Instructor Newsletter 19th September

As we are well into September, how are you all doing? Hope your numbers are picking up and classes are busy.

Finally, KSFL has been awarded the  NHS/PCT Contract to deliver KSFL sessions in Lowestoft & Great Yarmouth which I am over the moon about and I am now preparing KSFL programmes for various Police Constabularies around the UK so its exciting times – Busy but very exciting!

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the future of community classes, and while I always think there will be a place and a market for community classes, in some areas where there is a saturation of budget gyms and leisure centres we may need to change our approach and how we offer our services.

Making it easier for clients to access classes and creating programmes for  different markets is something I think is an area potentially we all could explore.

The government is making cuts across all of the public sector services, so the workforce needs to be fit, healthy and as productive as possible to ensure money is not wasted on sick days, absenteeism, stress, illness etc.  Therefore, taking fitness into the workplace is a major focus for myself and my own Kick Start Fat Loss business.

The services you offer could come in all kinds of packages:  Fitness Pilates, Freestyle,  Fitness Yoga, Conditioning, Bootcamps, or it could be a lifestyle talk and even be a mix of online and offline fitness, in fact whatever your speciality is. So, my advice is to make a list of all your local businesses, both in the Public and Private sector, find out who the HR manager is and send an email, give them a call and even pop in. Do the research on the company and see if you can get a meeting where you can discuss putting a bespoke package together. If you are on LINKEDINN then do your research on there as well.  See who the right person is to contact and talk to them, find out the company’s wants and needs and put a package together. Run a trial first and collect your stats before you go, then renegotiate and roll it out.

One thing to consider is that you need to be persistent. If you send an email and hear nothing then don’t give up.  Resend and then follow up with a phone call or find them on LinkedINN and make contact there.

Here are my Top Tips for Reaching Out into Business

1.Create a list of every single potential business in you area.

2.ASK on Facebook and Twitter if any of your friends would potentially be interested in having you come in and do XXXXXXXXX in the workplace.

3.You will be surprised how many of your class members work in places that potentially will be a good fit for you. So, make sure you announce in class and get people to ask friends, families and neighbour – It’s all about contacts. You HAVE to let people know  what you are offering.

4.Construct a business style email, not too long with just enough facts, and suggest a meeting or telephone call for more information and send it to the relevant person.

5.If you don’t hear anything, then follow up again with another email and a call. You have to be persistent! Try not to give up if you don’t hear anything. People are busy and get millions of emails, yours needs to be attention grabbing and have a quick call to action.

6.Offer to pop in and have a quick chat. Find out everything you can about the wants and needs of the business and then create a trial programme. You may need to offer it as a free or low cost trial to get your foot in the door.

7.Strike while the iron is hot and follow up with everything you said you would and go for it.

Once you have one business on board it becomes so much easier as you are able to say that you are already working with an established business (name the business) and other HR mangers will take notice.

Do you teach in any kind of corporate settings? I’d love to hear from you. Tweet me @rachelHolmes and let me know if you are offering packages in the workplace.

Tunes for Your Classes

I am loving the new Pure Energy Mixes and can’t recommend them highly enough. The brand new Soul and Motown Party is incredible and is perfect for your Seniors and Aqua or anyone that loves music from this era.  As is another one of my  100% favourites,  the new Club Classics 2 containing tons of great old dance tunes that will get all of your classes smiling and singing along. You can check all of the Pure Energy mixes on www.pureenergymusic.com

Facebook Tips

Facebook recently gave four tips to help you create quality content and help you get out into the news feed.

#1: Make your post timely and relevant.

#2: Build credibility and trust with your audience.

#3: Ask yourself “Would people share this with their friends or recommend it to others?”

#4: Think about “would my audience want to see this in their News Feed?”

Ownership by Cori Withell

The FitPro Mind is a book I wrote for fellow fit pros as I could see so many of us were struggling with the same kind of issues.  This is a short section that I hope my help you.  If you enjoy it and want to read me you can get your e-copy at http://www.cwfitness.co.uk/shop/

Ownership

Do you:
own your problems
own your business
own your life
own your family
grow from that ownership?

Do you even understand what on earth I am waffling on about?!
Let me explain.

All too often we blame others or events for things that go wrong in our life.  We take external forces and say that if that had not occurred then everything would be alright.

Wrong.

We say this to clients all the time don’t we.  You know the clients, the ones that put their entire happiness on being thin.  The ones that convince themselves that if they lose that 2 stone, then all of a sudden, their children will be perfect, their husband will suddenly turn into Jason Statham!  Get my drift?

Most of us would encourage our clients not to do this wouldn’t we?  We would say that, yes, losing the excess body fat is going to make them look better and in turn feel better, but it isn’t going to suddenly make everything else in their life perfect – why would it?

