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The 5 Reasons Why You MUST Put Your Fitness Business Prices... UP!

It seems strange to me that personal trainers and fitness professionals should need an excuse to put their fees up to their clientele yet nearly every time I write an article about raising fitness business prices

Im absolutely swamped by a deluge of emails from trainers arguing against the idea. Usually there arent any real reasons for their reluctance, rather its more a case of them believing that their clients simply wont put up with higher fees.

And they may be right!

Certainly, if youve been providing a service thats only worth 40 to the clients you look after, theyre going to be reluctant to part with more cash but, if like most fitness professionals, youve been working hard at over delivering whilst at the same time helping your clients get great results, the bulk of them wont bat an eyelid.

In fact, more often than not, price resistance from existing clients is a sign that youre either not as good as you think you are at what you do or youre not selective enough about who you work with.

If either of these issues afflicts your fitness business then get to addressing them right away by sharpening your professional skills which, after all, are your bread and butter, and stop engaging in WAP marketing (I teach my mentor students that WAP marketing aims to attract anyone with a Wallet and a Pulse).

Assuming youre a great coach who is fussy about who gets to work with you then youd better get to raising those prices and soon, otherwise youll be dumped into the heap of all those personal trainers and bootcamp instructors who are deemed to be average for no other reason than that they charge average prices.

If youre still not convinced then read these 5 reason why its VITAL to you, your business AND your clients that you raise your prices and quick!

REASON #1: You Make Much More Profit In A Fraction Of The Time

One of the biggest problems most fitness professionals face is time creep; that sudden realisation that there just arent enough hours in the day to train clients, train themselves, work on their information products, update their blogs, commit to their article marketing, tweet, facebook and myspace their followers, write their e-newsletter and have any form of life outside of work.

And its a deadly catch 22 situation too, as theyre doing all this other stuff so that they can get busier and earn more, yet theyre too busy doing it all to actually earn more. Not if your prices are higher!

Do the math.

If youre 40 an hour and you want to earn 100,000 a year you need to do 48 appointments a week 52 weeks of the year. Not a great prospect is it?

I can tell you from personal experience that my year of doing 60 appts a week was the most grim time of my life and nearly drove me out of the industry altogether.

Now imagine being a 60 coach, thats just 32 appointments a week to achieve your six figures which is a lot more friendly, right?

In my own case, 150 an hour means that I only have to work 13 hours a week to achieve 6 figures from my own personal training leaving me 27 hours a week (if based on a 40 hour week) to run my mentoring programs, write my courses, create my information products and devise my grand schemes of world domination.

Now, you tell me, which sounds better?

REASON #2: You Attract Better Clients (and get rid of the worst ones)

Theres no getting away from this one, higher paying clients are better clients. Not better people, just better clients.

They follow your instructions better, value your time more and develop better relationships with you than those who pay less.

Why?

Because they respect your expertise and advice, partly because of the price tag and partly because of your belief in yourself. Theres nothing more attractive in another person than true and genuine confidence and belief and this, more than anything else, is what people are willing to pay through the nose for.

Think about it; most people lack true belief in themselves and the goals that they want to accomplish. Theyre frustrated and fearful at the thought of never getting what they want and are at a semi-permanent tipping point where theyre persuading themselves to keep going whilst at the same time ready to quit.

Then along comes you.

The expert.

The guru.

Youre the most expensive person in your area, youre more confident and clearly more knowledgeable than anyone else (at least, thats their perception) and suddenly BOOM!... all doubt, all fear, all frustration suddenly evaporates and belief once again returns.

Suddenly theyre taking positive action on a daily basis and, because of this, theyre achieving great results.

Theyre over the moon, youre over the moon and youre getting paid an amazing sum to work with them. Whats not to like?

This is no exaggeration by the way. This is EXACTLY how people go from frustrated and fearful to focused and fantastically happy and yes, price IS a major part of the equation.

REASON #3: You Can Deliver MUCH Better Service

Lets face it, struggling to pay the rent and keep your car running doesnt lend itself to delivering a top-notch service to your fitness clients does it?

Every problem, every concern and every worry you take to work with you when you strap on your Nikes and training gear is just another distraction that keeps you from giving 100% of your time, energy, focus, spirit, emotion and professionalism to your clients and leads to both a lacklustre experience and lacklustre results.

That lack of results becomes another burden to carry, as do the little snipes, jabs, barbs and, finally, outright complaints of clients who feel that theyre getting less than theyre paying for when theyre with you.

Weve all been there.

Struggling to achieve our own goals whilst at the same time playing the guru role with our clients and telling them how they should be achieving theirs yet, make no mistake about it, were not fooling anyone.

Clients know when were giving them 100% and when were not.

