Some entrepreneurs would rather walk on hot coals than sit down and write a business plan. Other would-be business owners get so caught up in planning every detail that they never get their businesses off the ground. You need to find a happy medium between these two extremes.
Your personal training company should start with a written business plan. Writing your plan down forces you to think it through and gives you a chance to examine it for consistency and thoroughness. Whether you’ve got years of personal training experience behind you or you’re brand-new to the industry, you need a plan for your business.
This chapter will focus on a few issues particular to planning personal training businesses, but they are by no means all you need to consider when writing your plan.
If you’re excited about your business, creating a business plan should be an exciting process. It will help you define and evaluate the overall feasibility of your concept, clarify your goals, and determine what you’ll need for startup and long-term operations.
This is a living, breathing document that will provide you with a road map for your company. You’ll use it as a guide, referring to it regularly as you work through the startup process and during the ongoing operation of your business. If you’re going to be seeking outside financing, either in the form of loans or investors, your business plan will be the tool that convinces funding sources of your venture’s worth.
Putting together a business plan is not a linear process, although the final product may look that way. As you work through it, you’ll likely find yourself jumping from equipment requirements to cash flow forecasts to staffing, then back to cash flow, on to marketing, and back to equipment requirements. Take your time developing your plan. Whether you want to start a part-time business as a trainer going to clients’ homes or establish a fully equipped studio, you’re making a serious commitment, and you shouldn’t rush into it.
Though the specific content of your business plan will be unique, there is a basic format that you should follow. This will ensure that you address all the issues you need to, as well as provide lenders and investors with a document to evaluate that is organized in a familiar way. The basic elements are:
Front matter. This includes your cover page, a table of contents, and a statement of purpose.
Business description. Describe the specific personal training business you intend to start and list the reasons you can make it successful. This section should also include your business philosophy, goals, industry analysis, operations, inventory, and startup timetable.
Marketing plan. Include an overview of the market, a description of your potential customers, a discussion of the advantages and drawbacks of your location, an analysis of the competition, and how you plan to promote your specific business.
Company organization. Describe your management structure, your staffing needs and how you expect to meet them, the consultants and advisors who will be assisting you, your legal structure, and the certifications, licenses, permits, and other regulatory issues that will affect your operations.
Financial data. This is where you show the source(s) of your startup capital and how you’re going to use the money. Include information on real estate, fixtures, equipment, and insurance. You’ll also include your financial statements: balance sheet, profit-and-loss statement, break-even analysis, personal financial statements, and personal federal income tax returns.
Financial projections. Take your financial data and project it out to show what your business will do. Include projected income statements for three to five years, cash flow statements for three to five years, along with worst-case scenario income and cash flow statements to show what you’ll do if your plan doesn’t work. Keep in mind that if you’re opening a studio, it typically will take until your second year to turn a profit. Realistically, when you take into account paying back your investors, it may take until the third year before you have positive cash flow, says Steve Tharrett, president of Club Industry Consulting, a Texas-based fitness and sports industry consulting company. “Some type of negative cash flow is going to occur at the beginning,” he says. “It’s really rare that you’ll ever make a profit your first year.”
Summary. Bring your plan together in this section. If you’re trying to appeal to a funding source, use this section to reiterate the merits of your plan.
Appendices. Use this for supporting documents, such as your facility design and layout, marketing studies, sample advertising, copies of leases, and licensing information.
aha!
Your business plan should include worst-case scenarios, both for your own benefit and for your funding sources. You’ll benefit from thinking ahead about what you’ll do if things don’t go the way you want them to. You’ll also increase the comfort level of your lenders/investors by demonstrating your ability to deal with adversity and potentially negative situations.
Diana Broschka spent four months writing a comprehensive business plan after her personal trainer, Phil Martens, and she decided to join forces to create 501FIT. They approached banks with the plan hoping to obtain SBA funding and were granted $300,000, but needed $350,000. Broschka was dead-on with the plan’s projections, and when the $50,000 difference began to affect progress, she contributed her personal savings to the business.
