The Fitness Business School – BONUS – COVID-19 Practical Tips

Full Transcript

Hey, Pat here and in this episode we’ve got some really important and practical tips on how you can best navigate the circumstances that we’re facing today. So let’s get to it.

Welcome to the fitness business school with Pat Rigsby, the podcast for fitness entrepreneurs who want to make more income, have greater impact, and enjoy more freedom in their ideal business. If you’d like an accelerated route to these goals, email me at [email protected] and put BGA in the subject line and I’ll get you all the details about our business growth accelerator program.

All right guys. So in this episode I wanted to share some thoughts with you on how to best navigate the circumstances that we’re currently facing today. You know, obviously just in the past few days, so many people have had to really reinvent their business model. They’ve had to shift from being really exclusively offline businesses for as long as they’ve been in business to for the most part, offering all of their services virtually. Yes, in a few exceptions or a few, um, rare cases, people are still open. Some people are in a situation where they can go to clients and do some sort of in home training and that sort of thing. But for the most part, people’s businesses have had to be reinvented in just a matter of days. I mean, that’s almost unprecedented when you think about it and it shows the adaptability and um, you know, the type of work we can do and the type of change that we can make when adversity strikes and we really are motivated to evolve. But I wanted to give you a few thoughts on how to approach this.

I think that I’ve certainly spoken at many points about saying that we need to take a leadership position and really kind of step up for our clients and for others in the community who feel like there’s a void of leadership. They want somebody that they can count on, they want somebody that they can trust in. Yeah, that’s tremendously important. And, you know, I’ll touch back on that a little bit in a couple moments, but I want to give you some other things that are maybe even more tangible and more practical to work with. But the first thing that I would tell you is no matter what, you can’t freeze, you can’t panic and, you know, just be reactive to what, what’s happening around you. And you know, what’s good is for the most part, the people that I’ve interacted with the most in our industry thus far, they haven’t frozen. They’ve, they’ve been moving now. They may not have moved quite as far as they need to or, um, put themselves in a position to, to thrive coming out of this later on or anything of that sort. But they’ve definitely not been at a standstill. And you know, if, if your just kind of evolving now, that would be, you know, key number one is you just can’t freeze. You can’t, you know, be unwilling to adapt. You can’t be somebody who’s just holding on saying, okay, well I’m just going to kind of stay put and not move into, um, whatever it is I need to do next. Whether it’s figuring out technology or, um, you know, trying to find ways to deliver more than just a workout. You just can’t stand still. Um, so know, knowing that and understanding that, um, you know, I want to give you some, some thoughts on what you do need to do since you understand you’re going to be in motion.

The first thing, the first priority is saving your current clients. Especially we’re talking about most businesses having a monthly recurring revenue base or a subscription model. You have to save your current clients. If you can save them now, they’re going to be with you for the long term. Let’s face it. You know, I mean, a lot of really, really powerful relationships are forged through adversity and this is an adverse situation. If you can be there for them, if you can help solve some of their problems, yeah, sure. You can’t solve all of their problems, but you can help relieve stress. You can help uh, really help them stay in a way that they’re feeling connected. You can show some leadership and give them some confidence. You can actually give them a sense of normalcy, right? Fitness is something that they can still exert a great deal of control over when a lot of the other things that are going on in their world that maybe they don’t have that much control over. So you definitely can be valuable to them.

But that’s, that’s the thing. Let’s face it, people are going to be cutting non-essentials and you know, from a practical standpoint, belonging to a training based facility is not an essential. Now we may understand how valuable it is and some of our clients may, but our objective during times like these is to continually reinforce, in many cases increase how valuable we are to the people we serve. Because if you’re pushing your value higher and higher and higher, when they do feel like they have to make cuts, they’re going to be a lot of things that they remove from their budget before they remove you. And that’s important because we don’t know exactly how long, any, uh, any of the things we’re going through right now are going to last. But what we do know is that every month that we can retain somebody that’s great for our bottom line, that allows us to, you know, put money in the bank and accrue some cash. It allows us to, um, you know, pay bills and potentially fend off debt. It allows us to potentially keep more people on staff. So every month you can, you can keep somebody with you. It allows you to operate as close to normal as you would like to, or at least as you can during the circumstances. And for them, it allows them to feel less isolated. It allows them to employ better self care, which is going to not only be valuable for them, but it’s going to be important for the people around them as well.

