Mar 7, 2018
A certified personal trainer since 1997, and a Licensed
Kinesitherapist since 2002, Craig started his career in the fitness
industry after being mesmerised watching his own ACL surgery. He
started seeing clients in small gyms and private studios before
embarking on his own to run a successful in-home training business
that would eventually offer in-home High Intensity Training. He
finally opened his first studio in a 600 sq/ft office space in
2011, and now operates in his own 1400 sq/ft space in Quebec,
Canada - Book Here
Email Craig - craig@gethit [dot] ca
This episode is a master class on how to start, deliver
and grow a mobile in-home HIT business. A mobile HIT
business can be a cost effective (low entry) and high-profit
business. On it's own or with online coaching (distance training)
it can become a great way to make a living and help people doing
something you love. Also, if desired, it can become a great
stepping stone to starting a strength training facility further
down the line.
In this episode, we cover:
- How to get started from scratch with no qualifications or
personal training experience
- How to deliver and instruct an in-home HIT workout
step-by-step
- The importance of centralising and finding a high-profit
area
- Finding the right clientele
- How to market
- How to figure out pricing
- Scaling and online coaching
- How to transition to opening a HIT facility
- ... and much more
Below is a blog post from Craig on how to start a mobile in-home
HIT business. The blog post is very entertaining and useful. I've
added my own notes with "[LN: ....]"
Enter Craig Hubert
The fitness industry is an interesting place, kind of one big
contradiction. On one end, it represents the picture of what we all
strive to be, vibrant, active, strong, agile, sporting a lean
physique, with perfect blood markers from cholesterol to sugars.
Yet on the other end, the industry is littered with bad
information, dangerous training techniques, questionable diets, and
looks more like one large, incredibly bad, infomercial.
Below are my suggestions to get you started in the industry, as
well as how to go about starting your own in-home HIT centered
training business.
Getting Started
Most people getting involved in personal training think they’ll
be doing 40+ sessions per week making $100/ session. The reality
is, for most, getting to a solid income takes work - if you want
the gold, ya gotta dig.
-
Get certified. This is a no brainer. As most people will start
in a big box gym, a certification is required. ACSM, NSCA, ACE are
the more well known, but if HIT is your goal, HITUNI is a solid
program - Use CW10 to get 10% off -
LINK
- Immerse yourself! Read everything, In HIT, this includes the
Nautilus bulletins, books by McGuff, Little, Darden, Westcott, to
name a few. Read books from authors outside HIT, Poliquin, Pavel,
Dan John for example. And attend seminars - lots of ‘em. The good
ones will teach you things no university can. I heard there’s a
pretty good one each year in Minnesota ... [LN: Craig is referring
to the Resistance Exercise Conference, use CorporateWarrior10 to
get 10% off - LINK ]
- You need to work with people, so to Globo Gym you go! The
benefit to working in a large gym is not the pay, it generally
sucks, but you get to work with a ton of people, with different
shapes and sizes, interests and abilities. This is where you learn
the craft. You’ll also be highly entertained by dumb shit.... Oh
yes, stupidity is rampant in the big box gyms.
- Find a mentor. This is key IMO, find that person doing what you
want to do and reach out - everybody is different, so do your
homework and approach them in a courteous, respectful manner.
In-Home Training
A HIT centered In-home business fit together like OJ’s glove
(wait, no... they actually fit... ) so maybe more like Taylor Swift
and Kanye West (wait...nope) any ways, it works. [LN: I'm British
and don't understand this reference ... ]
- Define your market. Who will be your primary client? Seniors,
Executives, Housewives? (it doesn’t mean you can’t train all walks
of life, but in my experience, referrals are key, and like refer
like). Once defined then...
- Tailor your message - HIT has plenty of benefits, but not
everybody cares about the same things. A retired senior might not
care that a sessions is 20-30 minutes, as time may not be an issue.
However the emphasis on safety may resonate to there failing ears
(me being funny, not offensive).
- Pick your area to work based on your target market, and do not
leave it. In-home training does not work well if you’re spending
all of your time driving out of your way from one client to the
next.
- Schedule for traffic and road condition issues. Have to cross
train tracks to get to aclient? Leave yourself some extra time to
accommodate a possible wait for passing trains. Nothing will stress
you out more than falling behind early in your day, causing you to
be late for most clients.
- Add about 15-20% over the standard price for a training session
in a gym. This is a soft number, as your experience as well as your
model will influence your price points.
Other Considerations
- Get your house in order first - Try to start debt free, there
is nothing worse than making business decisions based on short term
personal financial needs that will negatively impact the long term
vision of your business. This can be as simple as setting your
pricing too low to make the quick buck now, but makes raising your
rates much harder in the future (people get very accustomed to a
low price, and tend to be very resistant to increases.)
- Bootstrap - It’s easy to think that borrowing money will help
you out, but please try to avoid both banks and private lenders. I
know lots of people borrow successfully, I just feel that when it’s
all on you, you’ll think smarter, and be way more creative. It’s
easy to throw money at problems, being creative to find work
arounds is what creates lasting businesses. [LN: this is huge and
important to underscore. Low budgets force you to do the hard
thinking and pick the RIGHT things to do with the highest
impact].
- Keep distractions to a minimum - It is way easier to think big,
doing the things necessary to grow a large business (if that’s the
goal) when you don’t have a family or a serious relationship that
can potentially draw your attention away from the big picture -
it’s a harsh statement, but something I’ve experienced first hand.
My decisions don’t just affect me, they can have lasting
consequences on my family, as such, I second guess more, and
riskier plays that had large potential upsides tend to get shelved.
I’m not saying that it can’t be done, just that the emotional
strain is much harder.
In-Home Training can be very lucrative, at $50/ 30 minute
session price tag, doing a reasonable 40 sessions per week (amounts
to 20 hours of actual work) brings in $2000/week. Which is good
money in many areas of the world. Keeping in mind that your price
reflects the market you’re in - NYC would most likely be closer to
$100 or more per session.
Treat you In-Home business like you would any other, with
professionalism and integrity, and the sky's the limit.
This episode is brought to you by Hituni.com, providers of the best
online courses in high intensity training that come highly
recommended by Dr. Doug McGuff, Dr James Fisher and Luke Carlson.
Course contributors include world-class exercise experts like Drew
Baye, Ellington Darden and Skyler Tanner. If you want
to become an excellent HIT Personal Trainer, create a
great team of trainers or build a successful fitness business, I
highly recommend you use CW10 to get 10%
off a PT Course – HERE
This episode is also brought to you by Health
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FREE HIT workout progress sheet and 20 podcast
transcripts with guests like Dr. Doug McGuff, Drew Baye, and Bill
DeSimone – Click
Here
For all of the show notes, links and resources
-
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