The 5 Biggest Mistakes Personal Trainers Make in Business...
Transcript of The 5 Biggest Mistakes Personal Trainers Make in Business...
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The 5 Biggest
Mistakes Personal
Trainers Make in
Business and How
to Avoid Them
By J.J. Flizanes
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“J.J. Flizanes is everything anyone could want in a fitness instructor – bright, energetic,
motivated, and motivating. I have watched her double her income in my workshops
3 times in the past 7 years – because she knows it only works if you work it, in business
and in life. Why struggle trying to figure out how to run your fitness business profitably
when you could learn from a mentor who’s already figured it all out and will show you
the way?”
Chellie Campbell, author “The Wealthy Spirit” and “Zero to Zillionaire” and
creator of the Financial Stress Reduction® Workshops now taught by and international
group of certified trainers listed at www.chellie.com.
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“I have been JJ's CPA for over 5 years and I have watched her bring in six figures all
5 years. I have also seen her fall down, get up and learn from her mistakes in business
and continue to thrive. What I like about JJ is she is always doing her research and
looking for new and improved ways to help people achieve their goals. It’s not just about
the exercise; she takes a holistic approach which I admire because the integration is
critical to overall success. I am continually impressed with her wealth of knowledge. Her
passion and zest for health is infectious! Save yourself the time, money and headache
she had to go through and learn from her!"
Tina Mattis, CPA http://www.tinamattiscpa.com
“JJ is the most focused, persistent, and passionate person that I have ever met. Bringing
these qualities to coach trainers will give them the benefit of her experiences as well as
her mistakes, elevating their own skills to new heights. I have been encouraging her to
do this for years- I am glad she is finally reaching out to share what she has learned
and how she can help you make money.”
Richard Krelstein, Management Consultant
“I've known J.J. for 10 years, since she trained me to become a personal trainer. She
made (and continues to make) a huge impression on me. Her voracious appetite for
knowledge coupled with her passion for educating and inspiring others makes her an
unstoppable force. She has a quick mind for phrasing something in the most
understandable way, and for helping people obliterate their obstacles. When you are
dealing with J.J., you can count on always getting 180%. If there is something you
want to know, she WILL find the answers for you. J.J. will have so much information
and motivation for you, it is impossible not to be moved by her enthusiasm and energy."
Susan Grady, Dancer, Teacher, Trainer
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Where I started- so you can relate
I didn’t take business classes in college or high
school and I hated science and math. I got my first
certification in 1997 and the first thing I noticed
about the focus of the personal trainer book and
course was the legal stuff. I remember thinking that
was odd and why didn’t it talk more about exercise?
I also don’t remember EVER being taught HOW TO
MAKE MONEY by any certification.
I got my first job as a certified personal trainer in NYC in 1997. I
was taken through the training on how to use the equipment, concerned of
course about the fact that my certification did NOT cover this, and then
was told I would help new members if they scheduled with me. I was
getting paid hourly and I would get paid more if someone “liked me
enough to buy a package” -you know how that goes. Still no one taught
me skills on HOW to get the clients.
After being thoroughly disappointed with my fitness education, I
decided I needed more. A colleague recommended one that he thought
was the best around for true scientific information. It was NASM- the
National Academy of Sports Medicine. I was learning biomechanics,
physiology, biochemistry and mechanics. It was the first time in my life
that I was enjoying SCIENCE! I could see it and apply it in my life
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immediately. It gave me answers to the reasons behind some of the
exercises, the machines, the form and the effectiveness. I was so excited
to be interested in science that I can say that weekend changed my life!
Now I feel confident about having more knowledge and this led to getting
some clients.
I was very successful as a floor trainer, turned Pro
Trainer then turned Master Trainer. Because the
gym is an easier place to build a personal training
practice, I got referrals easily. So now I think I
know about business. WRONG.
When I moved to California and started my business in 2001, I
brought with me my desire to educate both trainers and clients. I had
become the head of the educational program at the gym I was working at
so I really enjoyed teaching trainers all that I had learned as well as
clients. But I started my business from scratch. I knew 3 people in
California when I moved here. No one knew me. I left a community where
I had a good reputation as a trainer and educator for a new life, a clean
slate and a long, hard road ahead.
I have made A TON of mistakes that have cost me
tens of thousands of dollars. I can help you
AVOID those mistakes and concentrate on what
works and what doesn’t. I didn’t have anyone who
could coach me on EXACTLY what to do and how
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when I first started so I have learned everything by trial and error.
I can help you grow a successful
business and save you time and money.
With all I have learned, this I can guarantee!
