Launching a personal training business can be a highly rewarding and fulfilling career for you, if you are a fitness enthusiast. But, for your personal training business to thrive, you will need to avoid some of the common mistakes that most of the other personal trainers tend to make.
In this article, we will walk you through 10 business mistakes that most personal trainers make as well as how to avoid them. So, if you are looking to establish a successful personal training business, then you’ve come to the right place. With that said, let’s dive straight in.
1. Lacking a Well-Defined Marketing Strategy
One of the most common business mistakes that some personal trainers make is the failure to create a marketing plan. And, the consequences of not having a marketing plan can be detrimental to the growth and success of your fitness business.
First, if you don’t have a marketing plan, the marketing strategies that you will employ will be uncoordinated. And, the chances of getting any success with such an approach are slim.
On the other hand, a marketing strategy will help you to assess your target market, define your audience, and come up with the right marketing strategies to employ. As a result, your marketing will be highly effective and your client base will grow.
Second, a marketing strategy usually includes a means of tracking and measuring the results. So, if you don’t have one, it will be hard to tell whether the strategies you’ve deployed are working or not. As a result, you may continue making the same mistakes repeatedly, leading to a wastage of resources.
Third, a lack of a marketing strategy can lead to financial problems. An effective fitness marketing strategy usually includes a budget. This budget will help you to evaluate the amount of money you will allocate to different marketing methods.
So, if you don’t have a marketing strategy, you may end up haphazardly running commercials, placing ads randomly or printing promotional materials haphazardly. And eventually, you may end up overpaying for some of these methods, with nothing to show for it. And eventually, you may end up facing financial challenges. A marketing plan, on the other hand, will help you to stick to your marketing budget.
Without a marketing strategy, you will find it hard to land clients. Also, you may run into money problems. And in the worst-case scenario, you may be even forced to close your business. Simply put, if you are looking to run a successful personal training business, you should ensure you take time to come up with an effective marketing strategy.
2. Trying To Do Everything by Yourself
When your personal training business is new, you may want to handle everything by yourself – from marketing to training, management to bookkeeping, customer service to attending to your personal training website. But, this approach is not sustainable in the long term.
Trying to do everything by yourself will drain you up considerably. Also, you may eventually suffer from burnout. And, this will affect not only your business but your mental health as well.
So, instead of trying to do everything by yourself, it will be highly advisable to delegate some of the tasks. Hire people you can trust to attend to different tasks. For instance, you can hire people to attend to customer service, marketing, and social media management, among others.
By delegating some of the work, you will be left with ample time to focus on your clients. Besides, you will also be left with sufficient time to spend with yourself and your family. Also, delegating some of the tasks in your fitness business will reduce stress levels, thus helping to keep you in a great mental and physical state.
Hence, as much as you may want to handle all the tasks in your personal training business, you should consider delegating some of the work to people you trust. By doing so, you will be more productive, your profits will be higher, and you will avoid stress.
3. Underpricing Your Rates
Another business mistake that personal trainers make is underpricing their rates. And this is quite a common mistake that beginners make, in an attempt to attract clients. However, underpricing your rates comes with two several drawbacks.
First, you will be forced to work for longer hours and train more clients, in an attempt to earn a livable wage. At the end of the day, your income is tied to the number of clients or hours worked.
So, if you underprice yourself, you will be forced to work for longer hours, which may eventually lead to a burnout. And when this happens, it will almost be impossible to offer quality training to your clients – meaning you may end up losing some of them.
Second, underpricing your rates may make you appear less valuable to your target audience. If you are constantly offering deals and discounts, your target audience will see you as less valuable.
As a result, you may end up attracting clients who will offer mediocre rates, meaning your earnings will be low. Also, you may only attract people who don’t take fitness seriously. And, once the deal is over, they will find a way out. Consequently, growing your personal training business will be a challenge if you keep attracting such clients.
Therefore, you should avoid underpricing your rates. Instead, learn to price yourself just right. At the end of the day, you have skills and knowledge that can transform someone’s life. So, know your worth and charge accordingly.
4. Focusing on Client Acquisition Only
Personal trainers are constantly on the lookout for new fitness clients. And, there’s nothing wrong with this. However, as much as you may be looking to attract new clients, you also need to have a retention strategy in place.
Without a retention strategy, you will keep losing clients as you obtain them. As a result, you will always have the same number of clients, month after month. And this means your revenues will also remain stagnant. Therefore, you will find it extremely hard to take your fitness business to the next level.
Furthermore, studies also show that it costs approximately five times to attract a new customer, compared to keeping an existing one. Also, your current, loyal customers are your brand ambassadors. They will refer your services to others, helping to grow your client base.
Therefore, just as you are investing in attracting new customers, you should also put in place measures and strategies that will help you to retain your existing clients.
Some of the methods that you can use to retain your existing clients include holding regular events, tracking their progress to ensure they are achieving their fitness goals, maintaining regular communication to show them you care about their goals and taking the time to meet with them outside of training sessions to socialize.
5. Targeting Everyone
If you are new to personal training, you may be tempted to market your services to everyone, in an attempt to get your personal training business off the ground. And, as much as this approach may help you to land a couple of clients in the short term, it will not be sustainable in the long term.
By targeting everyone, it’s highly likely you will end up with the wrong clients. Besides, you will also find it extremely hard to stand out, since there’s nothing to separate you from the hundreds of other fitness businesses.
So, instead of targeting everyone, you should instead niche down. For instance, you can choose to specialize in bodybuilding, weight loss, youth fitness, seniors’ fitness, as well as prenatal and postpartum personal training, just to name a few.
Once you’ve selected your preferred niche, you will then become the go-to person when an individual from any of these target groups is looking for a personal trainer. As a result, you will attract the right type of client that you want and you are likely to offer great services to your clients, which will help to retain them.
Besides, you will also find it easier to separate yourself from the crowd and your fitness business will grow.
6. Relying on a Single Income Stream
If you were to go out there and interview a couple of personal trainers, most will tell you that they only have a single source of income – and this is generated from one-on-one personal training services.
But, relying on a single income stream can be detrimental to the growth of your fitness business. The reason behind this is that if you happen to lose some clients or you are not in a position to offer one-on-one personal training sessions, your income may reduce considerably.
Consequently, if you are not generating enough income, running your personal training business will be hard. At the end of the day, you need money to cover various overheads. Besides, you may also face a financial emergency. And, if your revenues have decreased, you may even be forced to close your personal training business.
To avoid this situation, it will be highly advisable to have several revenue streams. Besides earning money from one-on-one personal training sessions, you should also consider offering online personal training classes.
Also, you can generate more income by selling workout guides or customized meal plans as well as organizing fitness holidays and retreats. By adding extra revenue streams, you will enjoy increased cash flow, which will provide you with the funds you need to continue expanding your personal training business.
7. Wrapping It Up
Whether you already own a personal training business or you aspire to, avoiding the above mistakes will go a long way in helping you to run a profitable and successful personal training business.