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It's time for a new edition of my thoughts on the business of fitness. Before I get to it, just a friendly reminder that we're hosting our second-ever Cressey Sports Performance Business Building Mentorship on October 15. You can learn more HERE.
Now on to some business concepts...
1. It might take years for someone to become a customer.
Just a few weeks ago, I released my newest product, Sturdy Shoulder Solutions. One interesting thing about my newsletter/product management set-up is that I can tell how long someone has been a "prospect" before becoming a customer. Basically, I know the date they signed up for my newsletter, and then I can check that out to see what products they've purchased and when.
During this launch, I had multiple people purchase this resource as their first purchase with me after over 3,000 days on my list. Yes, that means they "window shopped" for over eight years prior to taking the plunge.
Very few people purchase on the first exposure to a marketing message. Or the second. Or the third. It actually takes load of opportunities for them to perceive your expertise, and usually over the course of an extended period of time. They need to know, like, and trust you - and some people take a long time to get to trusting you enough to initiate a transaction.
Be persistent, but patient. It's harder than ever to be seen and heard.
2. It's a very small world; watch your social media behavior.
I made this post on Twitter yesterday, and it got quite a bit of attention.
Beyond the obvious moral issues of saying cruel things to pro athletes (or celebrities - or anyone else, for that matter), you should be cognizant of the fact that it can very quickly come back to bite you in the butt. Some of the agencies who represent these players may also represent others - athletes, actors, musicians, speakers, or coaches - who could be potential future clients for you. One of your followers could be an old friend or teammate of the athlete. It's an incredibly small world, so chasing a few retweets isn't worth sacrificing a relationship or potential client down the road.
3. Investments are different from expenses.
This is one of the most misunderstood accounting/economics concepts in all industries, and certainly in the fitness business.
An investment has the potential to appreciate in value. Maybe you spend money on a continuing education event, buy a DVD for some new training strategies, put money into a retirement account, or purchase some equipment that allows you to deliver a higher-quality product to your clients. Perhaps you hire a consultant to fine-tune your business, or decide to buy your building instead of continuing to pay rent. Additionally, from an accounting standpoint, investments are usually (but not always) tax deductible.
Expenses are like setting money on fire. They're the $5 you spend at Starbucks each morning, or the Porsche you bought on credit when you were making $20,000/year (is that even possible?). They don't appreciate, and there is a huge opportunity cost to these expenditures. Some are necessary and even tax deductible (e.g., rent), but they always need to be heavily scrutinized. Can that expense be reduced or somehow shifted into an investment?
Fitness businesses are notoriously bad at understanding the difference between the two, or understanding that one's financial situation may dictate what is and isn't acceptable. If you're grossing $5,000/month, paying $1,000/month to a cleaning service probably isn't a good expense; clean the gym yourself. Do you really need to buy seven different types of leg curl machines when you're already $300,000 in debt? And, why do you have payroll expenses when you've only got three clients?
Most businesses (and individuals, in their personal finances) would be wise to go through every cash expenditure and figure out how each one can be categorized. Growing gross revenue is always a priority, but many businesses can be even more profitable if they learn to appropriately trim the fat.
If you've found value in these insights, I think you might enjoy the upcoming Business Building Mentorship Pete Dupuis and I will be hosting on Monday, October 15th. It's a tax deductible expense if you're a fitness business owner, and we'd guarantee that the lessons learned will more than pay for the cost of attendance. Plus, registration in the mentorship includes free attendance at our fall seminar on October 14.
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I hope you had a great week. Just in case you didn't, here's some good recommended reading/listening to kick off your weekend on the right foot.
So You're Considering Putting Your Name on Your Business? - This is awesome stuff from my business partner, Pete Dupuis, who discusses why having the name "Cressey" in "Cressey Sports Performance" has led to some challenges.
Max Scherzer wasn't predestined for greatness but has a hard-earned Hall of Fame Case - Chelsea Janes wrote this outstanding piece on CSP athlete Max Scherzer for the Washington Post. There are loads of great lessons in there for up-and-coming athletes.
Joe Kenn on Coaching in the NFL and Chasing Simplicity - Mike Robertson recorded this outstanding podcast with one of the most experienced guys in the strength and conditioning field today.
