Have you ever considered opening your own training facility? If so, you probably have some experience as a trainer in a gym or as a strength coach for a sports team. You've likely helped a lot of people reach results and improve their lives. Maybe you even have your own list of impressive strength and athletic accomplishments. Why spend your time working for someone else, in their gym, making money for them instead of yourself?
Or maybe you don't work in the strength and conditioning industry at all, and it's simply something you've found you're exceptionally skilled at. More than a hobby, it's something you not only love but also are very good at. Why spend hours upon hours at a day job you hate when you could instead spend it in the gym, a place you love? It only makes sense to start your own gym, fulfill your passion, and make boatloads of cash in the process, right?
RECENT: Reflecting on Strong(er) Business: elitefts Fitness Professionals Summit
Not so fast, according to Dave. In this video from the Strong(er) Business: elitefts Fitness Professional Summit, Dave has a very clear message for anyone interested in starting their own business, whether it's a training facility or another business: it's going to be harder than you think.
Dave says that if you get into business and think it's going to be easy, you're going to find out very quickly you're wrong. There will be times you're going to want to quit. There will be times you're going to hate it. And when it's all said and done, it will be so stressful that it will take years off your life. These are things that you need to know and understand before you start. It isn't going to be an easy journey and you aren't going to automatically makes hundreds of thousands of dollars — despite what all of your friends may think. Take Dave, for instance: it was six years before he started really making money as a business owner. Despite what everyone thinks, not every business owner is a millionaire — and most of the time no one knows what the hell it means to be a millionaire anyway.
The main thing you need to know upfront before starting your business is that it's going to challenge you more than anything else ever has, and you have to have the strength to persevere. You have to be able to handle adversity and overcome it. Without adversity, there's no prosperity, and that's what you need to embrace from the very beginning as a business owner.
But there's good news: it will get better with time. What felt like the most stressful thing in the world during Dave's fourth year in business wouldn't even register on his scale now after two decades. That adversity is what prepares you to be successful and it's what enables you to handle the bigger challenges that will come your way.
