Whether you are a fresh graduate or an aspiring professional, it’s never a bad idea to choose a prolific career as a health and fitness professional. However with multiple avenues and directions to choose from, it becomes pretty difficult, for even the most clever professionals, as to which direction to head on to. The most commonly asked questions include: Should I get certified? Should I get an apprenticeship under a trained fitness professional? Should I sign up for more courses or do something entirely different?
How Do You Stay Fresh As A Fitness Coach?
This article explores different aspects of establishing your career and progressing through the various stepping-stones that can help you with your fitness business.
Once you have set the direction of your interest or goals, be prepared to take on the onus of responsibilities to help you steer forward. Start off by creating a Buyers Persona, and a clear Marketing Plan. I f you aren’t clear on who your target market is in the beginning, you could waste a lot of time and money marketing to everyone. Pick a niche. Is it new mothers who want to lose the baby weight? Would you like to focus on professional executive men who work long hours? You can see how those 2 markets are completely different. If you will be marketing to the mothers, you would join parenting groups on FB, visit the library during Mom and baby sing along time, or perhaps bring a stack of flyers to a baby clothing store, where as if you were targeting the executives, those places wouldn’t apply. There would be hundreds if not thousands of ways to market to a particular niche and millions of places to market if you were;’t focused on a particular niche, which could be overwhelming and have less of an impact because the material you would have to produce would say different things and have different images as well. Decide, what your niche will be and exhaust every platform that niche hangs out in, then you can focus on the next niche if you want to expand. Use this FREE Buyers Persona to get very clear on who you are going to target, and let me know if you have any questions in the comments below.
Train Yourself – and then Prepare Others for the Training
As with any other profession…
It requires you to become a role model yourself, so that you can inspire your followers with your story or partner with someone who has a story.
Get the Knowledge You’ll Need
Rather than going back to school or a college and spending a couple of years in earning a degree, I would advise you to get a certification or enroll in some fitness course online where you could possibly learn more about fitness on an on-going basis. It may not seem as credible as a degree, but then, if you have the skill set to convince others with your knowledge, there’s no reason why they won’t show up.
There are multiple certifications available, based on who you ultimately want to be. Visit CPTN’s website for details.
As a secondary option, I collaborated with some of my colleagues in the industry and started working as an assistant with them. It gives you the practical exposure to help you get started and acquaints you with the dynamics of the industry.
Just Start!
I do this all the time! I have no idea what I’m doing half of the time and just go and search and learn and implement along the way. I have the philosophy that it doesn’t have to be perfect, although, that’s a hard thing for me to overcome. If you saw my earlier posts and what my blog looked like when I first started…Oh my! What a disaster! But, it doesn’t matter. I was making $100/month with my disastrous blog, just sitting there doing nothing most of the time and I posted here and there and wasn’t very serious about it. The point is, once you start gaining the momentum, invest your energy and enthusiasm into your setup. Yes, your personal setup! Though you may feel just a bit reluctant in the beginning, with a little confidence, things can turn out fine. Start with a small studio. It doesn’t matter how small it may be. As along as you are convinced that you can improve the lives of the people whom you train and impart your knowledge, it would be worth the ride. For even less of an investment up front, you could train people in their homes, parks or in local gyms.
Put A Cherry On Top
You can be sure that exercise and rigorous sessions cannot just drive people to your fitness business. You’ll need something more than that. You need a POV through which you can attract people to your business and retain the stickability for a longer period of time. Read more on THE SECRET OF HAVING A GOOD POV FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONALS here.
Nutrition can be an added bonus, and can be another aspect of attracting the clients to your business. If you can’t do that, you can save a lot of time and money on POV by partnering with someone who specializes in that. It can be a win/win because you can refer people to them and they can refer people to you. In the same way, how receptive you are to your customers can help you gain a lot of candid feedback and more money. Read more about how to generate leads here.
Keep Learning
Last, but certainly not the least: Make sure you stay updated with the latest in fitness. You can thrive with your customers if you’re innovative – and in turn, back it up with the knowledge that you have gained, so that both of you benefit from the process. People can go to a gym any time, but if you can give them creative options to keep them motivated, they’ll keep coming back to you and tell their friends.
Good luck!
In between, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me over the social sphere. Alternatively, you can subscribe to my blog in order to download a free template of Buyers Persona by filling in the form below. Don’t worry; it’s free and absolutely confidential. Plus I will give you the latest tips on how to grow your business and great, healthy recipes you could pass on to your clients to give them added value.
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