How to make money in fitness

This is a write up from all I could find on the internet on the topic on how to make money in fitness. You will find links in the text for a deep dive. Please comment if you have anything to contribute to help others succeed. Looking forward to the discussions.

Marketing in fitness

Not everybody who starts in fitness has been in a marketing career before. If you want to make it as a self-employed person or want your supplements business to take off sales and marketing are essential. No hustle no money. If you struggle with the business aspect of your dream here are some tips.

Build your own brand

Believe that you can change people's live for the better with your services and products. Centre your message around making them less stressed, more healthy, happier and a better role model in their community, for their spouses and children if you want to make a difference.

To achieve this you can not be everything to everyone. Find the people who can identify with you and your story and help them to make a change. This is your niche. Put proper planning into which market you want to go for and why as you will probably be stuck without for quite some time. Build a buyer persona and analyse your personal strength and weaknesses. Self-awareness and awareness of your surroundings are key to long lasting success which survives trends and fads.

I picked dads and stepdads as I personally think that exercise can give them more control over their lives and there are not many specific offers out there for them. You can read more about this on the marathon-crossfit about us page.

Start a website, social media channels and provide added value. Look for content that has not been made yet and people are interested in. I started to meticulously track my own progress on programs like beyond the whiteboard, with the push band and my own Jim Wendler Calculator and turned these into magnets for visits and leads. Pay attention to the quality of the things you produce as they are an extension of yourself.

If you do it only for the money you will not last long. Some people are active in the industry for more than ten years in jobs which are not paid that well-writing programs for free until they make it.

Start writing

Writing a blog is good long term marketing and will help you to grow and learn on the communications piece. Somebody who builds a business in fitness is not only strong in lifting, running and thinking, they are also able to explain complex matters in laymen terms. A blog will help you to reflect on what you learn, share it with others and get feedback.

If you are really good you will also get writing and opportunities and affiliate marketing revenue from the material you create. Blog posts can be recycled into ebooks and ultimately turn into books. It will be hard at first, but I now produce about two blog posts a week and my traffic is steadily increasing without paying for any advertisement.

Get good

Challenge yourself to learn new things and look into opportunities. If you are in the strength camp what could yoga, meditation and natural alternatives to supplements do for you? If you are a runner, how can a program like Stronglifts 5x5 help you to stay injury free? Only trial and error will really enable you to find the best tools and tricks of the trait for your clients to achieve their goals. This goes through all disciplines.

Get connected

You can not be an expert in everything, therefore, connect yourself with others who can do a deep dive for you on a certain topic. If you spend your most time in the gym pushing a barbell you can not be an expert and playbooks for football and soccer even though that might be relevant for your clients to succeed. Help the coach with your strength knowledge to make his team bulletproof while you get tips before the next talk in front of a crowd of college football experts to show that you know about hail mary's and blitz plays.

Pay attention to design

Once you have the content and the knowledge, try to make it as easy to digest as possible. Deliver your message in video, sound, writing, infographics, landing pages, YouTube videos, whatever format is best to reach your audience. It can be as simple as making a lot of videos on a lot of different topics. I sometimes record seven videos a day and it helps me to articulate and improve. The comments I get on the social media channels can be recycled into even more content. Once you also start paying attention to the quality of the design of what you produce your conversion rates will go through the roof.

Value respect over Profit

The business concept behind this is customer lifetime value. If you go out and sell a lot of crappy programs which overpromise and under deliver you will make some money for a short amount of time until the hype is over. You will have to constantly acquire new clients who do not know that your services stink and continuously be chasing your tail. If you want to build premium services with clients who are wealthy and respect you for your knowledge and not your low price tag you have to earn their respect. Walk the talk, test, learn and inform continuously. Think about how you can win them for life, not just for a discounted supplement box for ten bucks. A good indicator of whether you are creating something of value is how often you are shared and quoted.

Avoid shit storms

While you can get a lot of traction quick by provoking the right people this will only attract the wrong kind of people to your brand. If you gain notoriety for being negative this will be reflected in your client base. Pessimist and cynical people will have a tendency to second guess your offers and will always make your life harder when you sell to them. Be positive and attract professionals who do not have time for negativity. This crowd also tends to have the deeper pockets.

