It’s funny how time flies.
Just this week I realized that July 26, 2014 marks NPE’s 8th anniversary.
In the last 96 months I’ve spent my time (well over 10,000+ hours) analyzing, dissecting, systemizing, improving, and growing 18,000+ fitness businesses in 94 countries across the world.
As part of a major project I’m working on for 2015, I’ve invested quite a bit of time defining every ‘stage’ of fitness business growth as I see it.
Whether you’re a personal trainer just starting out in a commercial gym working towards getting your first group of clients (as I did in 2001 myself), or you’ve now grown to become a powerful entrepreneur with multiple locations, licensing programs, franchises, membership sites and more… then you’ve been through parts of (if not all) of this journey.
This article is packed with a TON of information I wish was around when I first started in the industry 13 years ago.
Being to able to identify the challenges holding you back… and the keys to moving past them… is INCREDIBLY powerful information.
Read on to find your “stage” and discover the keys required for your continued growth and development.
STAGE 1: Fitness Professionals working for a gym or starting out on their own who want to get more clients and earn more money.
Business size: <10 clients
Revenue: <1,500/month
Age: early twenties
Education: Entry level qualification, often newly qualified
Core Problems/Pain: Still new to the industry. Not enough clients or money, not earning enough to quit a job and go full time following their passion.
Desire: You want to discover if you can make a business out of your passion, and if it’s something you truly love doing.
Key components needed to grow: Vision, Sales.
For most, this is where you’re journey begins.
You love fitness, your love sports, and you decide to get certified.
Now what do you do with your certification?
Well you get a job of course!
And for most that begins in the gym. For some part-time, for others full time from the start.
Generally your work involves more than just training.
Often that means things like working the front desk, and cleaning equipment. Blah!
Frustrating when you studied hard to learn a professional skill set… and now you’re a glorified cleaner in a collared shirt!
I remember when I first started out, my first client was an elderly man named Bob.
Bob was re-covering from an injury and just wanted to get back to being active again. And his workout was also a social time for him to get out of the house and do something.
When you’re older and retired (in your 70s), getting out of the house and speaking to people is important and really kept Bob engaged in life.
In my case, I wasn’t working for a gym though. So I had to “pretend” that Bob was my training partner while we “worked out together” at the local gym… which of course had their own trainers who looked frustrated with me that I was taking a client onto their territory as a rouge operator.
Anyway, I loved it.
And my experience working with Bob really got me switched on to loving working with people and seeing how coaching and teaching could transform someone’s life.
I don’t believe there is anything more rewarding in life than serving others and making a difference in somebody’s life through the work you do.
If you’re reading this post, then you too made it through this stage and something “clicked” where you knew this is what you’re supposed to be doing with your life.
Now, if you do this right… and you’re really loving the work… then the next thing you quickly figure out is that you need to earn more money if you’re going to make a living at this coaching gig.
How do you make more money so you can earn a living?
Well, seeking the answer to that question drives you onto the next stage…
STAGE 2: Fitness professionals who are committed to doing the work required to establish their own independence.
Business size: 10-25 clients
Revenue: <3,000/month
Age: Mid twenties to thirties
Education: Entry-mid level qualification
Core Problems/Pain: You’re training clients and getting them results, but the gym is keeping the lionshare of your revenue earned. Your income has hit a ceiling working for someone else, and you don’t know how to market and sell in a competitive environment with other trainers.
Desire: You want to break out on your own, keep more of what you earn, and have consistent income.
Key components needed to grow: Vision, Sales, Marketing.
Well driving for the answer to the question “How do I make more money so I can earn a living doing what I love?” will push you to learn some basic business skills.
First you need your eyes opened to the vision of people who earn a living working for themselves, without the security blanket of working for a gym.
Without that, you won’t “get it” nor understand anything that needs to happen next.
But once you DO, then you MUST learn how to sell.
We have a saying here that “Nothing makes a greater immediate impact on your bottom line than mastering Salesmanship.”
And it’s so true.
If you’re going to make anything of yourself in business… you must learn how to sell.
Lots of folks think sales is something sleezy.
And they have a poor image of a “used car salesman” taking advantage of people, making them buy something they don’t want and stealing their hard earned money.
Certainly there are those kind of characters out there, but professional salesmanship is something differently entirely.
To be really good in sales you have to LOVE people. And LOVE serving people.
My good friend Jeff and I always say “Selling is Serving.”
