3 Keys to Profitable Growth Strategies for Advanced Fitness Business Owners

The most successful fitness professionals and business owners reach a point where their time and energy are MAXED OUT!

There’s simply no more capacity to continue growing their business. There aren’t enough hours in the day.

So even though they want more out of their fitness business, they don’t have the capacity or capability to continue increasing total client numbers.

They’re frustrated and overwhelmed learning all the new skills required to grow further and are afraid of losing personal income (if they take on the liability of staff payroll and leasing their own space).

And they’re nervous about turning their clients over to anyone else, because there’s a big risk their clients might leave (because up until now THEY are the business).

Fortunately, there’s a way past “maxed out.” Follow these advanced growth strategies to get your fitness business growing again:

1. Think like a business owner (not a coach)

Your level of professional development will rarely exceed your personal development.

That’s because our beliefs determine our actions and inevitably our success. You have beliefs that allowed you to grow this far, but if you hold onto them now, these beliefs will limit your continued progression.

Do you believe:

• No one else can train your clients as well as you do?
• Clients will leave if you hand them over to someone else?
• You can’t afford to pay enough for anyone good to work for you?
• There isn’t enough money to go around and if you pay someone else you won’t be able to pay yourself?

These are limiting beliefs and separate advanced fitness business owners from those who continue to suffer, grinding away on their own as a solopreneur. You must challenge these beliefs and adopt a growth mindset, such as:

• You can find (and afford investing in) amazingly qualified, caring coaches who love helping people and share your training philosophy and values.
• You can develop a plan to introduce new team members in a way that your clients benefit from fresh experience and more flexible hours.
• The time you free up will allow you to focus on more marketing and sales activities to find and sign up more new clients and increase total revenue.
• By evolving to a leader of other coaches you’ll be able to help more people and make a bigger impact.

Embrace a growth mindset, because you’ll never outperform your own estimate of your effectiveness.

2. Create a strategic plan for increasing total client numbers

Blind focus on generating new leads kills fitness businesses. Most fitness businesses fail because they’re losing existing clients as fast (or faster!) than they’re finding new ones.

It’s essential you learn how to create and deliver extreme value to break out from the pack. And design transformational client experiences, so you can build lifetime relationships (not transactional ones), and better serve clients for life.

How do you know when you’re doing it right? When nobody is leaving and you’re getting at least 50% of your new clients from referrals.

Then with a solid foundation in place, you can confidently focus on getting a clear marketing plan to drive more prospects to your website, phone, and through your doors“ each and every month.

This requires you to clarify WHO is the best client(s) for your business, price and package your offerings for profit, and learn how to confidently lead prospective clients to commit to their goals (and your programs).

Here’s the net impact of getting this right: Lose 2–3 fewer clients a month, and you will grow your business more than 50% higher over a year’s time (rather than finish the year in the same place you started 12 months ago).

And that’s revenue (and profit) you’ll need to reinvest in business growth, hire quality coaches, and pay yourself more.

3. Understand how to hire and develop quality coaches

The last growth-stopper is not getting support from others: Doing it all yourself is impossible to get to the next level. You’ll need to get the right people in the right roles to deliver great client experiences.

Don’t get hung up on certificates, education, experience, and skills that can be taught.

Look for personal, character, values, “fit” with your culture, and intangibles (e.g., what you can’t teach).

You want people who fit and align with your philosophy and culture “ because when it comes to developing teams of coaches, in the long run, it’s the intangibles that make the team great. As management guru Peter Drucker counseled, “Hire character. Train skill.”

Summary

Learn how to think like a business owner. Adopt a growth mindset and commit to changing how you think about your roles. Instead of being an individual contributor trading your (finite) time for money, learn to see yourself as a business owner who gets paid for creating results.

Next, get a strategic plan for increasing total client numbers every month. Build lifetime relationships (not transactional ones), and better serve clients for life.

Finally, grow beyond yourself by learning how to hire and develop quality coaches who care about serving clients as much as you do.

Want to run with the ‘Big Dawgs’? Register for our ADVANCED FITNESS BUSINESS training webinar and learn how to Increase your client base, revenue, and profits month-over-month; build a team to ensure your continued growth (and do so in a way that serves your clients better); and create balance between your business and personal life (so you can truly enjoy your success). www.NPEandIdea.com