Eggs, Baskets and Spread Betting
There’s something to said for throwing yourself into something wholeheartedly. Whether it’s a new training programme or decision making on the sports field, I’ve often advocated that once you’ve made a choice you commit to it 100%. Sure, there are many choices that you can make when it comes to improving your fitness – programme design possibilities are endless. The same is true of a line break in rugby and you’re faced with a single defender – pass, side step or run straight? Some decisions may be wiser than others under certain circumstances but quite often there isn’t a wrong decision – but not making any decision or indecision can lead to disaster! Choose your direction and method and go for it!
However, there are some aspects of the personal training and fitness coaching industry where a little caution can be advantageous. When it comes to client selection you have to make sure that the people you choose to help are a good fit. Remember that potential clients will contact you because they believe you can help them improve some aspect of their health, fitness and lifestyle – but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you are the best person to help them. Firstly, you have to have the same agenda as your clients – whether its value for money, technical expertise, personality or one of the many other things that contributes to making up an effective personal training session, your clients agenda and expectations have to match your own. Any mismatch here results in poor results, less effective relationship and a waste of time and money.
Many budding fitness guru’s starting out are so keen to start helping people and to build a business that they can be tempted into accepting all clients, which is perfectly reasonable and understandable in the early stages. However, some people on a mission may decide that they need someone full time to travel with them around the world, or everyday – they’ve made a decision and they’re going for it – good for them. However, having one client occupying all of your diary, or a large proportion of it, may not be in the long term interests of a leading fulham personal trainer. Being available at the drop of a hat means that you leave yourself open to turning away valuable clients. Having a varied client base is important because it helps to keep you fresh as a trainer and it also safeguards you from a significant loss of income should a client need to cease training (which can happen for many reasons). The exercise trainer who sells exclusive rights to one person becomes very vulnerable if their client is suddenly unable to train – back to square one. Therefore, my advice for most personal trainers in Fulham is not to put all of your eggs in one basket – spread your client base and stabilise your security.
This article was written by personal fitness trainer Nathan Kelly – find on Google+