Its the experience they seek most when theyre moving toward their goals, not merely the result and when were struggling its the experience thats the first thing to change.

Charge more, however, and this changes. The problem goes away altogether. I mean sure, there will always be little problems that surface from time to time but the fundamental ones, the ones that worry and distract you most just dry up.

Just imagine the kind of service you could give your clients tomorrow if you woke up knowing that your mortgage and car payments were all paid for months in advance, your next 3 vacations were planned and paid for, your tax account had surplus just in case money and your credit cards were all paid off in full.

There would be nothing left to distract you from giving your all to each and every client that you work with, right? And BOY would they notice! Earn more, chill out more, deliver better service, earn more, chill out more and on, and on, and on. Sound ok to you?

REASON #4: Open More Doors For Your Fitness Business

Do you dream of getting your fitness business into the National press, on daytime TV, radio, magazines or the syndicated news? What about securing corporate contracts, sponsorships and book deals?

So do most fitness professionals!

But who is it that seems to dominate this kind of work?

Well, I can tell you who its not. Its not the bargain basement personal trainer or the Mr and Mrs average coach, thats for sure. The first thing that any of these expert seekers looks for is the cream of the industry.

The top dogs.

The upper echelons of the fitness profession.

And how do they know who these super-heroes are?

Well, theyre not looking for the most qualified, PhDed, boy-scout badged, time served personal trainers, I can tell you that for nothing.

The first thing they look for is articles and videos from a short list of experts and then they look at their sites to find out the prices they charge.

As they say, perception is everything.

These media experts judge other experts largely on what they charge for their services rather than what they truly know.

Its not fair, I know, but thats their shortcut for decision making and, most of the time, theyre happy with what they get.

Needless to say, the fitness experts that are chosen are happy too. I know I am!

Having done numerous TV shows, over 70 radio interviews and being quoted in numerous magazines and newspapers around the world, I can tell you that it really DOES help your business but you knew that! : )

In fact, each time Ive gained press for myself, my business has grown as a direct result, making me and my coaches more money than we could have ever gotten through traditional advertising. Want to get the press on your side?

Charge more!

REASON #5: You OWN Your Niche

Theres only one highest paid personal trainer in the UK.

Im it.

Because Im it, I attract those whore looking for the Rolls Royce and I do my damnedest to make sure that thats exactly what I deliver them time and time again.

I read more, study more and spend more on my education than any other personal trainer or coach I know and, because I do, I know more about delivering Rolls Royce level service than anyone I know.

See how it works?

See how charging more, delivering more and studying more makes it possible for you to own the niche that youre working in?

It becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. Then again, so does failure and struggle too!

Charge average prices, generate an average income and youll find you can only afford an average education meaning that youll deliver an average service that will (you guessed it) mean that you can only charge average prices, generate and average you get the picture.

Raise your prices and the struggle ends and the real fun begins.

Especially when the phones ring off the hook with people desperate to work with you!

It should be obvious by now that raising your prices is a no brainer in terms of improving both the quality of the service you give your clients and the quality of life you can gain for yourself at the same time.

If youre a great coach on the way to mastery it not only makes a great deal of sense to charge what youre worth, but its an actual disservice not to. After all, theres only so much space at the bottom of the market, right?

You should be giving up that space to the newly qualified apprentice fitness professionals just entering the industry and giving them a chance to cut their teeth and hone their skills on the easier end of the market whilst you take your more advanced skills to those who most want and need them.

The apprentice doesnt know how to serve these people and these people, in turn, dont want or need the services of an apprentice. They want and need a master and theyre prepared to pay handsomely for the privilege.

The only question now then, is are YOU ready to step up and take up the mantle?

If you are, prove it by putting your prices up. If not, then get to becoming the master you should be.

Stop hanging around.

Theres too much good stuff to be, do and have for you to waste a minute more.

How can I ask this guy to semi?

He's so confusing! He's one of the popular guys who EVERYONE knows. He's very outgoing and talks to anyone...even people he's never met before. He comes up to me and says stuff like "You're such a good dancer! You remind me of so and so" ...stuff like that. He does the most random stuff too. Like yesterday and was behind me and I didn't know it so he starts to rub my back. Another day he grabs me purse and says "Chains? That's pretty cool." (because my purse had chains on it)
I'm not the popular type kid at all. I'm not the one to make the first move or even have the guts to ask him to semi.
Bottom line...how can I give him a hint that I want him to be my date?

casually ask him if he is thinking about going to semis first, he might not even want to go. then ask him if he has a date, if he says no ask him to go with you a few days later.

Cher Lloyd sings Everytime for survival - The X Factor Live Semi-Final Results (Full Version)