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Fitness Article - The Top 4 Ways to Build Your Personal Training Business and Which One is Best!

by Aaron M. Potts, ISSA CFT

Everyone wants to grow their business. It doesn't matter who you are, or what business you are in. Unless you are not interested in money or career security, you want your business to grow.

Do you feel like you want to grow your personal training business, but you're not sure how to do it? Are you ready to take your business to the next level, but you don't know how? Then this article is for you!

Let's start by defining the 4 ways that anyone can grow a business, and then we will examine which one has the most growth potential:

1) Get more customers - Do you just want more customers who use your service, buy your products, or both? How many customers can you fit into your day, or provide products for? How many customers do you have the time and the resources to support?

2) Sell more products or services to your present customers - This is a great idea, since your present customers already trust you. However, it is limited because each customer will only spend a certain amount of money, or they will only need a certain number of products. Once their needs have been filled, or they can no longer afford what you offer, then you will no longer be able to sell products and services to those clients.

3) Raise the prices that you charge for your product or services - In most cases, this has got Bad Idea written all over it. Although there are times when raising your prices or your rates is a good business move, just arbitrarily saying that you will simply charge more in order to make more money spells doom for your business in the long run.

4) Find a way to duplicate your efforts by having people who work under you distribute your products or services. There are few drawbacks to this method, and it is in fact the recommended method for business growth in today's economy.

Check out the breakdown below of why methods 1 through 3 are limited at best, and how option 4 - duplicating your efforts - is the only surefire way to grow your business permanently and exponentially.

1. Getting more customers is always a good idea for any business, provided the infrastructure is in place to handle the needs of the increased customer base. However there are 2 major problems with this method:

a) Acquiring new customers is expensive and time-consuming. Most people are aware that the cost to keep a present customer is significantly less than the cost of acquiring a new one. The time and/or finances needed to continually bring in new clients will eventually run out.

b) If you are a small business owner, handling an excessive number of clients or customers can become almost impossible, especially if you are in a service-based industry such as personal training. Even if you hire staff to help with the extra client load, bringing new employees into your organization brings with it another set of headaches that may very well not be worth the effort. If you decide to handle all client service and support yourself, you will quickly find yourself with no life whatsoever, even though you are building and working your business from sun up to sun down day after day.

2. Selling more products or services to your present customers is a great idea, but that idea also has a limited lifespan. Eventually your customers will either no longer need your services (a personal trainer never keeps a client forever), they will run out money to pay for your products or services, or they will get enough products to last them for the foreseeable future, and they will stop buying. All of these scenarios end the same way: You no longer receive any additional revenue from selling more products or services to that customer.

3. Raising the prices of your product or service may be a smart business/marketing idea in certain circumstances. However, even when that is the case, there is still a set amount of money that your customers will be willing to pay for your products or services.

If you are a personal trainer who trains 8 sessions a day for $50.00 per session, you make $400.00 per day. Not bad! In a 5-day work week, you will make $2,000.000. What would happen if you became known as the best personal trainer in town, and jacked your rates up to $200.00 per training session? You are now making $1,600.00 a day, and bringing in $8,000.00 a week!

Well, first of all, the above scenario is unrealistic. Not many trainers make $200.00 per session. Of those that do, what about cancellations? What about when your clients get sick or go on vacation? What happens if you are the one who gets sick or goes on vacation? What if you get injured? What if you get too old or burnt out to keep up the pace of 40 intensity-packed personal training sessions week after week for years on end?

The fact that you raised your rates to the upper end of what a personal trainer can expect to make doesn't protect you from the fact that there are still many, many obstacles that can and will block your income potential. Some of those obstacles are permanent in nature and out of your control!

4. Finding a way to duplicate your efforts by having people underneath you distribute your products or services is the only solution that is effective, will work indefinitely, and is not bound by your personal schedule or other physical limitations. You will receive a share of the money that is generated by those working under you, and you can eventually leave the game completely if you wish, allowing your business to run itself with minimal guidance and input from you. If you desire true financial and time freedom, duplicating your efforts is the only way it is ever going to happen.

So how do you duplicate your efforts? You find a product and/or service that can be distributed by others who work under you, while giving you a share of the profits that are generated by their efforts. The only business model that allows this scenario - without hiring employees - is Network Marketing.

Network marketing is an industry whose time has finally come. The business regulatory systems in the world have put rules and laws in place to prevent consumers from being taken advantage of by shady companies, false promises, and outright lies. The network marketing companies that remain solvent are profitable, ethical, and they allow you to grow your business exponentially through your own efforts, as well as the efforts of others.

