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Business of Personal Training

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Business of Personal Training

Creating Members for Life

Ask the managers of any gym, personal training studio or other fitness-based business what their biggest challenge is and you are bound to hear “member retention.” Getting new members is easy—keeping them is more difficult.
Holding on to members for the long term is a special science, one that makes you think about how you approach every aspect of your business….

Meeting the Chain Challenge

When health club chains
announce they are coming to town, what happens to the business of local, independently owned facilities? How can any small business compete when its resources and staff are dwarfed by those of larger outfits? Is there any way to prepare or to level the playing field when dealing with such formidable competition?

Be Prepared
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Face-to-Face Time: Meetings With a Purpose

Why do most people dread attending meetings? It’s largely because meetings can be poorly organized and not thought out well. Many people perceive them to be tim…

A Measure of Success

When working with clients, we all understand the importance of setting goals, and most of us go through the process of examining and re-examining clients’ goals on a regular basis. However, when it comes to our own lives and businesses, it’s often a different story.
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Don’t Cancel That Class!

Recently I was faced with the biggest challenge of my professional management career. I had just posted an exciting, eclectic group exercise schedule boasting 75 classes a week. Many were specialty offerings, such as yoga, aqua arthritis, cycling and senior fitness. Then calls began to pour in from instructors telling me they’d be unavailable. Six of them were going to be away in th…

Risk Management: Is Your Club Compliant or Complacent?

As we usher in a new year, it is important to recognize the pressing need for all fitness facilities to remain compliant with established industry standards. Failure to achieve such compliance can expose you and/or your club to costly legal liability.
With so much on their plates each day, it is understandable that many fitness managers fall into a state of complacency, failing to ta…

Don’t Forget the Job Description

If you’ve ever asked an employee to do something pertinent to her job only to have her counter, “That’s not in my job description,” you know how important it is to outline the position in advance. According to the United States Small Business Administration, job descriptions provide the foundation for job training and future evaluations and should include the following b…

A Guide to Lifestyle Coaching

For several years the growing field of coaching has been receiving a lot of publicity. In the fitness arena, through IDEA articles and conferences, you have been reading and hearing specifically about lifestyle or wellness coaching. Are you wondering whether coaching is an area you should branch into for career longevity and variety? Personally, I have found coaching very rewarding and re…

Integrate to Elevate

One solution is to view your group fitness department as a business. Review your definition of teamwork and develop your team’s belief in the greater good. Learn how to harness talented egos so you can move in a common direction and encourage commitment to a fundamental purpose. The “Integrate to Elevate” success formula is based on The Winner Within: A Life Plan for Tea…

Managing Vicarious Liability

As a fitness manager, you recognize that certain acts result in legal liability. Injuries caused by worn flooring surfaces, equipment malfunctions and inappropriate program designs exemplify what acts have legal…

When Personal Trainers Leave

When personal trainers leave your organization, clients may also leave. Owing to the relationships fostered during one- on-one training, it is not uncommon for clients to feel compelled to continue…

Business Space

In our last column we explored different ways to finance your new business venture. This column will examine the steps needed to find the best location for your start-up business and discuss how to secure a lease.

Five Steps to Effective Delegation

When you think about delegating a job, is your motive to simply unload some of your own work? According to author Greg Balanko-Dickson, it shouldn’t be. He says it should be more about gaining cooperation to achieve a goal. It’s an opportunity for the business owner or manager to
empower the individual
motivate (inspire an employee to new levels of performance and responsibility)
encourage an employee in the delegation process

So You Want Your Own PFT Business?

The Start-Up
By Justin Price, MA

So You Want Your Own PFT Business?
Don’t let your plan fail because you’ve failed to plan. My personal training career progressed in the way most personal trainers’ careers do: I first worked for a gym, then worked as an independent contractor and then was in charge of a high-end personal training studio in London. However, I wanted more. I always wanted to own my…

Trends in Corporate Fitness

In the
mid-1990s, corporate
fitness was on a roll. With a strong economy, companies were competing to hire and keep
the best
employees. Corporate fitness programs were considered
a valuable perk to
retain these employees.> Fastforward to 2004. Has the once sunny forecast for corporate fitness held steady? Or have economic storms brought it crashing down? Is it currently a viable career option for fitness professionals? Here’s a look at the status of this niche, including top trends in group fitness, personal training and wellness programs.