'ing, whichever you prefer.

It seems like group fitness is a great way to go (cheaper for clients and more money for you via volume) and I'm having a lot of fun teaching my classes, but I'm finding a few roadblocks that may be preventing me from expanding as fast as I need to at my studio, namely:

1) Location. The studio is in a nice part of town, but not in any sort of passerby area and more of the suburbs, so not a lot of young professionals (my main demographic). The reason I chose this studio was because through my limited research at the time it made sense - nice facility, close to me, relatively good terms (30% rent, 24 hour access).

2) No walk-ins. Not only due to the location, but also because it's a private studio so someone off the street can't just show up, but location is probably #1 .. I've never actually seen a person just walking down that street.

3) Time availability for bootcamps. I'm currently doing 7:30pm on T/TH and 11am on Saturday. 7:30 is pretty late and neither here nor there for a lot of people, so I think that may be holding some back. Something like 6pm would probably be a lot better.

I think it's pretty obvious I need to start looking for a different studio in a different part of town.

Where to Next?

At this point it seems like there are 1000 different directions I could go. I'm not too worried about the money yet (as I said I've given myself a few months of buffer time, but I don't want to spend that money if I don't have to). On the other hand, I need to make this happen. Besides updating my site and doing some more of the free online promoting, some other ideas I have:

1) Work at a commercial gym part time. Yes the pay would suck vs. independent, but it could be a good way to build marketing/selling/training skills as well as build my social circle. Downside: takes time away from building my own business, sort of.

2) Join a commercial gym and lift there a few times a week. I currently work out at a local rec center because it's close to me and super cheap and I now know a lot of people from there, but they're not my target demographic so there's not much I can do there in terms of business building. I'm wondering if it will be worthwhile to shell out $20-30/month for a few months + driving time to maybe meet some new faces. Thoughts?

3) Look into working at a community gym part time. Maybe better terms, less walk in, but could still be a good way to build marketing/selling/training skills as well as build my social circle. Downside: takes time away from building my own business, sort of.

4) Part time bartending. Time-wise this doesn't interfere with training at all, could be a good way to meet some potential clients and expand social circle, but as others have mentioned in the other thread it may just be a bunch of party animals that don't help my business at all in the long run. Benefit: extra $. Downside: may not be helpful to business building.

5) Marketing to strippers. Inspired by another thread (can't find the link right now). It could work. I'm strongly considering giving this a go for 4 weeks on a $450 budget. If I got just 1 client out of this I'd consider it successful. On paper this sounds pretty good. Target demographic: check (young professionals ... ok maybe just young with $), money: check (make enough in 1 night to cover 1-2 months of training).

Marketing/Selling Skills

This is something I'm not great at. I'm too obvious in my soliciting as I've been told and it's something I need to work on. I'm getting feedback from my friends as far as tactics go so that's good, but I feel I lack the proper sales training. I'm going through some reading/viewing material to sharpen up, though I think I have a long way to go. I see all the successful trainers here discussing how they have all these clients and making all this money and now that I'm "in the game" it seems distant in the sense that I don't see a clear-cut path to get there.



There you have it. Hopefully this wasn't too disorganized, I just kinda brain vomited this out. Would appreciate some help from all you successful trainers. I'm just scatter brained right now and want to do everything at once - could use some direction on things to do step-by-step.

[SerpentHearted]

I'm curious about the time issue with your bootcamps?

I haven't done one yet, but I see the early morning / before work bootcamp thing as a potential gold mine... you've just got to run it at a time that's convenient for people to still make it to work on time after training. Then you've got to get people signing up for at least 1 month at a time, and preferably for "unlimited" sessions so you're getting paid every day. I think groupon would be an excellent way to get the ball rolling on this.

[X-Mark-X]

Well I don't have much experience working independently as I work at a gym as an employee. However, I do aspire to run my own gym in the near future so I can at least give you some ideas.

1. If you advertise, do it based on a promotion. Don't just advertise saying "come train with me I'm awesome", give them some incentive to call you immediately. Everyone wants to get in shape, and if they see a training advert they might think "oh yeah, maybe some day I will do that". However, if they see an advert offering some sort of discount/promotion that's only available for a certain month, it gives them that sense of urgency that NOW is the time to do it.

Don't worry about giving away cheap/free sessions, because in the end if you're doing a good job those people WILL become long term clients and eventually pay you full price, in addition to bringing in more clients through word of mouth.

One idea would be a sampler type promo. Offering a free assessment + 3 training sessions for $99. Yes this is cheap, but that's the point. It's hard for someone to comit to 10+ training sessions paying 500+ dollars without knowing what they are going to get from it. But those 4 sessions are cheap enough to pull them in and then from there if you do a good job you can re-sign them for a lot more sessions at full price.

