How To Grow A Great Fitness Business... Even In A Recession!

Despite what you may be experiencing, thinking or feeling about the current recession, there are still huge profits to made working in personal training and fitness. In fact, you could say that there has never been a better time for the industry than right now, after all, whilst many other 'luxuries' like buying cars, taking vacations and even dining out may be on pause right now, people don't simply quit their fitness, nutrition and rehab programs solely because of money.


How people feel about their bodies will never change, recession or not.


They will ALWAYS want to look, feel and perform better than they currently do and, whilst they may temporarily 'downgrade' a personal training package to a bootcamp or bootcamp to a gym membership to allow it to fit into their new budget, it's very rare that a person will quit their health and fitness goals entirely because money is tight.


(They'll quit for a thousand other reasons if they're not committed to their goals, but that's a different article!).


Most personal trainers and bootcamp instructors don't get this at all. The typical reaction amongst the vast majority of them is to batten down the hatches, reduce their outgoings by saving money on their marketing and hope that they can weather the economic storm well enough to start attracting clients 'once things settle down'.


The trouble is, this is 180 degrees in opposition to what they really should be doing... Marketing harder than ever!


You see, rather than the recession being a bad thing, you need to realise that it is, in fact, a brilliant opportunity for you and your business.

Think about it; because most of the business competitors in your market are reducing their marketing budggets, putting their client attraction strategies on the go-slow and waiting for the recession to burn itself out, they are decreasing rather than increasing their own visibility. In effect, they're creating a vaccum in the fitness market.


Where the public used to have 50 trainers, studios and gyms to choose from, they now have only 10 or so. Where there used to be bundles of ads, flyers and direct mail pieces vying for their attention, now there are far, far fewer messages reaching them, meaning that each one can be heard more clearly and have much greater impact.


Most fitness professionals don't get this, though those who have ventured byond the 'personal trainer' label and have developed a more entrepreneurial mindset certainly do... and they take advantage of it, enjoying the less competitive playing field while it lasts.

The trouble is, most of those who work in fitness and health lack the entrepreneurial drive necessary to succeed when times get tough. They can't see past the fact that their role is more than just writing exercise programs, spotting on exercise routines or writing nutritional programs. It's about leadership.


Leadership is about using your passion and purpose in a focused, clear and results-oriented way that inspires others to follow and take positive action themselves. Rolling over and playing dead during times of struggle or adversity is not leadership in any way, shape or form. It doesn't teach your clients to stick with their goals when things get tough for them does it? In fact, it sets an example that when things get tough with their programs, their diets, their lifestyles that they too should quit and try again 'when the time is right'.

Is that what you want to teach your clients?

Thought not!


So instead of getting caught up in the 'woe is me' recession-based conversations that are going around at the moment, take a 180 and focus on the opportunities that currently lie before you because there really are many, many of them... if you'll only open your eyes to them.

Forget reducing your marketing commitments right now, instead, ramp them up. Do more. Become more visible now than you ever have before. Get creative and most of all, have fun with it.


The truth is, no matter what you've been told about becoming successful, no matter how many self-help books you've read, no matter how many motivational seminars you've attended and tapes you've listened to, there really is only one way to become unstoppable in your quest for fitness business success.


Refuse to stop.


Now is the time to hit the gas, not the brakes.


Floor it!

Dax Moy

For more help in writing ads that will attract a screaming horde of new clients to your business, get yourself a copy of Scientific Advertising For The Fitness Professional and use the 21 Strategies to create magnetic ads that will get your phones ringing off the hook!