So save your client now, what can you do to save your clients? Well, you know, in a separate episode I spent a lot of time talking with my wife Holly about things that she has done to have incredible success and build a really strong culture and a really tight knit community virtually for 13 years now. So you know, a lot of things like going beyond the traditional workout and making people feel connected with other sorts of engagement opportunities. She does things called win share. She provides um, extra types of bonus events, whether it be different types of transformation challenges or any sort of progress based challenge like a um, you know, for her take back your morning challenge or a courage challenge. She does little bonus sessions like five minute feel good flows and all sorts of things like that. Because really so much of this is about the community in the connection. People can get workouts pretty much anywhere. I mean they can download apps, they can get any of these streaming subscription services that are relatively inexpensive. They can even go on YouTube and get something. So we have to differentiate from that and to take it a step further, be willing to put a lot of one-on-one time into people understand that this is kind of all hands on deck and this may mean that you’re texting in our percentage of your clients every day and you’re calling a couple of your clients everyday and you’ve got anybody that is still active on staff doing the same.

We need to stay as connected as we can possibly stay. And what you may find is that your relationships with clients actually improved during this point. I mean just in the short sample size we have thus far in the past week I’ve had dozens of business owners I work with express that saying, you know what, our, our clients love us now more than ever. Our clients feel closer to us now more than they ever have. And then you know, I have a feeling they’re going to get closer to one another. If you’re creating community environments, almost like little fireside chats, sorts of meetups where people can stay connected through tools like zoom in the like, um, you know, I think you really have some opportunities at your disposal there and frankly a lot of this stuff you’re probably going to say, you know what, maybe this should be part of my business all the time. I mean our businesses are going to need to evolve as we come out of this and get back into some semblance of normalcy and hopefully a lot of the things that we’re kind of forced to experience and learn during the, during the period that we’re going through now are things that are going to make us better for the long haul. Um, you know, so be sure to give people plenty of attention, be sure to make sure they feel connected and if that means your working 40% more than you normally work, you know what I mean?

Desperate times call for desperate, desperate measures, especially as a business owner. I know in the past week I’ve probably worked as much as I have in some months in, in years past. And, and that’s okay because this was a period where my clients needed me and I could play a leadership role and I could certainly provide them solutions and be a calming force just like you can for your clients. So, um, yes, number number one, save your clients.

Number two, if you’re going to market, and my suggestion is you are trying to grow your business right now. Just don’t be tone deaf, be sensitive, be empathetic. Make sure people understand that you understand what they’re going through and you want to provide a solution to make their life better right now. And you want to provide stress relief and you want to give them some sort of connectedness and you want to allow them to really feel like they’re in control of at least one facet of their life. So don’t be tone deaf, but put things out there. I mean, I’ve seen people in our communities, online, people that are coaching clients of ours actually grow their business and get more interest in online coaching than they’ve maybe ever had before. Because I do think people want to be connected. And I do think that if the place that they were training previously isn’t offering something that they want, they’re searching around, they want to plug in somewhere. I mean, we had a neighbor, um, reach out to Holly and have a conversation. A lady lives across the street from us and she’s been going, um, you know, a franchise Pilate studio for the last few years and, or for the last couple of years I guess. And she said it just, you know what, there she just didn’t feel like there. Yeah, there are streaming classes, but they, they weren’t leading. They weren’t really doing anything that made her feel like, man, I really want to do this if I’m going to be stuck at home, this is your opportunity to step up and do more and be more and play really meaningful role in your client’s lives and new people’s lives. So again, market get out there. You can charge money during this period. Don’t feel like everything needs to be pro bono. I mean, let’s face it, the economy needs businesses to succeed. So yes, do charge for your services and it would be a disservice to the clients that you have now if you bring in new clients and provide anything that resembles what your current clients are getting and you’re not charging for it.

So now beyond that, sure you can deliver massive amounts of free valuable information, lead magnets, videos, tips, suggestions, be everywhere on social media, anything that you’ve got the time to do, go out there and step up and be part of the solution. Be somebody who can help somebody who can have an impact. We’ve seen people giving away certain things, things that are really low touch, either automated systems through a tool like coach catalyst or giving away lead magnets of simple body weight workouts people can do at home or just posting videos, offering tips and insight and suggestions. And we’ve seen people grow their email list and grow their audience probably in some cases as much as they’ve grown it in the past six months. And that’s happened in just the past week. So there’s an opportunity out here for you to grow your reach, to grow your impact and to to acquire some new clients who may be looking around for a solution to navigate the circumstances they’re in now.

