[eazybrezzy]

Hello Gentlemen

I am currently in the process of creating my own personal training business with a twist. I am based in NYC and have a great looking logo, website and branding. The rate I am trying to get for a one hour session Is $100 however I only have two clients and I only have one session with each of them per week. I think this has potential to become a very lucrative side hustle and possibly a full time thing.

I am seeking advice about the best way to generate leads and turn them into clients, any tips on marketing sales or SEO would be massively appreciated. I was thinking also that perhaps my price point is too high?

anyway

I have set myself a goal of having ten clients by the end of the year and I will update this thread with my progress and give any advice that I can on starting up similar businesses to any interested partys.

[Biz]

Personal Trainers' Guide to Earning Top Dollar: A Cutting-Edge Guide to Maximizing Your Income as a Personal Trainer

http://www.amazon.com/Personal-Trainers-...dp_product

[DumbfromBirth]

Figure out who is your target audience. Create keywords and SEO specialised for this audience. Create quality content.

Word of mouth and make contacts with people who work in the gym. Create business cards.

[Black Quixote]

First off: "Parties" not "partys" forgive me for that. That's petty and I only respond that way because.

As dumbfrombirth said, who is your target audience? Begin by breaking down who your clients are, why do they come to you? What measures have you taken to understand them? Have you implemented in your site analytics? If so in what form?

Ok, I will see. For the questions you ask that are broad I will ask you an equally open interrogative submission or a few rather:
1. Who pays the most?
2. Why do of the few individuals or groups pay the most?
3. What part of your sales process or funnel closes?
4. Where do these people come from, not just geo, I mean background and online or offline? ***IMPORTANT**
5. What is your biggest value to them? As in what do you give them they can find nowhere else, be specific?
6. How do you differentiate yourself in your area from competitors and what do they do to provide value as well as capture potential clients?
7. Why is your price as it is? Is it because you make what you feel your value is or is it because you charged arbitrarliy? Basically, what is the basis behind your price?
8. Do you enjoy your business? is it a passion or a hobby? Most in this industry either expect it to be easy or know it's a bit difficult and can either file it under passion or hobby based business.
9. What would you say is the worst part of your business aside from your marketing efforts? What can you identify?
10. Who is your greatest competitor and what would clients say is their strongest points of sale versus competition and if you do not know can you find it out?

Just samples of questions off the top of my head. As I prep to drop more on the data sheet I have been stalling on, I both want to ask and have to ask to help so that I can.

Answer those and you can be helped.

[aguirre]

which education/certifications do you have?

[eazybrezzy]

(01-15-2015 03:02 AM)Black Quixote Wrote:  

1. Who pays the most?
when I train a couple together I charge them more
2. Why do of the few individuals or groups pay the most?
because I feel justified in charging two people more and they are still getting a good deal
3. What part of your sales process or funnel closes?
I do not understand this question
4. Where do these people come from, not just geo, I mean background and online or offline? ***IMPORTANT**
generally collage educated and from online and word of mouth
5. What is your biggest value to them? As in what do you give them they can find nowhere else, be specific?
I will travel to where they live and provide high level Martial arts instruction in a number of disciplines so as I see it I have two major selling points
6. How do you differentiate yourself in your area from competitors and what do they do to provide value as well as capture potential clients?
I am the only person in the area that I know of, who provides the service that I do.
7. Why is your price as it is? Is it because you make what you feel your value is or is it because you charged arbitrarliy? Basically, what is the basis behind your price?
I have spent many years and thousands of dollars learning Martial arts and If i consider traveling too and from their location plus an hour class anything less then $100 feels like I am selling myself short
8. Do you enjoy your business? is it a passion or a hobby? Most in this industry either expect it to be easy or know it's a bit difficult and can either file it under passion or hobby based business.
Passion I would teach for free if I did not have bills to pay
9. What would you say is the worst part of your business aside from your marketing efforts? What can you identify?
traveling to clients is not great but that is a big selling point. other than that its pretty good, scheduling can be a pain sometimes
10. Who is your greatest competitor and what would clients say is their strongest points of sale versus competition and if you do not know can you find it out?
My biggest competitor would be other Martial arts schools they would be cheeper to train at and will have more training partners available.