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We’re excited to announce that on Monday, October 15, we’ll be hosting our second CSP Business-Building Mentorship, a day of learning with Pete Dupuis and me. This event will take place at our Hudson, MA location the day after our annual fall seminar. Pete and I have spent nearly a decade crafting the operational systems and strategies that fuel CSP today, and we’re excited to pull back the curtain for fellow gym owners.
It is our intention to foster an environment conducive to learning and the exchanging of ideas, so we will be limiting participation to 25 individuals.
Here’s a look at our agenda for the day:
8:30am: Registration & Coffee
Morning Session – Lead Generation & Conversion
09:00am – 09:30am: Introduction: The Four Pillars of Fitness Business Success
09:30am – 10:30am: Lead Generation: Strategic Relationship Development, Identifying & Connecting with Opinion Leaders, Social Media Strategies
10:30am - 11:00am: Q&A
11:00am - 12:00pm: Lead Conversion: CSP Selling Strategy & Methodology
12:00pm - 01:00pm: Lunch (provided)
Afternoon Session – Business Operations & Long-Term Planning
01:00pm – 02:00pm: Operations: Accounting for Gym Owners – Guest Lecture from CSP’s CPA, Tom Petrocelli
02:00pm – 02:30pm: Operations: Internship Program Design & Execution
02:30pm – 03:00pm: Operations: Hiring Protocols, Staff Development & Continuing Ed.
03:00pm – 03:30pm: Long-Term Planning: Lease Negotiation Considerations
03:30pm – 04:30pm: Long-Term Planning: Strategic Brand Dev., Evaluating Opportunities, SWOT Analysis
04:30pm – 06:00pm: Q&A
Cost: $699.99 (includes free admission to CSP Fall Seminar on Sunday, October 14)
SOLD OUT! |
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We're very excited to announce that on Sunday, October 14, we’ll be hosting our seventh annual fall seminar at Cressey Sports Performance. As was the case with our extremely popular fall event over the past six years, this event will showcase the great staff we're fortunate to have as part of our team. Also like last year, we want to make this an affordable event for everyone and create a great forum for industry professionals and fitness enthusiasts alike to interact, exchange ideas, and learn. We're happy to have Perform Better as our official sponsor again this year as well.
Here are the presentation topics:
Guest Keynote Speaker: Pat Rigsby -- The Future of Fitness Business: The Blueprint for Success in a Changing Market
In this presentation, you'll discover how you can position yourself to succeed now and in the future within the fast-evolving fitness industry. You'll learn what you must do to stand out from the competition, earn more and take advantage of your strengths to design a business that will thrive for the long-term. If you want to command higher rates, enjoy better retention and grow a business you enjoy, don't miss this session.
Eric Cressey -- The Overhead Athlete Evolution
Cressey Sports Performance opened in 2007 and quickly became known as a destination for baseball players from around the country looking to improve. This niche gave rise to specific expertise with this demographic. Interestingly, development of the overhead athlete has changed drastically during the past 11 years, and Eric will outline the new challenges we face and strategies that must be employed to keep arms healthy. While the presentation will focus on overhead athletes, the overwhelming majority of lessons will also be applicable to everyday fitness clients as well.
Pete Dupuis -- The Secrets of Our Industry's Top Performing Fitness Businesses
In this presentation, Pete will bring you inside the strategic mindset of some of our industry's most successful fitness business owners. He's interviewed a series of industry influencers and will share the most under appreciated components of their established and immensely profitable operations. Takeaways will include tips for upgrading branding strategy, fine-tuning employee development, maximizing the effectiveness of social media efforts, and more.
Kyle Driscoll -- Simplifying Coaching Cues for High Speed Movements
Kyle will discuss why training rotational power, especially via medicine ball work, is important for everybody. Coaching high speed movements can, however, be difficult to see - and even more difficult to coach. The higher speed the movement is, the more simple the cues needs to be.
Chris Howard -- Shoulder Pain: What Causes It and What Can We Do About It?
