The last day of January.

How would you rate your first 30 days in your personal training business?

The last 3 years for me have been an absolute roller coaster in my personal life (whole other story) and to get through it I focused most of my time on my business, hence it is in a bloody great position right now.

So 2012 for me was taking a tiny step back and focusing on me.

Come the third week of January…BOOM! An unbelievable amount of opportunity within 1 week came my way.

I remember sitting with my best friend on Australia Day just shaking my head trying to process what had happened that week.

This is what I have learnt or should I say confirm to what I already knew about growing any fitness business.

1. It really is about working smarter not harder. For that reason I am only taking on 2 more people then closing the 1 on 1 coaching doors as I am now focusing on larger projects to help more personal trainers. You need to do the same as personal trainers. How many 1 on 1 clients do you want to take on? Then ask yourself how can you make more money in less time and help more people.

2. Learnt its all about consistency. You can not stop and start, if you do that is exactly what the results will do, they will be up and down. No matter how busy you get you still need to practice those daily disciplines that got you to where you are today. Like now, I am back to back with clients until 5pm this afternoon yet I still make time to write blogs for you guys. Same goes for you. Maintain your website, social networking, you tube videos - what ever it is that got you to where you are today.

3. Developing relationships. From day 1 I made a promise to myself to learn and hang around with the best of the best in the fitness industry. That I have achieved and have a book coming out very soon that show cases amazing people doing very cool things in our industry. Like anything, It did not happen straight away. What do you need to do? Who do you need to connect with? As they say its not what you know its WHO!!! The more people you can connect with the more opportunity that will be presented to you.

4. Customer Service. Its pretty simple, look after your clients! It is much easier and cost effective to retain the clients you have now than it is to go out and get new ones. Go the extra mile and you will have your clients raving about you to their friends and family.

5. Constantly learning and growing. Thomas Plummer a great fitness business guy I follow in the states who has been in the industry for over 30 years and he wrote this on his Facebook page a few weeks ago: ‘What kills a fitness business is the owners unwillingness to change. Most cling to old ideas and technology like an Italian tourist to a life raft. Businesses that fail to reinvent cease to exist. Most of the clubs mentioned were 1995 dinosaurs and failed simply because the public refuses to buy a dated product delivered by an uninterested staff. The economy didn’t get them; they are the equivalent of the last pager salesmen on the plane’

Like weight loss there is no quick fix to grow your personal training business. It is all about persistence, dedication and providing a ton of value to the people you want to help.

Trust me, you do this and yes you will need guidance of people along the way but the results will happen.

You still have another 11 months left, the question isn’t ‘can you’ it is ‘will you’.

I truly hope you take something from this and this is the year that changes the game for you. That this is the year where you become the best personal trainer you can be. The year where you become an athlete. The year that you get your financial situation to an exception position. The year where you create your life as to how you have wished it to be.

How did you go after yesterdays post about gaining clarity with where you are headed in your personal training business?

I was reading a great book last night called Unmarketing by Scott Stratten. In his book he shows you how to unlearn the old ways and consistently attract and engage the right clients. You’ll stop just pushing out your message and praying that it sticks somewhere.

Potential and current customers want to be listened to, validated, and have a platform to be heard-especially online. With UnMarketing, it shows you how to create relationship with your clients, and make yourself the logical choice for their needs.

He talks about how traditional marketing methods are leading to diminishing returns and disaffected customers.

Thats another blog!

What I did want to share with you is this,  he noted that the author of Do More Great Work determined that these are the probabilities of completing a goal you set for yourself:

- 10% if you hear an idea;
- 25% if you decide to do it;
- 40% if you decide when you are going to do it;
- 50% if you plan how you are going to do it;
- 65% if you tell someone how you are going to do it;
- 95% if you set up a time to report back to that person on how you did.

So, you need to decide when and how you will put your goals into action, tell somebody that you are doing it (preferably a close friend or colleague) and then set up a time to follow up on the action.

Remember, you need to do this NOW if you want to make a permanent change!

I was procrastinating on what to write today. I also realize there are so many personal trainers out there that do the same thing.

Then one of my great friends Jodie called this morning, funnily enough she too owns an extremely successful personal training studio (come to think of it everyone I associate is is the fitness industry?).

Jodie asked what was on the agenda today, I mentioned I had clients back to back all day and had to fit in a blog somewhere in there. She then proceeded to ask what was I writing on, my response no idea!

Ironic really because she said what I have helped her this week was clarity and direction with her personal training business.

