Kay Cross, MEd
Article Archive
In this five-article series, we have covered the nuts and bolts of creating an in-home personal training business from scratch. First, it was critical to do all the background work to determine whether starting a business in your area was feasible and could support you full-time. Second, you created a business identity by looking at your core values, needs, vision, purpose and mission. Third, you outlined your financial needs and ideal work schedule and set 1-, 3- and 6-month goals.
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In “Starting From Scratch,” in the previous issue of IDEA Trainer Success, we wore ourselves out with figuring and calculations to create a livable work schedule and doable financial goals that would lay the groundwork for starting your own in-home personal training business. Now that the hardest part of our work is behind us, we dive into 10 organized steps to take to make your business official.
1. Choose a Graphic Designer to Create Your Materials.
In the previous issue of IDEA Trainer Success, we took the time to define your business identity, mission statement, pricing plan and equipment needs to create a successful in-home personal training business. In this issue, we are going to address your financial wants and needs as well as outline your desired work schedule. So get your pen and paper ready and let’s do some more foundation work.
Determine Your Financial Wants & Needs
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Building an in-home personal training business from scratch can be fun, exciting and just a little bit scary. To take as much fear out of the equation as possible, it is extremely important to do all the necessary foundation work so that when your official “start date” rolls around, you feel completely prepared. How do you do that? By joining me in the second of this five-article series.
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world for years while working part-time as a group-exercise instructor. The long commutes to work and overtime hours she put in were beginning to take a toll on her spirit, body and family life. She sought me out and hired me as her coach and mentor to help her methodically and honestly delve into the possibility of quitting her job and starting her own in-home personal-training business as a sole proprietor. During our three-month coaching period, she did just that!
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If you’re like a lot of successful personal trainers, you know from years of working with clients that even the best fitness evaluations and strength, cardio and weight management programs aren’t always enough. The problem–life gets in the way. From my own experience as a personal trainer, regardless of how great my programming was, it had zero value if my clients had adherence issues. Many of the hundreds I’ve helped over the years followed a plan for a while and then went back to their old self-sabotaging ways.
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In this article series we have covered a wealth of information to help you create and maintain a business edge so that you stand out from other trainers, coaches and fitness centers. I have enjoyed thinking through the elements that I believe have given my personal training and coaching business, Cross Coaching & Wellness, a business edge in my local community and in the fitness and wellness professional world as a whole. Writing these articles has also motivated me to stay on track with my own advice while I am sharing it with you.
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One of the most telling signs of whether your business practice is a success is the critical area of client adherence—adherence to the program and loyalty to your business services.
Maintaining a business edge in any economic environment requires skills and practices that we examined in the two previous articles in this series: a good work schedule with effective scheduling policies and excellent recordkeeping.
This article covers the third part of that edge: client adherence.
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In the previous installment of this series, we worked on your scheduling policies and getting a better workweek ironed out so that you are working when you’re at your best and when you actually want to work.
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I grew up with lots of space around me, and I loved and cherished it. We had a small house in the country on the outskirts of Grapevine, Texas, surrounded by my grandfather’s 125-acre farm. My brother and sister and I could hardly wait to get outside after school. We would disappear to the back pasture and play and scream at the top of our lungs, knowing that no one else could hear us.
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In talking with my coaching clients over the last several months, I have noticed a definite weakness among trainers, coaches and business owners: They do not define their time well.
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Although my business still requires diligence, attentiveness and hard work, it is much easier now than it was then because I know so much more. I know what I want, and I am at ease and comfortable with my hours, my skills and my clients.
Regardless of the economy, the weather, the decade or your age, having “the business edge” is about having a business that is organized, dependable and current and that stands out from the run-of-the-mill wellness business.
Change strikes the opposite emotion of fear in us when it happens to us and is outside our control. Nature, I realize, never gives us a 30-day notice on all that will be happening the following month. Nature follows its natural course in relation to the sun, and we humans are wise to keep our senses attuned to what is going on.
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weaving
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I have attended clients’ weddings, birthday parties, Christmas parties and baby showers and shared their birthday lunches and dinners. I’ve enjoyed and celebrated life with this special family of people brought together by a common goal of improving health and wellness. In my struggle to create a strong and lasting personal training business over the past 20 years, I have witnessed the growth of a “family” business. Although clients do come and go, they feel part of a family while they are working with me.
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Remember the days when cell phones were simply used for making phone calls? Well, today’s mobile devices are equipped to do more than just have conversations. Via cell phones, users are now accessing the Web, text messaging friends, taking digital photos, streaming videos and of course, making phone calls.
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I have been blessed with 20 years of business, a great client base and a plethora of growing and learning experiences. Although I never feel that I have done all of my work or that I know as much as I need to, I have fine-tuned my in-home personal training business into one that fits…
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No one will respect you if you don’t respect yourself first. I’ll never forget, in my 20s, a good friend telling me (in regard to dating), “You won’t be treated with respect unless you require it.” In other words, if you want to be treated with respect and dignity, don’t accept any behavior that is less than what you want and deserve…
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During my working years, I’ve lived through at least three recessions—and survived them all. Surviving was not easy in my early days of personal training, but I did learn from each of the slow periods that my business experienced. I progressed from twiddling my thumbs and worrying in 1988 to planning and actively accepting the reality of slowdowns today. During the 20 years I&…
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After lining up the perfect coaching plan with your target clientele, creating a sound lesson plan, organizing your packages and procedures and devising great materials and tools, what do you do next? The last step in carving out your coaching niche is often the hardest—supporting clients in maintaining the changes they have made and helping them continue to progress. What should yo…
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