The Vision: Competition
The first installment of this series – The Vision – was published during our 2009 holiday rush.
4 Tips for the Aspiring Strength Coach
Zach Even-Esh and Joe DeFranco didn’t become strength coaches overnight, they had to start somewhere.
Under the Bar: The Vision
Wow, the question of all questions! This is the one that drove me nuts in the early years.
Turning Dreams into Reality...
On November 30th I will finally open my own gym—Daman’s Strength Training. This has been a dream of mine ever since I walked into my first gym when I was 12-years-old. I walked down to the gym every day after school with a few friends.
From The Mill 12/16/2009
Dave Tate answers your business and training questions while…. On The Mill. Topics include reading material, mentoring and bicep pain.
The 10,000 Hour Phenomena: If You Want More, Be More!
Ten thousand hours. According to Malcolm Gladwell in his book, Outliers, that’s how much time industry leaders have committed to their chosen vocation.
Lessons Learned from Two Summers in Business
At my facility this past summer, I was lucky enough to have the privilege of coaching 40 different athletes four times a week. This was double the amount of kids that I was responsible for the previous summer, so it was really exciting to watch the business grow.
Paying the Correct Price
“Nature cannot be tricked or cheated. She will give up to you the object of your struggles only after you have paid her price.” —Napoleon Hill
How to Open a Warehouse Gym, Part 2
In part one of “How to Open a Warehouse Gym,” you learned of my struggles as a student of fitness, a personal trainer, and an employee of a mega-sized “health club,” where most worthy trainers are treated like cogs in the big malfunctioning machine of the fake fitness facade.
Five Huge Training Business Mistakes
Running a personal training facility isn’t easy, but it’s not rocket science either. Since starting Synergy Athletics, I’ve learned a lot through trial and error (emphasis on a lot of error).
Six Strategies for Surviving Tough Economic Times as a Personal Trainer
Some personal training businesses are struggling mightily right now, but others are thriving. Why? What’s the difference between the two?
Making the Most Out of Your Internship
An aspiring strength and conditioning coach’s first taste of training athletes usually begins with an internship. While interning, there are many things you can do right and a million things you can do wrong.
How Henry Ford Wrecked Your Gym
When Henry Ford invented the automobile, it nearly bankrupted him—more than once. It’s a popular story, a testament to perseverance and belief in oneself. It’s quoted by business gurus and fans of Americana. It’s retold to aspiring entrepreneurs and turned into near poetry by the self-help industry.
How to Open Your Own Warehouse Gym
When I was four-years-old living in Long Island with my parents, my uncle ran into some hard times. He had just gone through a tough divorce at the age of only 23
Recession Strategies for Fitness Trainers
Two shoe salesmen from competing companies were assigned by their firms to sell shoes in the middle of the jungle in Africa.
The Five “Cs” of Successful Fitness Entrepreneurs
After being around some of the most financially successful fitness professionals in North America a few weeks ago, the difference between them and the typical trainer struggling to stay afloat became very evident.
Are you playing with a full deck?
Here is a question I was just asked on the Q and A. I do not watch or read the news in regards to political issues so my answer is based solely on the issues I deal with on a day to day basis with no BS or political agenda. It is what it is…
How to Run a Successful Gym During the Recession, Part I
The goal of this series is to give aspiring strength coaches and fitness professionals the optimism and tools required to get things rolling quickly, easily, and without a loan or business partners.
How to Receive Automatic Referrals from Your Personal Training Clients
If you don’t have a referral system in place, you’re losing dozens of potential new clients. Check out this system and learn the right way to ask for referrals. (If you do this wrong, you will lose clients!)
How to Get the Most Traffic (and Money) From Your YouTube Videos
In 2006, Google spent a lot of money ($1.4 billion) to buy YouTube. Fortunately for you, Google is a smart company and isn’t going to waste that investment.
Passion into Profit EliteFTS Small Business Conference Feb. 2009
This was certainly different. I mean, it’s not every day that I get an email from Dave Tate, and I have never, and I mean never, ever been invited to train with him. If I was excited to attend this seminar before, well, that had just been ratcheted up by a factor of eleven!
Eight Marketing Mistakes That Fitness Pros Make
We all make mistakes. And when it comes to marketing, most of us make some really silly ones. Unfortunately, we seem to keep making those same mistakes over and over again.
Five “Web 2.0” Marketing Tips for Personal Trainers
The internet changes fast and personal trainers interested in harnessing its power for marketing purposes need to keep up. The landscape has changed. Simple websites that act as a static business card are no longer enough
The Top Six Ways to Quickly and Easily Increase Your Revenue per Client
You’ve got your marketing in order and have a steady flow of prospects coming in, and you’re converting those prospects to clients at a high rate. Now, you need to get them to spend more money when they do spend.
elitefts Roundtable: Office Space
Let’s face it – for most of the members of the EliteFTS Q&A staff, the internet has been both a blessing and a curse
How to Recession Proof Your Approach to Selling Personal Training
During a recession, people still spend money. They just don’t spend it in the same places that they do when the economy is surging ahead.
