I see a lot of new people from last weekend’s CanFitPro Calgary conference are joining Profitable Personal Trainer this week. I figured it was a good time for a little post on mindset. First let me say welcome, I hope this information changes your life as much as it has mine.
I’ve said this plenty of times, there are days I Have doubted it and I am sure you have them too but it is entirely true: This industry CAN provide any lifestyle you want if you are willing to do what it takes to make it happen.
What’s your number?
Look, it’s ok to talk about money, you don’t have to be a greedy person to be conscious of the financial means you need to live the life you deserve. In our society money=freedom, the freedom to spend each day with your children like you should, the freedom to see and experience beautiful things in the world, and the freedom to help a neighbour in need anytime and anywhere. What’s your number, how much money do you need on a monthly or annual basis to accomplish these things. To succeed at anything you must first know where you desire to go.
Plan backwards, start at the top.
Take your dream, your number, your big goal and the try to break it down into a few things. What things would need to happen to even get you close? For example if you wanted to earn $1,000,000 a year you can divide that into months ($83,333), and even into weeks ($20,833). Let’s say your average training session is $60 and you can complete 40 per week ($2400). Even with that basic info I now know I need to work toward getting 10 trainers to do exactly the same as I do to generate a million dollars in sales, after their wages that number will likely be slightly more than double if I personally wish to earn a million dollars. This may sound like a daunting task but continue to break it down. Do you think with all that you are learning from the Profitable Personal Trainer you might be able to get 5 trainers to complete 40 appointments per week each in the next 1-2 years? (If you answered no you need to read more of this website now.) If I could guarantee that you can personally earn $500,000-$1,000,000 a year for the rest of your life with a 5 year plan doing what you love to do, would you be excited? That daunting goal now may not seems as bad, you must reverse engineer from the final result to where you are, without that clear path you will NEVER reach that goal, that is a fact.
What are you willing to invest?
I hear people talk about commitment, how committed they are to growing their business, how they want to do this, but would you bet your last dollar on your commitment? I hear people say they can’t afford to invest in tools to help them, to hire people, or to use an expert to coach them, but can you really afford not to? I’m not saying you should carelessly throw around resources but if you are serious about success at some point you have to be prepared to go ALL IN. This might mean going on a social hiatus and burning the midnight oil, it might mean giving up the finer luxuries for a time to close the gap on some assets. Whatever it is just remember this industry CAN provide any lifestyle you want if you are willing to do what it takes to make it happen.
YES! Contact me today to schedule a FREE no obligation consultation and trial workout.
Contessa October 19, 2010 at 8:41 pm | Permalink |
Great advice! I’m working on my five year plan now! From the top, down. Thx
Jamie Stone July 4, 2012 at 3:48 am | Permalink |
Thanks Cabel awesome post to get me focused.
I know know exactly what i need to get to £1millon a year. Actually seems much more achievable now.
Thanks J
Sam Ely July 25, 2015 at 12:25 am | Permalink |
This is one that I just can’t grasp – how do I decide how much money I want to earn? It just feels like a guessing game – like I should pluck a number out of the air and stick with it? Writing down what I want is easy but putting that altogether to make a number just seems like a complete and utter guess! Especially when I wiggle that down to what I want to be earning THIS month..
Is there a system for working this out that flew straight over my head? Because it seems like this is the question I am faced with when speaking to every pt business coach
Cabel July 31, 2015 at 10:30 am | Permalink |
Hey Sam sorry I didn’t see your comment sooner, I can totally appreciate your frustration as I felt the same way years ago and wished someone could just explain it to me simply, it really isn’t that difficult but we over think the problem (or I know I greatly did) making it really tough to grasp. You’re not alone in this many of my coaching clients have really struggled the same way at first, but let me try to explain.
You have to reverse engineer it, so yes at first you pick the number out of thin air, what is the amount of monthly income you would be satisfied with earning?
$5000/mth? 10? 20? 100? It can be any; the next step is to determine the time frame in which to reach this that you will also be satisfied with. It goes without saying that the larger the number and the shorter the time frame combined the more daunting the daily tasks will be, and that’s ok; because once you understand what’s required daily it’s as simple as a yes or no answer to, “am I willing to or can I do what it takes to complete this daily?”
If the answer is no you must revisit the goal as it’s not realistic, so would you (at least for now) be comfortable with less money or it taking a longer period of time? This is exactly the same process you should be using with your fitness clients in regard to keeping them committed to their goals. If someone wants to lose 100lbs in 3 months, we can agree that’s not going to happen in a healthy manner to which they will be able to sustain it, but is there a chance that if the lose 30lbs ever 3 months for a year they may be willing to accept that? Can you?
We now work backwards to determine what are the 1-2 things you would need to do today and every day to reach this goal, but a little more info is needed along the way.
If I want to make an additional $10,000 per month I must…
1) Know the approximate margin of my services, meaning what’s left over after I pay trainers, cover rent etc. If I sell a $500/month program the margin might only be $250. If I want to make an additional $10,000 I will need an extra 40 clients than I have today by this standard.
2) Know my “close ratio” how many prospects I must see in order to generate clients, a common average would be a 60% close ratio or 6 out of every 10 people you meet with become clients. In this case to get 40 new clients you will need to meet with 70 new prospects.
3) Know my “set ratio” unfortunately you and I both know not all prospects are created equal, so how many new leads will you need to set 70 appointments? Well commonly I see a set ratio at about 50%, so to get those 40 additional clients, or to meet with 70 qualified prospects you will need 140 new leads.
Ok we’re ready, so if I wanted to achieve my goal of an additional $10,000/month in 2 months I need to create 140 more leads than I have now, which if we break that down to about 40 business days in 2 months I need about 3-4 new leads a day, leading to 1-2 sales appointments and to close one new client a day.
So now we can begin to evaluate our lead generation and marketing tactics, how many hours a day do you need to contribute to these efforts? Can you hire someone to help you, and so on.
Do you see how all of this works?
I know what you might be thinking, “seems complicated, I still don’t totally get it.”
At least that’s how I was for a long time, and well truth is that is where coaching comes in. It’s the same as it is with your fitness clients, it’s often as difficult for us as trainers to grasp these business concepts as it is for our clients to grasp the things we teach them about fitness and nutrition, but at the core of it it’s just understanding what your daily activities need to be and staying consistent with them and that’s what coaches help with.
Please check out http://www.7figuremastermind.com if you’d like to know more about what we do and how we help fitness pros like you.
I hope this has been helpful.
Cabel