So fricken true! Without clarity and direction of course you are not going to know where you are going hence how will you be able to achieve anything at all in your fitness business?

At the end of last year I popped in the post a 2012 workbook for all my clients and the feedback from them has been overwhelming.  They have all said how much clarity and direction it has given them to make their fitness business goals a reality. This workbook also breaks the big 12 month goals into small manageable monthly goals. When you take that regular action then of course the big goals will be achieved but first you have to know what you want to achieve.

So how do you get clarity?

1. Get a whiteboard and brain storm. Just keep writing what comes into your head of where you want to be, things you want to achieve etc in 2012. When you know where you want to go the universe will conspire to make it happen when you take the necessary action. How will you know what action to take until you know what you want to achieve?

2. Know exactly where you see yourself in 12 months – then break that down into a 90 day action plan, here you can find a 90 day fitness business planner.

3. Pop pictures up of what you want to do be and have. I have a massive whiteboard above my desk and look at these several times a day. By doing this reinforces and motivates you as to why you are doing what you do each and every day.

4. Have goals up and look at them daily. Again I have mine up on my whiteboard and every morning before starting the day I review them, I find this keeps me on track as to what I need to achieve that day.

5. Create at least 5 action steps each and every day that you can take towards your goal. To reach your goal all it takes are small steps and before you know it you would of reached your big goal for 2012.

Treat personal training like it is a 9-5 job, train your clients and the rest of the time you work on your business until you are where you want to be in your business.

Practice discipline and if you want to be training 30 sessions and only have 10 clients then you need to invest the rest of that time in marketing and developing relationships to increase those number of sessions. Too many trainers think that clients will come to them, no it does not work like that. You need to get out there and make it happen.

First though you need to know with absolute certainty what it is you want to achieve.

As we get back into our business there are many personal trainers planning 2012. With clarity and action it can be your best year yet!

So here is a great 4 minute video that I wanted to share with you about where good ideas come from.

There is so much opportunity to make your personal training business THE BEST in your area. Watch this clip below, pop your thinking cap on and you will be amazed at the opportunities you can create for yourself.

What has been your biggest achievement in your personal training business in 2011?

By now you should have December’s plan all in place and your clients should still be training and if you have done it right you should still be attracting leads.

Fast forward a few weeks and it will be 2012.

What do you want your personal training business? Where do you see your fitness business at the end of 2012?

It’s all about the end result…if you’ve never thought about where you want to end up I can promise you that you are missing out on one of the most important factors of success.

Why do you need to know this?

You must begin with the end in mind before you start planning otherwise how will you know what you need to do?

Once you know exactly where you are headed THEN you can implement your actions. Now if you are like most personal training businesses then it is all about generating new clients.

Here are 5 MUST HAVES for your 2012 plan.

1. Know your numbers and track weekly.

• How many enquiries do you receive each week?
• How many of those enquiries came in for an appointment?
• How many of those enquiries got started?
• Where did those enquiries come from?
• How many sessions are you putting through each week?
• How many cancellations did you receive?
• Total $ received via direct debit?
• How many referrals did you receive?

When you know these numbers you will be able to determine what you need to work on. Ball park you need to be converting at least 80% of your enquiries into full paying clients, if not you definitely need to work on your sales process.

Christmas, holidays, parties can mean clients canceling or putting their sessions on hold can mean a lack of cash flow for many personal trainers.

It does not have to be like that.

Every year I receive  emails from trainers wanting to know how they can stop losing clients, gain clients and still have good money coming in plus still have a holiday themselves.

Here are 5 quick and simple strategies that you can do to ensure that you maintain or even grow your personal training business at this time and still manage to have some time off.

1. Gift cards – give the gift of health and fitness. Create $50 or $100 gift cards that you can give to your clients who can then pass them onto their friends and family. Pop it in a Christmas card with a personalized note.

2. Extra sessions – for some people training and maintaining their exercise regime at this time of year is extremely important for their sanity. What has worked well for us in the few weeks leading up to Christmas has been extra sessions for half price or $30/$40, what ever value you wish to put on it.  Allows you to fill up some extra space plus extra income for people who would not normally do extra sessions.

3. Weekly surprises – I have clients that bakes Christmas goodies each week to give to their clients. For the trainers that also sell supplements they have recipes that contain the supplements which then helps up sell those products. They then print out that recipe for their clients. The key is consistency, do something each and every week. It does not have to be baked goods, again you can get creative and festive and create your own surprise.