Nearly every fitness professional has encountered an athlete or client dealing with shoulder pain or discomfort. In this presentation, Chris will blend his experience of anatomy and muscular referred pain patterns with strength and conditioning and soft-tissue strategies to illustrate how he addresses clients experiencing shoulder pain. Whether you are new to strength and conditioning, or a seasoned veteran, you will see shoulder pain from a new perspective following this presentation.
John O'Neil -- Stress Application and The Principles of Load Management: What Every Coach Needs to Know
In this discussion, John will cover how he as a strength coach for training clients who have multiple variables that affect their ability to handle applied stress within a gym setting, including how to manage these principles in conjunction with a sport coach. This information will include both theoretical aspects of load management in addition to very specific examples used at Cressey Sports Performance.
Cole Russo -- Creating a System for Movement Progressions
Many strength and conditioning coaches have a collection of sprint and agility drills they like to utilize, but no organized framework of how to apply them. In this presentation, Cole will define a system for teaching your athletes movement. This presentation will include both a lecture on movement progressions, coaching tips, and crucial movement competencies; as well as a following practical/movement session.
**Bonus 3:00PM Saturday Hands-on Session**
Frank Duffy -- Neanderthal No More 2.0: Reviving a Classic
Whether you’re a high-level professional athlete or a desk jockey, at the end of the day, you’re a human being. In this hands-on presentation, Frank will outline the “big rocks” you should consider integrating on a daily basis and how to modify them to align with your own capabilities and goals.
Location:
Cressey Sports Performance
577 Main St.
Suite 310
Hudson, MA 01749
Cost:
Regular Rate - $159.99
Student Rate - $129.99
Date/Time:
Sunday, October 14, 2018
Registration 8:30AM
Seminar 9AM-5PM
**Bonus session Saturday, October 13 at 3:00pm.
Continuing Education
This event has been approved for 0.8 National Strength and Conditioning Association CEUs.
Click Here to Sign-up (Regular)
or
Click Here to Sign-up (Students)
We’re really excited about this event, and would love to have you join us! However, space is limited and most seminars we’ve hosted in the past have sold out quickly, so don’t delay on signing up!
If you have additional questions, please direct them to cspmass@gmail.com. Looking forward to seeing you there!
PS - If you're looking for hotel information, The Extended Stay America in Marlborough, MA offers our clients a heavily discounted nightly rate of just under $65.00. Just mention "Cressey" during the booking process in order to secure the discount. Their booking phone number is 508-490-9911. |
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I hope you're having a great week. I'm gearing up for a weekend of presenting in Colorado, but the good news is that having some flights opens up some time for distraction-free reading and writing on the plane. Here are some good reads from around the 'net from the past week:
New Rules for Being a Strength Coach - Todd Hamer wrote this great piece up for EliteFTS, and I love the concept of continuous improvement in strength and conditioning. Todd's a guy who is always seeking to get better, no matter how long he's been in the industry.
Having an Approach to Having an Approach - This was a guest blog I wrote for my business partner, Pete Dupuis, a few years ago. I cover some fitness business concepts, including networking and lifetime value of a customer.
5 No-Diet Ways to Get Lean - I really liked this article from Dani Shugart on behavior modifications for nutritional success.
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I'm a day late with these recommendations in light of a lot of a busy week of evaluations at Cressey Sports Performance as the college crew rolls back in. However, that's given me a few extra days to compile some good reading material for you:
Cressey Sports Performance Featured in Boston Voyager Magazine - This feature on Cressey Sports Performance - MA just ran in Boston Voyager magazine. You'll learn a bit about the history of our business and how we approach things.
One Thing that Annoys Me About the Fitness Industry - Tony Gentilcore makes an outstanding point in this blog. It's one of the few "rants" you'll read that actually has an invaluable message.
EC on the The Farm System Podcast - I was interviewed for this baseball development podcast last just a few weeks ago; give it a listen!
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It's time for the April installment of my thoughts on the business side of fitness.