What else can you do? Well, I would tell you that you can probably start to look at your credit card statement and look for non-essential costs that you can cut. I mean, do you have little nickel and dime subscriptions that maybe you’re not using? Maybe you’ve got, you know, some sort of software that you use, some sort of editing software you’re using for social media or some auto posting thing that you can cancel and save a few dollars here or there. Maybe you can cut back on something. I mean from my standpoint, if you’re not using it, if it’s not really valuable to you now, cut it and come back to it when you need it. And I know when I’m saying this, I offer, in fact my entire business is based on subscription based solutions. So you know, do I want the people that, that we’re serving, they cancel? No, not at all. And that’s why I’m trying to provide is much value as I possibly can and my team is all doing the same. But if somebody is not deriving value from that, if they’re not engaging, if they’re not using it, then it probably doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for them to stay subscribed. They can come back at a later time. Um, and then, you know, a lot of people don’t necessarily want to talk about cutting payroll, but if you need to cut payroll, that doesn’t mean that we have to go from full compensation to zero. If you need to cut back on some people’s compensation for a period of time, um, you know, you’ve got to do what you’ve gotta do, stay in business because if you can’t stay in business, then you’re going to be cutting their, their pay permanently. So, you know, consider that, um, understand the, they’re probably not always able to provide as much to you in service right now, uh, is they would be if the facility was open.

So if you have to cut back a little bit, that’s fine. And also stay abreast of what they’re going to be able to do. I mean, as the recording of this podcast, there have not been any absolute specific signed off on, on what sort of relief that they’re going to get through a stimulus package. Um, and you know, you’re going to know some of that if they’re going to be getting a check for a specific amount of money in the mail, if they’re going to be able to offset some of the hours you reduce, even if you don’t reduce it completely by picking up unemployment. Are there things that they can do to, um, continue to pay their bills? Now this doesn’t need to be the first thing that you default to cut the things that you don’t need first and kind of work your way down the list. And, you know, I mean, be sensitive to, um, what somebody living situations like and if they’ve got a family to support and that sort of stuff. But keep in mind that, you know, all expenses need to be evaluated in times like this.

And then the next step would be to go and have a conversation with your landlord, have a conversation with anybody that you know, you’re having to spend money and support your ongoing payments. I mean, we’ve seen a few banks already moved due dates for credit cards or for loans. Um, you know, but go to your landlord and see if there’s any relief that can happen. If you can extend a loan, if you can get some relief now and, um, tack on some of what you’re reducing payments to be now onto the end or on to, um, payments six months down the road even. But negotiate and see what kind of relief they can give you. I mean, you know, obviously if you’ve got, um, an independent landlord and we’re not talking about some massive entity, they’ve got a mortgage to pay. So if you stop paying them all together, then they can’t pay their mortgage. So, you know, it’s not as simple as always is, Hey, they’re, you know, they can, they’re rich, they can handle it or something of that sort. Sometimes we, we have to be able to work with them and see if, um, you know, we can find a happy medium, but we also have to be realistic and, um, you know, and understand that they don’t want everybody to, to be, be out of the building and, um, you know, for them if they’re going through an eviction process, as I talked about in the episode with Amy Colotti, you know, I mean this isn’t instantaneous and they don’t want 80% vacancy. So, you know, I mean there, there’s some, some room to negotiate, but you have to be proactive about it. And then with other things, if things do get really tight, um, you know, consider making partial payments. I think it’s kind of common knowledge that most people will, uh, you know, be, be a lot happier if you’re paying something rather than if you’re ignoring them.

So communicate, be proactive, make some partial payments and then you know, over, over and above everything else understand that this eventually it will pass a, you need to take a proactive leadership based approach because if you don’t, you know, there are going to be businesses that don’t weather this storm. They’re going to be people in your market, in every market that go out of business. Now you more, more than anybody else, right? I mean not external variables, not your competition. I’m not your landlord, but you have the most control over whether or not you make it and are poised to be one of those standing after we kind of make it through the circumstances we’re in now. But you know, those clients of those other businesses that don’t make it are going to need somewhere to go. So if you can weather the storm, there will be more clients out in the market available for you. So, look, there are a few tips, very practical stuff, not necessarily, um, always exciting and optimistic, but some of it’s just stuff that we need to hear and we need to be a realist and we need to set ourselves up to succeed. So hopefully you enjoyed that. And I’ll be back more with, uh, well, I guess I’ll be back soon with more on these topics. See ya.

Thanks for listening. I’m giving away a bundle of my bestselling books, the ideal business formula, the fitness entrepreneur handbook in the path. All you have to do is go to patrigsby.com/podgift to get it. Also, make sure to subscribe to The Fitness Business School with Pat Rigsby so you don’t miss an episode and you get yourself on the fast track to creating your ideal business.