This post is about one thing…

Getting your personal training or boot camp business organized, systemized and monetized to the fullest so that you can have more time, money and freedom to do what you want, when you want, as often as you want.

Here’s the deal, most industry trainers run their business like a job. In fact most trainers are actually running their business by the seat of their pants with no systems in place for marketing, selling, retaining, or referral generating.

I don’t know about you, but that’s not what I’d call a reliable and secure income. Know what I mean?

See, it’s all about having systems, because systems run your business and YOU run the systems. Ever wonder why the Starbucks in California runs identical to the one in Nevada, DC, Florida or Boston? It’s the systems they have in place that makes the product, service, and profit consistent across the board.

So here’s a 30,000 foot level view of the seven areas that you should systematize first in your business so you can have the freedom, lifestyle and money you deserve.

1. I’m surprised with the number of fitness trainers who still don’t have a niche market to serve. Look, if you think you can be everything to everybody then you’re gonna struggle for long time to come.

Serve a niche market that you enjoy working with, that you have passion for, who are easy to find in your area and who have the money to invest in your services. Be a specialist, not a generalist.

2. You gotta have specific and systemized lead generation tactics deployed at all times to get the kind of traffic you want for your business. If you don’t have a steady stream of leads coming in, calling and emailing you then you’re headed for disaster.

Here are some lead generation tactics that are working really good for many of my coaching clients.

-       Run Facebook ads that drive traffic to targeted squeeze pages, then offer them a low barrier of entry to your program on the next page.

-       Have lead boxes peppered throughout businesses in the community.

-       Use direct mail postcards and letters targeting specific homes in the community who you know can afford your services.

-       Run lead generation print ads that get people to call your number and ask for a free report, ebook, audio program, or DVD.

-       Run pay per click ads on google, yahoo, and bing and drive the traffic to your squeeze page.

-       Is your personal training website search engine optimized for the keyword that people in your area are searching for?

-       Build an email list of prospects, clients, past clients, local businesses and media contacts and emailing them killer content and offers consistently.

3. This is where most small business owners (trainers included) drop the ball BIG TIME. Once you get your lead generation dialed in and prospects start calling and emailing, you gotta have two critical appointment scripts in place.

The fist is a script to set the appointment, consultation or free session(s). And the second is a script to call and confirm that they’re coming in the day before the appointment. I’ve seen these two scripts increase appointment “show rate” by as much as 50%.

4. This is another one of those big things that can easily double and even triple your business if you get it right. Learn to sell and have a sales system and script in place that’s crafted to convert prospects into paying clients.

You can get a complete done-for-you system for selling personal training here.

5. Create a “stick system” within your fitness business. There’s nothing more frustrating then losing clients because you don’t have a solid retention system in place.

Here are the top three ways to increase client retention:

-       Make sure you clients are getting the results you promised and they want.

-       Give your clients consistent recognition, appreciation and love.

-       Reward your clients often, even with little things like tickets to the movies or a ball game, or a gift certificate to dinner, and just a starbucks gift card. Reward them for showing up, losing weight, getting fit, and giving referrals.

6. One of the most overlooked client getting tactics I know – and it just so happens to be THE most low cost way of getting new clients – is client referrals. But the problem is that most fitness trainers go about it all wrong from the get go.

Here’s how you get your clients to give you referrals…

First: Condition them from the beginning to give you referral. The minute you sign up a client say this: Mrs. Jones, as I help you get what you want from your fitness and fat loss program, can I count on you to help me get what I want which is to grow my business by training more people who are referred by you?

Second, have referral generation contests each month. People love a sense of competition.

And third, hook up your clients who give you referrals with really cool things like a free month or two of training or a dinner and a movie.

7. Finally, you gotta have business systems in place if you want to be able to go do what you want, when you want without having to worry about money running out or someone calling you all freaked out.

Automate your business as much as possible.

-       Use EFT or auto debit to automatically bill your clients each month. Stop collecting checks and manually running credit cards. That’s just nuts!

-       Create an operations manual with every system outlined and detailed so that all you’ll have to do is handing to an employee and they should pretty much.

-       If you have a staff then make sure they’re dialed into your system and know your expectations.

So as you can see, it’s all about the systems if you want more time, money and freedom.

Best of all, the amount of effort it would take you to create these systems once is probably the same amount of effort you put out each month racking your brain for ideas on how to get more clients, keep more clients, and generate more referrals.

If you want more done-for-you scripts, marketing material, and systems that you can just plug and play then check out the program that thousands of fitness trainers have used to turn their business around >> http://TheArtOfSellingFitness.com

Be sure to leave a comment below and let me know what you think and what systems you have in your personal training or boot camp business.