Another idea is a couples advert. Sign up with a friend or significant other and you both get a reduced rate. That way someone reads it and drags a friend along with them. It also gives all those boyfriends who are scared to ask their women to lose wieght an excuse to ask them to come to the gym haha.

2. Offer a referral bonus. By this I mean tell your existing clients that if they refer a friend who buys a package from you, they get a free session. If they refer two friends, they get 3 free sessions. Refer three friends, get 8 free sessions, etc. That way instead of looking like you're begging for sessions by asking your clients to get you more clients, you're giving them a reason to want to do it for themselves. It's practically a pyramid scheme, and people are suckers for pyramid schemes lol.

3. Make an arrangement with a complimenting but non-competing business. For example, establish a cross-promotion with maybe a tanning salon or supplement shop. "Buy over $150 in supplements and get a free fitness assessment from md3sign", "Purchase a 500 minute tanning package and get 25% off of a personal training package from md3sign", etc. In return you can offer similar promotions like "buy a 10+ session package and receive 50 minutes of free tanning". This way you both get to add value to the products you're selling as well as getting another source of advertising.

Anyway just some ideas off the top of my head. Hope some of that is helpful.

[justinslayer]

Boot camp, boot camp, boot camp. Market that hard for those wanting to lose weight.

I run 4 camps a day along with 2 trx classes a day mon-fri, at $20-$25 per head!
It's all about volume!


Make signs and stick them everywhere. I use poster board and a stencil kit, and make wooden stakes. I stick them everywhere, every other day, free way ramps and parks, although the hating competition will always take them down.

I got flyers and posters at the local supp shops, and the local junior college. I have a teacher that helped me by posting flyers at her school for the other teachers to see. I got 11 teachers now in my boot camps. If you have a local independent family owned supp shop, be good friends with them. They let me on a monthly basis set up a table inside their store, and market my services. This works!

Craigslist can be good, but lookers there can be very flakey. People want cheap, so boot camp works for them.

The thing with boot camp, is it becomes one big family. Everyone becomes friends, mainly the women. They start hanging out with each other and ask each other "you going to boot camp tonight". It becomes a cult, a following

#5 is my idea, and it works!!!!!! Gotta spend money to make money right?

[Ctrainer]

IMO, 30% for rent in a private studio is too much..if you were paying that in a big gym or community center that had lots of members that you could market to, that would be different..but no walk-ins or unsolicited members?..you have no room to grow..

Is this studio doing any advertising for you?

Can you have a sandwhich board outside on a street corner or busy intersection??

[X-Mark-X]

IMO, 30% for rent in a private studio is too much..if you were paying that in a big gym or community center that had lots of members that you could market to, that would be different..but no walk-ins or unsolicited members?..you have no room to grow..

Is this studio doing any advertising for you?

Can you have a sandwhich board outside on a street corner or busy intersection??

Depends on the studio IMO. I used to work out of a private studio that charged 50% rent. However, the guy who owned it was full and any new clients the studio got went directly to me. Really it was more like I was an employee but with the freedom/tax benefits of being an independent contractor.

[shroper]

My best advice for anyone trying to run ANY small business is to join a local networking. Pretty much all of my clients have come from referals through my networking group. We meet twice a month, and discuss local issues effecting small businesses, and it is a great way to meet succesful people in the community and build rapport. I used to not know anyone in my town, since I moved here on a whim. Now I can't go to the grocery store without running into someone I know. Get involved in the community, and you are bound to be succesful. You said your 1 client got you most of your business. A networking group will provide you with dozens of circles to recruit clients from. If people like you they will will come to you or refer others to you. Simple as that. It is by far the best thing I've done for building my business.I always hated feeling like a pushy salesman trying to sell to clients. I finally realized that just building relationships with lots of people will bring you much more business in this industry. Good luck!

[ErikRok]

First off, congratulations on making the decision to go off on your own. It is going to an awesome trip.

My current marketing consists of:

website (needs updating)
******** (personal page)
******** (business page)
******** (ongoing event for bootcamp)
business cards (latest version to arrive within the week)

Ok, if you want to have the biggest impact, what you just mentioned you were doing for marketing is not going to be the best bang for you buck.

These are great ways to fill in and show how cool your business is, but It's not going to have as big of an impact as you think.

So I am just going to say it. You have to get up, and get out there, face to face, talk to people and hustle your ass off.

One of the best ways to get in front of people for free and show that you are an expert is to do public speaking. Anytime someone sees you speak they automatically think of you as an expert on something.

Public speaking is free, and can pull in a lot of clients.