I hope my answers were sufficient, please let me know if you need further details.

[chyamor]

1. Who pays the most?
when I train a couple together I charge them more

Good luck with that. 99% of places usually do 30% off or even 50% off for the 2nd person since they already have to be there for first person.

[eazybrezzy]

(01-15-2015 09:12 AM)chyamor Wrote:  

1. Who pays the most?
when I train a couple together I charge them more

Good luck with that. 99% of places usually do 30% off or even 50% off for the 2nd person since they already have to be there for first person.

Perhaps I did not make myself clear for 1 person I charge $100. for two people I charge $120

So a pretty considerable discount.

[Tyler Belfort]

You fell in to the classic online trap of getting a 'great looking logo, website and branding' without taking the time to understand the market you were entering - how could you possibly create a brand without knowing who your target market is?

Don't feel bad though, it's a common mistake. We've all been there. Let's see if we can help.

Positioning Your Brand

Black Quixote posed some good questions to help you figure out if your pricing is correct/who your market is. If you want to charge more than everyone else you have to offer more perceived value. It could be some bullshit gimmick like 'As Seen On CNN - Best Trainer For Burning Fat In New York' or it could be something legit like qualifications, previous high profile clients, facilities etc.

Got one? Congratulations, you've just found your USP. This is what you push when creating your brand, marketing material, website etc. This is why people pay you $100/hour rather than the guy down the road $50/hour.

How Much Should I Charge?

Next, you questioned your price point...yet you've already got 2 clients? Evidently, people think you offer enough value to warrant that spend. Now you have to figure out where these people came from and how to find more like them that are interested in your services so you can scale your business. This is where marketing comes in.

You know exactly how your competitors are marketing their businesses from your competitor analysis...right? Don't be lazy. You need to know your industry inside out. You need to eat, shit and sleep personal training. Analyse your market using the usual tools (SWOT etc) to help you identify areas of potential growth and weaknesses to exploit for your gain.

Personal Training Sales Funnel

First let's look at your sales funnel, then we'll focus on filling it with leads.

See the difference? That backend is what takes your 1k/month side hustle to a serious business that can compete in one of the most crowded evergreen niches. Notice how at any stage from the top tier of the second funnel (the blog, free giveaway etc line) they can jump in to paid customers in the second tier.

- Create a blog with articles from your years of knowledge that provide value to your readers. Don't do this with search engines in mind. Do it with your customers in mind. What are their pain points? What solutions are they looking for? Build a business that search engines have to take notice of because it serves your audience so well, not one specifically for search engines.

- The majority of people visiting your website aren't going to buy. But you're going to spend time and money driving them to your site - so you want to make sure you're squeezing every bit of value you can. How? A newsletter opt-in. You can give away a free product or just weekly updates etc in exchange for an email address that will allow you to build a relationship and remind them of your paid products. MailChimp is free up to 2k subscribers.

- A front-end product functions as a low priced purchase that enables you to build trust and authority with your audience. Imagine if you could train with the author of your favourite fitness e-book? Give them that opportunity. It's incredibly easy to get an e-book up on Amazon, market it via the blog and newsletter and promote a free workout/diet plan at the beginning and end of the book. Easy to implement.

- A free training session/diet/workout plan serves as a chance to get your foot in the door with your more expensive services. If they're local to you a free training session offers you a good chance to hook them with little cost to you - at this stage you have a list of leads that you know are interested in what you're offering, it just comes down to your ability to close on the day.

- Paid training session is self explanatory. Sell bulk sessions at a small discount to maximise ROI on the above.

- High ticket product to generate the $$$. This is your flagship product. You're better suited to think this up. Maybe a boot camp? 5-day intensive boot camp with accommodation etc including, key speakers from the industry, nutrition packs? Who knows. Price around the $200-$2k mark.

Filling The Sales Funnel

I won't go over the obvious business cards, networking etc, that's common sense.

You need to be driving people to the start of your funnel. It's a post in it's own right, but think about where you target audience is and get your brand in front of them. Some of the ones that may work for you..

