You're doing all you can. Taking personal training classes, running courses online, coaching clients in the gym, but your fitness business doesn't seem to grow?
Whether you are a small business owner or an experienced personal trainer, if you are struggling to scale your own fitness business, you could be making one of the mistakes mentioned below.
The fitness industry is a highly competitive one. And with the rising demand for fitness services, many fitness businesses and personal trainers are expanding their services outside their fitness studios. Some are launching their boutique studios while others are focusing more on the online market and reaching out to their target audience through social media, websites, and their fitness apps.
A commonality to notice here is in the business model of these health and fitness operators is that they start by focusing on and offering niche expertise. For example, a yoga instructor will start by offering yoga services and once the business takes off they might combine it with nutrition plans to offer a holistic approach.
When you're just starting, it's tempting to enroll any client that comes to your doorstep. However, it can work in the starting but not in the long run as then it will eventually become detrimental to have too broad a client base or very diverse members.
Defining a fitness niche is one of the best ways to stand out from the competition. When you clearly define your target market, not only do you gain more credibility and a competitive advantage – you also attract more qualified leads, making your fitness business grow exponentially. It will also help you understand your fitness community better and improve customer relationships.
In a world where consumers are more informed and more educated than ever before, businesses should communicate their brand identity uniquely and authentically for an everlasting impact and success.
Clear brand identity provides a framework that is recognizable for your clients, and they can use it to associate themselves with your company.
The most successful businesses tell stories that connect with people emotionally and create an emotional attachment between the brand and its members. The more defined your brand identity, the easier it will be for customers to understand your business.
The second crucial part to this is creating and following a business plan. Your business plan will be structured based on the nature of your fitness business - whether it's an offline fitness studio or an online service. Whether you focus on a particular type of workout or a mix of different types. And so on.
Some significant aspects to the business plan would be business licenses, behind the scenes logistics, initial money and running costs, insurance for your fitness business, fitness equipment, etc.
Any fitness business requires much more than just giving fitness advice. You need to create content that more people find useful, focus on marketing your fitness business, and a strategy that ensures revenue in future.
Another reason your fitness business is not growing at the desired rate is that you are not following up with the leads or potential customers. Many brands lose out on multiple customers by failing to pursue leads and keep in touch with them after they've been contacted.
As a business owner, it makes sense to follow up with your prospects and see if they need any further assistance.
Social media is a lot like the real estate world. It’s all about location, location, location. You can have the biggest and flashiest house on the block, but it won’t matter if no one can find you.
Every social media platform has its own unique strengths and weaknesses.
You need to understand how each of your social platforms work and use them accordingly to get maximum success out of each of them. This means you should post different type of content on different networks and put more effort and marketing strategy into some than others depending on their performance.
You can also check out the blog “4 Social Media Platforms For Your Personal Brand” to get more insights on the usage of social media platforms.
If you don't listen to your clients, other fitness business owners will. The businesses that pay attention to what their clients health, fitness goals, and what they say about the offerings and services are the ones that have a distinct advantage and upper hand.
Listening to your client's feedback will help you improve your fitness offerings and identify opportunities for growth, relationship building, and more.
It will also help you improve your marketing strategy and the next step for your fitness business. It can also help you develop campaigns that resonate with your clients.
There are many reasons why your fitness business is not growing, but the above mentioned are the ones that are most common among fitness trainers and coaches.
The good news is that you can fix these and grow your fitness business by achieving your objectives and goals. A good starting point will be observing the current fitness industry trends, analyzing what other fitness businesses are doing, and what type of health plans are your target audience looking for.
If this is something that resonates with you, start your 30 days free trial with FitBudd to put your business on the path to growth.
You can't take your eyes off your business. Period.