You can look at these 7 tips as the core foundation for
building a better, more secure and reliable fitness
business.

These are the things that work for many of my top
coaching clients.

1. Create and work off lists every day. Never sit in
front of a blank computer screen and ask yourself
"what should I do now?" Make a list of everything
you need to do today. Put the HARDEST thing on
the top of the list and to work.

2. Identify your five percent. There are a ton of
things you need to do each day to keep your training
business or boot camp running. HOWEVER only 5%
of those things are the "critical few" that really drive
your business – the other 95% are things that just need
to get done and can be outsourced to others.

I explain my 5% method here: http://tinyurl.com/nhfzsw

3. Ruthlessly manage your time. Crappy time management
is responsible for 80% of business failure. Guard your time,
manage it, and create a working schedule for yourself.

4. Automate and systematize your business as much as
possible. If you're flying by the seat of your pants. Stop,
and create systems – because you run the systems and the
systems run your business.

If you're still selling programs month to month. Or if you're
chasing clients down for a check at the beginning each
month then you REALLY aught to automate your billing and
switch to EFT. This simple change increased revenue in
all my facilities by 17% the first month I put it into place.

Here's a post I did where I show you, step-by-step how to
set up EFT in your training business…

http://tinyurl.com/EFTFormula

5. Conduct a marketing autopsy and fire your ads and
promotions that are costing you money and increase and
improve your ads, campaigns, and promotions that are
getting you leads, prospects, and clients.

6. Create a mental fortress and live your life in it. If you
surround yourself with crabs, negative people, energy
suckers and haters you're gonna find that life – in all
aspects is tough for you.

Do this today…

Make a list of all the negative people around you.
Then put an X next to the names of people who you
can cut out instantly. And put an O next to the of people
who you can't cut out, but can limit exposure to. You
know what to do after that…. right?

7. Build a list. There's no faster or easier way to grow
your fitness business then with building a list of clients
and prospects who know, like and trust you. You've heard
the say, "the list is king" and it's true.

If you don't have an email list of clients, past clients,
prospects, friends, family, and media contact that you're
mailing consistent content rich online newsletters and emails
to then you're leaving a TON of money on the table.

Here's how you can start your listing building right now,
and best of all this entire thing is automated and comes
ready-to-go with six different ebooks and reports you can
use on your website and blog to build your list.

… AND you can have it for just one buck for the first
month

>> http://fitpronewsletter.fitproconnect.com/1trial1.aspx <<

When I started my personal training business back in the day I was the king of linear income.

I’d drive to a client’s house, trade money for time, and then drive to another clients house – and repeat. That got old really quick.

Then when I opened my first training studio I realized that income does not have to be linear at all.

As it turns out it’s just as easy to have multiple income streams as it is to have a linear income stream.

But it’s not about INCOME. It’s about PROFITS.

I wanna really stress the word PROFITS and not income because in the real world profits are what counts … because PROFITS are what YOU keep… income is the total of what comes in.

And the best way I know to increase your profits is to open up the gap between income and expense – that’s where your profits are hiding.

Here are Eight ways you can increase your personal training profits and get more from your fitness business.

1. Raise your rates. I’ll bet you my new pet goat that you under-valuing your services. You might think that low rates keep you competitive, but the truth is you shouldn’t be competing with the gyms and diet centers in the first place. Instead, find your niche market, over deliver on results and service and become the “Cadillac” of personal training in your area.
2. Start group training programs and phase out the one-on-one training or really increase the rates for one-on-one so that 1) it makes the group training program more enticing and 2) if someone really wants to train one-on-one they’ll find the means to pay the premium for it.
3. Start using E.F.T. (auto debit) in your business and you’re going to see two things happen. 1) you’re going to automatically start retaining clients for a longer period of time. 2) You’ll have more time to train clients, market, and kick back because you’ll doing a lot less check chasing and collections. PLUS you’re income becomes VERY predictable. I have a post all about EFT here.
4. Sell other services and products to your clients. People workout with you because they see you as a credible source of information. You have authority with them. And this puts you in a position to help them with other needs they may have about health, fitness, and fat loss.
5. Create entry level continuity programs. Not everyone can afford to pay a few hundred dollars a month for personal training or boot camp. But a LOT of people can pay $20 – $40/month for a mass group coaching program where they get a monthly teleseminar with you, a grocery store tour, and a live nutrition seminar. And if you really want to get wild with it you can create a membership site for them as well for under a couple hundred dollars.
6. Create joint ventures with other businesses who can add value to your business and become an affiliate where you make money for every clients you refer to them.
7. Manage your time more efficiently – work on the things that will take your business forward. We all have the same number of hours in the day. But some people get a LOT more done in a day than others. Here’s a post I did on time management that can really help you.
8. Sell and market better. I know this sounds like a no brainer but its one of the core ways to INSTANTLY increase profits. If your marketing sucks. Get better at it otherwise you’re just wasting money. And if you can’t sell or are only selling small packages, learn to close more deals and sell bigger packages.