Martens and Broschka developed a solid relationship with their bank and say it benefited them immensely. “In each of the three startup years we have been able to negotiate reprieves on our loan payments, thereby paying interest only during our slow periods of summer,” Broschka says. She elaborates on creating allies, “This has served us well and allowed us to keep the business moving forward. Our business took an unexpected hit between 2008 and 2009 when we had to sustain a 16 percent rent, tax, and operating expense increase. While this darn near put us out of business, we worked through it, stayed the course, and dug deeper to grow our client base.”
Broschka encourages entrepreneurs to talk openly with debtors, exploring creative options and alternate payment plans. “Our landlord worked through this challenge with us, and fortunately, due to honest, open, and very proactive conversation, he even helped us with marketing and advertising expense supplements. Bottom line, in 2011 we finally satisfied the initial term of our lease and stabilized our rent expense,” Broschka concludes.
Market research provides businesses with data that allows them to identify and reach particular market segments, and to solve or avoid marketing problems. A thorough market survey forms the foundation of any successful business. It would be impossible to develop marketing strategies or an effective product line without market research.
tip
When you think your plan is complete, look at it with a fresh eye. Is it realistic? Does it take into account all the possible variables that could affect your operation? After you’re satisfied, ask two or three professional associates you trust to evaluate your plan. Use their input to correct any problems before you invest time and money.
The goal of market research is for you to identify your market, find out where it is, and develop a strategy to communicate with prospective customers in a way that will convince them to buy from you. Market research will also give you information you need about your competitors. It’s important for you to know what they’re doing and how that meets—or doesn’t meet—the needs of the market.
Check with the major certifying organizations such as the American Council on Exercise (ACE) or the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) to find out how many certified trainers they have in your area to get an idea of your competition and see if you can get any information on their specialties. Get in Shape for Women franchise owner Abby Guinard says, “It’s important to differentiate yourself. Your fitness center needs to be more than just a place to work out.”
aha!
Update your business plan every year. Choose an annual date when you sit down with your plan, compare how closely your actual operation and results mirrored your forecasts, and decide if your plans for the coming year need adjusting. You will also need to make your financial forecasts for the coming year based on current and expected market conditions.
You’ll also want to find out how many gyms, health clubs, and exercise studios are in your geographic service area. This speaks to both competition and opportunity. A simple search online should tell you what you need to know. Talk to some of them to get a sense of how business is doing and study the demographics. “Demographics are important,” says Guinard. “We need a certain number of women in our market area.” And, she says, you need to be able to charge enough. “It is very hard to make it if you charge too little.
Research the population in your area and see if the math makes sense for the demographic you decided to target. You can get demographic information from the U.S. Census Bureau (see Appendix for contact information) or contact local government agencies for help.
One of the most basic elements of effective marketing is differentiating your business from the competition. One marketing consultant calls it “eliminating the competition.” If you set yourself apart because no one else does exactly what you do, then you essentially have no competition. (In Chapter 7, you’ll find more on ways to distinguish your business through serving a niche market.)
However, before you can differentiate yourself, you first need to understand who your competitors are and why your customers might patronize them. You can visit your competitors’ websites to find out what type of services they offer. Research what they do, how they operate, and how much they charge.
Physical Fitness Equals Cognitive Health
A search of the Journal of Applied Physiology (http://jap.physiology.org) shows numerous studies that point to definite advantages to cognitive health and memory as the result of fitness regimens especially in young children and later in life. “Specifically, aerobic training in late life preferentially benefits executive functions, including brain processes like multitasking, planning, and inhibition . . .” (“Exercise, Brain, and Cognition Across the Life Span”; Voss et al., November 1, 2011).
Of course, offering something no one else is offering could give you an edge in the market—but it could also mean that someone else has tried that and it didn’t work. Don’t make hasty decisions. Do your homework before finalizing your services.