But I will be upfront. Just like every other marketing technique it doesn't mean you will get clients after only one try.

The first time I got out there, I didn't get any clients. But what did happen is I connected with a few top business people in the community, and that led to more speaking opportunities, and eventually some of those original people I spoke to actually became my clients.

The way to find public speaking gigs is simple. Go to google and search for "your town" clubs, "your town groups", your town Lions club, Rotary club.

Search for groups and clubs that are within your demographic. There are groups that always need speakers.

Hahaha... I actually went and spoke at a Bird watching club. I didn't care. You never know what will happen.

There are so many other ways to market, but that is just one way to really leverage yourself and get in front of a lot of people at once.

Oh, and for you client who brought in all her friends. That is not the only social circle. THose friends she brought in have their own social circles outside of that.

If you client refers someone, give that client a discount.

pm me if you need any ideas.

[sjmacka]

Here are a few of the things i did. I currently run 9 sessions a week from 3 locations.

These are prob the most sucsessfull things I did.
1. Speak with hair salons - I offered all of the hairdressers 1 week free pass and then 25% off for ever referal they give me. This has by far worked best for me. I am training 4 hair dressers for free but have gained 15 paying members from them. They are still refering clients to me. (They are only come once a week so no real biggy)

2. Offer good referal incentives - Not just free/discounted training - I ran a comp that who ever gave me the most referals in 1 month got a weekend away in a 5* hotel. This cost me £500 but I got 10 new members out of it - Took me 1 month to recoup.

3. Write/email/phone local press and offer them the chance to come along and take part in the hotest new fitness regiem in town - MAKE SURE YOUR CLASS IS FULL!!

4. My website has next to no info on my bootcamps - The compittion is so fierce that the amount of time and investment needed to appear high on google rankings is just too much for me. (not really a tip but just my view)

5. If you have more than one location try and run a compition once every 6 weeks between locations. Does well for building team spirit (retention, retention retention)

6. I offer the first class free and then a no joining fee if they join within the next 24hrs. All sign to a min of 6mths.

7. Have everything paid direct debit. Do not allow cash payments. Once people start paying direct from their bank it is easy to not see it as real cash so it becomes less of a problem for people.

8. After 2 month of being at my boot camp all members get a free consultation with a nutritionist- This does cost me but it is heavily discounted and the referals I get from the nutritionist are great.

I've only had my boot camp running for 5 months the first few months where the hardest but once you get a good group word will spread. I'm still very new to running this myself so still finding my feet. The hardest part for me is coming up with new stuff to do every class.

Good luck.

[MT1979]

Give your hairdresser, and the girls that work with her, bootcamp for free. If they get results or enjoy it, they'll tell everyone.

[sunessence]

My suggestion is to keep your marketing online. Website and ******** are fine. When people want to transform their physique, they'll probably google information, join a few forums or boards. It's rare that they'll ask someone they know in person for advice.

So, keep your work online. This guy here where I live (far, far away from USA - so I apologize for my English) joined this local online female community (I'm part of it for years, so I know), a forum basically and replied in almost every subject in Fitness&Training section, helping a lots of girls with his posts. Some time later, he took this really really over weighted boy, who was a member of this board, (he was about 20 yrs old and weighted 250+ lbs) and opened "Nutrition and training journal"-thread. The boy posted his meals daily, as well as his workouts together with progress pictures. Transformation was huge. He dropped to 150 lbs, had some surgery (removing excess skin) and he looked great. Some time later, this guy continues the transformation thread, this time featuring a girl, again a board member. She posted what she ate and what supplements she took, but work out regime was kept secret this time. Of course, he's visiting thread at least a few times a day, replying other girls' questions about nutrition and training (don't overlook that - this is how he got their trust). Progress pictures are amazing. Every girl on that forum wants to be his client now.

He also publishes this progress pictures on his FB page, and since the results are the best marketing... Maybe you should give a girl or two (from my experience, girls are more willing to pay personal trainers) a free bootcamp, just as MT1979 suggested and then get their progress pictures to brag around? My point is... don't underestimate the impact of online communities, and make sure you have some previous client's progress photos to show to your potential client. Hope that helps.

[ErikRok]

Here are a few of the things i did. I currently run 9 sessions a week from 3 locations.

These are prob the most sucsessfull things I did.
1. Speak with hair salons - I offered all of the hairdressers 1 week free pass and then 25% off for ever referal they give me. This has by far worked best for me. I am training 4 hair dressers for free but have gained 15 paying members from them. They are still refering clients to me. (They are only come once a week so no real biggy)

2. Offer good referal incentives - Not just free/discounted training - I ran a comp that who ever gave me the most referals in 1 month got a weekend away in a 5* hotel. This cost me £500 but I got 10 new members out of it - Took me 1 month to recoup.