Tread people individually

When you get individual questions, answer them individually. Once you get questions more commonly aggregate them to a blog post or a video to cover more ground in less time. Someone with a question is usually someone who is interested in your brand and likely to become a client soon. Take this opportunity and do not waste by reaching out to get their followers and then never react to them again.

Help others

Once you made it it is also time to give back in Arnold Schwarzenegger's words. This can be done in the following ways for others

Give them constructive criticism on their writing, videos, or website.
Help set them up with editors of fitness websites.
Help them get guest posts on blogs of people in the industry.
Share their stuff around to help them get exposure.
Don’t rise up and then try to keep others from doing the same to stifle competition.

This is all about karma, The more you give, the more you will receive in the end.

Sales in the fitness industry

Selling is an acquired skill as is marketing. Here are some tips which help you to sell more easily.

Always sell to an active buyer

Find people who have a need for your services and products and are actively inquiring for help. This is a lot easier than trying to preach to the choir. Spend your time researching who is most likely to need you. Ask directly whether you can help or whether your services are not wanted. This will convey professionalism and respect of the time of your potential clients. If there is no interest always ask for a referral to someone they might know who would like to get more lean or fitter.

Referral sales

A job well done is a job well done. There is no shame in asking for a reference or someone in your client's network who would also benefit from you when you exceeded all expectations. Ask and you shall receive.

Underpromise, Overdeliver

This is a classic sales technique. The client will always be most happy with what they did not expect as a bonus. Structure your offers in a way that they get a nice unexpected surprise with their purchase which is relevant to them. There is no harm in throwing in an extra meal plan or 30-day challenge for free.

Retaining clients

You will keep the clients who will see results. Therefore be careful what kind of expectations you set. Work on changing habits first. Changes in diet and behaviour have usually a bigger impact on long-term results than the workouts themselves. Aim to build a better, more resilient mind first and the body on top of that for long term success. Help your clients to build long term commitment to change and show them that you are the facilitator who helps them to change to reach their goals. This means to be their mentor which needs you to understand motivation and psychology.

Passive income

Use the digital age to establish different sources of income which are outlined in more detail later in this post. Avoid to put all your eggs in one basket and built a portfolio which leads your clients from low-value purchases up to the highest items regarding personal training. The more of your own time you have to invest in one person the higher the price tag should become. Text and videos should be automated and templated to the highest degree to cover the most ground in the least amount of time. Tools like Aweber, Hootsuite, Hubspot and MailChimp can help you to achieve this.

Personal training

Personal training is one of the options to make money in the fitness industry. Clients for personal training will usually be derived from the people you train in the gym that you are employed in if you have not build your own brand already. Be sure to check whether your contract allows doing something on the side with these clients as it would be a little counter-productive to lose your steady income from the full-time employment before you build a book of business that is big enough to sustain yourself.

These clients can also be derived from your website or other online activities based on what you are offering and talking about. When you do personal training think about how much you want to earn an hour, who your clients are and how much they are able to pay you for your time. Personal training is one of the most time-intensive ways of working in the industry as you fully focus on one person only. Always think about what else you could be doing in that time if you are self-employed. Charging 10$ an hour for personal training might not be the smartest way to make a living in the fitness industry.

Consider how much time you need to meet the person, how reliable they are, whether they actually listen to your advice or fight you. All these things are important to keep you going and keep a positive mental attitude. If you only have clients which pay you measly and drain you mentally you might be better off without them all together to focus the free time on getting better quality clients or building your own brand.

It will be way easier for you to find clients if you specialise for their needs. Look into additional courses which build skills in training the elderly, disabled or high-performance athletes. These individuals usually have extra funds available through the government, their insurance or sports club to pay a premium for your services. The more qualified you are, the more likely you are to get on the shortlist for these people to be considered.

