1. Work ON your business, not just IN your business.  If it is a fitness business you operate then treat it like a business and not a job.  There is much behind the client interaction scenes that MUST receive attention.
   
2. Have a plan. Goals with no plan to accomplish or measuring sticks along the path will simply become unfulfilled goals.
3. Surround yourself with great people.  You will reflect the qualities of those you associate with.  Choose your friends and mentors wisely.
4. Specialize your fitness service.  Work to your strengths to fulfill specific needs.  This becomes your niche and you become the expert of that niche.
5. Work on the things that deliver.  The return on your investment is key both financially and maybe even more so for your time.  Outsource and delegate the small stuff and concentrate where the business has the greatest return potentials.
6. Purposeful use of time and tools.  Distractions are everywhere including some of the greatest social media tools available to you.  Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Email and more can be huge time sinks, yet they are excellent tools for spreading your message.  Schedule your time in these areas to keep control of your time.
7. Tap into hidden opportunities.  These are only hidden if you do not utilize them.  Up sell, cross sell, and down sell are traditional marketing practices that help you appropriate place offers in front of customers who are already at a purchase level with you.
8. Ask for the referral.  Obvious, but often missed.  Let customers and co workers know what you are looking for.  Referrals are powerful as you start from a more trusted position when their friend gives you the thumbs up to start.
9. Work from a list.  Again, cutting out distractions makes you efficient.  Create a daily task list and check them off.  Only after should the distracters be given your valuable time.
10. Master your craft.  There are many snake oils salesmen out there in the fitness industry.  They are not just the goofy ab machines either.  Whether you have developed a silver tongue or not, you should always be able to back up your exercise prescriptions based on current research and standards.  Keep learning and participate in industry education, follow blogs of respected fitness professionals and participate in mastermind programs.
11. Improve the experience.  Deliver extraordinary experience to your clients and students. Set yourself apart by focusing on enhancing customer experiences.
12. Don’t wait for perfect.  More than anything I have witnessed outstanding programs that could have truly changed lives never get off the ground.  They went to the wayside as one thing or another was never quite good enough.  Do as FaceBook does and get the program to a  reasonably acceptable level and let it roll.  Improve and tweak as you go.

Now these are some great items of advice from six awesome fitness professionals.  To read the full list from Kelli Calabrese, Stephen Cabral, Todd Durkin, Shelby Murphy, Bedros Keuilian or Pat Rigsby, go to PFP Magazine.

—–My 2 additional Success Strategies would include Goal creation and achievement strategies and the framing of the situation with scripted planning.

Goals- specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and possibly most important, time sensative.  Most have heard of these “S.M.A.R.T.” goals, but do you have a plan specific for attaining the goal? Are you being held accountable by other trusted peers?  Do you write down your goals and post them in often seen locations?
Targeted goals are powerful.  Use them appropriately and hold yourself accountable to attain them.

Practiced Scripts – Not that every word is planned out, but being prepared with leading topics as you tour a facility or run a potential client through an assessment.  ie when you show the treadmill you should be practiced at asking leading questions that help the potential client understand that they do not know all protocols for cardiovascular training, that there are ways to use it most efficiently, and an educated fitness professional would be an excellent choice in learning to optimally use that equipment.  Lot’s of areas of the gym to do similar.

What might you add to this list?

Here is an example between a traveling fitness professional and a resort (Sunscape Dorado Pacifico Ixtapa)

Cross promoting adds benefit to both parties involved.  In this video example the pro and the resort not only cross promote to each others “lists” of followers, customers, colleagues, and friends; they also built a single promotional piece together to cross share.

Expand Your Reach – When you cross promote with another, the numbers of individuals who hear your message can be many times your reach alone.
If nothing else, you have the opportunity to expand your own list for your own future promotionals.

Save Time and Money- The cross promotion can save you based upon shared expense in promotional production. Likewise with time, you have an opportunity to share your message among many people very fast.  List building can take time.  Cross promotion lets you take advantage in quickly accessing someone else’ already built list.

Image via Wikipedia

Opens Doors – Working with an individual or company in cross promotions is often a lead int to other collaborative activities.  Ultimately, relationships are everything and building them through cross promotions may not only promote your immediate project and build your own list, but it may also lead to other income generating opportunities with your new cross promoting friend.

Builds Trust – All day long we can talk about ourselves or our service.  And, all day long most will at least initially roll their eyes and believe we are tooting our own horn.  When your cross promoter sings your praises you benefit by the simple fact that it’s not you talking.  You also benefit by their already developed reputation they have with their customers who are now hearing of you.