3. Write/email/phone local press and offer them the chance to come along and take part in the hotest new fitness regiem in town - MAKE SURE YOUR CLASS IS FULL!!

4. My website has next to no info on my bootcamps - The compittion is so fierce that the amount of time and investment needed to appear high on google rankings is just too much for me. (not really a tip but just my view)

5. If you have more than one location try and run a compition once every 6 weeks between locations. Does well for building team spirit (retention, retention retention)

6. I offer the first class free and then a no joining fee if they join within the next 24hrs. All sign to a min of 6mths.

7. Have everything paid direct debit. Do not allow cash payments. Once people start paying direct from their bank it is easy to not see it as real cash so it becomes less of a problem for people.

8. After 2 month of being at my boot camp all members get a free consultation with a nutritionist- This does cost me but it is heavily discounted and the referals I get from the nutritionist are great.

I've only had my boot camp running for 5 months the first few months where the hardest but once you get a good group word will spread. I'm still very new to running this myself so still finding my feet. The hardest part for me is coming up with new stuff to do every class.

Good luck.

^^^ Great Stuff here. For #4, there should be a minimal web presence. Try taking offering one of your clients a discount in exchange for them writing some content for you. Or barter with a web designer/ seo person to get your site going. That way it wont take up too much of your time.

I like the free consultation with the nutritionist. Great way to add value for your clients. Curious, why did you choose 2 months before you gave them the consultation? Would it be better for you to offer the consultation at the beginning if they signed up for a long term contract? That way they had the best information to get started.

[sjmacka]

^^^ Great Stuff here. For #4, there should be a minimal web presence. Try taking offering one of your clients a discount in exchange for them writing some content for you. Or barter with a web designer/ seo person to get your site going. That way it wont take up too much of your time.

I like the free consultation with the nutritionist. Great way to add value for your clients. Curious, why did you choose 2 months before you gave them the consultation? Would it be better for you to offer the consultation at the beginning if they signed up for a long term contract? That way they had the best information to get started.

I do agree with you about the website. I just feel that people put to much emphasis on their website and then wonder why this is not getting them any clients. It's a great place to direct people to from flyers, business cards and the like but don't rely on it to much for bringing you new clients from search engines.

I have only just brought in the 6months contract. I wanted to make sure that I had at least covered the cost of the visit to the nutritionist before. I ws going to keep it at 6 months but you have made me rethink that. (Thank you)

Another couple of things I did-

To help keep costs down for marketing - I spoke with a college that was running a graphic design course and ran a comp for the best flyer/poster/marketing material - Prize was £500 this sounds expensive but I got a lot out of it. MY marketing material is now covered and on a rotation system, I have been given so many invaluable ideas and have built links to get work done at a low cost in the future. + I signed up 2 of the college kids parents.

I make a lot of stuff myself like power bags, waterfalls, tyre drags and Raised lifting platforms. I am always on the loo out for anything that I can use at the boot camps. I thought people would be a bit funny with me using homemade stuff and not the pretty power bags that you get in the gym. But in general the feedback is really positive. And it is so cheap max cost for a homemade power/sand bag is £15 and that’s for my bad boy 50kg one.

Because my boot camp involves a lot of shunting and lifting I give every new member a pair of weight lifting gloves.

I know it might sound like I give a lot of stuff away but it so competitive in my area that all of these things help attract new members and with client retention.

I’m thinking of getting t-shirts done but the cost is pretty big so I might wait a while.

[md3sign]

Thanks for the replies, some great points here so let me address a few things:

1) Studio Problems
There are several issues with the current studio. 1, it's not in a great location and I can't put up signs (and even if I did, like I said it's not in a traffic heavy area). 2, the owner will not give me free use of the facility for my free clients to build up the business. This is only with regards to bootcamp anyway and there's barely any actual equipment use, so this basically comes down to him wanting more $ without regard to me building up the business and paying less now, more later. Since it's at the same time as with the currently paying attendees, it no extra sweat off his back but he won't do it.

4, the timing sucks. Ideally starting at 6 or 6:30pm would accommodate most people but I can't use the facility until 7:30pm or 7:45pm on weeknights (the earlier times are for existing classes). It IS possible to do early mornings before work, but it would be extra commute for a lot of people (again, location) and if it's something I can avoid at the beginning I'd like to. I asked him if I could pay him a flat rate per month and he said no, so there goes that.

