Most personal trainers seem to struggle with letting go of tasks that they really have no expertise in and have absolutely no right getting their heads in to, wasting an inordinate amount of time struggling where they could be spending their time doing something WAY more productive.

What tasks am I on about?

• Websites
• Graphic design
• Accounting
• Managing emails
• SEO related tasks

…and many other less important tasks, that are ESSENTIAL to your business success, but should not be performed by you.

Every day I see posts in forums and groups on Facebook with Fitness Professionals doing most of these tasks, struggling, wasting crazy amounts of time getting nowhere.

You are an ELITE personal trainer, that is why you sit and read my BLOG posts, however you are NOT:

• an elite graphic designer
• an elite website developer
• an SEO expert
• an admin assistant
• an accountant

So why get your head in to these tasks? Here is what I believe you should be doing:

1. marketing your services as a fitness professional
2. being a fitness professional
3. or educating yourself to be a better fitness professional! (skills and business education)

But hiring other experts is expensive?

Some EXPERTS are a big investment? The keyword there is INVESTMENT! Nothing is an expense if they save you time, allowing you to do the work you are supposed to do more of the time! Hiring other people to do the work they are really good at takes the pressure off you to try to be an expert in.

My Go To Resources For Outsourcing Work.

Fiverr.com – this has got to be the biggest revolution in outsourcing and a perfect way to get started. Micro-sourcing tasks through Fiverr has been my go to place when I need some little jobs done, such as logo design, headers for websites, short articles, wordpress installations, website fixes and SEO work!

In fact my current graphic designer is someone I discovered on Fiverr. Rachel was charging $5 for website headers which were better than headers I paid 30 times that amount for! She now has a website called HeaderValley and can be hired to create headers for $45 (still an absolute bargain)… If you use her services, be sure to say I sent you

For bigger tasks such as full on web development, use Odesk.com

They have a great system for tracking work being done and also a great way to hire virtual assistants. I’ve hired SEO admin staff for as little as $2 an hour and had books converted to Kindle format for less than $50.

If you are looking for writers, go to Guru.com and you’ll find people to prepare your cookbooks, ghost write your book, or create unique articles for your BLOG… On there you’ll find experts on pretty much any subject.

My final suggestion is for accounting and legal stuff. This is serious stuff that requires experts… every penny I’ve spent on these services has been worthwhile, because it is something I feel no fitness professional should be doing.

Whilst you DO need to know your numbers, accountants and lawyers know what to do to keep you on the right side of the law and the inland revenue/IRS etc etc

If you are in the UK, accountant Jamie Crampton, is someone I’ve heard great things of, and someone who has experience handling fitness professionals figures

Why should I hire YOU over all the other trainers in your area?

What makes YOU so special?

What makes YOUR offer so compelling and desirable that I simply have no choice to hire you as my trainer?

This January I’ve seen so many “me-too” marketing messages, it is no wonder there are a lot of trainers struggling to fill their classes and PT schedules?

So here is something to help you out a little.

1. Create Something Unique

Stop being a Personal Training copycat

I’ve made a career out of doing things the opposite to the way everyone else in my area, and seen that looking to what the majority are doing and doing the complete opposite is usually the path to success. Sure enough you’ve gotta follow a few undeniable fundamentals of running a business or training folk… but running exactly the same classes as the guys down the road just leads to your clients choosing the cheapest one, stop copying!

2. Get Proof

Some of your competitors will have testimonials(I called them success stories on my websites), most testimonials all look the same… The way to stand out, is have have a screenshot of the facebook message or a screenshot of your mobile phone text message.

3. Be The Most Expensive

Create a service that is the highest price in your area. Package up your very best stuff, call it your “Platinum Coaching Plan”, look at the highest price of your competitors and multiply it by 150% It does matter if you never sell one, it will change your clients mindset of who you are and what you do.

I actually found that people still bought my highest priced program, and I created a sold out PT business based on it!

4. Offer a FULL Money Back Guarantee

This is tough for many coaches to do as they don’t have faith in their programs. If you don’t get results with your clients now, what do you need to do to get your clients the results they pay you for! Offering a guarantee is something most trainers don’t have. For that reason have one and get great results

5. Specialize

Don’t be a fat loss expert, they are everywhere! Become the “coach for 30 something females wanting their 20 something body back”, Be the kids obesity guru, Be the Pilates for CEO’s coach.

6. Be An Author/Blogger

Write, write and write some more. Fit Pro’s are rubbish at writing, those that BLOG, write articles, get quoted in the news, author or co-author a book gain huge credibility with people that find you.

7. Stop Being So Insular

We spend so much time looking at each other in our industry… we forget that their are many other methods for promoting or running our businesses that could be applied to your business. Some of my best ideas have come from OUTSIDE the industry, where I have adapted the concept to fit my business.

For example, my private PT Studio was based upon a Chiropractors office that made me feel extremely comfortable spending time in. It was like being treated in my front room, with privacy and comfort.

Stop being vanilla

It’s too easy to see what everyone else is doing and thinking that is the way to do stuff, being vanilla, boring, the same as everyone else leads to you not standing out, fighting over the same group of clients!