Group coaching

Group coaching comes in many forms. Some of the options are:

CrossFit
Zumba
Aquarobics
Pilates
Yoga
Spinning
PX90

Just to name a few. Key is here to differentiate yourself from the crowd by the equipment you use, the location your training takes place or by the people you let into the group )women only, 50+, overweight etc). When you are already counting the cash do no get ahead of yourself. Usually, the rates drop considerably from personal training to group training as it is less exclusive. You can not simply multiply the amount of money you would get from personal training by the numbers of attendees in your group coaching session.

When you consider group coaching pay some attention to the format you want to deliver it in. Will you be the wise old coach who gives people instructions while he carefully observes his disciples or the grunting screaming drill instructor who stands in front of the crowd in a "follow the leader" type of training approach?

It can still be a great way of keeping a loyal customer base out of which you can recruit for personal training or market other products, programs and plans to you have come up with.

Self employed

Whenever I find someone who is doing well for themselves in the fitness industry they are usually self-employed. Examples are Charles Poliquin, Eric Cressey, Mark Bell or John Goodman. This is due to the fact that they can set their own prices and do not how to give away a cut from the sales that they make.

Being self-employed also comes with the risk of having to bite the bullet when there is not enough business to pay the bills. When you are employed in a chain of gyms like McFit, Golds gym or crunch your paycheck paid from the accounts which balance out in the big picture.

When you are self-employed and the vacation period knock on your doorstep you can be in for serious trouble if you have not planned ahead. To get started you can either build your own gym and buy equipment for it or rent yourself into an already existing place. Busy times are in the morning from 5 am to 7 am, at lunchtime and in the evenings between 4-7 pm.

Employed

There are two ways of being employed in a gym. One os to get your certification and apply for one of the many jobs out there to help out in one of your local facilities. These jobs are a good foot in the door to get experience, but not necessarily the exciting the job you wished for when you made your hobby into your dream job. Especially if you are a very independent person this might not be for you as prices and packages are set and you have to deliver what someone else created.

Another option is to go and get an internship at one of the known establishments to get a head start like

Cressey Sports Performance,

Mike Boyle’s,

EXOS,

Results Fitness

here it is more likely that you get access and learn the tool of the trait to become independent and make some serious cash while also building your own gig. The drawback here that the career paths are not as clear and competition to get into this internships is high. In addition, you are also likely to work for free and get some jobs on the side to stay afloat.

Affiliate marketing

If you are able to build your own brand and get a strong followership on social media you can sell your reach to the highest bidder and work with affiliate programs. For this to work you will get in touch with the brands you want to exchange money with. They will give you links or free product in exchange for you talking positive about them and getting your followers to buy.

Usually, you get a cut of 10% to 20% of what is being sold or you are being paid per visit/click that comes from your channels to them. Especially if you do not want to train anybody and just want to make money by being fit this is a lucrative option you can travel down. Be aware that these transactions usually operate in the cent to dollar bracket. You need a lot of traction for your brand to quit your day job and live from affiliate income. You also have to do a lot of click-baiting to earn 200€ an hour like you possibly could with personal training, if you find the right clientele.

Supplements

Another option for making money online in fitness is to sell supplements: Depending on where you want to sell the process can be quite cumbersome as you have to abide by the regulations of the market that you are selling into. When you sell supplement you enter the realm of the food industry. In this modern world, you can find everything you need from home. Find a niche for your supplements that work for you and a manufacturer or wholesale supplier which provides drop shipping.

Examples of private people who started their own supplement lines after building a social media followership are Layne Norton from Biolayne and Big J from Extreme Fitness. Once this takes off it is highly scalable and profitable as the powders a require cheap to buy and sell well with the right marketing.

Apparel

Apparel is another way of making money in the fitness industry. You can sell:

Hats
Caps
T-Shirts
Shorts
Lifting belts
Knee wraps
Wrist wraps
Bandages
Shoes
Underwear
Drinking bottles
Special equipment
Barbells

There as many options as you can imagine. Some examples are the shop of Calgary barbell or the Campbell Fitness t-shirts from Zoutuber Brandon Campbell Diamond. See the video below to get an idea:

Apparel is good as you are enlarging the footprint of your brand by people running around with your logo on their backs and chests and having even pay you for it. As with most other elements of putting your name on something to sell it, your brand most is worth somethings and liked by people before you can do this successfully.

