By Dave Tate
THE BUSINESS OF STRENGTH
If I had to put a number on it, I've spent more than 50,000 hours inside a gym training, coaching, managing, or teaching. If you stack the time end to end, that's over six straight years.
Out of that, more than 30,000 hours were spent on the gym floor, including personal training, spotting lifters, running sessions, helping people correct their form, and teaching them how to push through what they thought they couldn't.
My first real job in this industry was in 1986 when I started as a personal trainer. Back then, that job bore little resemblance to its current form. There weren't any certifications or fancy titles. You worked in a gym, trained people, and learned by doing it wrong a few dozen times until you finally figured it out.
Through college, I managed a gym, wrote programs, and trained anyone willing to attend. I didn't care about the money — I just wanted to learn how to make people stronger.
The business side came later — and not because I wanted it to. It came out of necessity. It is essential to note that throughout this time, my primary goal was to become the best Powerlifter I could be. It can be said with confidence that there was no second priority.
After training with Louie at Westside, I started helping him with seminars around the country. We'd show up, run through the conjugate method, and teach lifters how to apply it.
During those seminars, I saw something important — a gap between those who wanted to learn and those who had access to real information. Everything that existed back then was either bodybuilding fluff or academic theory that didn't translate to the gym. There wasn't a platform that bridged that gap.
That realization became the seed for elitefts
When I founded the company in 1998, I wasn't thinking about building a brand or an online store. I wanted to create a space where lifters, coaches, and strength enthusiasts could find the information I wish I had when I was starting - thus, a Q&A format with articles interspersed throughout.
The original goal was simple: educate, outfit, and support the strength community to live, Learn, and pass on. The problem was that education doesn't pay for itself.
We needed a way to fund the mission without turning into just another sales company. So we started selling the same equipment we used. The bars, racks, benches, and accessories weren't just products but tools we believed in. Every sale helped keep the educational content free. That was the deal then, and it's still the deal now.
Over time, I learned that the strength business is its own training. It demands the same focus, patience, and willingness to fail that you need under the bar. The weights test your body, the business tests everything else.
You learn how to deal with risk. You understand what loyalty really costs. You discover that "passion" is a great motivator, but it doesn't cover the costs of shipping, payroll, or overhead.
And you learn that making a living doing what you love is much harder than most people think — not because of the work itself, but because of what it asks you over time.
At first, it's exciting. You're building something out of nothing—You're proud of the logo, the brand, the mission. But after a few years, it's easy to lose track of why you started.
The stress piles up, margins tighten, and the same thing that once fueled you starts draining you. That's when the lessons from the gym begin to matter most — because business requires the same kind of resilience. You must keep showing up, learning, and adjusting, even when nothing feels like it's moving.
That's what this section is about — the *other* side of strength.
The part that isn't often discussed.
This is the moment when the barbell becomes a business, and the passion that got you here has to evolve into purpose and structure if you want to keep it alive.
It's about learning how to balance the love of the craft with the weight of responsibility.
It's about figuring out how to continue giving without exhausting yourself.
And most importantly, it's about realizing that the same principles that make you strong in the gym — consistency, honesty, patience, and effort — are the ones that will keep your business, your passion, and your mission standing decades later.
There is NO WAY I can touch on every aspect of the strength business in this one section, nor can I list out the most important. I can note the most visible.
The Passion Price Tag
"Everybody says they coach for passion — until rent's due."
Observation:
Everyone who says "I coach for passion, not money" eventually raises their rates.
Expansion:
"Everybody says they coach for passion — until rent's due."
Everyone who says, "I coach for passion, not money," eventually raises their rates. And that's' not hypocrisy — that's' growth.
When you start, you'll train people for free to be in the game. You'll give advice, write programs, and spend hours helping others because you love it. You're obsessed with the process, progress, and the feeling of being part of someone's journey. You tell yourself that money doesn't matter — and in the beginning, it probably doesn't. The experience itself is the payment.
But over time, reality steps in. Bills don't care about passion. You start realizing that knowledge has value — and experience has even more. Every hour you spend with a client, every year under the bar, every mistake you've learned from — that all compounds into expertise. And expertise should be compensated.
The mistake isn't' charging for your time; it's' believing that charging changes your integrity.
It doesn't.
The barbell doesn't' judge you by what you earn — only by what you put in.
If you're good at what you do and genuinely care about helping others, charging for your services isn't selling out — it's scaling your impact. Because when you charge reasonably, you can sustain your mission. You can serve more people with greater focus for a longer period.
But here's the part nobody likes to talk about — there's a difference between Value and Market Value.
You may believe you're worth hundreds of dollars an hour — and honestly, maybe you are. The internet reminds you to "know your worth," and that's good advice. You should know your worth. But the bigger, more complex question is: What is your Market Value?
In other words, what will the market actually pay for your services? What is the return on investment you offer to those paying you?
However, that may not always align with what you think you're worth.
That gap between Value and Market Value is where much frustration lives.
It's where you see great coaches struggling to make ends meet and average ones cashing in. It's not fair — but it's reality. The market doesn't always reward knowledge; it rewards perceived results. The good news is, you can bridge that gap with experience, reputation, and proof.
If you can produce results, communicate effectively, and truly help people, your Market Value will rise to meet your actual value. But you can't fake that process. It takes time. You build it one athlete, client, and success story at a time.
When I started Elitefts, we provided more free information than anyone else in the industry — and people thought it was crazy. Many were also angry because what we were giving away was better than what they were charging a premium for.
But that free education wasn't' devaluing the brand. It was building trust, reputation, and reach.
That trust eventually became the foundation of our business. That's how value becomes Market Value.
So, yes — coach for passion. But understand that passion alone doesn't pay your mortgage. Passion is the foundation; value is the structure; and Market Value keeps the lights on.
The goal isn't' to stop loving what you do — it's' to build something that lets you keep doing it.
Because if your passion burns out under financial pressure, nobody wins.
The ones who last in this field are the ones who learn how to balance purpose with practicality — and understand that charging for your expertise doesn't' make you greedy.
It means you finally understand what it costs to keep your passion alive.
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