Here are two things that can really help you with your marketing and selling.

I hope these eight ways to increase your fitness profits got your mind working toward getting away from linear income and moving towards multiple income stream, exponential growth, and generating higher profits for your personal training or boot camp business.

I’d like to know what you’re doing or plan on doing to increase your profits. Let me know below.

Here's Crew the goat making faces at the camera.

I got an email from a new trainer who wanted to know if there were any "secrets" to expediting the growth of his fitness business.

So I made the video below for him… and YOU.

See, your fitness business can starve or thrive based on YOUR level of focus and attention.

In this video I show you the top TWO things you need to do EVERYDAY to get your fitness business to thrive and make quantum leaps forward.

Also, if you're already registered for Fitness Business Summit then you're in for a treat!

In addition to three days of killer info on tons of ways to take your personal training or fitness boot camp business to the top I'm also hosting a private party at Dave "N" Busters on Saturday night. This is going to be the BIGGEST fitness party, errr… I mean networking opportunity ever!

With only 38 seats remaining as of writing this post you're gonna want to register before we sell out.

Learn about FBS10 here: http://FitnessBusinessSummit.com/2010

Since I got over fifty comments on the "What Can I Do For You?" blog post…

and since you guys came up with some AWESOME topics for me to write about…

and since 2010 is going to be an epic year for your personal training business and I want to help make that happen – here's what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna spend the next few blog posts answering your questions.

And since I got a bunch of comments asking about how to set up Electronic Fund Transfer (Auto Debit or EFT) I'm gonna cover that first.

You already know that EFT is probably the fastest and easiest way to automate a BIG portion of your personal training or boot camp business, right?

I mean, did you really get into the personal training business to be a check chaser each month?

AND it's the best way I know to stabilize your business and make your monthly income consistent and reliable because once you set up EFT in your business you don't have to sell single sessions, or blocks or session at a time and then try to re-sell the client all over when her sessions are done.

I don't know about you, but when I started my personal training studios I didn't want to resell each client over and over again or risk losing them when they ran out of sessions.

And if you run boot camps the old fashion way – four or six weeks on and then two weeks off… sorry, but that's probably one of the stupidest business models EVER – I mean EVER!

(The exception being specific time based programs that are designed to funnel clients into an EFT based recurring program like my 21 Day Rapid Fat Loss Program, or the six week body transformation programs that roll into an EFT based program like some of my mastermind clients are running and absolutely destroying it.)

Here's how to set up EFT for your fitness business.

Step One: If you do one-one-one training sessions – stop selling single or small blocks of 10, 15, or 20 sessions at time. Instead create results oriented programs based on time.

For example, you might have a six and twelve month program. Each program would offer a one, two, three, or four time a week training options. (I talk more about pricing options and how to set up your program prices for maximum profits in my PT Business Course.

Step Two: You can set up a recurring billing system two ways. If you have a gym or studio and want to manage multiple trainers, clients, and run EFT I suggest that you go with GetShape.net.

My buddy Larry King owns GetShape and several of my high level coaching and mastermind clients use it and love it.

You're other option for setting up and running EFT – and this works best if you are a one man or woman show or run a boot camp – is the 1shoppingcart.com and authorize.net combo.

Basically this combo is used to accept payments online from your site. You can simply create different recurring monthly price points in the system and then get it up on your personal training or boot camp sales site and your good to go.

Once a client (or you, on behalf of your client) makes the purchase from your site they are committing to $X dollars per month, to be billed on a recurring basis every 30-days.

You can set up the 1shopping cart and GetShape solutions to bill someone for a period of time, like six or 12 months and then stop. Or set it up to bill the client on a recurring basis until the clients decides they're done training – this is how I would set up my boot camp if I were you… no stop date.

Step Three: The right agreement is key. It doesn't matter if your agreement is online or in paper it's got to cover the details of the program.

For example, your agreement (or contract) needs to over the length of time the program is for, how the client can cancel if they want to do so, the terms of the payment, billing dates (if you're gonna use specific billing dates) and a bunch of other legal mumbo jumbo that will keep your butt out of hot water if you don't craft your service agreement appropriately.