And it’s true.
You take time to really understand and care for the prospect in front of you.
What are their goals?
Why are their goals important to them?
How committed are they to achieving their goal/solving their problem?
Of course there is more to learn here as well:
How to package and price your services most effectively (a lot of folks screw this up and then put themselves in a hole or make it MUCH, MUCH harder for themselves than it needs to be from not knowing how to get this right).
How to present your services and effectively communicate the value of what you deliver.
How to overcome objections and obstacles that people put in their way you have to help them look at differently.
And more…
Generally getting the sales piece right makes the biggest impact on driving you forward quickly.
You don’t even have to know much marketing other than some basics like; how to ask for referrals, pre-qualify and schedule appointments, one or 2 marketing “poles in the water” to allow you to earn your freedom.
And it’s awesome when you make that leap.
You’re your own boss.
You call the shots.
You set the schedule (actually when you’re clients are free really does, but at least we feel like we have more control).
And keeping 100% of the revenue from what you sell… WOW.
Life-changing!
It’s funny.
I think it was 2001 that I stopped working a college job I had and went exclusively to working for myself as an independent personal trainer.
I still remember how really scary that decision was.
Could I really find my way?
Could I really find people to buy what I had to sell?
Would I be able to keep my income consistent enough?
What if I lost a client or 2… could I replace them?
What if I went on vacation, would my clients still be there when I returned?
Really… sounds silly when I think about all I’ve accomplished in my life and where I am today.. but I can still remember those feelings of fear and insecurity like they were yesterday!
This why we talk about NPE Client Success Principle #2 “Have courage, practice faith.” It starts here.
Now, once you get these first business pieces down, you create the next problem for yourself which is that:
You have too many clients
You’re working too much (and yes, this includes the dreaded “split shifts” of getting up in early to start working at 0-dark-thirty and working late nights getting home after everyone gone to bed (especially if you’re fitting your working in after training clients in the evening!)
You’ve got no leverage or freedom.
Which means that you come to find you’re trading time for money. And there’s only so much time, and the money’s not worth totally killing yourself.
You need a path forward to grow.
You need some leverage to get out of this one-man-band grind.
And seeking the answers for that will lead you right to Stage #3.
STAGE 3: Fitness professionals who are committed to doing the work required to establish their own independence.
Business size: 10-25 clients
Revenue: <3,000/month
Age: Mid twenties to thirties
Education: Entry-mid level qualification
Core Problems/Pain: You’ve got high overheads, low profitability, are working too much, and have no systems or team in place to support continued growth.
Desire: You want to own and run a successful facility of your own where you have healthy profits, and a team that provides some freedom and sustainable operations (whether you currently have a facility or not).
Key components needed to grow: Vision, Sales, Marketing, Management
Alright, now this is the stage where stuff gets REAL.
Because up until now you’ve learned how to work hard, you’ve learned how to be successful through doing a better job than others out there… but you’ve never really had “skin in the game.”
You have very little risk.
And in order to grow, you must make the decision and commitment to take on some risk.
Your first employee.
Your first lease of a premises.. often with a contract attached of 1,2, or 3 years.
You’re really committed now!
You can’t just cut and run anymore.
Now you’ve got responsibilities.
And you’ve also got a problem because you have NO idea how the heck to hire someone, train them, develop them, trust them, etc.
Fair warning; you’re gonna screw it up. Expect to! That’s how you learn.
Don’t be afraid of the mistakes, be afraid of not learning from them.
Of course the more you can cut your learning curve here, the less pain you will suffer.
In my last 8 years of working with thousands, I can tell you this is where most people get stuck.
This can happen for a number of reasons:
they have no systems in place of any kind. It’s all “in their head”
they go through a bad hire (or 2, or 4, or 8!) with people that don’t work out (for whatever reason), possibly steal clients, and other things that really suck
they over commit to a big lease of a facility without proper financial planning or understanding of what will be required for their business to succeed
And a number of other things that can go wrong.
It’s tough.
This is where your vision and commitment really get tested.
Of course your mind will try to trick you that it would be so much easier to go back into Stage 2… working for yourself, keeping all of what you earn, not having much risk or responsibility to anyone or anything.
That’s a liberating thought.
Freedom is of course awesome.
And for some, going back to Stage 2 is the right move.
Those aren’t the people we work with though.