4. To attract new clients – A great little promotion that you can do in December  is pay nothing til January 2012. Promote this through your normal avenues. The only aspect you need to ensure is that you fill out all of the paperwork for payments to commence automatically in January 2012.

5. Ensure everyone is on direct debit and start doing makeup sessions now so the debits do not have to stop.

If you are still selling packs and pay as you go personal training then you might find that you will struggle over this period.

You can change that.

If you are wanting to change that then you need to click here.

Hate marketing or selling or struggle with how to market or sell your personal training business?

You need to read on.

I was lucky to spend 2 days 1 on 1 with Michael Port the New York Times best selling author of Book Your Self Solid at his home in the US.

He taught me to teach you the fastest, easiest and most reliable system for getting more personal training clients than you can handle even if you hate marketing and selling.

I have used this system to grow my fitness business and you to can do the same.

I have just loaded a Book Yourself Solid Mini Course so you can kick start building your personal training business.

Click here to get it for free.

When you are in any personal training business you will constantly be learning, growing and making mistakes.

Just think about where you were 1 or 2 years ago? I bet it was a totally different place. Think how much you have grown as a person.

Here are 71 things that I have recently learnt that will help set you up for success in your fitnessbusiness.

1. Never, ever give up

2. If you say you are going to do something then bloody do it, it’s called integrity and staying true to your word. If you receive an email – reply, if you get a message – reply.

3. Those who mind don’t matter and those that matter don’t mind.

4. Always ask yourself how can you provide more value to your clients. If you focus on how can you make more money  you will be in strife.

5. Quit waiting for everything to be perfect, just start.

6. The more you learn the more you earn.

7. It never gets easier, you just get better.

8. A goal without a plan is just a wish.

9. If you want to be the best then you have to learn from the best.

10. Don’t try to be anyone else but yourself.

11. Nothing ever leaves your life unless something better is coming.

12. Quit making excuses and whining

13. Life is to short to live with regrets, so love the people who treat you right and forget the ones that don’t.

14. Haters don’t really hate you, they hate themselves cause you are a reflection of what they want to be.

15. Embrace change.

16. You don’t always get what you wished for, you get what you worked for.

17. Always stay true to yourself.

18. Practice what you preach, if you are a personal trainer you should have a personal trainer!

19. Always start the day with a to do list.

20. Hang around with positive people who encourage you to be the best you can.

21. Karma, what goes around comes around.

22. Your thoughts become your reality, want to know your beliefs? Have a look at what you have in your life.

23. Always have fun.

24. Respect the opinion and choices of other people.

25. Have multiple streams of income.

26. Watch what others do and do the opposite.

27. To get to the next level be better than yesterday.

28. Be human.

29. Take responsibility.

30. Having more is becoming more.

31. Mistakes = lessons.

32. Visualize what you want.

33. Stop complaining.

34. No matter what you do for some people it will never be good enough and that’s ok.

35. Always keep an open mind and never criticize others for the choices they make.

36. If you want something bad enough you will find away to make it happen.

37. If it aint broke then don’t fix it.

38. Success comes to those who don’t quit.

39. If you have a tough decision to make or cranky at someone, sleep on it first.

40. No ego’s allowed.

41. Demonstrate your expertise by the content you create, ideas and stories you share.

42. You have to stand out from everyone else who does what you do.

43. If you stuff up, apologize.

44. Be flexible.

45. Have confidence in yourself.

46. Fear is an airborne disease caught by hanging out with and listening to the wrong people.

47. Get on social media.

48. Start genuinely caring about your clients.

49. Every problem has a solution.

50. There will always be sacrifice.

51. You can’t take care of other if you don’t take care of yourself.

52. You can tell a lot about a person by the way they handle a rainy day, lost luggage or tangled Christmas lights.

53. Success is liking yourself, liking what you do and liking how you do it.

54. A mentor is not a therapist, but someone who challenges us to be better.

55. Exceptional success is often preceded by failure.

56. Stay focused on what matter most.

57. Spend less than what you earn.

58. Always be looking to expand your network.

59. Stop cutting off people when they are speaking.

60. Like what you do; if you don’t like it, do something else.

61. Knowing is not enough, you have to apply and take action.

62. Pressure makes us.

63. Success does not come, you have to go out and get it.

64. If you do the small things right then big things will happen.

65. Determination will get you through.

66. If you learn from defeat then you haven’t really lost.

67. Never compare yourself to others.

68. Limitations only exist if you believe they exist.

69. If you don’t step forward you will always be in the same place.

70. If you put in the work the results will come.

71.  And my favorite one that I live by everyday is there are no accidents.