Group Fitness Training

A Group Fitness Training Post by Chris McCombs

>>>>> QUESTION FROM READER <<<<<

Chris, thanks for all your blogposts and newsletters. I have a serious problem and I'm not sure what to do about it. You see, I'm a self employed personal trainer, I have four of the top certifications and am getting another one next month, and years ago I LOVED everything about training clients, I actually looked forward to it.  But today, I am totally burned out on my business. I make decent money, about 70k a year, but I am burned out and it seems all I do is work. My days are long, and sometimes I even train seven days a week.

When I get home all I want to do it sleep. My girlfriend is always mad at me cuz I'm always working, I rarely have time to see my friends, and I haven't been mountain biking ( my favorite hobby ) in almost a year cuz I just don't have the time.  What should I do Chris? I can't take it much longer, I feel I've
hit a wall, I've lost all my passion for training, and I'm even considering a career change, the long days are killing me. PLEASE HELP.

>>>>> MY COMMENTS <<<<<

I know what it's like, I've been there. Being overworked sucks and is no way to live, at least not in the long run.  The good news is if you can shift your mindset from working hard to working smart…. everything can change, pretty much overnight if you set your mind to it… and you can even make quite a bit more working quite a bit less… it's amazing how it works.  I've spent the last few years of my life figuring out all this "working smart" stuff and I've got a pretty good grip on it today.

Here's what you need to do…

• Start thinking in terms of owning a business instead of being self-employed.  Be an entrepreneur and not just a trainer. A smart entrepreneur focuses on strategy, marketing, building win/win relationships, setting and achieving goals, improving the sales process, and owning a business that runs on systems… not one that is reliant on the owner.

• Get a grip on your internet marketing. ( This Market Annihilator Program can help a TON)

• Refine your sales process

• Create win/win relationships with other businesses and entrepreneurs

• Put all clients on automatic billing ( with the exception of those willing to pay for like a year upfront.  Think in terms of lifetime value of a client, not price per session.

• Set up referral systems and IMPLEMENT THEM.

• Set goals for your business and work backwards on just how you're gonna get there.

• Create systems in your business, everything that is recurring and frequent needs a process… don't just wing out. That way you can start outsourcing stuff to others… cuz I'd bet good money you're doing it ALL right now… training, billing, EVERYTHING…

Here's the thing… if you structure your business properly, you'll be able to make a lot more and delegate the tasks you don't like ( I'm only good at about 5% of the things in my business, so that's what I focus on… don't try to improve your weaknesses… outsource em' and focus on your strengths)

As for setting up systems and delegating out work, grab this Auto Delegation Tool Box for a buck it's loaded with done-for-you tools and videos you can literally hand to people working for you… and feel free to cancel it anytime, if you cancel in the first 30 days you'll never be charged for it again.

Now, the next thing I would do is get out of that one-on-one private training stuff… 99% of the people doing it end up overworked and underpaid. I know a few who do well, my friend Valerie Waters comes to mind, but she trains people like Jennifer Garner and Jim Carey… however most trainers don't have that luxury.  Boot camps and group training is the ONLY way to go as far as I'm concerned.

Look at it this way…

Most self-employed private one-on-one trainers *net* less than $50 an hour… meaning to make six figures you need to train AT LEAST forty hours a week, but rarely are those 40 hours back-to-back, there's often gaps here and there, add in the fact that most trainers don't outsource any admin ( billing, appt setting, customer service, etc) and those 40 hours of training or that six figures ends up being 12 hours days and six day weeks.

That might be OK for a few years, but most will burn out, end up bored of training, ruin relationships… and never end up owning anything substantial, cuz' there ENTIRE business relies on them… if they get hurt or sick and have to take time off, they go broke.  HOWEVER… if you properly set-up your group fitness training business, you can earn an average of $200 an hour, cutting your work hours down to three part time days a week for that same six figures.  And if you throw in a few boot camps, market and structure them properly, you can earn $300-$500 an hour.

I have many of my coaching students outsource their group fitness training boot camps, so while they're in the gym training making $200 pure profit, they'll have other trainers running boot camps for them, they split the boot camp profits with the other trainer and now you're looking at what often times turns out to be $250K a year for a business that only requires part time attention.  Along with info-marketing, not too many gigs pay a quarter million dollars a year for part time work.  But a properly set-up boot camp or group fitness training business DOES.  You just NEED to be on top of your marketing, your systems, your sales funnels and your time management.

Less than 1% of the industry accomplishes this, your average trainer makes around $29K a year ( meaning they live month-to-month)  But becoming part of the small percent who make between 100k and 250k a year working part time is ACTUALLY EASIER than becoming one the 29k a year ones. Yes, I said EASIER. It's just about learning and focusing on the right things. Certifications are great… but USUALLY the trainers who have the most of them make the least money. The trainers who make the most also invest in their education, but they buy marketing and sales and business and time-management courses instead of cert after cert ( only other trainers care about how many certs you have, clients don't)

If you're gonna set-up group fitness training strategies, make the small investment into the Group Training Exploder … it'll walk you step-by-step through the entire process.  Another thing I STRONGLY suggest is working on your mindset… I think Napoleon Hills "Think and Grow Rich" is a great place for you to start, you can find digital versions of it free all over the internet since the copyright ran out on it, just search around for it, when I searched on Google the free version was the first one that popped up. That booked has had a profound impact on my life, as well as the lives of many other successful business owners

So remember…

-Work Smarter, Not Harder
-Be the Entrepreneur and focus on things smart entrepreneurs focus on
-Become a good marketer, ESPECIALLY online
-Improve your sales funnels
-Systematize, Outsource and Delegate
-Invest in your business and marketing education, don't worry about getting more certs
-Drop the private training
-Build up groups and/or boot camps
-Improve your mental game

And most importantly, take massive action and NEVER back down NO MATTER WHAT.

Hope this helps

Group Training Exploder

If you'd like to earn five or more times as much as the typical fitness trainer and be able to work part time hours, then I HIGHLY recommend you get into group ( semi-private ) training

Group trainers can make $100,000.00 to $250,000.00 per year and can often do it working only 20 or 25 hours a week. Along with boot camps, it is by far the most profitable way kind of fitness training business to have.

In my Group Training Exploder program I walk you step-by-step through the ENTIRE process of building and owning a highly profitable group training business.

You'll discover all my group training secrets, including…

• How to run and train your groups
• Finding the right location
• What equipment you'll want ( you can get this stuff even if you're on a shoe-string budget)
• Sales
• Marketing
• Getting referrals
• Business Automation
• Retention
• Billing
• And much, much more

Click here to learn more

To Discover How To Create a Six-Figure Group Fitness Training Business Just Click Here