Ebooks

E-books are a great way to enter the market as they are relatively easy to produce and market and can be sold via Amazon. As long as you bridge a knowledge gap which somebody is willing to pay for you will get yourself a customer. I personally find that ebooks which order the already freely available information on the internet for me are very good. Other approaches are to get programs into ebook format and sell those like the Juggernaut method or the programs written by Jim Wendler.

With E-books you have a pretty low barrier to entry as anyone can make one because the market is not regulated that heavy. In addition, you can take care of the distribution of the product yourself via Amazon and the internet. The drawback of ebooks is that the marketplace is already pretty crowded and you can not charge a lot for them.

Books

Once you become a respectable expert with lots of experience you can diversify into writing books about fitness and charge somewhere from 20 to 100 USD for them. Pavel Tsatsouline and Charles Poliquin are good examples of strength coaches who have written multiple books to advance their personal brand and make some money.

Books are a great opportunity to build your profile. The drawback from writing books is that you need a lot of experience to be respected and get a good product out. Tim Ferriss states on his blog that a good book usually takes up to a year, if not more, of his lifetime. So be prepared for a big front up investment with an unclear outcome if you prefer this option.

Public Speaking

Public speaking is another source of income once you have built a profile. If you are only starting out you can still go to local businesses and schools and ask for unpaid speaking opportunities. This way you will be able to build a local network and get your name out there to gain more clients. Always be well equipped for these occasions with a good slide deck, a well-polished speech and business cards ready to be given out.

In addition, it is wise to be early for speaking opportunities. Set up a little table at the entry and get people to sign up. This can function as an attendance sheet to the provider of the venue and for your own records. Have a sign-up sheet ready a little price for later. This way you can build your mailing list quicker and also ask for feedback with a quick Google or Survey Monkey follow up.

Fiverr

Fiverr is a platform on which you can offer any service at any price. If you already managed to build a six pack and are not afraid of doing something crazy you can make a couple of quick bucks there. For my web page, I get some support for my writing from Fiverr and for illustrations. All depends on what you are willing to do and whether you are able to template it. One guy delivered 200 fitness quotes for 20€ in crisp and clear quality. Probably only took him about ten minutes to do it as they were already canned.

Writing

If it is not enough for a book yet might be able to get published on

Men's health
Breaking Muscle
T Nation
Bodybuilding.com

or be able to write some product reviews and articles for fitness companies for free to raise your profile. Also here you can obtain writing gigs if you promote yourself. You can also lokk into this course for writers for fitness to improve and get a foothold.

Fitness model

If you have the looks and the siye get yourself an agent and start modelling. There is always demand for extras for movies for muscly, attractive men and women who will carry a Pharoah, stand in a gladiators pit or get punched randomly in the face by Tom Cruise, Dwayne Johnson and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Especially if you do not have the business acumen, but lots of time to train this might be a path to travel to the glorious honeypot.

Meal plans

The body coach perfected this approach with his lean in 15 books. What started as a viral explosion of easy to make healthy food has new become a proper business which conquers the UK and Ireland in a storm. Joe Wicks took something very simple and turned it into a cult. Very sticky and funny and a good example of how to make money in the fitness industry by providing meal plans and one fits all approach.

Exercise plans

Pre canned exercise plans which are either delivered as an ebook or as recorded workouts are also a way of monetising in the fitness industry to built multiple revenue streams.Bikinibodymommy is a prime example of turning your home into an online remote gym to get membership payments without having to invest into the floor space and equipment of a gym. You have have

Weekly plans
Monthly plans
Quarterly plans
Yearly plans

depending on what your clients want to achieve and are willing to commit to.

Getting on TV

Again if you have the looks and the brains get an agency which can get you into TV slots so that you can build your profile there. It does not have to be Dr. Oz. There are many obscure local morning news channels out there which are constantly looking for something new in their area. Feed their hunger by contacting them proactively and leaving a good impression.

Conclusion

There are many ways to make money in the fitness industry and it is important that you continously learn and get better. Don't shy away from the challenge and work on your skills. Be the change you want to see in the industry. The rest will come.