In most fields, competitors are fairly easy to identify. They are individuals or companies offering the same or a similar product or service to the market you’re targeting. Of course, other personal trainers are your competitors. You might even consider some gyms and health clubs competition. But what might arguably be your biggest competitor is an intangible: the quick-fix attitude. People are besieged by advertisements, infomercials, and sales pitches that promise a physical transformation with little or no effort. Take these pills, and your fat will melt away. Spend just five minutes per day using this machine, and in two weeks you’ll have washboard abs. Follow this diet, and you’ll lose 30 pounds in 30 days.
Of course, these products and programs don’t work and may even cause harm to the people who use them. After trying one gimmick after another without success, many people come to believe that they cannot change and are destined to be forever overweight and unfit.
Lifelong athletes understand that the day-to-day, average performance you accrue, as well as your normal nutritional habits, rather than the blips of frenzied inspiration of yo-yo dieting and crash exercising, determine what your body looks and feels like. That expert consensus allows fit, healthy people to occasionally indulge in decadent foods and lounge without guilt or worry. How you behave 95 percent of the time determines your physique, not the remaining five. The urge to take the easy way out hits everyone, but patience and persistence always achieve more lasting, solid results in fitness.
Tyrone Minor’s experience pulling a hamstring in college taught him how to focus on other things to stay fit during times of injury. “It’s one thing to be an everyday person and have a setback,” he says, “but another thing when you’re competing, because your window of recovery is so small and you know the competitors around you are continuing to work. When you start to get healthier you have to be smart and not rush or you’ll re-aggravate the injury.” Minor admits that because of this experience he has a problem with the frenzy of trainers or ads emphasizing a promise to get fit in 30 to 60 days. He teaches his clients that fit is a lifestyle you can’t change overnight. For example, for a 45-year-old woman to lose weight he typically tells her to set many small goals that work toward one larger, ultimate goal in the future. This way there is measurable progress made toward a long-term commitment, which is growing a new lifestyle with strong, deep roots.
aha!
Don’t just take a “me, too” approach to training. Develop your own professional personality, your own techniques, and your own program. Do things that will make you stand out from other personal trainers in a positive way.
Gunnar Peterson believes that plain old hard work, discipline, and healthy habits are all a body needs to be strong and fit, no matter what age you are. “I have a client who has done a fair share of performance-enhancing drugs who says I’m crazy not to do them, but I don’t think I need to if I stick to my program. I can account for even a four-pound difference in my weight by tweaking something in my workout or diet. I’m older than a lot of the people I train, but never miss a workout.”
It’s a challenging paradox. People know from experience that the quick fixes don’t work, but rather than see the fault with that particular approach, they see it with themselves. After all, they reason, it worked for the people in the ads, so if it isn’t working for them it must be their fault.
Messages pushing instant gratification for just about everything are virtually everywhere. As a personal trainer, you will be competing every day with the quick-fix gimmicks that don’t work and have sabotaged people into believing they can look and feel great in a short time if they can just find the right product to use. You’ll have to use logic and reason to persuade them to take a longer-term and healthier approach.
Minor believes many women who hire personal trainers are striving for a body that is not realistic because of the ultra-thin women who are portrayed in the media all around us. He frequently talks to his female clients about what size a healthy woman actually is to make sure they are focusing on the right goals to keep them on track.
Minor is always preaching to his clients about health and being the best person they can be, rather than comparing themselves with others, which, as he says, “prevents them from enjoying their own successes.” An extremely fit and lean client of Minor’s one day made the remark that he felt fit until he stood next to Minor. Minor then talked to him about how he himself had a very uncommon physique from competing into his 30s with intense training. The man had diminished his own accomplishments when he compared himself to someone else. All of that hard work, down the drain!
The more you know about the health and fitness industry in general, as well as personal training in particular, the easier it will be to develop an effective business plan.
An excellent source of information about the industry comes from conventions and trade shows. They’re tremendous opportunities for education and networking. They’re also an opportunity for industry leaders to showcase their products and services.