If you truly want to grow your business without limits, and at the same time increase your bank account as well as the amount of time that you can spend with friends and family, a successful network marketing company with quality products meets those requirements easily.

To find out more about why network marketing is the only way to secure your future, read the book 'Wave 4, Network Marketing in the 21st Century', by Richard Poe. To learn about a network marketing company with the highest morals, the best products, and a true culture that is dedicated to its distributors and their customers, visit http://www.fitnessdestinations.com/tni.html.

About the Author

Aaron Potts is a Certified Success Group Leader for the Tahiti Trim Plan 40 program and he also writes Free Fitness Tips and hosts a Free Fitness Podcast for the Fitness Destinations website.

Secrets of Female Strength and Conditioning

Fitness Article - What the Heck is an Exercise Modality, and Why Should I care?

by Aaron M. Potts, ISSA CFT

What are you trying to get out of your exercise program? Are you trying to lose weight? Are you trying to put on muscle mass? Are you training for a sport or an athletic contest of some kind?

Okay, now that you've answered the question of why you are exercising to begin with, you are now ready to ask yourself what type of exercise program you will need to get involved with in order to accomplish that goal.

If you answered "aerobics", "weight training", "yoga", "flexibility exercises", "martial arts", or pretty much any other form of exercise that you can imagine, then congratulations are in order! You've just answered the question, "What the heck is an exercise modality"?

Simply put, an exercise modality is a system or form of exercise that is designed to elicit a very specific response from the body of the individual who is engaging in the exercise. In the case of aerobics, most people are trying to get their body to shed excess bodyfat and to increase their level of cardiovascular endurance. Weight or resistance training exercisers are usually trying to grow or tone their muscles to make them stronger, bigger, or more attractive. People who practice Yoga are usually after a stronger mind/body connection in order to gain more energy or awareness.

The possibilities are endless. There are so many exercise modalities out there that even trying to name them all would be a waste of time. Even as this article is written, and even as you - the reader - take in its information, someone somewhere is probably coming up with a new "exercise modality".

So why even try to learn them? Why should you care about exercise modalities? Simply put, because you need to practice them!

No, that doesn't mean that you have to be able to run a marathon, bench press 400 lbs, balance on your pinky toe, and dance a jig all at the same time…

The point is not that you have to become proficient in any specific exercise modality. You do need to learn about different types of training, though. No matter how effective your present exercise program is, one of two things is either already happening, or is going to happen eventually:

1) Your body is adapting to the stimulus provided by your chosen exercise modality, and you are not seeing the same results from it that you saw in the beginning.

2) The exercise modality that you have chosen is lacking in one or more of the measurements of good health: strength, cardiovascular conditioning, flexibility, agility, balance, tensile strength of bones, tendons, and ligaments, basic survival skills such as starting and limit strength, swimming capabilities, or a heightened level of neuromuscular coordination.

As you can see, simply being able to run through a circuit of weight machines at the gym and then jumping into an aerobics class is not sufficient for a level of health and fitness that is both complete, as well as sustainable over the long-term.

Despite what you may think, there will never be a time in your life when it is appropriate or healthy for you to "back off" and give up on exercise or proper nutrition. From today until the day when you leave this Earth, you will need the high quality of life that is provided by the proper level of health and fitness.

In order to ensure that your health and fitness program does not allow your body to adapt to a certain stimulus, as well as to ensure that your program includes activity in each of the measurable levels of health and fitness, you must practice different exercise modalities on a regular basis.

Don't scoff at Pilates because you think it is for wimps. Those of you in the aerobics room don't look at the weight lifters as if they are a bunch of cavemen who know nothing about true fitness. Those of you in the Yoga frame of mind, open up your mind to the fact that Yoga alone is not going to maintain your level of health and your quality of life from now until the end. Martial artists - step out of the Dojo and pick up some dumbbells or balance on an exercise ball once in awhile.

There is no single exercise modality that is perfect for everyone, all the time. Yes, there are certain modalities that work better for certain people, but that doesn't mean that you should never check out new activities and experiences.

Close-mindedness has never resulted in positive results in the entire history of our planet. It's not going to start now. Open your mind to new possibilities and you will open yourself to new experiences and a higher quality of life itself.

Who knows? You might even enjoy it!

About the Author

Aaron Potts is a Certified Personal Trainer, and is also a Certified Success Group Leader for the Tahiti Trim Plan 40 program. He also writes Free Fitness Tips and hosts a Free Fitness Podcast for the Fitness Destinations website.