Outreach marketing - Pretty simple. Reach out to the sites where your audience hang out. You can do the obvious fitness and nutrition sites like everyone else...or you could be clever, think up an angle and go outside the box. Hit up a 'new moms' site and do an article on getting back in to shape after having a kid, then drive the traffic back to your funnel. Something like that. Get creative.

Paid advertising - Pay-per-click, display ads, media buys. If you're on a budget, start out with Bing for lower CPCs, geo-target your area and drive the traffic to a page/article you've got set-up with clear calls to action.

E-books - Discussed above. Create some short, highly informative documents, give them out for free and encourage people to share. Make sure your logo/branding/website is visible and has calls to action at the beginning & end. 'If you found this information helpful, you can find more free articles on how to lose weight after a baby on our site x.com'.

Social - Get involved in the communities. Look in to automation to maximise ROI on your time. Hootsuite is a good tool, will allow you schedule posts across multiple social networks so it will auto run hands off. Find accounts similar to yours and follow their followers. Engage in conversations, link to articles from other sources that your audience will like, become the 'hub' of information for your industry. You can also automate following/unfollowing and even creating discussions as you grow with other tools...but focus on the easy stuff for now.

General Advice

Hopefully that's got the gears turning.

Getting ahead in business is about creating an edge. It's the same in game, sports, poker...life. Game gives you an edge over other men that becomes evident over hundreds of approaches. It's not a miracle cure. Start applying a 'red pill' mindset to business and you'll start to see your edge. But creating an edge in anything is fucking hard work, which is why the majority of people don't bother. You have to be different.

If you want to keep it as a side hustle and earn $1000/month, cool, think like everyone else.

If you want to scale up to a real 6/7 figure business you've got to start thinking on the next level.

[VolandoVengoVolandoVoy]

If you've already got two clients, the best way to build your business is to give them excellent service and establish a rapport. Then let them know that you've got some space in your schedule and are willing to offer a free trial class to any of their friends/contacts who might be interested. You could even sweeten the pot if necessary by letting your clients know that they'll get two free classes for every one of their friends/contacts that becomes a paying client.
For high end stuff in NYC, the aura of exclusivity and word of mouth is very important.
A friend of mine who did his Spanish PhD in NYC was able to charge 100+ an hour to tutor the private school kids of wealthy people on the Upper East Side. He started off with a single client referred to him by a professor, provided excellent service and expanded it from there. None of these high end people would have hired him from a website or advertisement.

[chyamor]

Damn, can I send you a pm? Maybe you can give me some pointers on my side business.

(01-15-2015 11:19 AM)Tyler Belfort Wrote:  

You fell in to the classic online trap of getting a 'great looking logo, website and branding' without taking the time to understand the market you were entering - how could you possibly create a brand without knowing who your target market is?

Don't feel bad though, it's a common mistake. We've all been there. Let's see if we can help.

Positioning Your Brand

Black Quixote posed some good questions to help you figure out if your pricing is correct/who your market is. If you want to charge more than everyone else you have to offer more perceived value. It could be some bullshit gimmick like 'As Seen On CNN - Best Trainer For Burning Fat In New York' or it could be something legit like qualifications, previous high profile clients, facilities etc.

Got one? Congratulations, you've just found your USP. This is what you push when creating your brand, marketing material, website etc. This is why people pay you $100/hour rather than the guy down the road $50/hour.

How Much Should I Charge?

Next, you questioned your price point...yet you've already got 2 clients? Evidently, people think you offer enough value to warrant that spend. Now you have to figure out where these people came from and how to find more like them that are interested in your services so you can scale your business. This is where marketing comes in.

You know exactly how your competitors are marketing their businesses from your competitor analysis...right? Don't be lazy. You need to know your industry inside out. You need to eat, shit and sleep personal training. Analyse your market using the usual tools (SWOT etc) to help you identify areas of potential growth and weaknesses to exploit for your gain.

Personal Training Sales Funnel

First let's look at your sales funnel, then we'll focus on filling it with leads.

See the difference? That backend is what takes your 1k/month side hustle to a serious business that can compete in one of the most crowded evergreen niches. Notice how at any stage from the top tier of the second funnel (the blog, free giveaway etc line) they can jump in to paid customers in the second tier.