Long story short this studio isn't going to work. So my #1 priority right now is finding a different studio in a better location. I have a part of town in mind with a lot of young professionals. There was one studio there where the guy offered me 24 hour access and a flat rent of $750/month. I'm sure there are more available ones (heck, I could even look into renting a place and setting up my own shop, though probably not at the beginning). I'm looking more into it now, hopefully I can find a place with a flat payout that's cheaper (or a % payout that's less) and either free/reduced rent for a month or two or some sort of negotiation to have a low-cost startup period while I build up clientele. I also need to be able to hold sessions at the peak times (starting at 6-6:30pm and eventually mornings, possibly). I will be doing a lot of bootcamp training for free in exchange for referrals at the beginning, keep reading.

2) Free Bootcamps
I've been doing some more research and I think I should take advantage of the Law of Reciprocity. Watch the first video on this page from 11:30-16:30: http://www.kickbacklife.com/thank-you-for-subscribing/
And also the 7 minute video here: http://www.kickbacklife.com/2009/07/...ness-business/

Sounds like this could work well and I want to give it a shot. Since I'm running the bootcamps anyway, extra participants isn't really any extra work. A little, but not much. I really want to push "you can come to these classes for free, all I ask is for referrals and if you can get me someone in a month or two we can keep doing this". Thoughts? Once I get the studio figured out and set up, I will get cranking on this 110%. I figure it's not ideal to do this right now because of the current studio problems, but I can get things set up so I can just hit "go" when I find this new place. I'm going to spend all of this next week going to places and seeing what I can find in terms of a new "home".

There are tons of potentials I can email on ******** (people that know a lot of other people), but I need some help coming up with a proper email. Concise, but also intriguing (though, free should be intriguing enough). If there's a 10% response to all this, that's solid. Ditto for Craigslist. This is my #2 priority.

3) Other Marketing
You guys gave a lot of other great ideas and I want to pursue most of them to some degree, but obviously I can't do everything at once so I need to prioritize. Groupon is definitely something on the list once #1 and #2 are set. Public speaking, signs, networking with businesses, all of that sounds good. With the business networking thing, once I get the studio thing figured out (hopefully this coming week-2 weeks) I'll go around to supp shops/salons/tanning shops and talk to the people there. My question with this is how to to best present this free bootcamp thing - give them a card? Take their info? Both? I need a system in place that has a good chance of working since I'll be doing this repeatedly.

Also, with regards to referrals I already do that. For my PT clients if they refer someone to me for PT, they get 10% of the purchaser's package price deducted from their next package. For the bootcamps, I give existing clients 2 free weeks for every referral they bring me who signs up. I may bump this up to a month (keep reading).

------

I'm going to focus the business building first and foremost on bootcamps with 1-on-1 training as a secondary, "premium" service.

So, I have a few questions:

1) What other things do I need to look/look out for when selecting this new studio? My main concerns are a) location, b) rent terms, c) ability to have a low cost startup period and not have to pay for clients I'm training in exchange for referrals, d) adequate room/equipment (don't need much)/clean facility, e) peak time availability, and f) some ability to advertise my business nearby, either something on the windows or a sign out front or something.

2) How to best structure an email with this "free training in exchange for referrals" content? How to best present this on Craigslist? Or should I just try out straight paid on CL first?

3) How to best present this "free training in exchange for referrals" in person to potentials? Give them card? Take their info? Both? Something else?

I know some of you here don't recommend doing anything for "free", but unless I'm totally off base this sort of break-in period is necessary if you want to build it up fast. If I could get 20-30 free bootcamp participants for a month or two, doesn't it make sense that I could get at least 5-10 paid referrals from them (including some who might even become paying clients)?

So my main concern right now is building up the volume of attendees for the bootcamps, even if it's free for a while and I need to maximize that. I believe it will come back in paid referrals after a bit of time.

Thanks again everyone ... very exciting time for me, but also chaotic.

[ErikRok]

1) What other things do I need to look/look out for when selecting this new studio? My main concerns are a) location, b) rent terms, c) ability to have a low cost startup period and not have to pay for clients I'm training in exchange for referrals, d) adequate room/equipment (don't need much)/clean facility, e) peak time availability, and f) some ability to advertise my business nearby, either something on the windows or a sign out front or something.

2) How to best structure an email with this "free training in exchange for referrals" content? How to best present this on Craigslist? Or should I just try out straight paid on CL first?

3) How to best present this "free training in exchange for referrals" in person to potentials? Give them card? Take their info? Both? Something else?

I know some of you here don't recommend doing anything for "free", but unless I'm totally off base this sort of break-in period is necessary if you want to build it up fast. If I could get 20-30 free bootcamp participants for a month or two, doesn't it make sense that I could get at least 5-10 paid referrals from them (including some who might even become paying clients)?