And you’re not here for that… you’re reading this because you want to grow into the next stage and so that’s what we’re going to talk about.
If you’re going to grow… and do it right… then you’ve gotta get serious, real serious about study and business education.
Charm and a great personality isn’t enough to continue progressing.
And going backwards… in my opinion… is for the weak.
YOU are going to do what it takes to continue on.
Fair warning:
It will be tougher than you expected
It will take you longer to progress than you expected
You will face things that scare and challenge you on a regular basis now
Don’t expect things to be easier here.
Expect them to be HARD.
And learn to fall in love with challenges that test and push you to grow.
If you can do THAT, then you’ve got what it takes to continue onto…
STAGE 4: Driven and courageous fitness entrepreneurs who are committed to the achievement of long-term freedom, success, and prosperity for themselves and their families.
Business size: 40-200+ clients
Revenue: >8,000/month
Age: Mid twenties to thirties
Education: Entry-mid level qualification
Core Problems/Pain: You’ve got no plan or systems for scale and sustainability, and your problems are compounded by a bigger business with more people (and a family) dependent on you for success.
Desire: You desire long-term freedom, success, and prosperity for yourself and your family through business achievement.
Key components needed to grow: Vision, Sales, Marketing, Management, Finance, Strategic Planning
Alright now that things have gotten real, it’s time for you to get MORE real and ‘buck up’ for this ride.
Successful businesses aren’t built and don’t last unless they are driven by smart & strategic business owners.
You’re going to need to learn a lot more about putting a legit 1,2, 3 year business plan together.
You’re going to have to learn about finance and money management on a whole new level (yup, sorry… just knowing if you have enough cash in your checking account this week or not is NOT going to cut it in order to grow).
You’re going to have to learn about marketing.
Knowing how to ask for and get a couple referrals was enough to keep you busy as a 1-man (or woman) band… but it ain’t enough to get the job done now.
And it certainly isn’t going to protect you from competitive threats (yup, if you’re doing it right then you’ve now got a target on your back!).
A lot of folks don’t know or understand this.
They think just offering a great service will be enough.
Of course that’s 80% of it.
If you’re not awesome at what you do, then go back and figure out how to do that.
But you WILL have to learn about and make real decisions on things like:
The target market you wish to serve and what makes them tick
Your company positioning (and how you communicate that you’re different and better than other solutions in the marketplace)
Your brand promise… which is essentially the promise you make to your customers
That’s just the marketing side.
Before that you must tackle:
Business modeling and planning to answer the question “how does my business earn a profit? How much does it earn given X?
Strategic planning on growth decisions that will take often 1, 2, or 3 years to put in place… and you need to have eyes on months in advance in order to pull off
An understanding of finance, how to set-up (and read) a P & L statement, learn how to manage cash flow
And I haven’t even gotten to:
Hiring systems (now you’ve got to do it better than you did when you just began, and hopefully you’ve learned a bit more from the things that didn’t work out the first few times)
How to now manage others in getting all the work done
Tracking business metrics, and learning how to “read them” as indicators for each area of your business (marketing, sales, operations, finance, etc.)
Again… this is where it gets real.
Most people don’t get this far, nor progress into or beyond this stage.
And I’m sad to say I know a number of people who made any one of the many mistakes that can hurt you here.
What I can say that will hopefully inspire you to continue and make it to the other side is that the blows you take are never fatal… unless you allow them to be.
I don’t care what happens.
Staff quit and steal clients.
You bite off a lease bigger than you can really afford and need to move.
Your marketing isn’t working.
Your exhausted from still doing too much, and having to micro-manage because you either A) don’t have good enough systems in place to scale B) don’t have the right team around you to grow or C) all of the above…
YOU get to make a decision if you’re going to allow these things to defeat you or not.
And it’s when you come into that very private place… when you’re faced with REAL hard challenges… that you get to discover who you really are and what you have inside of you.
And I’ll tell you what, I don’t know what you most value in your life, but THAT right that is worth the price of admission to me.
The WORST thing that can happen here is not that you “fail”.
You should EXPECT to get punched in the face a few times and get knocked down.
The WORST thing is choosing to NOT get back up when you get knocked down.
That is the ONLY thing that will keep you from making it through this… even if it takes you 1, 2, 3 or more years to do so.
Because my gosh, if you’re going to work as hard as you have, if you’re going to put in the hours to deal with all the things you’ve dealt with in this stage in order to grow… then by god almighty… don’t quit and don’t settle!
