When I started personal training over eighteen years ago, I had just finished school and was eager to build my client base. No matter what time a client wanted to train, I prided myself on being available. Flexibility and availability were two selling features that I flaunted to clients. He was willing to work twelve hours a day, seven days a week. Veteran coaches already know where this story is headed, that’s right, burnout. Sure I was busy, but my schedule was out of control. I worked for a few hours in the morning, came back for a client in the afternoon, and then had a few clients at night. It was exhausting and my life was certainly not balanced.
I also found that I was losing out on new leads because I kept my schedule too open. They didn’t feel any sense of urgency to check in with me because I basically told them I could accommodate them at any time.
Being too flexible with your time creates the impression that you are not very busy or in demand. One of the fastest ways to grow your personal training business is to limit your availability. This creates a sense of urgency for prospects and signals your success due to your limited hours. In fact, you only have a certain number of hours in a week to train and still keep training quality high. For most trainers, this number is somewhere between 20-25 hours a week, so your availability is limited, as is the number of clients you can work with in person.
If you operate your own personal training business, you should also allow time to “work on” your business. Depending on the size of your business, this can range from 10-15 hours a week. Then there is personal time, family time, and time to kick back, relax, and be creative. With only twenty-four hours in a day, it’s important to protect your time and lock in your training availability.
For example, if you are looking to train only in the mornings from 6:00 to 12:00 five days a week, then this is your availability. When you meet a prospective client, one of the first questions to ask is, when will you be available? If they are available after hours, ask if they are flexible. Let them know that you only have certain hours left on your schedule. If you’ve built a relationship with the prospect and communicated your value, then they’ll be more willing to adjust your schedule to meet theirs rather than the other way around.
Once I realized that I was burning out and clearly couldn’t keep up with the crazy hours I had, I began to restructure my schedule. I blocked out certain hours of the day that I would be available to train and then stuck to it. Even when it was tempting to take that perfect client that you really wanted to work with. If they did not fit in the hours he dedicated to training, he sent them. It became important to the growth of my personal training business to stick to this schedule, as it allowed me to plan when I would be working on my business rather than on it.
I found that when I limited my hours in this way I became much more attractive to prospects because it created the impression that I was in demand. The client thinks that because you are so busy you must be good at what you do, otherwise you would have more time to train. This helps create exclusivity and increase interest in your services.
Check your schedule and see if you are eager to fit in with people at any time and any day. If so, try limiting your availability to just one day and see if that makes a difference in building your business. While being flexible sounds like a good idea, it weakens your demand.
