My golden rule of life? Life’s too short to NOT eat the cookie! Dry shampoo is ALWAYS a good idea. And if you can’t tone it, tan it! (Kidding! Only kinda sorta. But really, always wear sunscreen fam)
My golden rules in business for fitness professionals, fitness studios, online business coaches and creatives? Equally as simple and relatable. Ready to change your life and business in 5 simple steps?
Here we go.
1. Timeliness Matters - Start and End On Time: To quote an old coach, “early is on-time, on-time is late, and if you’re late don’t bother showing up.” If you take one thing from this week’s blog, it’s this: start and end classes and session on-time. People have given you time out of their day to workout, learn or be inspired. *honor that.* Your time with them might be the only 45-mins they have that day before going back to parenthood, work or life.
Full disclosure - I have a guilty habit of running over, both in class and consults. I’ve learned it’s nasty habit I have to break, and here’s why:
When you run over your allotted training or class time, you’re now working on their time. I know a lot of instructors or coaches think “but they’re getting this extra 5 minutes for free!” While that’s true and generous of you, they probably have places to go and things to do, and you are now delaying them. You don’t get to have a say in what people need to do the times outside the boundaries of your class.
When you run over your allotted time for coaching or creative sessions (and before you roll your eyes, know it happens allllll the time) you are telling your client that you (inadvertently): 1) Don’t have boundaries to pause the conversation, which is probably because, 2) In a way that you don’t value your own time. As evidenced by the fact that you’re letting someone else drive your schedule. Let that sink in for a sec.
2. Payment First, Service Second: Sure, there are some instances when you pay after the service - restaurants, car washes, manicures. Coaching and training aren’t those times. Because unless you want to hunt someone down, chase down an invoice, or keep sending reminder texts, you need to take the money upfront.
I recommend a scheduling system that allows you to integrate a payment processor (PayPal, Stripe) into the booking and requires a credit card to hold the time. It also ensures that in the event of late cancellation or no-show you still get paid. If that’s too much, require a Venmo payment to secure a time.
Handle the business first. And then get to the fun stuff.
3. Know Your Competition, Always: I really, truly wholeheartedly believe there is room at the top for ALL of us. Someone else’s success will not stunt yours unless you let it, and you should never feel guilty about doing well. That said, there’s nothing stopping me from getting to where I want to be faster, stronger or with less road bumps, and there is NOTHING to feel guilty about with that.
To know who and what else is out there is your exact market is KEY to your success. Because once you know what is, and isn’t out there, you can be that person. Fill that void. Provide that service. Do it better, because it’s you doing it. You can also compare prices, business models, best practices, and *gasp* even find an ally and team up with them to crush it even better.
4. Never Stop Learning from Those Around You: I hate to be the one to break it to you, but you really don’t know everything. Yup, you can be a seasoned expert, have alllll the diplomas or just be a genius, but there is ALWAYS something more you can learn. And I’m not talking book smarts, I’m talking practical experiences and interpersonal skills. How to build a better playlist. How to compose your downloadable guides better. A better way to transfer photo files.
There is always, always, always something you can improve on. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s really freaking cool.
5. Love What You Do with Every Ounce of You Because You’re Going to Work: There’s this annoying motto floating around that says, “love what you do and you’ll never work a day in your life.” The reality is, I LOVE what I do. I’m passionate about, it fuels me, excites me and inspires. But I bust my butt, every single day, weekends, late nights, and holidays. It’s work. Work is good.The connotation that work is bad needs to be thrown out, because sharing our work with others is our purpose.
But if you’re going to make a business out of that passion? You have to LOVE the crap out of it because you’ll be living in it 24/7 for the next few years. You’re going to be selling it, talking about it, promoting it, and doing it, every day on repeat. You’re going to explaining to people why what you love is worth caring about or buying. You’re going to have the *exact* same conversation with clients a hundred times and recite the same sales pitch a million times.
Make sure that you love for what you do outweighs the work you’re going to do.
Short and sweet this week fam (just like me)
xx, D