Get Online at a Low Cost...but STILL look professional!

Everyone knows that in you are in Business (Personal Training is a business remember) you need a website, only issue is in reality, the most clients you could realistically take on if you are just starting out is going to be beween 20 and 30.  You can do more but what you need to ask is where is your return on investment if you've spent £2000 on getting a website built?  The point of personal training businesses such as Breaking Boundaries Personal Training was to keep costs at a minimum so that to maximise profit

My websites http://www.richlucasfitness.com/ and http://www.rl-personaltrainer.co.uk/ cost me £35 and £100 respectively.  Granted there are much better websites out there, but the bottom line is that these two websites have been responsible for about £20,000 worth of business this year, not a bad return on my initial investment is it?!

So I wanted to hook you up with a link that will get you another discount.  My advice would be to go with the pro version, it allows you to do site optimisation, tags etc.  and other internet marketing stuff

The link is www.mrsite.co.uk/friends and type in the code 75851-FRIENDS

Hope this helps

Rich

Different ways of Marketing

Marketing is not sales, but the two are linked, and alongside knowing the difference from a superset and a Berger set and How krebs cycle enzymes differ from adenosine tri-phosphate, personal trainers need to be just as knowledgeable about marketing, yet to me for a newly qualified PT trying to break into the market, sales and marketing is the most feared aspect of being a personal trainer

This may be because the word “sales” is seen as a dirty word to many, conjuring up images of used car salesmen, truth is, professional sales and marketing is nothing like this

Anyway, back to marketing, I like to define marketing as

“Telling people what you do, over and over and over again”

So when they decide to lose weight, get fitter etc.  Yours will be the business they come to.  Different ways of marketing can include

Simply Talking to people

Updating your status on facebook or twitter

Talking about you business at a social gathering or business networking event

Posters and Leaflets

Magnetic signs on your car

Sending e-mails

Anything where you are keeping your targeted group up to date with your activities.  And really that’s all there is to it, in my experience no one way works great  but lots of ways together work good.  We will cover this more in further posts

Advertising just Doesn't Work

Was going to save this post for later but I just got a call regarding a "fantastic opportunity" to be on the Facebook Hamepage...Wooo!  What a load of crap! (pardon my french!)

Here is the story - YOU WILL END UP PAYING OUT A LOT OF MONEY THAT YOU DON'T NEED TO!

Advertising in its traditional form, just doesn't work very well for personal training businesses, in fact in my opinion, it is the least effective form of marketing, your return on investment will be lowat best unless you have an advertising budget that will buy you the best positions that being said, there is nothing wrong with doing some for free!

So...Here is a few places you can get this

Add your business to google maps - Easy and and it hits the top of the search engines, add your fitness business here https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=lbc&passive=1209600&continue=http://www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter?service%3Dlbc%26utm_source%3D/lbc%26utm_medium%3Dvan%26utm_campaign%3Den&followup=http://www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter?service%3Dlbc%26utm_source%3D/lbc%26utm_medium%3Dvan%26utm_campaign%3Den

http://www.gumtree.com/ - I've got a nice bit of business from this, around £2000 in the last year not loads but then  never paid anything for it!

Newsagents Windows -  Pop up a poster, or even better, a leadbox (more on lead boxes later)

http://www.vivastreet.co.uk/ - Classified, I have got 2 clients from here

http://www.facebook.com/ - Make a group for your business (more on this later)

We are heading towards social media marketing now which is a whole different ball game.  Remember that Marketing is not sales, its tell people what you do over and over and over again so play the patient game and don't get suckered in by advertising companies promising you the world but delivering you very little

Getting Qualified

By Qualified, you need to be REPS level 3 qualified if you want to work as a personal trainer in the UK.  http://www.exerciseregister.org/ will provide you with more of the framework than I can. But you'll need to complete level 2 in gym instruction or exercise to music and then move on to level 3.  You can expect to pay between £2000 and £4000, you need to ensure that the course gets you onto the REPS register.  One of the lower priced ones in the UK that provides this are Discovery Learning, you can see them here  http://www.discovery.uk.com/.

Alternatively, if you are of a certain demographic, you could qualify for funded learning.  Here is some more info on this http://www.lifetimehf.co.uk/for-you/work-based-learning or you can look into getting a career development loan, you can see more here http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/EducationAndLearning/AdultLearning/FinancialHelpForAdultLearners/CareerDevelopmentLoans/index.htm

Hope this helps!  Please leave me a comment

Introduction

About 4 months ago, I walked away from a 10 year career in Sales and Training and Development and a very good and steady monthly pay packet to set up my own fitness business.  SOmething I had been playing around with for years, I want to use this Blog to give any advice I can to others planning to make this move and to share any tips I have picked up until this point.  Why not drop me a comment and introduce yourself and tell me what you want to hear!

Speak soon

Rich Lucas
http://www.rl-personaltrainer.co.uk/