Authority Positioning – A little less direct than benefits mentioned above, but potentially powerful and far reaching is the “Authority” status you may shroud yourself in depending upon the structure of the cross promotion.  The fact that a trusted third party company is promoting you and/or your service puts you on display as the expert provider and positions you as the authority that others should seek out on this subject.  It also enhances your existing authority to the clients who already trust you.

The benefits of cross promoting are far reaching.  They can provide much more than a simple commission or one time sales pitch.  I encourage you to look at the big picture when selecting your collaborators for cross promotion.

The example above was between a traveling fitness pro and the resort (after being facilitated by Fit Bodies).  We have also worked with different fitness education companies.  Locally at our training school we have a standing cross promotion with a local massage therapist for professional referrals…

How about you?  What areas have you dabbled in cross promotions?

Many understanding folks have worked with me in getting their passwords reset and finding their way around the site… It’s been a good & fun kind of busy.

You can review the email that was sent out announcing the re-opening here.
And, you can use the below Recent Article for further details on the site changes.

Related articles

• Its Game On (fitprobiz.com)

This is a good time for me to see if I can practice what i preach.  I  have often said that TRANSPARENCY is important to build trust especially in the online world.

Well this morning we pulled down the construction sign at Fitness Pro Travel and within an hour we put it back up…. Grrr.

The functionality of the various systems seem to be working fine, but almost immediately we found that while the accounts we were testing with transferred nicely, there was a large enough number of accounts that didn’t transfer quite right.

So admitting that we have to fix the transfer issue and that our testing team missed what should have been an easy one, the Grand Re-Open is off for a bit longer.  My disguise of perfection is gone and I request your patience as I work out the details.

I’ll send an email when we open the doors back up later today.

What they all have in common is that they were posted to a targeted community of over 12,000 fitness professionals.  The business education program above is offering a free webinar and they are one of our “Premium Account Holders” so I’ve added their event information below once again.  Take a look as the program designers have been providing free business content to the Fit Pro Community for a couple years.  I’m sure they’ll have some quality insights for you!

If you are looking for continuing education programs or are offering educational programming, be sure to login and check the calendar.  Content providers, post your programs to the Fit Pro Community calendar and share them directly with a large targeted audience.

Entrepreneurs bringing business education to health and wellness practitioners

Arlington, MA— July 12, 2011 — You are an integrative health practitioner, an acupuncturist, a yoga instructor, a massage therapist, naturopath, or health coach. You help others, and are an expert in your field, having studied and worked hard to develop your practice.  However, a practice involves business know-how.  Entrepreneurs, Cynthia Pasciuto  of True North Business Consulting and Laura Greer of Mandala Services have formed the Institute of Integrative Business Studies to provide online business education to health and wellness practitioners.

Cynthia and Laura are not newcomers to the health and wellness field.  Cynthia has taught at the local acupuncture school along with teaching at the undergraduate level.  Laura has helped practitioners start, grow and manage thriving health and wellness practices, has worked for yoga studios and has been a yoga instructor for over ten years. They both noticed there was a need for business knowledge often being asked for advice on social media, marketing, management and legal assistance. They wanted the health and wellness practitioners to succeed.

The Institute of Integrative Business Studies? is launching The Integrative Business Program?, a series of online seminars aimed at helping integrative health practitioners learn what it takes to start, maintain and grow a successful practice.  The objective of the Integrative Business Program? is to educate integrative health practitioners in order to improve their chances for success and to increase the accessibility of qualified practitioners available to the consumer. The program teaches participants crucial business and practice management principles in the areas of Patient & Clinical Management, Marketing & Public Relations, Accounting, Insurance and Finance, and Business Law.

The Integrative Business Program? consists of a number of courses that run for a length of -6 weeks each.  Weekly online sessions are 1 hour in length and each course is taught by an expert in the topic.

Courses start in September. Sign up today for a free introductory webinar on Tuesday, August 30^th- Jumpstart Your Business: Top Ten Things You Need to Know!  Sign up for the free webinar at http://www.integrativebusinessstudies.com/jumpstart

The Institute of Integrative Business Studies?, where holistic health and business practices meet, is sponsored by the Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine Association of Massachusetts and The National Institute of Whole Health.

More information at http://www.integrativebusinessstudies.com or
Contact: inquire@integrativebusinessstudies.com

Enjoy this guest article by my knowledgeable friend Cynthia -
~~

A best practice is a process that a business uses to effectively deliver a service or product

Cynthia Pasciuto

to the public, consumer, or other business.  It is efficient because there is a pattern that will be followed so that a good experience is produced.

