A New Look at Fitness Boot Camps

If you operate a fitness boot camp then this week’s newsletter is for you. I’m going to give you a different perspective on how you get and retain boot camp clients.

A new look at boot camps: It’s the perfect business because it allows you to train one-on-many, still gives you time to enjoy the rest of your day, and gives you predictable lncome – at least for the month.

And that’s where I see a major flaw.

Let’s take a step back and look at the boot camp business model for a moment. Most fitness professionals are used to selling blocks of sessions or a block of time. I know I used to. Therefore it feels natural to offer four or six week boot camps.

But that’s where I see the flaw. What happens after the four or six week camp is over?

Well, typically you’ll have to resell your existing campers and hope that they all resign for another round. Or you’re going to attempt to find new prospects to fill up next month’s camp.

Imagine this for a moment: What if your satellite or cable TV provider only sold you one month of service at a time?

Or what if the local health club only sold you one month of membership at a time, or what if your favorite magazine called you every month to see if you wanted the next issue rather than selling you a longer and more convenient subscription?

What a headache to have to resell your paying client all over again, right?

And you know, like I do, that inevitably not everyone will resign. So the way I see it, the almost perfect boot camp system is flawed in these two ways:

1. You’re forced to resell each client over and over again. And we all know that’s not a good idea.

2. You don’t have predictable and recurring revenue scheduled to come in every month. Which is never a good thing, right?

Not to mention, what happens when you sell out a month and there are still prospects willing to pay? Are you going to leave money on the table? I hope not.

The solution, as I see it, is simple.

Don’t follow a flawed or old business model just because that’s what the personal training industry has done for years. Study other businesses that are successfully using the recurring revenue model. For those of you who have my PT Business Course, go to the chapter on EFT (electronic fund transfer).

So what’s the solution?

Think membership. Think subscription. Think results.

After all, the only way to really help your clients achieve results is to work with them for several months, right?

Consider “open enrollment” where anyone can go to your boot camp site today, make their payment, and show up to camp tomorrow. Then every month, on that same day, they are automatically charged for the next camp.

Does this model work?

Yes. I’ve consulted thousands of personal trainers and studios over the years and have seen this very system work with tremendous success over and over again.

I’ll see you next week with more tips, ideas, and strategies to automate your personal training profits.

Committed to your success,

Bedros Keuilian