There are common mistakes we all make and
I made them – I would like to save you time,
money and heart ache.
My resume as a personal trainer includes being one of the featured
trainers in Shape Magazine in 2003 and being chosen as the “Best
Personal Trainer in Los Angeles for 2007 by Elite Traveler
Magazine’s Global “Black Book”. I have appeared on NBC, CBS, KTLA,
Fox 11 and featured in dozens of magazines and newspaper articles. I have
been a CEC provider for NASM, and have been certified and educated
multiple times by ACE, ISSA, NASM, and RTS. I was Director of Education
for New York Sports Club when the Foundation’s Program started for
trainers in 1998. I was the Account Manager for Torson, a physiotherapy
company started in Australia that brought an advanced software system to
TSI in the late 90’s. Currently, I am the Fitness Expert for Nourishing
Wellness Medical Centre in Torrance, California and am the Wellness Expert
for FKC International. I am also a finalist for IDEA Personal Trainer of Year.
If you are ready to make money more easily, create a business
that supports you and gives you freedom, I can help you. I only
wish I would have had help when I started!
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5 Biggest Mistakes
Personal Trainers Make
in Business
It doesn’t matter if you come to this with a science
background or an arts/sports background when it
comes to making money. I am a big believer in
constant science education for trainers but these
tips and points I will be making will be mostly
focusing on HOW TO MAKE MONEY doing what
you love. So let’s go over what you will need to
know to run a successful personal training business:
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1. Education:
Let’s start with yours. What skills do you
have? What are your strengths? What are
you uncomfortable with? When I started in
business running my own company, I had
already run the front desk of a gym, been a
manager of a restaurant, been an educator
for the gym, been a manager of the gym’s
educational program for trainers and been a successfully busy trainer
myself IN the gym. I figured I had sales and management training! I did,
but it’s a bit different when you are controlling the cash flow and marketing
all by yourself. You have to start out and be honest about what you know
you ARE good at and what you are NOT.
a. List here what your strengths as a personal trainer/business
owner are:
b. List here what you are NOT good at or know you are
uncomfortable with:
The places where you lack confidence and proper education are the
places that eventually bring you down and cost you time and money.
Know these upfront and plan ahead to spend some time and money
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on becoming proficient in these areas. If you ignore them, they will
haunt you- this I know. If they are things you cannot learn, you will
have to delegate them. That will cost you money as well but sometimes
in order to grow where you can’t do it yourself, you have to hire help.
That’s what WE do for clients. They hire us to help them in an area
they are not good at- we need the same in business.
Start by answering these questions:
a. What are you doing to educate yourself in business?
b. How do you try out new ideas?
c. Do you ask for feedback from colleagues/clients regarding new ideas?
d. Is brainstorming an integral part of your work?
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2. Strategy :
This principle cost me about $5,000 to learn
and about $100,000 of lost revenue over the
years. Strategy versus Tactics. A tactic is
one action you take to get a client.
Strategy is a well thought out plan of how you move someone through the
marketing funnel to a sale. Gyms have a strategy with personal training
built in- we are not taught this because we provide the service at the
bottom of the funnel and only get paid at that point. Here is the example:
Gyms offer a free week pass or more to get people in the door.
This costs them nothing except marketing because they are
already engaged in operating costs for the gym itself. To the
prospect, it’s free. Once the prospect comes in for their free
trial, they are often called by a sales associate and asked to sit
down and review pricing to become a member. Regardless of
the deal that is made by the sales person, 1-3 FREE personal
training sessions are usually included to make that person feel
welcomed and familiar with the gym. You as the trainer get
paid for this and the gym has spent the time and money to
bring you this prospect. Because of the sales person, the gym
is now getting a monthly fee from this new member. Once the
new member schedules with you, it is in your best interest to
engage them in a way that makes them want to purchase
MORE one on one personal training sessions with you in the
gym. They sign up, you and the gym make a profit. Do you
see the funnel? Free- sales pitch, bonus of training leads to
up-sale on more packages= more money for everyone.
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Having a strategy means you have a plan. As a personal trainer, you build
exercise plans for clients. You know that as they progress, so will the
exercise routine. It’s the same idea only it’s with your marketing, your
packaging and your money. I have taken (and taught) multiple
certifications, paid for business classes, marketing classes, and coaching
and it wasn’t until the past 2 years that I learned this. THIS alone would
have doubled my business early on. Start by answering these
questions:
a. Where do you want to be in 5 years, professionally? What is your vision?
b. Do you have a plan for fulfilling your vision?
c. Do you have monthly targets and strategies to reach the targets?
d. What training have you had in sales and promotion? Do you have a written strategy for achieving your sales goals for the year?