So my main concern right now is building up the volume of attendees for the bootcamps, even if it's free for a while and I need to maximize that. I believe it will come back in paid referrals after a bit of time.

Thanks again everyone ... very exciting time for me, but also chaotic.

For a location. It doesn't have to be your own place. Personally I would find a sub lease with a percentage of sales to pay for rent. There are a ton of places. Don't fall in love with a location. Find what works for you financially and what will work for your clients. Not for your landlord. He will find someone else to pay rent.

If your paying a flat rent, why would it matter if your bringing in free clients? He gets paid regardless. He is not getting paid a percentage.

When your killing it with you biz then go with your own place. The other thing is, (and I will get heat for this) is your place doesn't necessarily have to be in a great location to have a good business. I had two places that were on a dead end in an industrial complex. No one ever complained and business was fine. DId I lose walk in traffic, yup. But I never relied on walk in traffic. I went out and found my clients, I didn't wait for them to come to me.

My biggest issues with subleasing facilites was always the time too. But 95% of places will never have anything going on before 8am. So you can get a bunch of sessions in then.

Also, if your funds are low, start out just doing bodyweight exercises. Or, make a deal with a client or two. Train them for free/discount if they buy equipment for you. Lets say you need 10 Kettlebells. Just say hey listen, how would you like to get a huge discount? If you pay for (equipment) then I will let you train with me for a year. Pretty simple, and will work.

As for the free training on Craigslist, just post a headline that says, I will train you to lose weight for free. BUT...fair warning on this. You will get a huge amount of Tire kickers, and will have to go through a lot of people to find someone decent. I tried many times, but just never really worked well. You have to pre-qualify them. Don't be afraid to say no to them.

I your going to go the free route, then find people who are influencers in the community or who know a lot of people. Like mentioned before, Hairdressers are awesome. Massage/ tanning parlors work well too.

Oh, and don't put off trying to get clients while you are finding a location. Go get your clients and tell them you are having a grand opening in a few weeks. Get them on a waiting list. That helps to build buzz.

One step at a time. Don't overwhelm yourself. Just think about who has the most contact with potential clients, and a location that will work for you and your clients.

[fitnessbyjay]

Instead of starting your own studio, does anybody think this is a good idea?
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=130333803

[comps]

Use a popular local site for ads.
Craigslist, Kijiji
both are free
I dont believe Kijiji is as popular in the states, but you can pay a low fee so that when one of your tags are searched, your ad is at the top.

[md3sign]

For a location. It doesn't have to be your own place. Personally I would find a sub lease with a percentage of sales to pay for rent. There are a ton of places. Don't fall in love with a location. Find what works for you financially and what will work for your clients. Not for your landlord. He will find someone else to pay rent.

If your paying a flat rent, why would it matter if your bringing in free clients? He gets paid regardless. He is not getting paid a percentage.

When your killing it with you biz then go with your own place. The other thing is, (and I will get heat for this) is your place doesn't necessarily have to be in a great location to have a good business. I had two places that were on a dead end in an industrial complex. No one ever complained and business was fine. DId I lose walk in traffic, yup. But I never relied on walk in traffic. I went out and found my clients, I didn't wait for them to come to me.

My biggest issues with subleasing facilites was always the time too. But 95% of places will never have anything going on before 8am. So you can get a bunch of sessions in then.

Also, if your funds are low, start out just doing bodyweight exercises. Or, make a deal with a client or two. Train them for free/discount if they buy equipment for you. Lets say you need 10 Kettlebells. Just say hey listen, how would you like to get a huge discount? If you pay for (equipment) then I will let you train with me for a year. Pretty simple, and will work.

As for the free training on Craigslist, just post a headline that says, I will train you to lose weight for free. BUT...fair warning on this. You will get a huge amount of Tire kickers, and will have to go through a lot of people to find someone decent. I tried many times, but just never really worked well. You have to pre-qualify them. Don't be afraid to say no to them.

I your going to go the free route, then find people who are influencers in the community or who know a lot of people. Like mentioned before, Hairdressers are awesome. Massage/ tanning parlors work well too.

Oh, and don't put off trying to get clients while you are finding a location. Go get your clients and tell them you are having a grand opening in a few weeks. Get them on a waiting list. That helps to build buzz.

One step at a time. Don't overwhelm yourself. Just think about who has the most contact with potential clients, and a location that will work for you and your clients.

I agree it doesn't have to be the BEST location, but there's a neighborhood I have in mind that is THE spot in the city for young professionals who care about their health. The exact street won't matter too much. The free route I want to do on a "DL basis". As in, I don't publicly announce it, but I contact specific people who I think would be a good fit for it. Everyone else will get the standard free trial, then paid.

