As I was renewing my annual Personal Training license the other day the thought occurred to me that I’ve been working in the health and fitness industry for over a decade now. During this time I’ve learned many lessons and have made many mistakes. I remember when I first got started I had no idea as to what I was doing. I mean, I knew how to train myself, but I had no clue as to how to train other people. To make matters even more difficult I chose to begin my career in fitness as an Independent Trainer which essentially meant I was responsible for building up my own clientele base without the help of a big corporate gym or private health club. At first, the thought of how I was going to establish myself and create a solid reputation within this industry was a bit overwhelming. And I would be lying if I said there were many times that I considered giving up and going back to school to learn another profession. However like most entrepreneurs I was young and ambitious and was willing to do whatever it took to grow my business and succeed.
Fast forward ten years later and I’m a little bit older, a tad bit more tired however I’m just as ambitious about continuing to grow my business and helping people become more fit and active in the process as I was from Day 1. I’ve seen many trainers come and go during my training lifespan. Believe it or not this is a tough industry. With so much competition it can be quite difficult to become successful as a personal training company unless you’ve created a reputable name or have developed some kind of niche that separates you from the rest of the pack. And I believe as our company continues to move towards the future that we are slowly starting to establish both.
No Such Thing As Too Busy? Think Again…..
When I first became licensed and found a gym that I could sublease space from I was hungry for clients. I networked my ass off and was fortunate enough to gain a few people from that alone. From there, the ball started rolling as my clients started to refer their own friends and family to me as well. Soon enough I was working 12-14 hours a day on the gym floor. I was busy, I was making money and I was loving it. However the busier I became the less time I had available to train myself and to allow new clients the chance to work with me as well. At one point I was working 7 days a week and 12 hours a day! I was starting to feel drained and burnt out and because of this I found that my service started to suffer. I was not pushing clients as hard during their workouts as I was too tired to even do my own. I always dreamed about being the busiest trainer in the gym but this was insane! I had to do something and had to do something fast or I was going to start losing my clients due to the lack of quality service I was starting to provide them with.
Everyone Deserves The Best Service!
Let’s be honest, Personal Training can be quiet expensive. Sure there are trainers out there who advertise their services on Craiglist for $25/session at their own “home gym” to save on overhead costs or offer discounted training packages along with cheesy marketing gimmicks to go along with their pitches but I truly believe when it comes to paying for a service, you usually get what you pay for. When I hire someone to do a service for me, I want the best of the best and I’m willing to pay for it. I look for credentials, I look for testimonials and I look for someone who looks and acts as a professional. But here’s the thing, I’m not a millionaire and as much as I would like to work with the best, if it’s not in my budget I most likely won’t be able to afford it. Therefore the thought of increasing our own rates for private training sessions (which are already priced quite high) does not seem fair or the right thing to do to our own clients, especially for the ones who have been loyal and supportive to us since Forever Fit first got started years ago.
Finding Our Niche
So my objective here was to find a solution so that everyone who wanted to work with me could continue to do so without having to break the bank or pay for a devalued service from a burnt out trainer. This is when I came up with concept of small group training. Now obviously group training is not something that’s new in the fitness industry. Gyms and trainers alike have been offering classes such as “Boot Camps” for over the past three decades. But I’ve got to tell you something – I HATE the term “Boot Camp” and in my personal opinion I think most group classes that I see being taught are terrible. To me when I watch a group class in session I usually see one trainer surrounded by 10-20 participants most of whom are using improper form and therefore are at risk of injuring themselves. Again, this may be a more cost-effective solution for most people however if the service is grossly devalued is the lesser rate really worth it? I don’t think it is and that’s why I created our own small group customized training sessions.
Setting Ourselves Apart From Everyone Else
Now I’m not going to sit hear and try to promote and pump up our small group classes to you. If you are interested in learning more about our classes you can always visit our small group class section on our website for full details. I would rather explain to you why I believe are group classes work and why they have become so popular. As mentioned above, we offer customized small group training sessions. This means that we customized our sessions to meet the training goals of a specific group of people. We take into consideration each person’s training limitations as well as their training level. We are able to do this as we only permit a maximum of 8 people per class. This also allows us to give more one on one instruction to each participant and provide alternative exercises when needed to certain individuals. For this reason our classes have become extremely popular over the past few years and continue to grow.
So are small group classes the way of the future within the fitness industry? Well they’re pretty much already here and seem to be continuing to gain more and more popularity so I’m going to say yes, they most likely are. But let me just offer one piece of advice if you are considering joining a group class. Just because you are paying a lower rate does not mean that you should receive any less of a service and just because you are in a group does not mean that you should be give second class treatment.
Exercising should be fun, effective and challenging. When you hire the help of a fitness professional you should expect them to help you get results. If you’re not getting results and find that you are receiving a lack of service from your trainer or group instructor it’s time to leave and find either someone else or a company that is willing to listen to YOUR goals and YOUR expectations so that you can continue to achieve results by learning how to train properly and effectively in a professional and safe atmosphere.
Yours in Good Health,
Nick Cosgrove