PT Forum - Business of Sport

PT Forum - Business of Sport

the business of sport model

How to take the sell out of selling

How to take the sell out of selling

business age

How your business history determines your business future.

In front of me sits a group of graduating PT's. Coming to the end of their program I am asked to deliver a business presentation on the opportunities in the health and fitness industry. As I prepare to deliver our 17 income stream model I look around the room of 80+ graduates knowing that only 4-6 of them will still be working in the industry in two years. As they are sold franchises, more technical workshops and other programs that will deplete their bank accounts and not deliver a single cent in return I feel the industry in a civil war. It seems so many think that a fitness certification is their ticket to developing a business. Why are they getting it so wrong? Who is selling them this information? And are the so called leaders considering the effects this is having on the person we are all trying to help....Mr and Mrs Sickest Generation Ever on average street.

Our industry can learn something that we know from our clients. Consider these case studies.


If we use this same analogy in business, especially to 95% of graduates to courses we start to understand part of the problem is around expectation and rather than training age it is 'business age'. Your business history has to determine your business future in an industry that is dominate by self employed business style models.

Is the lesson for graduating PT's a support program that helps to increase their business knowledge and people skills. In a technical dominated industry it seems we have enough options in this space but would the civil war cease if we could have better support programs. Could we then collectively work with Mr and Mrs Sickest Generation Ever and build a more positive, healthy, happier world by getting us right first!

However this problem is not only linked to graduates. Of the few who battle the health and fitness war are the veterans. The guys and gals out there, neck deep in their financial commitments and busy-ness, always doing what they have always done, yet expecting a different result! Choosing to invest their limited funds into the next big commercial event doing a range of different one hour workshops and choosing a wide variety of topics that very rarely return a cent into their business.
What's the point?
A majority of people enter this industry with a very low business age. They have never run a health and fitness business before, are generally sold a self employed style business and then expect to live in a world where if you are not turning over $100,000 as a minimum per annum you can probably expect to live with Mum and Dad for quite a few years. Even a $100,000 turnover allowing for the accounting allowance of 30% in wages equates to a $30,000 salary, is barely proving enough.

We need to increase the business age of the average graduate and industry in general if we are to stop the civil war we are currently experiencing. With a majority of models relying on business ownership it makes sense that this is where the focus needs to be.

I pick up my microphone, I look at the 80+ graduates, I wonder how do we get that retention number from 4-6 closer to 10. I start to change my delivery, understanding that this is the way of the future if we are really ethical about changing the outcome the next generation of graduates and clients.

How to take the sell out of selling

How to take the sell out of selling

the best business card in the world

A guide to what works and what doesn't.

A part of being in business is that you need to have a business card - or so it seems. New trainers to health and fitness veterans focus on these precious cards consuming a fair amount of time, money and resources in putting them together. However, how effective is the traditional business card?

Marketing guru's repeatedly teach the process on measuring leads into a business. How many lead's does a traditional business card generate? Let's put these leading survey questions to you and measure the immediate response.

1. When was the last time you responded to a business card?
2. How many leads have you generated to your business via business cards?

In lots of presentations I ask these leading questions and generally there is between 3-5% who answer that they:

1. Have responded recently
2. 99% don't know

Now if you don't have the results to these important marketing questions let me give you our results, specific to the health and fitness industry. Throughout 2008 and 2009 we identified the top 10 techniques on how to build a 6 figure personal training business as well as those used by studios and gyms. A business card didn't make the top 10 techniques.

The business card is dead!
Concerning building a business, the business card went out with leg warmers and matching head bands, however the psychology around owning a business card is reflected in having some credibility. This is understandable for a lot of new guys getting started in business, however if you have been plugging away at business for a while and are relying on handing out business cards as a way of building your business then it's time to review this technique.


So what is the best card in the world?
Before I reveal the best business card in the world, a better approach to building business is to have the skill of getting other people's details. This way allows you to control the relationship. The traditional way of handing out a business card allows the other person to forget you or lose the business card. I have managed to prove this by growing my business without ever having a business card.

Sometimes we can learn from others
Let's learn from the typical personal trainer who has just completed his/her certification, been educated by non business type teachers, has no business experience and decides it is time to get some clients. Their first stop is the local printer to put together a couple of hundred business cards. Here is the typical outcome:

front of business card

Pete's Personal Training - Pete's business is very limited by the branding he has used here. Firstly if Pete plans to grow his business outside of the traditional flawed model of swapping time for money he is limited by his name. Secondly he has also limited himself to simply personal training. In an industry that allows you to deliver so many other services Pete has really set himself up for the minimal opportunity by poor branding and limiting himself to personal training.
superpete@hotmail.com - I really question the professionalism of an email address like this. This is typically linked to spam mail or dodgy overseas scams that try to rip people off.
Mobile 0900 686 777 - Alongside the email address this does smell of a single operator, battling it out on price against other local trainers. By adding a land line or 1300 number and a PO box is a best use of this space.

back of business card

By listing all these services Pete tells me is a jack of all trades yet master of none. Also if I am not a trainer or have not been educated on health and fitness I struggle to understand some of these terms. Terms like 'post natal and functional training' are used regularly when speaking to other health and fitness professionals however for the general public most of these terms are foreign. So why use them?
Free session - free is cheap and not everyone wants cheap. The message Pete is sending to his potential clients by using the word 'free' is come and take advantage of me, take a lot of information then let's battle it out on price.

Quite often we can learn from other specialists in the market and I am not sure if you have ever been 'unfortunate enough' to have seen one of the following guys, however consider the professionalism that is involved in one of these cards.


The lesson lies in the specificity of what Dr. Teeth does as a profession. So many health and fitness professionals confuse themselves and their potential clients by claiming to be an expert in lots of areas as opposed to a specialist. Overtime in order to charge more and be better at solving the health problems of the market you need to become a specialist. It starts by telling yourself and your clients via your business card. This same message has to be consistent in everything you send to the market, in the form of marketing.

People are not concerned about how many letters you have after your name or the colours on your business card, they simply need a health problem solved. With this targeted approach around your business you will open up greater opportunities.

So what is the best business card in the world?
Let's close the loop on this article and answer this question. The best business card in the world is definitely a book. To have a book you not only get to generate another revenue stream however you also have a powerful form of marketing that you can send to potential companies, schools, government bodies or high profile clients. Writing a book is a big project and in getting started we have a process we teach that has you, earning money as you develop it overtime. We do this using our Publishing Pyramid by writing e-newsletter and articles. If you have a plan to write a book or want to understand proven ways to increase your profile then contact us as well as read our article titled the Publishing Pyramid.

personal training is fundamentally flawed