Are you a fitness professional who loves to train and provide consultation to clients?
Currently, you are working as many hours as possible, and charging as much as you can, and yet you have no sense of personal or financial security. And with the outbreak of COVID-19, people are scared to step into gyms and fitness clubs. At the same time, they are continuously searching for ways to keep them fit in the new normal. So, your fitness consultation business needs to move online because that is where the customers are.
Depending upon the needs and preferences of your clients, you can opt for a full-time online consultation business or a combination of both online and in-person fitness consultation.
Before starting the online fitness consultation venture, you need to chalk out everything and create a roadmap. In this blog, we will discuss how to do it the right way.
Know Your Customers & Their Interests!
Once you go online, the location takes the backseat while your online presence unlocks the unlimited potential client base. However, you will have to participate in the cut-throat competition as fitness consultants are aggressively moving online. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate your expertise areas and how you can succeed.
What kind of client do you wish to target? People desperately wanting to lose weight? New mothers looking for post-pregnancy plans? Athletes?
Rather than targeting all customers, you should narrow down your target audience. It is not necessary to be everywhere and offer everything. Showcase your best services and prove them with results that will further expand your customer base consistently.
Start Building Your Templates!
The reality is, most clients will fit fine into all types of categories. In any setting, the workout you write for a 40-year-old man who wants to lose belly fat will be pretty similar to the last one you wrote for that type of client. You can then continue to modify it over time as you see what does or does not work for this client, and as you develop a deeper understanding of your client’s goals and desires.
Choose An Online Platform!
So, where do you want to offer fitness consultation to your clients?
Instagram? But that’s a social media platform.
YouTube? Again, it is an online marketing tool that supports video content.
Web Portal? Yes, that’s good.
Mobile App? That’s perfect.
Many fitness consultants believe that with enormous followers on social media platforms, they can sell their consultation services quickly. More often than not, they fail at generating consistent business revenue from social media channels.
The most appropriate way to launch your online fitness consultation business is through a website or a mobile application or both (depends on your budget). A platform that offers everything in one place, right from the registration to payment to video consultation sessions. So, here is how to go about it:
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Choose a name for your business. It is essential because you will need to buy a domain name that represents your brand online on every channel or platform.
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Select web technology or app technology and platform to build your online fitness solution. Depending upon your target audience, you can choose Android or iOS platform. For web technology, you can go with the one that fits perfectly as per your business specifications and feature listing. Get a free consultation from us in case you are unsure about choosing the right technology or platform.
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Hire a team or company to develop your fitness solution. Using our guide on how to choose the right technology partner, you can shortlist and finalize the company that is best suited as per your needs and budget.
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Start marketing your solution and offer discounts and rewards for early registrations.
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Use your social media profiles to get traffic on your website or application and start selling your services professionally.
Deciding The Features Of Your Online Fitness Solution
An online fitness solution must have certain features as listed below:
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Client Profiles: When new clients sign up, the profiles will be created that will help the online consultants offer personalized fitness consultations and maintain records of each client individually.
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Video Consultation: This is the core feature that every online fitness solution should have. The live video conferencing helps in building strong customer relationships with a touch of personalization.
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Workout Templates: With pre-defined templates, it will be easier for fitness consultants to offer customized workout plans to different clients.
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Calorie Tracker: As people are becoming more aware of their fitness choices, a calorie tracker has become one of the significant features in any fitness solution.
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Diet Plans: Clients also prefer consultants who offer customized diet plans that work well with their lifestyle and routine.
You can add as many features as you wish depending upon your business model. However, with each feature or functionality that you add, the cost of your solution will increase.
Now, define your pricing strategy?
For your customer, pricing communicates more about your business than anything else you create, from marketing material to content. You can decide the charges according to the consultation requirements. Some require minimal fitness consultation while some need more, and therefore you need to create different formats for different types of clients.
There is no “right” or “best” price. There is only what’s best for you, and what makes sense within your business structure.
Some trainers can charge less because their businesses are set up for high volume, and for clients who will accept less personal attention in exchange for a lower price. Others can charge a lot more than the average rate because they are positioned to deliver a high level of personal service, and they know how to reach an audience willing to pay it.
Start with these four considerations:
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Your income goals
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The hourly value of your time
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The services you offer, and the related time it takes to deliver those services.
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A realistic assessment of how many hours you want to work, keeping in mind that online fitness consultation requires more time for building and marketing your business.
Create An Online Fitness Consultation Questionnaire
An online personal consulting questionnaire does not have the luxury of meeting a client in person, shaking hands, smiling, and responding to questions. To replicate the personalized experience, it has to do more than collecting information that will be helpful in accurate consulting.
In your web portal or mobile application, there should be a questionnaire that collects client data. The data is stored in client profiles, which helps in keeping track of their fitness journey. Moreover, you can easily customize the fitness and diet plan while referring to all the information in one place.
Choose A Payment Service/Gateway!
This step is simple yet crucial. If you are comfortable with PayPal and if it works in your country, there is no reason to look at anything else. It is easy to implement, fees are reasonable, and you can deposit money directly into your bank account for free. There are several other payment gateways that you can choose as per your country region and business requirements. Some of the popular payment gateway solutions are PayU, Payoneer, CCAvenue, Stripe, etc.
Do not get bogged down in trying to find the “best” option here. Identify what you need in a payment processing service, find the one that checks all the boxes, with fees you understand, and think are reasonable, and just go with it.
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Final Thoughts
Online fitness consultation is almost entirely unregulated. When giving any nutritional advice, you have to play by the rules, but no barriers are there when it comes to fitness. Anyone can go into business as an online fitness consultant, and they can work with anyone willing to hire them.
Online fitness consultancy enables fitness consultants to do what they enjoy the most while making more money, building a more sustainable career, and helping more people reach their goals. You cannot move forward in your profession until you learn how to coach fitness and nutrition online responsibly, effectively, efficiently, and confidently.
The Synergy Works can help you embark on your journey of building a sustainable online fitness consultation business. Get in touch with us to learn more.
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