Two of the leading show coordinators are Club Industry and International Health, Racquet, and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA). Check out their show schedules and invest in attending, even if it means traveling to do so.
Some personal trainers limit their business to training; others take advantage of additional revenue opportunities such as nutritional supplements, exercise equipment, and clothing. Of course, if you have a studio, a refreshment area where you sell bottled water, smoothies, other beverages, and healthy snacks makes sense.
tip
Know someone who might be interested in investing in your business? Don’t ask them for money right away. Tell them you’re working on a business plan, and before you present it to an investor, you’d appreciate it if they could read it and give you some input. At best, they’ll like the plan and offer to invest before you ask. At worst, you’ll get some valuable input, and they’ll let you know they don’t want to invest before you have to risk rejection.
There are pros and cons to each approach. “I don’t sell any products,” says Jennifer Brilliant, the personal trainer in Brooklyn. “When people make a commitment to exercise, I’m very careful about adding on to their commitment or asking them to do something further that may be too much for them.” On the other hand, these extra income sources can contribute handsomely to your overall profitability and keep you going during periodic slumps. Just be careful that any sideline products or services don’t detract from your primary business.
Establishing Policies and Procedures
Many aspects of your business will evolve and change as you get established and find out what works best for you and your clientele. But there are certain policies you should put in place from the very start. This protects both you and your clients from any problems or conflicts due to misunderstandings. These policies don’t have to be complicated—in fact, the simpler and clearer, the better.
warning
Be consistent with your pricing and policies. You don’t want two clients talking to each other at a party and finding out that they’re paying different amounts for the same service, or that you’re applying your policies differently.
Your most valuable commodity is your time, and it’s something you can’t replace or recover. If a client cancels at the last minute and doesn’t pay you, that revenue opportunity is lost forever. A cancellation policy can protect you to some degree, but you must balance it against clients being upset at being forced to pay for something they didn’t receive.
Top 20 Forecasted Trends for 2016
The top 20 fitness trends, as identified by ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine) Health and Fitness Journal’s “Worldwide Survey of Fitness Trends for 2016,” are:
1. Wearable technology
2. Body weight training
3. High-intensity interval training
4. Strength training
5. Educated and experienced fitness professionals
6. Personal training
7. Functional fitness
8. Fitness programs for older adults
9. Exercise and weight loss
10. Yoga
11. Group personal training
12. Worksite health promotion
13. Wellness coaching
14. Outdoor activities
15. Sport-specific training
16. Flexibility and mobility rollers
17. Smartphone exercise apps
18. Circuit training
19. Core training
20. Outcome measurements
The author of this survey, Walter R. Thompson, Ph.D., FACSM, is associate dean of Graduate Studies and Research in the College of Education and Human Development at Georgia State University, and regents’ professor of Exercise Science in the Department of Kinesiology and Health, the Department of Nutrition, and the School of Public Health. He also is the executive director of After-School All-Stars Atlanta. He currently serves on the ACSM Board of Trustees.
Jennifer Brilliant says she started with a very strict policy requiring 24 hours’ notice for cancellations, but she has become more flexible. “Obviously, things come up,” she says. She tries to reschedule when possible, but reserves the right to charge for sessions missed at the last minute. Trainer Lynne Wells of New York City takes a similar approach; she tries to reschedule, but if she can’t, she charges for sessions cancelled with less than 24 hours’ notice.
Facility owner Bill Sonnemaker has a cancellation line that clients are supposed to call if they can’t make their session, and the line forwards to his cell phone after hours. “If it’s right before a training session, we ask clients to call their trainer as well as the cancellation line, especially if it’s an early morning client,” he says.
Gunnar Peterson says he doesn’t give any one of his clients priority over the others. “Celebrities’ schedules tend to get pulled in many different directions, but I can’t blow one client’s slot off for another’s immediacy. Sure, I ask people occasionally if they can flex to help coordinate scheduling challenges, but I do that across the board and treat everyone equally.”