It is used in education, insurance and nursing, to name a few industries, but the idea can be applied to any business no matter the size.

For example, my friend went to a yoga class at a local gym.  She had attended that particular class for over a year- Intermediate Vinyasa.  On this day there were the ten regular people and two newcomers.  The instructor changed the class to benefit the two newcomers.  However,

her other clients were left with a workout they did not want.

This is where having a published Best Practices would be beneficial.  Perhaps something like:

1. Classes will start on time.
2. If the instructor is not present, and the class cannot continue then the students will receive a certificate for a free class.
3. Classes are marked at certain levels; please choose the level that is right for you.  Modifications will be announced, but the classes will continue at the published level.
4. Our location will always be clean and safe.

The benefits of having Best Practices can be used in marketing to show consistency in your product, plus you will gain word of mouth clients because of your standards. You are also setting a legal benchmark for your business, because of this you want to make sure that you can meet your best practices.

If you have a business to business model, then Best Practices can still be used. Your focus may be on:

• We believe in alternative dispute resolution and will use mediation if a conflict arises.  We want long term relationships
• We always use Delaware law in our contracts.
• We will answer your request within 24 hours
• We work with the following charitable organizations and hope you will help.

It is a gain for employees too.  They will gain an understanding of what is expected of them, and what level of service they need to provide.

Taking some time to create a Best Practices will allow you to put your best foot forward.

About the Author

True North Business Consulting, LLC will empower you to take control of your legal decisions by providing unique legal coaching that focuses not just on the law but insurance, marketing and managing your projects.

In the field of Health & Wellness you are providing consumers with support with complimentary alternative medicine. Let True North support you in with your legal needs.
TrueNorth Business Consulting You Tube

Image via Wikipedia

I’ve got a kid that has spent several years now learning various martial arts. (noah at it)  It seems to be the thing that he digs most and when I get him a forced break he’s always antsy to get back at it.

As I’m sure many in the fitness industry have noticed, MMA styled training has taken off over the past decade.  I’ve seen several “MMA Trainer Certifications” pop up during that time as well.  Can’t blame them for wanting to make a buck on what has the public’s attention at the moment.

As professional trainers, conditioning coaches, and fitness instructors you should have the abilities to work with these sport populations now.  Even if not working with MMA athletes directly you should be able to observe the sport and then add elements of appropriate MMA training to any program you are providing to add variety and keep it fresh for your clients and class participants.

The problem is that many “professional” fitness industry folk like to take the easy road similar to their clients (quick fix pill).  These trainers refuse to take the time to break down movements, create continuous variety, teach related movements to multiple fitness levels as needed…. generally they seem to refuse to be creative in program design. (some might call that lazy).

Instead the canned (pre-choreographed) programs grow.  Group fitness or even personal training aint so personal when these pro trainers have to copy others work to appear creative.  They often even pay to continual utilize that which they are trained to create, but can’t pull the energy to perform.

In my view it is sad and counter intuitive to have to follow others canned programs rather than using your skills and presenting your own programs. 

…. So, back to the MMA Training. It is good to have knowledge and if you like utilize the trend that your customers are interested in.  The UFC and MMA Training are still on the upswing, so you’re not late on this one.  But, don’t feel that you must pay for anything more than a workshop or better yet join a gym to learn the true skills, to get yourself rolling down the right path on providing this training.  If you are certified by a quality organization then you have the knowledge foundations in place for sport specific program creation.

How? Be observant of work rest intervals in the sport.  MMA work/rest periods will vary depending upon the level, martial art, age, organization, etc.  The may range from a few 90 second rounds with 30 second breaks to 5 or more minute rounds with 60 second breaks.  Do you think there is a large reliance on the aerobic energy system in the longer rounds?  You bet. If you are working with this athlete they will need more aerobic energy system prep than the one doing only 90 second rounds.

Similarly, for all sports as well as MMA Training, is the sport explosive or slow steady state repetitive movements? What planes of movement are utilized?  Are there dynamic combination movements from one plane to another? What are the starting and ending positions for most of the sports activities? Are balance and stability key issues for the sport?  What is primary and secondary as far as absolute strength, muscular endurance, or power development?

When working with an actual competing martial arts athlete periodization of the programming and appropriate nutrient balance for the conditioning period must be taken into account as well.

