Understanding You're a Business Owner
Focus: To help you change your current mindset from thinking of yourself as a personal trainer to thinking of yourself as a business owner.
Introduction
What You'll Learn
Whether you are running a one-man show or a personal training company that has employees, there is a fundamental approach you need to master to become successful in the fitness industry. You need to acquire the mind-set of a business owner, understand what that means and how to become a successful one.
Using my own example as a case study, this lesson will teach you how to change your hat and start thinking and acting as a business owner.
Why Is This Important?
There is a significant difference in the tasks and responsibilities of a personal trainer to that of a business owner. If your head is focused on your personal trainer role, you will only see what you need to do as a trainer.
Until you make that shift in mind-set, you won't see the need to dedicate time to working on your business instead of in your business. That means you won't be able to get out of the rut of endless hours spent with clients in session or spent on their programming outside of sessions. You might just get along if you're good at what you do, but once you reach your maximum capacity you will get stuck.
Whether you are running a one-man show or a personal training company that has employees, there is a fundamental approach you need to master to become successful in the fitness industry. You need to acquire the mind-set of a business owner, understand what that means and how to become a successful one.
Using my own example as a case study, this lesson will teach you how to change your hat and start thinking and acting as a business owner.
Why Is This Important?
There is a significant difference in the tasks and responsibilities of a personal trainer to that of a business owner. If your head is focused on your personal trainer role, you will only see what you need to do as a trainer.
Until you make that shift in mind-set, you won't see the need to dedicate time to working on your business instead of in your business. That means you won't be able to get out of the rut of endless hours spent with clients in session or spent on their programming outside of sessions. You might just get along if you're good at what you do, but once you reach your maximum capacity you will get stuck.
A Personal Story
When I was a brand new personal trainer, I worked in a leisure center attached to a hotel.
It was pretty nice, small, homely and I had access to the club members that lived nearby which made it quite easy to get new clients.
One of the members was a psychotherapist called Dzmitry who invited me to help him with his research into using exercise as a form of therapy for victims of rape, torture, war and pillaging.
It was heavy stuff. And in exchange for my services Dzimitry agreed to help me understand how people think on a deeper level so that I could better serve my clients.
While we agreed on learning about how people think, the biggest benefit I got from my psychotherapist friend was a massive shift in mindset.
Almost every day he would tell me in some form or another that I was a business owner.
"You're a manager now...", "You're a business owner..." and "You're running a business".... every... day!
To be honest, I didn't really understand why he would say this to me every time we met, but one day, it just clicked.
And I thought 'holy cow, I'm a business owner'.
But I didn't just think it. I felt it. And things changed.... A lot.
It was pretty nice, small, homely and I had access to the club members that lived nearby which made it quite easy to get new clients.
One of the members was a psychotherapist called Dzmitry who invited me to help him with his research into using exercise as a form of therapy for victims of rape, torture, war and pillaging.
It was heavy stuff. And in exchange for my services Dzimitry agreed to help me understand how people think on a deeper level so that I could better serve my clients.
While we agreed on learning about how people think, the biggest benefit I got from my psychotherapist friend was a massive shift in mindset.
Almost every day he would tell me in some form or another that I was a business owner.
"You're a manager now...", "You're a business owner..." and "You're running a business".... every... day!
To be honest, I didn't really understand why he would say this to me every time we met, but one day, it just clicked.
And I thought 'holy cow, I'm a business owner'.
But I didn't just think it. I felt it. And things changed.... A lot.
Changing Hats
After my massive shift in mindset from thinking like a personal trainer to thinking like a business owner, I was able to move out of the leisure club with a dotted calendar, into a personal training studio with a calendar so full that I had to hire another personal trainer to cover the hours.
All in a matter of months.
You're probably wondering how a simple change in mindset could lead to such a drastic change in success?
Simply put, the ability to come up with a solution depends entirely on the position from which you look at the problem.
For example, how does a personal trainer increase their number of clients?
They can't! A personal trainer cannot increase their number of clients because the role of a personal trainer is to train clients, it's not to market their business.
However, a marketer would do a fantastic job of marketing a fitness business and getting more clients, right?
So I became a marketer. And an accountant, a designer, an administrator, a content writer and customer support.
All in a matter of months.
You're probably wondering how a simple change in mindset could lead to such a drastic change in success?
Simply put, the ability to come up with a solution depends entirely on the position from which you look at the problem.
For example, how does a personal trainer increase their number of clients?
They can't! A personal trainer cannot increase their number of clients because the role of a personal trainer is to train clients, it's not to market their business.
However, a marketer would do a fantastic job of marketing a fitness business and getting more clients, right?
So I became a marketer. And an accountant, a designer, an administrator, a content writer and customer support.
So when I needed more clients, I became a marketer. When my client walked in the door, I took my marketer hat off, put my personal trainer hat on and gave them a nice big smile and a handshake.
Every problem has a solution, provided you looks at the problem from the right perspective.
You Are Not Personal Trainer
You are not a personal trainer. Personal training is a service which you provide from within the business you own.
You are a business owner. Or an Entrepreneur if it makes you feel better.
Your primary role as the business owner is to manage the business in such a way that the personal trainer in your business has enough clients to train.
This will require you to wear multiple hats every single day to accomplish various business and client facing tasks.
The sooner you understand that personal training is a service and not an identity, the sooner you can solve problems from the right perspective.
You are a business owner. Or an Entrepreneur if it makes you feel better.
Your primary role as the business owner is to manage the business in such a way that the personal trainer in your business has enough clients to train.
This will require you to wear multiple hats every single day to accomplish various business and client facing tasks.
The sooner you understand that personal training is a service and not an identity, the sooner you can solve problems from the right perspective.
Exercise:
Go to page 2 of your Business Mindset Workbook and answer the questions.
The goal of these questions are to help you understand exactly how many roles your adopt within your personal trainer business. |
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