There are two sides to a late policy: when the client is late and when the trainer is late.
If a client is running late, your policy could be that they don’t get to make up their time. But if the client has a good reason and is not habitually late, and there is room in the schedule without inconveniencing another client, you could allow some extra minutes at the end of the session. If you have trainers working for you, you’ll likely want to take a harder line with their tardiness. If a trainer is more than five minutes late, for example, the session could be complimentary to the client, but the trainer would have to reimburse the business what the client would have paid.
Dealing with a Difficult Client
A chronically late client is a sign you’ve got a difficult client. Other symptoms include not paying for training on time, constantly complaining that they’re not getting results (even though they’re not following your professional advice), and not being motivated to push themselves hard enough, says New York trainer Mike Hood. To help deal with such a client, it’s important to keep things on a professional level, he says. “By always keeping the professional tone, rather than the ‘friend tone,’ this allows you to maintain control of the situation,” he explains. “And establish at the onset that you take what you do seriously, that you are a professional and you care. Lay down the ground rules for cancellations and set the standard from day one on things like lateness, payment, and what they are responsible for in your relationship in order to achieve the results they’re looking for.”
Jennifer Brilliant says when she or one of her trainers is late, they make up the time either in that session or in another. Lynne Wells says if the client is late, the session still ends on time. If she is late, she tries to get the time in at that session or a later one, or she’ll adjust the fee.
“Clients respect a trainer who stays on schedule,” says trainer Richard Cotton. “The trainer keeps clients longer, and that’s reflected in the income.”
Be sure to communicate your cancellation and late policies clearly during your initial consultation so that clients aren’t surprised or upset when you enforce them. Insist that your clients respect your time, and make it mutual. Cotton likens it to doctor’s appointments: “Doctors are so busy that we make sure we make it to our appointments because it may be a couple of months before we can get another one,” he says. “That same kind of feeling should exist with the trainer.”
The idea that one of your clients may become ill or injured during a session is not a pleasant one, but it’s one you need to think about. You and all the trainers on your staff should be CPR and first-aid certified.
CPR courses train people to recognize and care for breathing and cardiac emergencies. To maintain your CPR certification, you must take a refresher course annually. First-aid certification courses will teach you how to deal with bone, joint, and muscle injuries, heat-related injuries, bleeding, and how to move victims.
Beyond being able to provide immediate first aid, you need a total emergency response plan. This plan will serve as your guide for any situation where a person is injured or lives are in danger, from a minor sprain to a major fire. Dialing 911 is not a one-size-fits-all answer.
Your emergency response plan should be basic—sufficient enough to provide the structure that will reduce further injury and save lives, simple enough that it can be remembered and properly carried out. See the Sample Emergency Procedure Policy on page 30. You should think through all the possible emergency situations you might conceivably encounter. The idea is to prepare for the unexpected—keeping in mind that there is no way you can predict what is going to happen.
Consider these possible scenarios:
A client drops a weight on his foot, possibly breaking a bone
A client complains of chest pain and shortness of breath while exercising
While working with a client in a gym, an electrical short causes a fire in the cardiovascular equipment area
While working with a client in your studio, a disgruntled former boyfriend comes in and begins threatening you both
While working with a client in her home, her preteen son is playing in another room and manages to sustain a serious cut or injury
Some of these scenarios may sound far-fetched, but they are common occurrences that could easily happen while you are present. It’s important that you think about what you’ll do in those circumstances. Have an emergency procedure policy written down so your employees know exactly what to do. This not only educates them, it also protects you from a liability perspective.
Whenever something happens, begin with an assessment of the situation. How serious is the injury? Is the injured person able to aid himself? Is there immediate danger to others at the location (for example, in the case of a fire)?