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3. Marketing Plan:
Not a business plan, a marketing plan. I
wasted a lot of time and money on trying to
create a business plan- for what? I knew I
wanted to train people, make lots of money
and have a flexible and free schedule.
A business plan requires projections and a level of thinking that for me
SKIPPED over the HOW. It was too cumbersome when looking at business
plan templates to even imagine thinking in this way. Unless you majored in
business, and sometimes even then, this is NOT the way trainers
think! I would like to simplify it all for you so you can not WASTE time
like I did! When you meet with a client, you assess their needs and their
goals. From there, you build a plan of how to get them to those goals for
them. You give them specific amounts of weight, exercises, repetitions,
and hopefully form and speed of execution. A marketing plan is the
exercise plan- the how.
First, you need to outline your goals= your vision. What do you want life
to be like? How much money do you want to make per week/month/
year? How much time do you WANT to spend training clients? From
there, you start to create the HOW. What are you offering and how will
you get clients? Marketing was done for you to get clients in the gym. You
were even helped when the sales people signed them up and offered them
the free personal training session. All you had to do was be you and
educate/train that client. When you work only in a gym, a lot of the work
is done for you. As a trainer in the gym, I didn’t notice this until I got out.
No one had taught me this….. a good marketing plan has many options
and also follows the strategy you have created in point #2. Marketing is
how you get clients and can be done in MANY forms- from free and low
cost to large amounts spent on advertising. Creating a marketing plan (like
the exercise routine) in accordance with your goals (weight loss, build
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muscle, etc) and follow the strategy you have created is the foundation for
any success on your own. Answer these questions:
a. Do you track & review sales daily, monthly, and trends? Do you have a budget for Promotion?
b. How much do you spend each year on Promotion?
c. What did you do/have you done to improve sales?
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4. Accountability:
The first financial class I took in 2001 guaranteed
that I would make money or my money back
guaranteed! I could not afford NOT to do it even
though I had 10$ in my checking account and $22
in my savings. Thank god for the credit card at that
time!
Well I doubled my income in 8 weeks by following a 3 step
process that included marketing (mostly tactics though, not strategy),
changing my belief systems and how I think, look and feel about money
and a financial tracking system. I did very well in the class because as a
“good student” I always wanted to have “wins” each week. I am an
overachiever so knowing that I had to announce my “wins” each week, I
didn’t want to come up short. I took this class 3 times in the past 7 years
and I doubled my income every time! Now you may wonder why I
took it 3 times and why once was not enough?
First let me explain that I also hired a business coach after the last class on
the first round. I had paid $1000 for an 8 week class and then I turned
around and hired a coach one on one for $150 an hour. As time went on,
and because it was expensive for me at the time, I found myself cancelling
my sessions with the coach. I was never as motivated with the coach as I
was in the class- there were more people to either impress or disappoint so
I worked harder. I couldn’t just cancel going to class each week b/c I
knew everyone else was going to show up! The stakes were higher so I
did my work. By the second time I took the class, I realized that it was the
accountability of someone expecting I would do what I said I would do that
worked for me. The class got more expensive each time I took it, but the
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accountability it provided me kept me working hard and coming out ahead
each time. This was the upside.
The downside of the class was it didn’t focus on the strategy I talked of
earlier- just tactics. As long as I kept doing the tactics, it worked. I wanted
to build systems where I wouldn’t have to tediously keep doing TACTICS.
But I learned this later.
We understand this with our clients. When they
see us, they do better. They know we are going to
ask and expect that they ate well and did their
homework. We are the accountability for our
clients. When it comes to making money- YOU
NEED THE SAME THING. When I am
accountable to someone else, I work harder and
keep my commitments- it’s the same thing we
preach to our clients or how we sell clients on
working with us to guarantee their results.
The ultimate accountability happens when you are creating a strategy,
implementing the marketing plan and creating systems that can work long
term instead of expecting to show up at the gym, do 1 workout and expect
to lose weight- do you get what I am saying?
Answer these questions to get a better sense of where you are
and how you should proceed:
a. How many years have you been in business for yourself?
b. What management positions have you held? Were you successful?
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c. What business training have you had?
d. As a business owner/CEO, what are your strengths? Your weaknesses?
e. Do you plan? How often?
f. What structure do you use to take great care of yourself?
g. Do you know where you are financially at all times?
h. What do you delegate and to whom?