Right now I'm doing 1 week free, then you can sign up for $99/month if you like it. This is for all the "regular" newcomers. Existing members each get 2 free weeks for every referral. So when I do CL ads, I'm just going to do the standard ad. Do you think I should bump it up more in the beginning? Maybe 2 free weeks for newcomers and 1 free month for every referral from an existing member? Or is 1 week/2 weeks sufficient?

Also, would it make sense to try and get some of these "free" clients in at the current studio (if they want to drive up) although I'd be essentially paying the owner for nothing, about $8/week per person, or wait until I'm at a new location and have a "grand re-opening" of sorts there?

[Fit4MMA]

In your craigslist ads make sure you have pics, when they see it in the title they are more likely to open it, also get your website updated and have a click here link in your craigslist ad that will take them straight to your website

[projectb36]

In your craigslist ads make sure you have pics, when they see it in the title they are more likely to open it, also get your website updated and have a click here link in your craigslist ad that will take them straight to your website

I second that. Craigslist is great for pulling in clients, but only if you put the time into updating it with pics. Be sure to put up a new, yet slightly different posting every week so as to come up higher on the searches.

It seems that you need to focus everthing on your marketing plan. Referrels and word of mouth are the best, but you need a bigger base of clients before that will start paying off.
I wold suggest sending out flyers to everyone in a 500m radius of your gym. If cost is an issue, just go to a website to design your flyers and pay some kids to put them on everyone's doors or do it yourself. I sent out flyers that were done through a rep from Yellowbook and they were able to target higher end clients in a couple mile radius. Depending on what you charge, one or two people out of 500 flyers sent out would pay for the cost in the first month.

Good luck!!!

[md3sign]

With regards to CL pics, pics of what exactly? I basically have a banner I use for my bootcamp class and some pics of the facility (the rest are shots of me training 1 particular person, which isn't really appropriate for the group fitness stuff).

[md3sign]

Here's the email I started sending out to those who I think would be good candidates for the "free for referrals" classes:


Title
"Free fitness training opportunity"


Body
"(Name),

If you're interested in some free group fitness training, I have an opportunity for you. I'm building up my classes and offering 1-2 months free to a limited number and type of clientele in exchange for referrals. If you can bring me someone who signs up during that time (the normal monthly rate is $99) you can continue training for free, no other catch. If not, you just got some free training!

Currently the classes are held Tuesday/Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings at a studio in ___, but I'm working on moving to a ___ location with more available days/times very soon.

Let me know if you'd like to participate and I'll get you specifics."

[Waidconsulting]

First off, I want to thank everyone here who has been extremely helpful to others (including myself) with ideas, advice, and motivation to get started in fitness professionally.

Current Situation

At the beginning of this month I finally left my job to pursue a career in fitness. For the time being, I'm focusing on personal training - 1on1 and group fitness. I decided a few months into last year to make the switch and spent my free time getting certified, doing some research, making a website, coming up with some basic branding, and starting to do some independent training. I've been saving most of last year to hold me over for a few months while I get this rolling. So basically I now have all day, every day to make things happen.

I'm currently training as an independent contractor at a nearby studio, but I'm having trouble getting clients. At this point I have:

1 steady client
4 bootcamp participants (2 steady, 1 will probably drop off, 1 may become steady)
2 good potentials for 1on1
a few potentials for bootcamp

So - very little. I realize I haven't done much marketing, but all of this has been word of mouth thus far and all stemming from my first client. She has basically worked her entire social circle and gotten me the rest of the people, which is awesome, but the problem is that's just 1 small circle and I don't have another one like it, so I'm a little stuck. If I had 20 versions of her, I'd be set.

My current marketing consists of:

website (needs updating)
******** (personal page)
******** (business page)
******** (ongoing event for bootcamp)
business cards (latest version to arrive within the week)

Once I get a couple pages on the site updated I'm going to do craigslist/groupon and I have a business networking opportunity coming up, but I'm a little lost - or ADD'ing, whichever you prefer.

It seems like group fitness is a great way to go (cheaper for clients and more money for you via volume) and I'm having a lot of fun teaching my classes, but I'm finding a few roadblocks that may be preventing me from expanding as fast as I need to at my studio, namely:

1) Location. The studio is in a nice part of town, but not in any sort of passerby area and more of the suburbs, so not a lot of young professionals (my main demographic). The reason I chose this studio was because through my limited research at the time it made sense - nice facility, close to me, relatively good terms (30% rent, 24 hour access).

2) No walk-ins. Not only due to the location, but also because it's a private studio so someone off the street can't just show up, but location is probably #1 .. I've never actually seen a person just walking down that street.