Once you’ve assessed the situation, take the appropriate steps. That might mean administering first aid or CPR. It could mean calling the police, fire department, or emergency medical personnel. If you have a commercial location, be sure your telephone number, address, and directions to your location from the nearest emergency service facility are posted by each telephone. Don’t expect anyone to remember these details in a crisis.
tip
CPR classes as well as courses in first-aid basics and emergency response techniques are available through your local chapter of the American Red Cross, your local fire department, and area hospitals. You and all your employees should hold these certifications.
When the situation is under control, complete an incident report for your files (see Figure 2–1 on page 29 for a report you can copy and use in your business). Be sure to get the names and contact information of everyone who witnessed the incident; this will be critical if litigation should arise. Describe the incident completely, including details such as exactly what the client was doing at the time (exercising, resting in the locker room, entering or exiting the facility, etc.) and what the trainer was doing at the time. Include a description of the procedures you took and the results. For example, if you administered first aid and the client declined further assistance, note that. If you administered CPR, called for emergency medical services, and the client was taken to the hospital by ambulance, record that for your files.
FIGURE 2–1: Incident Report
Sample Emergency Procedure Policy
WE MOVE YOU
Personal Trainers
Our goal is to provide a safe, comfortable environment for our clients and to design programs that can be implemented without injury. However, we recognize that there may be times when an emergency situation occurs and outside assistance is required. In those cases, we will administer appropriate immediate first aid and/or CPR. If the victim is unconscious, we will check his/her breathing and pulse; then we will follow these procedures:
1. Dial 911. If two or more staff members are present, one should be sent to call for emergency assistance and the other(s) should stay with the victim to provide what care is possible.
2. While a 911 call usually communicates your number and location, be prepared to provide the emergency dispatcher with the exact location, the telephone number from which the call is being made, the name of the caller, a description of what happened, the number of people involved, the condition of the victim(s) (i.e., alert, unconscious, etc.), and a description of what assistance or first aid has been rendered.
3. Follow whatever instructions the dispatcher gives you. In many situations, the dispatcher will be able to tell you how to best care for the victim.
4. Do not hang up until the dispatcher tells you to. Most times they request that you stay on the line until help arrives.
5. Once the dispatcher tells you to hang up, return to the victim. If you are using a cell phone and have service within the building, you can both stay on the line and be with the victim. If the victim needs your help, put the cell phone on speaker so you can continue to communicate with the dispatch while assisting the victim.
In our intensely litigious society, no business owner can afford to ignore liability issues. In Chapter 10, we’ll discuss release forms and liability waivers, but it’s important to know that these documents alone will not prevent you from becoming the defendant in a lawsuit.
What is the extent of your liability if a client is injured while under your supervision? Your defense will depend on a number of issues, including whether you are adequately trained and certified for the activity involved; the adequacy of your pre-program screening and testing; whether or not the client signed an informed consent, release, and assumption of risk form; and whether or not your instructions and advice were within acceptable ranges based on the client’s physical condition and circumstances.
Another area of risk is that of nutrition and supplement counseling. “It’s important to not go out of your scope of practice,” says Tony Ordas, former director of certification for the American Council on Exercise (ACE). “One challenge we’ve had is educating people that [if] they aren’t registered dietitians, they shouldn’t be recommending, supplying, and prescribing nutritional supplements.”
Many personal trainers are very knowledgeable on these issues through their own personal interest and study, and it’s common for clients to turn to their trainers for guidance on diet and supplements. One of the key concerns in these situations is the unauthorized practice of medicine or other licensed healthcare disciplines. Unless you are well-trained and certified, this can be dangerous territory. A lawsuit on record explains why: When a 37-year-old woman died after following her trainer’s advice on consuming nutritional and weight-loss products, her family sued the trainer, the club where the trainer worked, the store where the supplements were purchased, and the manufacturers of the supplements.
The suit alleged that one of the five substances the trainer recommended contained ephedrine. The woman was also taking hypertension medication prescribed by her physician, and these substances should not be taken at the same time. The suit claimed that the woman told her trainer about the medication she was taking. She suffered a stroke while exercising and died a few hours later. The trainer learned a very painful and tragic lesson.