Here is a video clip I came across from on of my favorite MMA sites.  It is on a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu grappler Terere and spends minutes 2-4 show casing some of the conditioning program elements he uses. Take a peak, review more online videos, and go check out an MMA fight sometime.  Study the movements as you enjoy the competition and then bring some fresh MMA training techniques back to your clients.

Terere: Return of a Champion from Woolfcub on Vimeo.

Lessons for sport, business, and life!

Proud to be one of those players and I look forward to the development and completion of this video project.

More Than Champions – Teaser from One_Space Films on Vimeo.

Frosty Westering: Man in the Arena from One_Space Films on Vimeo.

And just when I thought I was onto something, Harry Potter steals my next great idea…

The most recent Potter movie racked in plenty of moola, but apparently that’s not enough. Keeping options open for future merchandise as well as keeping “brand pirates” away from those future options is also high on the list… The fact that the studio trademarked “Quidditch” t-shirts will surprise nobody, but how about “Quidditch” lingerie?

“Clothing for men, women and children, namely, shirts, t-shirts, sweatshirts, jogging suits, trousers, pants, shorts, tank tops, rainwear, cloth bibs, skirts, blouses, dresses, suspenders, sweaters, jackets, coats, raincoats, snow suits, ties, robes, hats, caps, sunvisors, belts, scarves, sleepwear, pajamas, lingerie, underwear, boots, shoes, sneakers, sandals, booties, slipper socks, swimwear and masquerade and Halloween costumes and masks sold in connection therewith”

With these and multiple other terms now trademarked, the question remains on how they would police the world for nepharious use of their brand?… All those movie ticket sales have paid for a team of attorneys and many technology based tools exist to bring to light those who may attempt to cross them.

… As an individual or a small business you have some of the same concerns. You may not worry about your brand or even name being used by another to create a screaming brand of underwear, but you may be interested to know just what is being said about you and your brand.

Knowing the good, bad, and trademark infringing commentary and actions on your brand in the online world is exactly why you must be involved in the many social aspects of the internet (Live Web). Being aware of what is being said or done with your brand allows you to promptly react and be part of the conversation or even proceed with legal action should need arise.

It would be near impossible to track the many avenues of conversation online without certain pieces of technology to assist. The tech heavy world we live in has produced several of these types of tools and here is a link to one that can assist you in tracking multiple platforms at one time right from your WordPress Blog…

You choose what you want to monitor and Brand Control will automatically pull this data from many online resources and display it in a convenient one-stop location directly inside your WordPress blog.

Google as well as other resources can provide you some free tools that will search the web and send you similar information, but Brand Control will collect from multiple avenues and provide it all to you conveniently through your blog platform.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Our own social media community at Fitness Pro Travel certainly keeps an eye on what this big boy, with hundreds of programmers and a near infinite budge is up to.

As an independent fitness professional or fitness business of any type (or again, any

business of any type) with a web presence, the Social Plugins via FaceBook can go a long ways in keeping your offering near the front of peoples interests.  And, more importantly it places your offering/website in front of the friends & connections of those who “Like” your stuff.

Not necessarily a sales pitch, but an invitation to your front door which they may follow if the interest in more is tweaked.

I’m just beginning to experiment with some of these tools beginning with the “Like” button.  I’ll have one added somewhere on the right border of this site before I post this if you want to take a look… feel free to click away as well.

I’ve also already begun to add these small like buttons to the individual resort pages for those sites Fit Bodies contracts with and offers for teaching vacation opportunities at Fitness Pro Travel.

Check those out by going to the “Travel Spots” area of the site, clicking on the details page for the resorts you’ve been to.  Then click the “like” button for the particular resort to automatically let the next visitor to the page know that you thought that resort rocked.

…From the business stand point –

• The visual list of people who “like” the content on the page (in the above case, the resort) now have a visual social proof via a personal “like” endorsement.
• You also have the benefit of an automatic status update being placed on the Wall of the person who just stated that they “liked” your stuff.  Now their friends and connections are also seeing that endorsement with a link right back to your page.

The “like” clickers will have to be or have to become FaceBook members.  This is a continuation of an overwhelming title wave toward FaceBook being the online social connections & interests leader.  I’m ok with that endorsement as it does bring some sense of order around the individual to the internet and provides a great opportunity to gain endorsements, testimonials, and social proof for that which makes up my online presence.

Don’t be late on being part of the Face Book Interest Barometer initiative.  Utilize a FaceBook Social Plugin soon.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Fit Pro FaceBook Fan (tombomar.com)