If you're not sure about the contract you're using I highly suggest that you pick up the PT Business Course because in it I give you my actual service agreement that cost me over $7,000 in attorney fees to have crafted. It's battle hardened in virtually every state (though I high suggest that make sure it's kosher to use in your state before putting it into action).

Is EFT perfect?

Nope, but it's pretty darn close and it's the only way I ran my business and the only way my most successful, seven figure generating coaching clients run theirs.

I hope this post made it easier for you to understand EFT and how to set it up.

If I missed something… or if you have a question about EFT that I didn't answer here just leave it in the comment box below and I'll be sure to answer all your questions.

I'm gonna show you how to add another 30% income to your fitness business this year without spending another penny on marketing.

I know… it's sounds crazy, right?

But, it's really a simple method – PLUS – you can start making more TODAY from your personal training or boot camp business.

Just three simple things.. and it involve ZERO effort in more marketing.

Watch this six minute video where I teach you this easy method to blow up your fitness business this year.

2010 is YOUR year!

The secret door that takes you into Club 33

This weekend confirmed something to me that I already knew. But it’s important for YOU to know this.

The economy is what you make it.

People are still willing to part with their money – IF – you give them a good enough reason to.

And in fact folks are willing to part with a ton of money if you can deliver value, status and exclusivity.

Let me explain…

On Friday we went to Club 33 for a private party kinda thing. Club 33 is a VERY exclusive restaurant / club located inside a hidden section of Disneyland.

Membership is $25,000.

The waiting list to become a member is only 14 years.

In fact, they stopped adding people to the waiting list last year because it was getting too long.

Club 33 is the ONLY place inside Disneyland that serves alcohol and food ain’t cheap…

… but the experience, exclusivity, and value they deliver makes you feel okay about spending a crap ton of money to have access.

Can't tell you how I got a picture of the toilet in the ladies restroom of Club 33 - but here it is

My point is this…

They have a waiting list of people for the next 14 years who are willing to pay $25K to become a member.

Trust me, it’s not because the booze or food are any better at Club 33 than at any other high class restaurant.

It’s because of the value, exclusivity, and experience they deliver that makes people want to fork over a bunch of money.

The next day I was at the LA Auto show checking out the new rides coming out (I have this thing for fast shiny cars I guess).

In fact I even ran into a client – Tommy Lundy.

It’s cool being recognized from time to time. That’s me and Tommy in the picture below (thanks for sending over the pic Tommy).

I digress…

Walking around at the LA Auto show I noticed that BMW, Mercedes Benz, Audi, Lexus and Jag had the most people buzzing around their cars. And most of the people buzzing around where talking about ownership.

Ran into Tommy at the auto show

They were asking buying questions and not just tire kicking.

Funny that the economy is in the shitter but folks still want to spend money on things that bring them value, status, and exclusivity.

See the thing is Club 33, BMW, Mercedes, Jag, Lexus, Audi, Starbucks, The Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons, Virgin United, Lucky Brand, Sevens, and Cristal all imply higher value, better experience, and exclusivity…

… and that’s why we’re willing to pay so much more.

How about you?

How can you do that for your personal training or boot camp business so you can attract people who are willing to pay top dollar?

Lexus' first super car - the LFA (a bad ass ride)

Like the brands I listed above you gotta be…

-    be known for something
-    get talked about by the community
-    exceeding people’s expectations
-    and OVERDELIVERING Value, Experience, and Exclusivity

See, there’s a difference between people’s ability to pay versus their desire to pay.
If you can deliver… they’ll pay.

Leave a comment below and let me know what you think.

Looking back, some things I did to try to get new clients were so out in left field that it's actually embarrassing even thinking about it.

But, hind site, as they say, is 20/20.

And since the new year is just around the corner and since you're probably going to spend time, money, and effort in marketing your personal training or boot camp business I figured now would be a good time to tell you what NOT to do.

** Side Note ** If you're a Fitness Marketing Manifesto member the December issue is loaded with a three week, step-by-step client getting system that will blow your business up! (It should arrive at your doorstep next week)

Like I said, before I got my personal training locations to blow up I made a LOT of marketing mistakes. And these days I still see a lot of fitness pros making HUGE mistakes that will ultimately end up costing you time, money, effort, and frustrations.

So without further ado… here are five fitness marketing things you should NEVER do.

1. Forget about branding

If you're running print ads or mailing out postcards with no compelling headline, and only your "logo" and a picture of yourself then you might as well take your wallet or purse and fire it into wood chippers.