Educating your clients on knowing how hard to push themselves could influence decisions you’ll make on how much liability insurance to purchase. Tyrone Minor says that once you become a certified trainer you can work with your certification company to determine how much insurance you’ll need.
“It’s hard to make that decision for someone else,” says Minor. “Even the most well-intentioned trainer could injure someone and it could just be a freak accident and not the cause of anything the trainer may have done wrong.”
Minor advises trainers to educate their clients about what is trivial irritation and what may be more serious signals. “Sometimes clients feel tightness in their bodies and don’t communicate it to you because they are too busy wanting to please you—to work hard for you,” he says. You may be making decisions based on a different perception of how they are feeling. Had you known they felt this tightness, you wouldn’t have had them perform in the same way. That’s one way injuries can occur. Even though clients don’t want to let you down, you can teach them the difference between a red flag and simple soreness.”
warning
Ignore a small problem and it can quickly turn into a major one. If any sort of incident occurs where you have potential liability or if anyone (client or not) threatens to sue you for any reason, notify your insurance company immediately and let them help you through the process.
When you’re serious about a business, you work hard to develop a mission—that is, you figure out what you’re doing, how and where it’s being done, and who your customers are. Problems can arise, however, when that mission is not clearly articulated into a statement, written down, and communicated to others. We’ve provided a worksheet in Figure 2–2, page 33, to help you get started.
“A mission statement defines what an organization is, why it exists, its reason for being,” says Gerald Graham, R.P. Clinton Distinguished Professor of Management and past dean of the W. Frank Barton School of Business at Wichita State University. “Writing it down and communicating it to others creates a sense of commonality and a more coherent approach to what you’re trying to do.”
Even in a very small company, a written mission statement helps everyone involved see the big picture and keeps them focused on the true goals of the business. According to Graham, at a minimum your mission statement should define who your primary customers are, the products and services you produce, and the geographical location in which you operate.
501F1T’s mission, prominently placed on its website, is “At 501F1T we take pride in providing our clients a clean, safe, and fun spirited fitness environment. We welcome everyone with any fitness experience, goal, or need. We promote confidence and unsurpassed results in a friendly way. Our group strength and cardio fitness class programs create accountability with a positive and goal-oriented approach. Our clients (YOU) are #1. Call or visit us today and find out for yourself how 501F1T is the premier mid-sized fitness option for you in the Twin Cities.”
Jennifer Brilliant says her mission statement is: “To guide others toward the amazing experience of living in their bodies with confidence and joy.” Another trainer we interviewed had a mission statement that reads: “We are caregivers. We try not only to physically inspire others, but also to give people the faith to ask more of themselves. It is our mission to promote healthy lifestyle changes in a positive manner until all of our clients’ dreams come true.”
FIGURE 2–2: Mission Statement Worksheet
A mission statement should be short—usually just one to three sentences. A good idea is to cap it at 100 words. Anything longer isn’t a mission statement and will probably be confusing.
Once you have articulated your message, communicate it as often as possible to everyone in the company, along with clients and suppliers. “Post it on the wall, hold meetings to talk about it, and include a reminder of the statement in employee correspondence,” says Graham.
Graham explains that it is more important to adequately communicate the mission statement to employees than to customers. “Sometimes an organization will try to use a mission statement primarily for promotion and, as an aside, use it to help employees identify what business they’re in,” he says. “That doesn’t work very well. The most effective mission statements are developed strictly for internal communication and discussion, and then if something promotional comes out of it, fine.” In other words, your mission statement doesn’t have to be clever or catchy—just accurate.
Though your mission statement may never win an advertising or creativity award, it can still be a very effective customer relations tool. One idea is to print your mission statement on a page, have every employee sign it, and provide every prospective and new customer with a copy. You can even include it on your brochures and invoices.
Finally, make sure your suppliers know what your mission statement is. It will help them serve you better if they understand what you’re all about.