Yet, we do exactly the same only we don’t admit it.  Let me give you an example.

You are a personal trainer.  You have a good database of clients and then you hear about a new PT on the block.  You start to feel tense, already worried that they will pinch your clients and be more successful than you.

So, already you are on a negative back foot.  You don’t make any effort to meet up and talk with this trainer because you don’t want to give any information away, worried that they might show up weaknesses in you.

As this additional stress wears you down, it has an affect on how you behave, your food choices and how you interact with clients.  This in turn has an effect on your business.  Your clients notice that you don’t seem your usual bubbly self and for a while they may persevere but after too long they will look to train with someone else.

They want someone energetic, bright skin and smile, someone positive and you know what, your competitor down the road fills that criteria perfectly.

It isn’t the competitor’s fault that your clients have left you.  That falls down to you.  This happens with classes, bootcamps, workshops – everything but how many instructors do you know would actually look at themselves as the cause?

Yes, there are many alternative factors, economy, halls, locations, times, change in family circumstances – these can all affect client numbers and retention but far too few of us acknowledge that there may be many things that we can be doing to help ourselves.
I know when I first started in the industry I thought classes would just be packed because no one had really told me otherwise and when they weren’t – straight away I looked for someone else to blame when actually I already owned the problem.

I hadn’t done the marketing.
I hadn’t worked out my client profile.
I hadn’t done my market research.

Try as I might, I can’t blame someone else for that and I think we all need to take ownership much more seriously.

There is so much negativity in the industry, especially with the emergence of popular dance classes, instructors popping up everywhere, and it is so easy to say ‘it’s not my fault’ that numbers are down and whilst there might be something in that I still think there is a lot more we need to take ownership of.

As I have said in a previous chapter the industry does work in trends so things will fade in and out but surely part of your job as an instructor is to take ownership of your business and see when those trends are likely to fade out and get something else in place.

If you enjoy following the trends then get trained early and be ready to launch when the need arises.  If you are fed up with following the trends then go out there are create your own brand and be unique.

I can hear it now.  I can’t do it.  YES YOU CAN!  We create new routines and moves everyday, so what is stopping you creating your own class?  The only thing that is stopping you is you and your refusal to take responsibility and own it.  Start today.

This is YOUR business – take responsibility and ownership of it.  The only way it is going to succeed is if YOU make it succeed and how much harder are you going to make that success if you are constantly passing the buck to someone else?

If it is someone else’s fault then how exactly do you expect to succeed?  You will be too busy focusing on whoever you happen to be blaming to concentrate on making your business and ultimately your life a success.

Top Tips On Ownership

1 Accept that you are responsible for your life, your business and all the problems that come with it.

2  Avoid blaming others and events.  Look at the situation, analyse and then work out an action plan.

3 Seeing there is a problem is not a failing, doing nothing about it is.

4 Remind yourself of what you are good at and work to those strengths.

5  List your weaknesses and get others to help in these areas.

Cheat Sheet
3 Point Action Plan

Accept that this is YOUR business no-one else’s.
When things don’t work – change them.
Ditch the blame.

Health and happiness x
Best wishes
Cori x

Why Me? Helen Conway

As you read this, I will be recovering from the 26th surgery to my right knee.

For almost 30 years, I have taught on a seriously damaged knee following a skiing accident. Over time it has deteriorated to the point where even regular surgery doesn’t free me of pain and the difficulty I have walking (I have been almost constantly on crutches for the past 10 weeks).It means that I have become a verbal instructor, rather than a physical instructor. Mostly, I can be found sitting on a Pilates Reformer with a large mug of green tea!! But with every episode that prevents me from driving, or every surgery that puts me into rehab, my classes and therefore my clients, are disrupted. Classes are cancelled. Clients have an enforced night off. And it is unpredictable. No pattern or pre-warning.

And yet, when I am back, so too are my lovely clients. I am always humbled and slightly bemused. Why do they put up with such disruption when they have so many other options? Although we are a specialist Pilates and yoga studio, there are certainly plenty of classes they could choose to attend. But they don’t. They come back with good humour, concern and affection. And I am humbled – and bemused.

So I asked them. And the immediate answer was ‘you.’

Me? I’m ok but I’m not the best teacher in the world. Apparently that isn’t the issue. ‘People buy from people’ said one. ‘We feel like part of the family’ said another. Now it’s true that the current Mr. Conway and I spend more time at the studio than we do at home, and of course, our gorgeous cats. Sir Dexter and Sir Douglas travel in with us every day, so I suppose we do treat it like home. The kettle is constantly boiling and there is usually cake! But I had no idea that our clients felt that this environment so comprehensively included them. I am so glad they do.