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5. Financial System:
Whether you work solo or with other trainers,
the FIRST thing you have to do is to create a
financial system. Are you legally set up with
your business? Are you a DBA, LLC, or
Corporation? Knowing how you want to
structure your business legally will help you
financially plan as well as benefit.
How do allocate funds? Do you have a budget?
I know this probably seems tedious for some of you, but it is because
of this point that I made most of my mistakes. Answer these
questions:
a. Is the business profitable?
b. How well do you manage cash flow?
c. Do you pay your bills on time?
d. How do you keep track of all financial data? Daily. Monthly. Yearly.
e. Do you have and use a monthly/yearly cash flow forecast?
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f. Do you have targets for revenues and profits and cash flow?
g. Do you have a Credit Policy in place and enforced?
This might seem overwhelming for some of you and unnecessary for
others. You may be thinking, “I work on my own, why do I need all of
this?”
You may not. It depends on your structure and your long term goals. If
you decide that you want to be a personal trainer as a part or full
time business for years to come, you WILL need to know this
about your business.
Exceptions to the Rules: Like in everything in life, people point out
exceptions. For example: some of you may have a constant stream of
clients that come to you based on referrals. I have had that happen. I got
so busy with an entire family that I even started turning down other clients
because I didn’t need to work more and I didn’t have the time. You feel
like your business is doing great because the schedule is full, you are
making money and you have the perfect work/play time.
What happens if and when you lose that family? Are you prepared
financially to be without the extra income for weeks or months?
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How do you get more referrals from another source? How can you leverage
your knowledge and time and STILL make money while your schedule is
full??
There will always be an exception to the rule. But the saying goes, “you
shouldn’t put all of your eggs in one basket”. And it’s true.
So rather than wait to experience this yourself, get in a bind, get
overwhelmed and discouraged, why not create your strategy and plan
NOW?
If you are ready to take your business seriously, create freedom AND
money and would like to SAVE money and time by having some help,
please look out for the next Wealthy Fitness Trainer newsletter which will
tell you when the next FREE tele-class I am doing is scheduled.
Our popular topic is “How to start or grow my fitness business on
little or no budget!”
I hope you will join me for the call- It’s free!!
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About J.J. Flizanes and Invisible Fitness
Credentials and accolades follow the name of JJ
Flizanes wherever it appears and for good reason.
JJ is an Exercise Architect and the creator of world-
class fitness programs and routines, such as the
Foundations Program for the New York Sports Club
and Invisible Fitness™. What sets JJ apart from her
Celebrity Fitness counterparts lies in her
anatomically centered routines, which protect
overworked and aging joints from catastrophic
failure. Named by Elite Traveler Magazine as
their 2007 Global Black Book pick of Best Personal
Trainer in Los Angeles, JJ has been lauded by
Shape Magazine as one of the top 6 fitness
trainers in 2003.
JJ’s philosophy is simple—to sculpt a more visibly toned body while
creating a strong and balanced invisible support structure of nutrition,
centeredness and health. The key to her unique programs is visible in her
client’s results: sleek, toned and hot bodies achieved with an eye to injury
prevention and the avoidance of joint degeneration. However the
foundation to every program lies in the belief system and the mind.
As a leader in innovative exercise, JJ is not only certified by the National
Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), but also served as a Continuing
Education Provider. JJ launched her professional career in 1996 as the
Foundations Director for the New York Sports Club, where she designed
curriculum and in-house certification for new and previously uncertified
fitness trainers. With a focus on Biomechanics, JJ is a regular lecturer for
The Learning Annex and debuts as a featured speaker for New York
Times Best-Selling Author of The Millionaire Mind, T. Harv Ecker’s Peak
Performance seminars in early 2007.
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A favorite of journalists and the media for her depth of knowledge and
vibrant personality, JJ has been featured in many magazines in addition to
the ones previously mentioned including Muscle and Fitness HERS, Elegant
Bride, Fitness Magazine, E Pregnancy Magazine to name a few. Her
television appearances include LA’s KTLA, CBS and NBC. A published
author, JJ is a contributor to the book Inspiration to Realization. She
appeared nine times last summer with a fitness tip segment on YOURLA
on NBC in Los Angeles.
In January of 2007, JJ launched her most challenging and exciting program
to date: The 90 Day Health and Body Makeover, in which candidates take
on creating a new body and lifestyle for life. Her successful training
program, Invisible Fitness, continues to inspire and create healthy and
fit bodies throughout the Los Angeles and the Southern California region:
Invisible Fitness personal training, fitness coaching, workshops & seminars
and corporate programs. For program details call 800 571 5722 x 84 or
online at www.invisiblefitness.com.