7 Absolute Must’s, To Succeed As A Fitness Business Owner
As a business owner, the odds are not in your favour! More businesses fail than succeed however the risk to reward ratio is so high it's worth the risk IMO.
If you can overcome the odds and develop a successful fitness business, then the life you and your family can live will be very different to being employed.
That being said there are 7 Absolute Musts you have to adhere to if you are to stand any chance of beating the odds.
1. Laser Focus
I've said this hundred's of times but I'm going to say it again, building a business is not sexy, it only looks like a cool thing to do on Facebook! In reality, it's repetitive, hard and takes focus!
Focus only on one or two things over a 90-day cycle.
It took me 9 months to get my Semi-PT model from the conceptual stage to becoming a profitable service. During those 9 months, I did not try to launch any other service, 100% focus was on making this model work.
It worked but only because I made every mistake possible and finally found a formula that works for my business. It made both profits (a lot of profit) and gave me more free time.
You can't be good if you are trying to do everything at the same time, stay laser-focused on only 1-2 key projects over a 90 day period.
2. Protect & Feed Your Mind
The bigger the problem you can solve the more you will get paid!
The thing is, for you to be a great problem solver you have to protect your mind. There won't be a day/week that goes by that you as the owner will not have to sort out or solve a problem.
Your brain only has a limited amount of power each day, protect it by not having to think about the small stuff!
Feed it through reading, working with coaches that challenge and stretch the way you think, you always need to train your mind through learning.
If business was a sport your brain would be the primary muscle of use!
To get an idea of how much brainpower you waste each week, keep a log for just 1 week. Draw a table, on the right-hand side list out 1-2 business problems that if you solved would make a massive difference to the business and your life. On the left-side list out all other things that you were forced to problem solve for the week (both personal and business) that has cost you vital brainpower that could have been used on the right-hand side problems.
3. Take Full Responsibility
Shit is going to happen that will be totally out of your control!
It won't be your fault, but you will have to take full responsibility for it.
A client gets injured, the landlord wants you out, the staff member leaves and takes your clients are a few examples, not your fault but 100% your responsibility.
Only when you take full responsibility can you solve the problem, it’s not if these things are going to happen it's when.
To be a successful fitness business owner don’t blame or pass over responsibility when things go wrong, take ownership of the situation and handle it!
4. Overcoming Doubts & Fears
You’re going to become a different person as you grow your business. Learn to be cool with this as most people around you will not be on the same journey. You'll be the one that is always changing, trying to be better whilst others stand still, this will cause some resistance from those closest to you.
This can cause you to self-doubt yourself and question what you are trying to achieve! This is all part of moving towards success, it's all part of being a business owner.
Embrace it rather than cave into it.
When FEAR comes, don't run away from it, run straight into it, beat it up and continue on to your path to success. If you want to become a successful business owner, you’ll have to head into unknown terrain a lot of (a hell of a lot) times. At first, the new business terrain will be tough to navigate but working through it with a coach will help you learn and adapt to your new level of business.
5. Have Clear Direction
This may sound paradoxical, but I have found personal trainers are the worst for setting SMART goals! They teach this every day but when it comes to their business they are like a lost puppy dog!
No idea of what direction they need to go. You got to know your endgame from day 1!
That's the only way you can reverse engineer your entire business architecture and put a timeline on it.
Here are some questions to help you.
How much money do you want your business to make?
How much time do you want to work in and on your business?
What's the purpose of your business, why did you set it up in the first place?
Using the above 3 questions you can now reverse engineer your entire business.
6. Know Your Numbers
If you want to be an English teacher, you have to be good at the language of English. If you want to be successful as a fitness business owner, you have to understand the language of numbers!
80% of your decisions should be based on what the numbers are telling you, the other 20% will be your gut instinct.
Making money is the easy part, keeping it is hard! Keeping it will all come down to your financial intelligence and your understating of business numbers.
As your business grows to above 10k per month in revenue if you don't understand numbers you will be leaking cash without even knowing it. If you want to be a successful fitness business owner, then learn the language of business numbers. You can check out some training on this and download our Pricing For Profitability Tool Here
7. Live Life Alongside Your Business
Your business is going to take up a large part of your life!
I hate to be the one to tell you this but one day you are going to get old and move on to another world. Life is not something you start to live once your business is done, it's something you need to do at the same time as you build your business.
You only get to live in your 20's once,
When you're in your 30's you want different things in life than you did in your 20's,
The same is true for your 40's, 50's and so on.
Manage Yourself Before You Manage Your Business
If you're going to be a successful fitness business owner, then make sure that you do everything you want or need to in life alongside growing your business.
I never met a happy successful business owner that has a great business but no friends and no life!
Don't be the business owner that puts all their focus on their business only to realize they missed out on what life had to offer and it's too late to go change it!
Read Steve Jobs Final Words, they’re an eye-opener.
“I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In others’ eyes, my life is an epitome of success.
However, aside from work, I have little joy. In the end, wealth is only a fact of life that I am accustomed to.
At this moment, lying on the sick bed and recalling my whole life, I realize that all the recognition and wealth that I took so much pride in, have paled and become meaningless in the face of impending death.
In the darkness, I look at the green lights from the life supporting machines and hear the humming mechanical sounds, I can feel the breath of god of death drawing closer …
Now I know, when we have accumulated sufficient wealth to last our lifetime, we should pursue other matters that are unrelated to wealth …
Should be something that is more important:
Perhaps relationships, perhaps art, perhaps a dream from younger days
Non-stop pursuing of wealth will only turn a person into a twisted being, just like me.
God gave us the senses to let us feel the love in everyone’s heart, not the illusions brought about by wealth.
The wealth I have won in my life I cannot bring with me. What I can bring is only the memories precipitated by love.
That’s the true riches which will follow you, accompany you, giving you strength and light to go on.
Love can travel a thousand miles. Life has no limit. Go where you want to go. Reach the height you want to reach. It is all in your heart and in your hands.
What is the most expensive bed in the world?
Sick bed …
You can employ someone to drive the car for you, make money for you but you cannot have someone to bear the sickness for you.
Material things lost can be found. But there is one thing that can never be found when it is lost — Life.
When a person goes into the operating room, he will realize that there is one book that he has yet to finish reading — Book of Healthy Life.
Whichever stage in life we are at right now, with time, we will face the day when the curtain comes down.
Treasure Love for your family, love for your spouse, love for your friends.
Treat yourself well. Cherish others.”
Nicky Sehgal - Founder & CEO @ The FBDA
We help fitness business owners just like you improve every aspect of their business through skills training and developing systems that work. If you want to grow your business using a systematic approach Click Here To Schedule A Chat
