Time Management and Productivity Tactics for Fitness Trainers

A Fitness Marketing and Time Management Post by Chris McCombs

Live by this next sentence, and you'll put yourself in the top 1% of the fitness industry…

Refuse To Be Like The 99% of Fitness Professionals Who Live Re-Actively, Letting Distractions, “Busy Work” and Other People Dictate Their Time, Income and Their Life

Most fitness professionals and personal trainers are so damn busy getting people in shape all day, they don't focus on the really important things like strategy, creating sales funnels, marketing and the rest of the big picture stuff that it takes to drive your business to the six or seven-figure level

If you're so busy getting people into shape that you don't spend enough time on the big picture stuff… we'll… you're pretty much screwed.

BIG MISTAKE: Most trainers spend WAY too much time training… in fact, that's what they think they're job is in their business… sure it's part of the gig… but the MARKETING OF WHAT YOU DO is actually much more important than training people… so you gotta get good at marketing the training

You cannot replace time… you can replace money, clients, gyms, and programs… but you CANNOT replace time

So take it seriously, guard and protect it, strategically plan it and use it get you to where you wanna go.

Time works against most fitness trainers…

Not knowing how to properly manage your time can not only insure that you’ll go nowhere fast in your business, but it can also cause you to end up miserable, frustrated, underpaid and overworked

Trust me, I know what it’s like… I’ve been there… when my personal training business was first starting to take off, I became one stressed out dude…

- I was working super long hours

- I was completely focused on the wrong things… so none of the big important stuff ever got done

- It seemed like there were never enough hours in the day to get to everything… and that drove me nuts

- In all honesty, I didn’t even know what I SHOULD be focused on… there were so many things on my to do list but I had NO IDEA where to start

- It seemed like all I did all day was run around trying to meet the ever growing demands of others

- I thought that the only way to make more money was to work more hours… more hours equals more money right? Well it can, but pretty soon I was working night and day six days a week… and Sundays just seemed to fly by

- I was always burned out… no matter how many espresso’s and energy drinks I slammed

- All the overwork was affecting not only my state of mind, but also my family and social life… it's like I was sacrificing the other important things in my life just to make money

You could say it pretty much sucked… all the busy work and minutia was holding me back from owning my dream business

( BTW – I think that poor kid in the pic was put in time out by her parents or something for acting up… but I wanna know what the hell did the little duckie do… guilty by association I guess )

That was until I decided to get a grip on this whole time management and productivity thing

Today I’m…

- Reasonably relaxed

- Mostly stress-free

- Able to get a whole bunch of other people to do almost all of my work for me

- Living on my terms, not allowing others or problems to dictate what gets done each day

- Have systems in place that make money for me… instead of ME having to work all the time

- Earning more money than I ever have in my life… even more than when I was a high level marijuana trafficker in my 20’s… and I was killing it when I had that little operation ( until I got busted at least)

And it’s all like this cuz’ of simple changes in behavior.

Here's just a few tips that should help you out…

Ok, first of all, you GOTTA have clear and defined goals, a target, that you take massive action to reach every day ( well every work day at least)

And you should have simple daily disciplines in place to reach those goals

And these are entrepreneur level disciplines, not "trainer" level disciplines

Business strategist Michael Gerber talks about how all entrepreneurs where 3 hats…

1. The Technician – for example training, writing up workout, writing up diet, etc.

2. The Manager – for example billing, customer service, admin, scheduling, etc.

3. The Entrepreneur – stuff like strategy, marketing strategy, big picture networking, creating the sales funnels, etc.

Being the entrepreneur is where you wanna spend as much of your time as possible, and systematize and outsource as much of the other two as you can… if you still love training ( being the technician) that's great, but figure out a way to where you're able to spend AT LEAST as much time being the entrepreneur as you are the trainer

Here's a few things trainers can do to be less of the technician all the time and more of the entrepreneur…

- Train groups – Group training is a no brainer, more money, less hours, duh… I mean usually in groups of up to six people you can service 75 clients in 3 days per week… enough to make $200,000 per year working PART TIME

Make sure you only work set hours… like Mon, Wed, Fri 6-11am and 4-8pm.. DO NOT LET CLIENTS DICTATE YOUR SCHEDULE

- Train Boot Camps - Boot Camps are another no brainer, make $500 per hour instead of $50 per hour like most private trainers.

I have coaching clients who have work part time, make HIGH six-figure incomes, and help a TON of people get into shape… it's definitely one of the best ways to go

- Have Other Trainers Working Under You – One Example is my own personal training business

A. My websites get the traffic using all my ninja internet marketing techniques – the websites also convert the traffic into callers

B. The calls go to my appointment setters who make appointments with qualified callers only for the trainers

C. The training is 100% outsourced to the trainers ( all over my area by the way and serving about 20 different cities)

D. My corporation bills the clients on long EFT agreements and once a month my wife pays the trainers 50% after EFT charges

E. My wife Sarah and assistant Del manage the entire business… that's my wife … managing the business… and probably getting ready to make me a sandwich (=

- Sell Your Own Fitness Info Products - Information Marketing is one of the best ways to go for a fitness professional who really want to leverage their time

Having your own product line of ebooks, manuals, dvd's, memberships sites and so on can make money for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year… make it once and get paid over and over and over

And a few important things to remember …

NEVER allow others to dictate how you work…

…it's YOUR responsibility to condition others to work with you on YOUR terms.

And be super-selective of who you’ll work with and what projects you’ll take on

If you don't… you'll find yourself confused and frustrated FAST

And delegate… simply focus on your strengths and the 5% of the activities that it takes to drive your business forward… and delegate out the rest

Anything the doesn’t NEED to be done by you personally can and should be delegated out

Whether you use a personal assistant like I do or an army of free barter clients like Zach Hunt does… get other people to do 95% of the work in your business, and you focus on your 5%

And remember… REFUSE To Be Like The 99% of Fitness Professionals Who Live Re-actively, Letting Distractions, “Busy Work” and Other People Dictate Their Time, Income and Their Life

And if you'd like a much more in-depth look at all of these strategies as well as EVERYTHING else I do to get so much of the big important stuff done in so little time… then check out Time Management for Trainers

It contains all the exact same time management and productivity strategies I use in my business that allow me to get a TON of stuff done, make a great living and still have a lot of free time left over at the end of the day…

If you'd like to clear on exactly what you should be doin' in your business, what actions you should take, how you should prioritize things and not let the minutia and busy work hold you back from building your dream business and lifestyle, I STRONGLY suggest you check this out… it can make a HUGE difference in your life, just like it did mine…

Time Management for Trainers

You'll discover...

• How to achieve COMPLETE control over your time, clients and the world around you…in order to achieve ULTIMATE productivity
• How to avoid the time-sucking minutia from creeping into your life… most fitness pros spend far too much time focusing on non-important “busy work” instead of focusing on the real important things that will help them achieve their goals
• 4 things you can do in your business right now to cut your hours in half while doubling your income over the next 3 to 6 months
• How to get up to 300% more stuff done in less than half the time you do now
• And much more

Click Here To Learn More About Time Management For Trainers

Image of the women working out in the back yard contributed by Lauren Brooks Miller of Lauren Brooks Kettlebells