1. It might take years for you to recognize that a loss leader will pay off.
Wikipedia defines "loss leader" as "a pricing strategy where a product is sold at a price below its market cost to stimulate other sales of more profitable goods or services." I'd add that it doesn't just have to be a price discount to be a loss leader, either. If I go to deliver a free 60-minute presentation to a baseball team, and then some of those athletes come to train with us, you could see that the time and energy I spent on preparing and delivering that talk were the loss leader that yielded longer-term revenues. I often refer to this as a "value addition leaders" because it doesn't devalue your services (the only "loss" is your time). You're simply finding ways to show potential customers a) you care, b) you're qualified, and c) deliver value before the first transaction.
I can't overstate enough the importance of seeing loss leaders as a long game. People are exposed to thousands of marketing messages nowadays, so it's easy to get desensitized to them individually. Collectively, though, they may build to establish longer-term credibility that leads to a business relationship down the road. So, be patient, persistent, and philanthropic in your giving; in many cases, you'll be rewarded down the road.
2. The average American doesn't understand long-term financial planning, and fitness professionals are among the worst.
I recently finished up the book Dollars and Sense by Dan Ariely. It's a fascinating look at the relationship between people and money.
A few interesting statistics Ariely cited are as follows:
1. 46% of financial planners don't have any retirement savings.
2. 30% of Americans of working age have so little retirement savings that they’ll have to work until they’re 80 – even though life expectancy is only 78!
In short, folks aren't particularly good at looking at the long-term when it comes to saving. Fitness professionals are much more likely to make these financial blunders, in my experience, because they very rarely have employer-sponsored retirement accounts. In other industries, 401(k) matching is far more common, so employees not only have a built-in savings strategy that's facilitated by someone else's money, but also built-in accountability as they observe co-workers around them contributing to these plans.
If you're a fitness professional - or any professional, for that matter - and don't have retirement savings, start today. Skip a $3 coffee each week and put that money into savings. Small hinges swing big doors.
3. Gym culture is a moving target on multiple fronts.
When we started Cressey Sports Performance in 2007, all three co-founders (Pete Dupuis, Tony Gentilcore, and me) were closer in age to our high school athletes then we were to their parents. Now, we are all parents ourselves, and closer in age to the adults than the kids.
As a result, we’ve had to make a conscious effort with our staff to get younger to preserve the “cool“ gym culture where athletes and coaches can relate to one another. At the same time, though, it means that it changes our staff culture considerably.
Moreover, as a business grows, the sheer number of people on your staff expands - and your culture becomes even harder to define and standardize. The same goes for the client culture; when you're seeing 100 clients a day, there is a lot more variability in personalities you encounter on a daily basis than what you experienced when only 30 clients stopped in daily.
The point is that you have to stay on top of monitoring and nurturing your culture, both among your staff and clients. This is one reason why I'm working my way through Pat Rigsby's new resource, The Complete Culture Blueprint.
It's on sale for $30 off through the end of the day today, and I'd highly recommend you check it out - whether you own a facility, manage employees, or work as part of any team environment. You won't regret it - especially at an awesome introductory price of only $49.
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I hope you had a great St. Patrick's Day. I'm in the middle of a busy few weeks of on-and-off travel, so here's some recommended reading to hold you over until I've got a chance to film some new content:
Ninety Percent Mental - I just started this sports psychology book from my good friend, Bob Tewksbury. A former MLB All-Star, Bob has gone on to work as a sports psychology consultant for multiple MLB organizations and has tons of great wisdom to share. I'm excited to work my way through it.
"Cressey University" Gave Twins Inside Track on Revamped Roster - Twins beat writer Mike Berardino interviewed me last week for this feature on all the Cressey Sports Performance athletes in the Minnesota organization.
Gym Owner Musings - My business partner, Pete Dupuis, always has some great thoughts on the business side of fitness, and this is another excellent example.
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Happy Wednesday! Here are a few recommended reads to get you over Hump Day.
Get Up to Get Down: The Impact of Scapular Movement on Pitch Location - With tomorrow being the early bird registration discount deadlift on our January Elite Baseball Mentorship, I thought it'd be a good time to reincarnate this great guest post from Eric Schoenberg from the archives. You can learn more about the mentorship HERE.
9 Reasons Nutrition Can Feel So Confusing - This is a great video from Dr. John Berardi and his team at Precision Nutrition. They outline the problem, but just as importantly, get folks started on some strategies for improvement.