In our business your prospects don't care about your brand, image, or logo. They don't care what your tag line is, how many certifications you have or how long you've been a trainer.

All they wanna know is "Can you help me FINALLY get back into shape?"

Your print ads and postcards gotta do one thing and one thing only. They need to sift the fly shit from the pepper. In other words you've gotta identify the prospects from the suspects. And here's how you're gonna do that.

A. Use a strong, attention grabbing headline to get the prospects attention.

B. Use killer benefit bullets to tell them "what's in it for them"

C. Use social proof, testimonials of before and after pictures of actual clients who have achieved results.

D. Use the two-step system. Make an offer for a free report or audio program in exchange for their contact info. That's how you'll weed the prospects form the suspects.

2. Everyone is NOT your market

Be the expert to a niche – specialize. One of the biggest mistakes I made was thinking that everyone was my potential clients. In fact at one time I had a marketing flyer (that failed to pull in a single client) that said: "we train clients from eight to eighty".

Like I said, just admitting this stuff to you is embarrassing.

But once I figure out the type of clients that were attracted to my business and the type of people that we enjoyed training – I was able to identify my niche and market directly to them…

I knew their pains, fears, frustrations, and desires and so my marketing message spoke DIRECTLY to my future clients.

3. Avoid the chamber of complainers

Okay, I gotta qualify this one first. MOST chamber of commerce are a freak'in joke and a total waste of time. You may be in a town where the chamber is the exception…

…but my experience – and the experience of MANY of my coaching clients around the country is that the Chamber of Commerce is a waste of your valuable time.

Most of the time it's a handful of local retailers and business who sit around and complain about how bad the economy is. Why your networking idea won't work. And if only the shopping center they're in would change the signage then business would pick up. They take ZERO personal responsibility.

Dudes, if you walk into a local chamber meeting and get this vibe. Walk out of there with a quickness and never go back!

4. Pretty websites don't pull

I know that's a blanket statement… but for the most part pretty websites with lots of flash, multiple colors, pages, and fancy music don't generate leads.

A killer website is just like the two-step postcard I described above.

• A strong benefit rich headline
• Social proof with before and after pictures
• An irresistible offer
• And a call to action

Some of the most simple (and ugly) looking sites pull the best.

5.  More money spent ≠ More clients gotten

Probably the biggest fitness marketing mistake I see is the idea that the more a marketing campaign costs the better it will perform.

That's the biggest pile of bullshit ever.

Sure, I've seen expensive marketing tactics work really well. But honestly nine times out of ten they pale in comparison to the free or almost free clients getting tactics out there.

For example… my 21 day rapid fat loss program promotion is just two simple emails sent to your list and it's responsible for getting anywhere from 10-33 new boot camp clients for every trainer that's run the promo.

Then there's Steve Hochman's human billboard script that literally gets you a referral army that can put you on pace for six figures within 60 days.

Or how about what my buddy Josh Carter is doing with his body transformation programs. Again, a few emails mailed out to his list and now he's got a waiting list.

Go for the lowest hanging fruit first. Just because it costs a ton of money does not mean it will get you a ton of clients. Don't let the shifty sales reps sell you on BS marketing campaigns.

So there it is… five things you should NEVER do if you want more training clients.

And if you want a complete done-for-you fitness marketing system complete with ready-to-use ads, postcards, referral generating letters, scripts, and lead generation reports then check this system out.

Here's a special report I created for you where I share my thoughts on the future of the fitness industry, where we're headed in 2010, and some general ramblings.

Some stuff I cover in this report…

• The new face of personal training
• The death of one-on-one training
• Is facebook and twitter really all that? (you'll be surprised)
• The thinning of the herd
• Health care, the "man" and your fitness business
• How you need to position your business and why

>> Click here to download the report <<

And after reading it be sure to leave you comment below

Things are crazy around here…

I just got back from my 7 Figure formula mastermind in Las Vegas.

And now I'm getting ready to fly out to Orlando tomorrow for the sold out Fitness Info Summit.

But before I leave for Orlando wanted to get you part three of my Productivity, Mindset, and Profits trifecta video serise.

Here's video three… five tactics to maximize your profits.

Also, the doors are closing for Fit Body Body Camp tomorrow, Wednesday 12 Noon PST because next week we're starting the three "Get Ready, Get Set, Go" coaching calls for new FBBC owners.

So if you're still on the fence about opening up your own Fit Body Boot Camp™ in your area then this is your last chance to get on board (if your territory is not taken by someone else).

Click here to learn more about Fit Body Boot Camp™ and to see if your area is available >>