Tag Archives: personal training business

Personal Training Prediction

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I’m no psychic but I’m willing to make a prediction.

Over the next 10-20 years one-on-one personal training studios will (once again) be the biggest trend in fitness.  Personal training has existed since Ancient Greece and there’s certainly nothing new about personal training studios.  They began to pop up in mass quantities starting in the late 70’s when Nautilus introduced variable resistance strength training equipment which made it easy to perform fast and extremely effective workouts under the guidance of a personal trainer who was educated in their high-intensity training protocol.

Jazzeridiots Make Their Debut…The Weight Lifters Laugh At Them

As new fitness trends emerged personal training studios dwindled as people made their way to Jazzercise classes and opted for outdoor running over indoor strength training (big mistake).  When doctors finally started to see the light—the same light bodybuilders and strength athletes saw decades earlier—they began encouraging people to lift weights because it provided greater health and fitness benefits over any other form of exercise.

Certified Baboons & Weight Training

Gyms and health clubs start to emerge out of thin air and they filled up with people looking to lift weights.  But the majority of these people have as much understanding about what to do as a baboon would.  This spawned the growth of the personal training industry and now you get a major influx of baboons that are “certified” to teach other people how to waste their time with wasteful exercise.   Add to this the uprising of affordable gyms and Crossfit and now you have an overcrowded mess of unsafe unknowledgeable lifters.

Personal Training Studio Doors Are Opening

This scenario has created a special space in the market for personal training studios.  Big gyms can survive with bad trainers but small personal training studio cannot.  Consumers recognize this.  More than ever they are taking their business to personal training studios that can offer a private or semi-private setting that is devoid of distractions, allows people to “get in and get out” and achieve results safely under the tutelage of a competent and professional trainer.  This market is certain to grow in the next 10-20 years as our lives become more complex, our personal time dwindles, and our need to circumvent the guesswork and “get it right the first time” increases.

The New Way to Wealth Creation (Hint: it begins with a “P”)

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The one piece of advice that has served every business that ever chose to implement it is the “10x’s Value Rule”.  To attract and retain clients or customers give them value that is ten times the cost of the service or product you are offering.   It’s simple, effective, and just good business practice.

The state of our economy has made the consumers more conscious than ever about what they spend money on and they are far pickier about who they do business with.  As a result businesses have needed to find ways to give more value or otherwise watch their business disintegrate.   Even though we never like to see businesses fail—especially small businesses—this situation has helped eradicate a lot of bad and “middle-of-the-road” businesses from the marketplace, leaving only those that bring real value to people’s lives.

However, if you haven’t been paying close attention lately you may have missed the paradigm shift.  Now that (mostly) everyone has become value driven, ten times value is what’s “expected” by the consumer.  Suddenly value has lost some of its WOW factor.  Which means something else has to take its place in order to draw the awareness of consumers and create a gap between the good and the great.  That something else is Purpose.

I’m not talking about a mission statement on the third page of the company’s operations manual or what they mention to a new employee upon hiring them.  I’m talking about something that’s bigger than the company or any one person in it.  A cause that employees, team members, clients, and customers alike can rally around.  Something that makes your team feel good about where they work and the work they do.  It makes the customer feel as though their money is not just supporting a business and its owner, but its supporting a culture and concept that lifts people up and makes a difference.  This is the new way to wealth creation.

Separating “Training” and the “Training Business”

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I have a lot of friends in the fitness industry. (Actually I just lost one the other day but hey, some people need to alienate as many people as possible in order to help their brand stand out…I get it.)  One thing I always find interesting is that sometimes my fellow fitness professionals have a hard time breaking away from their long held beliefs.  They might question a few of them from time to time but rarely will it result in them making a change in how they train themselves and others.

The reason: business.

Many—me included—have built successful personal training businesses that center around a message.  This message is at the core of what makes the business tick, why people keep coming back, why others seek you out, and why others run in the opposite direction.  Just look at Crossfit.

In order to have people follow you and adhere to your recommendations, you need to be “all-in” and follow your own advice.  A big part of the message at our studio is that it doesn’t take more than sixty to ninety minutes of exercise a week to achieve a high level of fitness.   Some of my friends take this message of efficiency to another level by promoting fifteen to twenty minutes of exercise weekly.

When someone turns to me and says, “You must train every day, right?” I’m quick to point out that I rarely train more than ninety to one-hundred minutes a week, even during the bodybuilding competition season.   I remain true to what I teach and to prove a point in the process.  The point being—based on the way I implement exercise I can train less than the majority of fitness enthusiasts and bodybuilders and still compete at the highest level.

But let’s back up for a moment.  Did you notice in my response to the question I’m often asked I said “rarely”?

I do this not to be deceptive but to leave doors open to other possibilities.  Sometimes you need to set the business model (and ego) aside in order to focus on the training; to experiment or explore an approach that is outside of the model.  Or the other option is to hold steadfast to what you do, look like you have all the answers because you work within a very narrow system, and come up with reasons why the other methods are complete shit.

If what you uncover through experimental training works but doesn’t quite fit your business model it doesn’t mean the model is wrong and you have to abandon it or eat crow.  You may consider revising it, adding on to it, or keeping it exactly as is because it works for the niche you cater to and is what they want.   The worse that can happen is that you learn something which helps you to better comprehend the nuances of the art of exercise science.