Personal Training Business Plans Suck…..
…especially if you do not have any clients!
If are brilliant in predicting the future then don’t bother about spending hours upon hours writing a plan for factors that are out of your control, things such as competition, customers, the economy and the list goes on. 
Caught up with a client last week and the studio mentioned that they had previously dedicated hours if not days to their business plan however they haven’t looked at it because since they started so much has changed that it is not relevant anymore, should start calling them guessing plans then? Most people do a business plan before they start their business, how can you do that if you have never run a personal training business, you are making decisions before you have gone out there and done it!
Now I am not saying do not plan, you need to think about the future, what I am saying is do not obsess or spend days and days on doing it especially when you have very little clients and the bills are not getting paid. For some people not having a plan will freak them out but it you follow a plan that is so far stretched from reality you may be headed in the wrong direction.
Give up the guess work. Decide your action plan today and this week of what you are going to do to make yourself a more successful personal trainer. If you need help to get more clients email me at kellie@ptbusinesssuccess.com and I will help you develop the strategies you need to get clients.
Hi Kellie,
Great article, couldn’t agree more. When I first started my business, I spent literally months planning and writing plans and in the end wasting time. One thing that was told to me, which I wish I knew earlier, is the one page business plan.
It’s basically one page where all the information that is required and how you are going to get there is in the one place. The great advantage of this one page is that you can constantly refer to it (mine is above my computer screen on my wall) and make changes. It’s always being looked at and changed when needed.
And because it fits on one page, it’s simple and only has the necessary information.
A great book that I’ve come across lately that covers some of this is “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits” by Verne Harnish. Well worth a read.
Cheers
Craig
We could not agree more. When we started our business we knew we wanted to do it debt-free and would only need to create a business plan if we wanted bank funding. We came up with a concept called a Business Outline that gives us direction for the business and a platform to follow. Instead of spending countless hours guessing what our customers might want we focused on how we were going to market our site, coming up with great content and enjoying what we were doing. We are now following a Business Outline for all our business projects and it’s working great. Thanks for the fantastic post!
[...] Generate an action plan. Notice the word action, cause you know I am not a fan of business plans see here. [...]