As fitness pros, we’re all familiar with this picture below. You may have even used it to show your clients how important it is to maintain a healthy diet.
The “systems” in our businesses work the exact same way.
Without systems, prospects fall through the cracks, clients who fall off the wagon go unnoticed, and you end up running your business by the seat of your pants because it feels like you are never able to catch up, let alone get ahead.
I’ve been there- I understand. This January will mark my 6th year of owning my fitness business, and I’d never be where I am today without having critical “systems” in place.
Systems don’t get built overnight.
I’ve gradually built them into my business and have fine-tuned them over the years.
Because of it, our retention is at an all time high, our staff members are organized and well trained, and my business can nearly run entirely without me being there.
I’ll STILL always be involved and teach on a weekly basis. But- it’s really nice to teach because I want to versus because I have to.
A “system” for your biz is just a fancy way of saying “the process YOU use to get something done.”
What’s the best way to create a system in your business?
Start writing down EVERYTHING you do for a particular topic. Then go from there. It’s that simple!
The Most Important “Business” Systems in Your Fitness Business:
1. Lead Generation System: What’s your specific strategy for marketing and generating new leads?
- What exact things do you have to do every month to generate leads? (internal & external)
- How many new leads do you want to get? (work backwards from there)
- Have a checks and balances system so you have a method of tracking and measuring everything so you know what is most effective and where you should be spending your time, money, and energy.
2. Prospect Follow-Up & Sales Funnel / System: what exact process does your business go through with each prospect to convert them to a client?
- What happens on day one, day three, day five, day seven, and so on?
- What happens if they don’t call you back? What happens if they schedule a consult? etc.
- Create a time table for your phone calls and emails
- What is your exact sales process once you are in front of your prospect?
- Create scripts for each of the steps you create
- Assign specific tasks to specific staff members
- Track and measure everything. (Just because you have a system, doesn’t mean it’s getting done! Make sure you have a checks and balances protocol in place.)
3. New Client System: what exact process do you want to take each and every new client through.
- What happens on day one, day three, day seven, day 14, day 21, day 30 and so on?
- Create a time table for your phone calls, emails, welcome packages, orientation, etc.
- Create scripts for each of the steps you create
- Assign specific tasks to specific staff members
- Track and measure!
4. Client Retention System: What steps do you take with each client to make sure you’re delivering results, creating that “WOW” factor, and developing a sense of community?
- How do you track your clients measurements, food journals, class attendance?
- What do you do each month to over-deliver?
- What do you do each month to tighten your sense of community?
- How are you tracking their payments- and what system do you have in place for failed auto-pays?
- What is your process if a member leaves your program?
- Assign specific tasks to specific staff members
- Create a monthly calendar so you can track, follow-through, and measure everything
Other Systems to Implement in your Business:
1. Transformation Contests & Challenges System: Organize your year in advance to know EXACTLY when you are going to be running your transformation contests and challenges.
- Create a calendar for your year and know exactly when and for how long each challenge will last for.
- Know the themes and what you will include with each challenge (or at least have an idea)
- Know your marketing strategy and plan how far out in advance you need to start implementing your marketing (this should coincide with your content calendar below!)
- Track and measure everything!
2. Event System: Track and Assess every single event your company puts on. Whether it’s a workshop, seminar, social, charity event, or anything else.
- You want to keep track of your “PROCESS” and if the event was successful or not. This way, you can easily make a decision if you want to repeat this event and know if you want to make and changes and improve it for the next time.
- Know & Track Details: Who your contacts are, your marketing strategy, your follow-up strategy, how much you spent, how much you made, what kind of staffing you needed, etc.
3. Content Delivery System: How often are you emailing / blogging / presenting to prove you’re the go-to expert and have front-of-mind awareness?
- Pre-plan your “themes” each month and organize what kinds of information you want to deliver.
- Organize your delivery method: video blogging, writing a blog post, writing emails, speaking, etc.
- Create a Content Calendar for the each month and ideally the year.
- Create tasks and outsource or delegate tasks
- Make sure you have accountability to get it all done.
4. Upsells & Back End: What process do you have to create more value and add additional streams of income to your business?
- Decide what additional products and services you can offer your clients to enhance their experience and results: Meal Plans, supplements, foam rollers, food services, coaching, etc.
- Create a process to introduce these things to your clients systematically
- Track and measure
5. Workout Programming – You’ll definitely want to streamline and systematize your programming if you don’t already have that in place.
When I first started implementing systems into my businesses, it seemed there was SO much to get done and it was very overwhelming.
Don’t let it overwhelm you.
Let this list EMPOWER you because now you have a basic shell to start working from!
Be patient, take it slow, and complete one system at a time. MAKE SURE you complete one system before moving on to the next…as entrepreneurs, we tend to work on 17 things at once. This is not effective.
FitPro TIP: The most important thing you can do is just take one at a time. Even if you create ONE new system a month, one year from now you will have a well-oiled fitness business MACHINE.
Did you find this list helpful!? I’d love to know! Please leave a comment below and let me know what you think 🙂
