Personal Trainer Business Strategies During a Recession
By now, we’ve been shoulder-deep in recession (and snow, for a good chunk of the United States) for way too long. It feels like forever, and it’s getting old.
Even though you know it’s good exercise, you’re still thinking that if you have to get that shovel out one more time, you’re going to break it in half across your knee and jam the splinters into the snowman in your neighbor’s yard.
And you’re thinking that if one more client stiffs you out of his or her bill, you’re going to break that client across your knee and jam the splinters into one of those coin-counters at the grocery store.
Sob Stories
You hear sob story after sob story about why clients can’t pay, why they just need you to be patient one more month, or they promise to come back to you when they can afford it. So you continue to close accounts, even though you know they really want your help and most of them would probably pay if they could.
Meanwhile, other potential clients would really love your services but they never walk through your door in the first place, because hiring a personal trainer is just too expensive. The sad truth is that you’ve got bills to pay, too, and you need all the clients you can get.
Admittedly, paying clients are the best kind. Therefore, you need all the “paying” clients you can get.
Innovative Approaches to an Age-Old Problem
Clients stiffing small businesses on their bills are not some wave-of-the-future product of today’s recession. Clients have been stiffing small businesses since small business was invented.
Unfortunately, you can’t hang them by their thumbs like you used to be able to do in the good old days. Nowadays, you have to pay fees to collection agencies to get you a fraction of your money, or worst case, write off the loss on your tax return.
But what if you could reduce the number of unpaid invoices in your accounts receivable spreadsheet, while still generating income from clients with lower incomes? Maybe it’s time to revamp your strategy and target those clients who would buy your services if they could, but don’t because they know they can’t afford it? Maybe you can offer services that they can afford.
They good news is, they’re likely the “paying” kind of client, which is why they’re not your client right now. They don’t enlist your services because they know they can’t pay. At least not for the expensive services you’re offering right now.
Marketing to Lower-Income Clients and Padding Your Bottom Line
So what services can you offer to clients with lower incomes? Well, consider sharing the wealth.
Your personal training business portfolio could include group training, in which you offer guidance and advice in the same thirty, forty-five, or sixty minute session that you currently provide to individuals.
If you establish groups of three or four, clients will be much more likely able to afford your instruction. Not only that, you could conceivably charge a little more overall for that same session than you charge for an individual, which pads your bottom line.
Similarly, fitness boot camps and regular weekly classes cost less per head, and you can earn more overall. Not only that, if one or two of your fitness boot camp or workout class clients fails to show or pay, you have more flexibility to absorb the loss.
You can still use the same fitness business marketing strategies that you’ve always used, highlighting the benefits of fitness. You’ll attract customers who would love to meet their fitness goals, but can’t afford to do it in private sessions with a trainer. As long as they’re paying customers, you meet your goals, too.
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