I have always made an effort (mainly because I am very nosey) to find out about clients. What they do. What they like. Their family life. And never, ever do I want them to think that I don’t have time for them. It is never ‘get them in, take their money and get them out.’ Our studio is social (the current Mr. Conway’s quizzes are legendary!)  Not only do our clients choose to take their classes with us. They spend their free time with us too.
So the point is – if you had to cancel classes without warning, but with alarming regularity, what would your clients do? Would they wait for you to return or would they seek more consistent pastures? If you are not your USP, what is? You are your principal product.

Tweet HelenBodyworkPilates

For Better………For Worse
By Andrew Crawford

For those who are married, those words may have been part of your wedding ceremony…..Yeah or nay??

What does it actually mean?

I personally want someone for better however, I must be able to also accept the worst…!!

So why is this important? What’s For Better ..For Worse got to do with Accountancy and Tax Mr Crawford??

Well…….It’s all about Partnerships?

Did you know that there is a Partnership Law?

Oh…..Have you noticed that lately I have been listing things…(so these articles won’t be boring for you to read), I found it  Better as a long winded sentence is Worse. Tee Hee

I have noticed that there are a lot of people coming together to form a partnership.

Partnership is the relation which exists between persons carrying on a business in common with a view of profit.

Partnership has no legal identity separate from its owners. You must have heard this before…the liability of each partner for the debts of the business is unlimited and is joint and several. So forming one is quite straight forward.

A written partnership agreement is not legally required however, I strongly recommend you put one in place BEFORE you begin. There are advantages for all parties to the agreement to know all the specific terms of the association

There is no formal statutory supervision or regulation of a partnership

The accounts needn’t be in any prescribed form nor is an audit necessary irrespective of the size.

The public have no legal right to inspect the partnership’s accounts or other information.

If you are carrying out business under a ‘Firms’ name, then you are required to disclose the names of all the partners on your letterheads and business documentation.

Each partner must make a return of their share of the partnership’s profit or loss.

By the way…………..make sure you get a Partnership Agreement in place before you start your partnership.

What should the partnership agreement cover?

The partnership’s name

The date it commenced and it’s duration

Individuals  capital to be provided. How much dosh each partner is putting in.

Any restrictions on the activities each partner has.

How new partners will join or how old partners will leave

What happens in the event of a death of a partner or when one retires

How the bookkeeping will be done, how records are kept

Indemnity for each partner against liabilities incurred.

What happens in a disputes

How the profits will be shared

When you will meet

Etc etc…You can have many sections in there to ensure you are covered from all eventualities,

So what about the worse part? What and How does a partnership get dissolved Andrew?

Well….since you asked..a partnership dissolves and ceases to exist:

The passage of time

Once the venture has been complete

By the death of a partner or bankruptcy

By court order

Agreement between the partners

Illegal activity

Oh….I think it’s also important to tell you about the priority in which the assets will be distributed once a partnership is dissolved.

Paying off all external debts
Repaying to the partners any advance made over and above their capital.
Repaying the partner’s capital
The remainder, if any, is repaid to the partners in their profit sharing ratios.

OK…..I cannot mention the above without mentioning the other type of partnership you may have seen on your journey. Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs)

This type of partnership is a corporate body with separate legal identity and unlimited liability for its debts.

However, the liability of individual partners is limited to the amount of your capital contribution.

LLP’s are similar in nature to limited companies in that they must be incorporated and registered to be recognised.

Andrew….How do I register one?

If you want to form one of these, you would send an incorporation document, a statement of compliance and a registration fee to the REGISTRAR.

I can dedicate another article to LLP’s since your day is very valuable but essentially, they must be registered and have designated members.

There is much more to his than what I have written above, I just want to give you a feel.

Finally,

The Floyd Mayweather vs Alvarez Canelo bout was a much anticipated fight. I stayed up until the early morning  in order to experience the circus surrounding the event.
A massive big build up. You can see ‘Access All Areas’ on You Tube.

Both unbeaten fighters both had immense pressure to perform and ultimately win. On the night Mayweather took the title. A masterpiece at work.

Although he has fought and won all his fights, Mayweather is not sponsored by any major company, he is never given respect for his dedication and hard work to the sport, the media seems to concentrate on his over exaggerated lifestyle and tries to destroy his character.

Why is this important? He doesn’t let this negativity faze him, he literally used the hate to generate millions of dollars from people coming to see him lose.

He has achieved this from…. Hard Work and Dedication.
True focus and commitment for better …..for worse…!!

Have yourself a great day.

www.fitnessindustryaccountants.com
www.facebook.com/andrewjamescrawford

Have a Wonderful Thursday
Love Rachel x