3) Time availability for bootcamps. I'm currently doing 7:30pm on T/TH and 11am on Saturday. 7:30 is pretty late and neither here nor there for a lot of people, so I think that may be holding some back. Something like 6pm would probably be a lot better.

I think it's pretty obvious I need to start looking for a different studio in a different part of town.

Where to Next?

At this point it seems like there are 1000 different directions I could go. I'm not too worried about the money yet (as I said I've given myself a few months of buffer time, but I don't want to spend that money if I don't have to). On the other hand, I need to make this happen. Besides updating my site and doing some more of the free online promoting, some other ideas I have:

1) Work at a commercial gym part time. Yes the pay would suck vs. independent, but it could be a good way to build marketing/selling/training skills as well as build my social circle. Downside: takes time away from building my own business, sort of.

2) Join a commercial gym and lift there a few times a week. I currently work out at a local rec center because it's close to me and super cheap and I now know a lot of people from there, but they're not my target demographic so there's not much I can do there in terms of business building. I'm wondering if it will be worthwhile to shell out $20-30/month for a few months + driving time to maybe meet some new faces. Thoughts?

3) Look into working at a community gym part time. Maybe better terms, less walk in, but could still be a good way to build marketing/selling/training skills as well as build my social circle. Downside: takes time away from building my own business, sort of.

4) Part time bartending. Time-wise this doesn't interfere with training at all, could be a good way to meet some potential clients and expand social circle, but as others have mentioned in the other thread it may just be a bunch of party animals that don't help my business at all in the long run. Benefit: extra $. Downside: may not be helpful to business building.

5) Marketing to strippers. Inspired by another thread (can't find the link right now). It could work. I'm strongly considering giving this a go for 4 weeks on a $450 budget. If I got just 1 client out of this I'd consider it successful. On paper this sounds pretty good. Target demographic: check (young professionals ... ok maybe just young with $), money: check (make enough in 1 night to cover 1-2 months of training).

Marketing/Selling Skills

This is something I'm not great at. I'm too obvious in my soliciting as I've been told and it's something I need to work on. I'm getting feedback from my friends as far as tactics go so that's good, but I feel I lack the proper sales training. I'm going through some reading/viewing material to sharpen up, though I think I have a long way to go. I see all the successful trainers here discussing how they have all these clients and making all this money and now that I'm "in the game" it seems distant in the sense that I don't see a clear-cut path to get there.



There you have it. Hopefully this wasn't too disorganized, I just kinda brain vomited this out. Would appreciate some help from all you successful trainers. I'm just scatter brained right now and want to do everything at once - could use some direction on things to do step-by-step.

I read your post and I have a few tips that could boost your website and help you get more clients. To start off I own an Internet marketing consulting business aimed at helping personal trainers and individuals in the fitness industry grow their business and generate more clients. First off I would suggest using google analytics tools such as search console to evaluate your website. One of the major keys to successful online marketing is Search engine optimization. Once you run your url through Google search console Google will give you some feedback on the areas of your website that search engine is finding errors. Secondly and also important your online marketing strategy has to be unified with your business goals. Some good questions to ask yourself are:
What is my primary business goal?
What is my visitor goal for my website?
How will I accomplish this?
Finally remember that Search engine optimization, pay per click and social media channels help people find you. Content makes people stay and gives them a reason to return. Usability ensures that your message and visitor tasks are clear. Analytics tells you what just happened and the combination of analytics, usability and testing will tell you why. If your looking for content on marketing your services check out my website for free strategies. Hope this helped stay strong.

[KyleAaron]

Five year old thread bumped, interesting though. Waidconsulting, you're obviously waiting till you have enough of a postcount to post links and advertise yourself. Be aware that advertising threads will be deleted, and you will get banned.

We're here to share information. This is actually an interesting thread to bump, and it shows why I say what I do: start out in a big gym, when you're doing well then go private. You can build from nothing, but it's hard.

I wonder how the OP is doing? This is the problem with discussion forums, people ask for advice, but almost never report back months or years later with their results.

[Ronin4help]

Here's the email I started sending out to those who I think would be good candidates for the "free for referrals" classes:


Title
"Free fitness training opportunity"


Body
"(Name),

If you're interested in some free group fitness training, I have an opportunity for you. I'm building up my classes and offering 1-2 months free to a limited number and type of clientele in exchange for referrals. If you can bring me someone who signs up during that time (the normal monthly rate is $99) you can continue training for free, no other catch. If not, you just got some free training!

Currently the classes are held Tuesday/Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings at a studio in ___, but I'm working on moving to a ___ location with more available days/times very soon.

Let me know if you'd like to participate and I'll get you specifics."

How many paying clients have you acquired with this ad?