- Create a blog with articles from your years of knowledge that provide value to your readers. Don't do this with search engines in mind. Do it with your customers in mind. What are their pain points? What solutions are they looking for? Build a business that search engines have to take notice of because it serves your audience so well, not one specifically for search engines.

- The majority of people visiting your website aren't going to buy. But you're going to spend time and money driving them to your site - so you want to make sure you're squeezing every bit of value you can. How? A newsletter opt-in. You can give away a free product or just weekly updates etc in exchange for an email address that will allow you to build a relationship and remind them of your paid products. MailChimp is free up to 2k subscribers.

- A front-end product functions as a low priced purchase that enables you to build trust and authority with your audience. Imagine if you could train with the author of your favourite fitness e-book? Give them that opportunity. It's incredibly easy to get an e-book up on Amazon, market it via the blog and newsletter and promote a free workout/diet plan at the beginning and end of the book. Easy to implement.

- A free training session/diet/workout plan serves as a chance to get your foot in the door with your more expensive services. If they're local to you a free training session offers you a good chance to hook them with little cost to you - at this stage you have a list of leads that you know are interested in what you're offering, it just comes down to your ability to close on the day.

- Paid training session is self explanatory. Sell bulk sessions at a small discount to maximise ROI on the above.

- High ticket product to generate the $$$. This is your flagship product. You're better suited to think this up. Maybe a boot camp? 5-day intensive boot camp with accommodation etc including, key speakers from the industry, nutrition packs? Who knows. Price around the $200-$2k mark.

Filling The Sales Funnel

I won't go over the obvious business cards, networking etc, that's common sense.

You need to be driving people to the start of your funnel. It's a post in it's own right, but think about where you target audience is and get your brand in front of them. Some of the ones that may work for you..

Outreach marketing - Pretty simple. Reach out to the sites where your audience hang out. You can do the obvious fitness and nutrition sites like everyone else...or you could be clever, think up an angle and go outside the box. Hit up a 'new moms' site and do an article on getting back in to shape after having a kid, then drive the traffic back to your funnel. Something like that. Get creative.

Paid advertising - Pay-per-click, display ads, media buys. If you're on a budget, start out with Bing for lower CPCs, geo-target your area and drive the traffic to a page/article you've got set-up with clear calls to action.

E-books - Discussed above. Create some short, highly informative documents, give them out for free and encourage people to share. Make sure your logo/branding/website is visible and has calls to action at the beginning & end. 'If you found this information helpful, you can find more free articles on how to lose weight after a baby on our site x.com'.

Social - Get involved in the communities. Look in to automation to maximise ROI on your time. Hootsuite is a good tool, will allow you schedule posts across multiple social networks so it will auto run hands off. Find accounts similar to yours and follow their followers. Engage in conversations, link to articles from other sources that your audience will like, become the 'hub' of information for your industry. You can also automate following/unfollowing and even creating discussions as you grow with other tools...but focus on the easy stuff for now.

General Advice

Hopefully that's got the gears turning.

Getting ahead in business is about creating an edge. It's the same in game, sports, poker...life. Game gives you an edge over other men that becomes evident over hundreds of approaches. It's not a miracle cure. Start applying a 'red pill' mindset to business and you'll start to see your edge. But creating an edge in anything is fucking hard work, which is why the majority of people don't bother. You have to be different.

If you want to keep it as a side hustle and earn $1000/month, cool, think like everyone else.

If you want to scale up to a real 6/7 figure business you've got to start thinking on the next level.

[Tyler Belfort]

(01-15-2015 02:10 PM)chyamor Wrote:  

Damn, can I send you a pm? Maybe you can give me some pointers on my side business.

Sure, my rate is $500/hour.

Just kidding, send it over.

[eazybrezzy]

Tyler Thank you for the in-depth reply. That has given me a lot to think about. I will update this thread with any success or failures and let you know the ideas that I am implementing. Thanks again.

[Beyond Borders]

I believe Elliot Hulse had an info product for a while, or a course, teaching people how to do this. And he was very successful at it.

I'd buy a stack of books on that and marketing. Get input from various people - no one is fully right or wrong, so you'll get lots of experience to draw from.