No matter what it takes… and it will take (almost) everything you’ve got… keep going.
Seeing folks get through this stage, and onto the 50k, 100k, and 250k clubs we’ve established over the last several years in our VIP PROGRAM™ (where folks have to be debt free, have $50K+ cash in the bank, and greater than 20% net profit in their business for 3 consecutive months) is probably the most rewarding thing ever.
We’ve done some VERY good work at NPE over the last 8 years.
And watching each of these very successful people make it to this level (all are very humble, hard workers because they are the REAL DEAL) has been incredible.
100k Club From left to right: Myself, Juan & Kim Medrano, Ryan Joiner, Tanja Shaw… all inducted into the $100k club in May 2014 (debt free, $100k cash in the bank, and >20% net profit in their business for 3 consecutive months)
I think of the Superbowl commercials we have in America when they interview the winning team and ask the players “You’ve just won the championship, what are you going to do now?” and they say “I’m going to Disney World!”. That’s kind of what this moment represents… and our headquarters IS in Orlando, FL.
Celebrating the success you’ve achieved from all your hard work and efforts is awesome.
But for most entrepreneurs that only lasts a short period of time.
Because you realize that what you REALLY love most is not the rewards, but facing the challenges.
And you need em’.
They are what (strangely) make you feel and come alive!
You are at your best when you are facing tough obstacles, taking on huge risk, tackling mountains that others would never dare to climb.
And you need to get back in the game.
When you reach this point, welcome.
You are now entering…
STAGE 5: The world’s elite fitness entrepreneurs who have achieved their initial business goals, and want to be continuously challenged to grow while living their dream lifestyle.
Business size: Doesn’t matter.
Revenue: >40,000/month
Age: Doesn’t matter.
Education: Irrelevant
Core Problems/Pain: You want a new challenge and realize it’s not wise to go it alone.
Desire: You want to be inspired by engaging with other elite entrepreneurs, and be challenged to grow while living your dream lifestyle.
Key components needed to grow: Vision, Sales, Marketing, Management, Strategic Planning, Finance, Mastermind, Fun!
Now if you’re in any of the previous stages, I know you’re probably thinking “Wow! Life must be totally awesome for these folks at this point! Everything is amazing and you’ve come so far!”
That’s true.
But EVERYONE’s got problems.
You learn how to love em’, that the simple things are what matters most in life (not money), and life (and business) really IS about the journey and not the destination.
I know it sounds crazy, but the biggest problems you will deal with at this point are:
#1 You’re bored.
And I don’t mean there isn’t stuff to do. Because when you own a business there’s ALWAYS stuff to do. But I mean you find yourself spending your time doing all kinds things that is boring to you. Like management duties, task work you’ve been doing forever and have yet to hand off. Essentially “the thrill is gone” and you realize “the thrill” is when you felt most alive and were at your best!
#2 You’ve got nobody to challenge you or push you to continue growing.
And where’s the fun in that? Life can get lonely at the top. There are fewer and fewer people who understand where you are now, what you’ve accomplished, and have done what you’re done.
#3 You need a new dream!
We’re most alive when we’re growing. And a new dream allows us to grow and develop ourselves (and our entrepreneurial skills) in new and exciting directions. But depending on your new dream, things can also still get very hard, become increasingly complex, and more. It’s funny, because you have to remember that this is what you wanted and growth comes through new challenges… so you learn how to laugh and embrace them. And when you do…. It’s amazing how your world transforms in a very powerful way.
I have the pleasure of working with MANY top folks at this level now, and it’s a real joy.
I love working with warriors who take action, are committed to results, and dream big!
Summary
There you have it. An overview of the 5 Stages of Fitness Business Growth & Development. This is a BIG topic (heck it encompasses the last 8 years of my work in NPE) and I’ll be speaking much more about it… and going into greater further detail at our MEGA TRAINING™ conference this here.
But, if you can’t wait (success loves speed of action) then I strongly encourage you to request a complimentary diagnostic consultation with a member of our team.
We’ve grow and recently added many new members to our team worldwide, so someone should be in touch with you quite quickly once you fill in our details through the link below.
Click here to request a complimentary diagnostic
consultation on your fitness business
To your success,
Sean
P.S. Which of the 5 stages are you currently in now?
If you’ve been around a while, what has your journey been like through each of these stages and what advice would share with others?
Post your comments below…