The Entity of Respect
Following my article, “The Age of the Perpetually Entitled,” there was a common theme to the emails that I received. The point made in these emails was that most, if not all, of the “entitled” lack respect yet expect to be respected by their peers. This is a common and recurring issue in athletics and in the workplace.
Making It Work
As a powerlifter, grad student, father, and husband, I hear piles of insane BS from the general populace. “Wow, I could never do that.” “You can lift how much?” “You must be on steroids.” “I used to do that and then I broke ____.”
The Fastest Way to Becoming a Local Fitness Celebrity
Many personal trainers have heard that a great way to grow their business is to become a local fitness celebrity. However, many don’t have any idea how to do this.
Age of the Perpetually Entitled
Recent posts on EliteFTS and events at the workplace have prompted me to write this article.
Back and Forth: An Interview with Dave Tate and Alwyn Cosgrove
AC: Dave, you’re an Elite powerlifter and own one of the most successful strength training equipment companies in existence—and by extension a website that has become one of the best educational companies in the field. So, what’s the plan from here?
Summer Season Marketing for Personal Trainers
Most personal trainers see a drop off in revenues during the summer. And while some see it as a reason to panic, astute fitness professionals know it is the perfect time to spend working on marketing.
So You Wanna Be a Personal Trainer?
Let’s face it. Every gym rat has at one point looked sideways at a personal trainer and said, “I could do that.”
Sales Prospecting for Personal Trainers
If you’re struggling to close sales as a personal trainer, it may be because you’re missing a crucial step…
Five Simple Tips for Endless Personal Training Referrals
Referrals are the lifeblood of any business. This is particularly true for personal trainers. However, just turning your clients into “walking, talking billboards” isn’t enough to create an endless stream of referrals. You need to do something more. It’s very simple…
Under the Bar: Law of Attraction
First off, if you’re going to bother with this, at least listen or read the Wayne Dyer stuff. I feel the “other” stuff is a jacked up crock of shit.
What to do with Scared Clients and Partners
For many, nothing changed at the turn of the millennium. However, my life shifted entirely. That New Year’s Eve, I found myself in an outdoor barn watching the ball drop on a tiny TV screen with 30 of my all time closest friends.
Under the Bar Honesty - Under The Bar Excerpt
One of the biggest promises I have ever made in my life was made to a woman I knew for only a few days and will probably never see again. Yet, that promise had a major impact on many lives and will continue to for many years to come.
Seven Time Wasters Ruining Your Personal Training Business
“Time is your most precious commodity.” This may very well be the most overused cliché there is. However, overused clichés typically have one thing in common.
Quantity Versus Quality
Again, you pay for the program—the information—not how many pages it is spread out over. But apparently that’s not how some people think.
Project Management: The Future of Personal Training?
Let’s throw an idea around…
We are both personal trainers. Both of us charge $100 per session. We are hired by two identical twin females who want to drop 20 lbs of fat.
Corporate Strength—Knowledge Management
But you know what? The seriousness of the situation is your fault. Not because you were messing around with his girlfriend at the time, but because you did not prepare yourself and your business to accommodate the impact of this type of situation.
Opening Your Athletic Training Facility An EliteFTS Roundtable Discussion
There have been many questions about opening a training facility for athletes. Our group of athletic specialists chimed in and gave us some tips on how to get this done.
13 Sales “Basics” for Fitness Professionals
Every successful fitness professional is a proficient salesperson. And by “successful” I mean those who aren’t forced to find another career because of their lack of business skills or desire to improve them. Here are 13 sales “basics” to improve your ability to sell your services.
A Visit to Defranco’s
Like everyone else who peruses Elitefts.com on a daily – hell, let’s call it hourly – basis, I’ve turned into something of a fan of the site’s incredibly eclectic cast of characters: guys just like me, only significantly stronger, who’ve dedicated their lives to hoisting more iron than anyone else in the gym.
Under the Bar - The Letter
Needless to say I spent the next hour or so tossing ideas around and keep coming up blank.
Under the Bar - The Primary Aim
Since my first Under the Bar article and now after the release of the Under the Bar book I have been asked one question more than any other.
Under the Bar: Feedback
One of the first things I learned to appreciate was feedback in the weight room.
Under the Bar - Risk Management
Risk is one factor that can and will make or break you. There are many types of risks you can take and trying to organize them in an easy way is not as easy as you may think.
Letter of Appreciation
I am sending this in an email as I am unable to get the entirety of my
message across within the max characters allowed for a q and a post.
Under the Bar
Over the past couple years I have seen a shift in the type of questions I receive each day.