Gym Owner Musings - Installment 9 - My business partner, Pete Dupuis, always delivers some good thoughts in this random collection of reflections on what he's learned on the business side of fitness.
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I'm long overdue for a new installment on this series, so here are some thoughts that have been rattling around my brain on the business side of fitness.
1. Unique skill sets help you fill in the cracks.
I'm going to let you in on a little secret: most of the strength and conditioning resumes that come across my desk are painfully similar. Seriously, they are 90% the same. Here's an excerpt from a presentation I gave earlier this year when I touched on the topic:
As you can probably infer, experience like this is really abundant - and what is abundant is rarely coveted. I'm not saying any of things are bad to have on a resume; I'm just saying that they're prerequisites, not differentiating factors.
So how does an up-and-coming strength and conditioning professional stand out from the crowd? Here are a few examples:
a. Fluency in another language (Spanish is incredibly useful at CSP, where we train quite a few bilingual baseball players)
b.Technology proficiency beyond the "norms" (I can't tell you how many times long-time CSP employee Chris Howard has helped out with everything from Powerpoint issues to wiring speakers)
c. A demonstrated history of lead generation and conversion (Have you built and grown a business? Have you found value where others missed it?)
d. An internship at an established facility (I'm going to look more fondly on someone who's interned at IFAST, Mike Boyles, EXOS, or something comparable - as opposed to the person who chose a random YMCA on the other side of the country)
e. Playing AND coaching baseball (have you seen it from both sides of the lens?)
The possibilities are endless, but the point is that these unique skill sets are differentiating factors that make it easier for someone to justify hiring you.
2. Your bio is probably more important than you think.
Most of the time, when someone posts their bio on a website, it's to make sure that prospective clients review it and recognize two things:
a. This person is qualified (Allison graduated from XYZ university with ABC degree, and has achieved these certifications)
b. This person is relatable (In his spare time, Doug enjoys walking his two pet schnauzers and eating ice cream with his wife of 27 years, Peggy.)
An experience the other night reminded me that it's important to give equal attention to each.
This guy lost out on a pretty big time client because he focused too much on being relatable; almost his entire bio was targeted toward potential patients, but not other practitioners who might be looking to evaluate his clinical skill set for the purpose of referrals.
When you write your bio, make sure you include components of both - and that might mean you have to trim the fat on some of the non-essentials.
3. Slow and steady still wins the race.
Have you ever heard the story of the small company who gets a big breakthrough to get their product on the shelves of Wal-Mart or Target - and then goes out of business just months later because they didn't have the short-term cash flow to keep up with a huge surge in production demands and inventory needs? Their systems couldn't keep up with their lead generation.
Many trainers would kill to add 20 new clients, but most fail to realize that they don't have the systems in place to take on that many new people and still deliver a high quality product. This is a classic story when a fitness bootcamp runs a Groupon to bring in a surge of new prospects - only to see their long-term members get irritated at crowded classes, watered down programming, and "flightly" training partners who go from one gym to the next each month. The systems weren't ready for the surge in leads.
Last summer, my business partner, Brian Kaplan, co-founded The Collegiate League of the Palm Beaches near our Jupiter, FL Cressey Sports Performance location.
In a matter of weeks, we added over 60 new college baseball players as 3-5 days/week clients for a two-month period. It took months of planning to make sure that we were staffed accordingly, and included loads of email outreach to schedule evaluations. It even meant that there were a few cases when we had to turn away "drop-in" evaluations from college guys who hadn't scheduled in advance. I even flew down from Massachusetts for a week to help out with the initial surge.
As Aaron Ross and Jason Lemkin wrote in From Impossible to Inevitable, "Speeding up growth creates more problems than it solves." It only makes sense that this would be a huge issue in the fitness industry, where we have people who are often skilled technicians, but not very savvy entrepreneurs and managers. So, unless you have your systems fine-tuned, be careful what you wish for when it comes to expanding your offering to new markets or within the existing market.
4. Read this post from my business partner, Pete Dupuis.
This is an excellent lesson that can apply to any endeavor in business and in life.
The Value in Giving More Than You Take
If you're looking for a longer read on this front, I'd highly recommend Adam Grant's Give and Take.
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