Alloy Personal Training Business

Before getting into the fitness business, you need to decide which type of owner you want to be. Either the owner-operator or an investor, also known as an absentee owner. Neither of these two ownership structures is wrong or right. We talk about the pros and cons of each and also the type of person who fits into each of them.An owner-operator is somebody who is deep in the operations of the business. They work in the business. An owner-operator can have higher profit margins because they can tightly control the operations besides occupying the Director of Training position. They are usually a technician who decides to own a business. The cons of an owner-operator are that they are getting into a job. They might find trouble getting out of this job.An investor is normally someone who has a higher business acumen who wants to scale up to multiple locations by executing the systems of the franchise they have partnered with. They initially invest more capital because they need more people but their return on investment is much higher in the long run. This type of owner will need entrepreneurial and leadership skills to build a team to manage the business. Key TakeawaysDeciding the type of fitness business owner, you want to be (02:20)Who is an owner-operator and what do they do (04:13)An owner-operator can make more profits by tightly controlling the operations (06:14)Why it makes sense for owner-operators to work with a franchise (08:49) The cons of an owner-operator fitness business model (11:51)Why an investor has a higher return on investment in the long run (17:49)The cons of an absentee owner fitness business model (22:49)Why the Alloy Franchise appeals to both type of owners (27:46)Additional Resources:www.AlloyPersonalTraining.comLearn About The Alloy Franchise Opportunity---------You can find the podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.If you haven’t already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts!

With the COVID environment, many gym and clients are now understanding why large group training is not the ideal model. If you are looking to transition to small group personal training or are looking to get into the fitness business, listen to this episode to understand how the staffing structure in a small group personal training model looks like from the lens of the Alloy Franchise. The Director of Training is the most impactful position in this model. The responsibilities for this position include driving revenue, closing sales, asking for referrals, driving retention, running accountability sessions, and managing the team. They understand all the metrics of the business in addition to laying out the roadmap for clients from where they are and where they are going. The front desk position, which we call the Director of Customer Experience is another very important position in this model. This is the face of the gym. It is the first person clients interact with when they walk in. They are responsible for taking calls from leads. This person must be energetic, upbeat, wear a smile all day, and be customer-centric in all that they do. Coaches are the other position in this model. With about 300 clients, you need three full-time coaches and one part-time coach. They will comfortably cover all the shifts and service all the clients. Tune in to this episode to learn all about the staffing structure in the small group personal training model.Key TakeawaysWhy small group personal training model is the way to go for the fitness business (01:59)The role and responsibilities of Director of Training in small group personal training model (03:37)Why the Director of Training is more than sales (07:42)?The roles of the Director of Customer Experience (15:09)How many coaches do you need for a small group personal training model (21:03)A coach needs to be good with people then they can learn technique and programming (24:50)Communication between the Director of Training, Coaches and the Director of Customer Experience (27:07)The relentless pursuit of doing the small things well over time makes this model work (32:06)Additional Resources:www.AlloyPersonalTraining.comLearn About The Alloy Franchise Opportunity---------You can find the podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.If you haven’t already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts!

The word classes in the fitness industry carry a certain awareness and expectation as far as price is concerned. It also carries a certain expectation as to what will happen. Think of it like music and busting a move like in a Zumba class. This is very different from what personal training is and that why we avoid using the word classes to refer to what we do.The concept of small group personal training is not yet well understood. That’s why the temptation to refer to it as a class is high. Small group personal training is very detailed and a lot of small things need to happen to make it really personal training and not a small class. It is more or less like one on one personal training but done in a small group to make it more affordable.Small group personal training gives the benefit of personalized attention and personalized programming that takes care of a client’s fitness goals, fitness levels, injuries, etc. You then add the sense of community and training with your peers that lack in one on one setting. This comes with group accountability. All these benefits make this model a very good one that is different from one on one personal training and definitely different from classes.Listen in to learn more about all the nuances of small group personal training and how the Alloy Franchise helps you run this model to serve the target market that wants personalized attention Key TakeawaysThe difference between classes and small group personal training (02:34)How to do warm-ups for different service layers in the gym (07:40)Having a clean clear customer journey in the gym 10:12)Should you be on the clock for small group personal training (11:55)Why you should not sell time but program and results in personal training (15:00)How to do demonstrations for exercises in small group personal training (20:15)Why 6 is the right size for us to run small group personal training (25:57)Doing a proper small group personal training warm-up (27:30)How a coach manages six clients during the workouts at the same time (29:34)Using the term sessions rather than classes and making it nuanced in small group personal training (35:34)Additional Resources:www.AlloyPersonalTraining.comLearn About The Alloy Franchise Opportunity---------You can find the podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.If you haven’t already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts!

Ascension business model basically means the journey you take your customer though in your business. It can be based on revenues, or it could be in the programming. It is what you offer the customer so that they can be involved in the brand for a long time. The more the customer feels connected to the brand the more they will spend.You are only going to lose a customer if you run of things to sell them. If you think about that, then you understand the ascension model. You also understand why by not taking your customer on the ascension process, you are actually doing them a disservice. Customers want to reach their goals while you want more revenue. This is a win-win for both of you.However, all the ascending services must be related to the client’s goals. You cannot just sell anything that is outside of their goals. If you're not ascending people over time, you are going to lose them since they want to reach their goals.Listen in to understand the ascension business model and learn some examples of ascending services you can offer in a gym. Key TakeawaysWhat is the concept of ascension in a fitness business (04:14)You are doing your customers a disservice by not selling them other services that may help them reach their goals (06:26)You're only going to lose a customer when you run out of things to sell them (08:11)How the ascension model works on the revenue side of the business (10:51)Some examples of items you can sell to your members in addition to gym subscription (15:16)How the ascension model improves your customer retention rates (19:15)Why your ascending services must be related to the client’s goals (22:43)Ascending model in relation to gym programming (23:51)Finding revenue opportunities by offering solutions to client’s problems (28:59)If you're not ascending people over time, you are going to lose them (30:58)Additional Resources:www.AlloyPersonalTraining.comLearn About The Alloy Franchise Opportunity---------You can find the podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.If you haven’t already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts!

Gyms across different states have been unfairly targeted with the shutdowns, without any relevant data showing that they are responsible in any way for spreading the virus. Some gyms have been closed again which is very frustrating. In the episode, we look at the kind of business model you need moving forward.First off, we believe that in-person gym training will not go away. People will still need to come back to the gym for the social and community aspects of it. However, you also need to have virtual training in place for circumstances such as these and for those people who may prefer it.You need to be equipped with the technology, staffing and structure to go virtual. So, the best business model is a combination of the two; live training and virtual. For clients who prefer to come to the gym, you have to build their confidence with the cleaning, and social distancing protocols.Having the tools and expertise to pivot in either direction should be the goal of any gym. That way, whatever happens, you don’t lose your members because you can’t really predict what will happen in the future as we have learned so far. In addition, coming out of this, we’ll have some people who will prefer to continue training virtually. This creates another income source for your gymKey TakeawaysThe implications of gym getting closed again across different states (00:53)In-person training in the gym will not go away (05:42)Being equipped with the technology, staffing, and structure to run both live and virtual training (07:08Having the right tools to service personal training clients (11:19)Why franchises will be forced to disclose how COVID affected their financials going forwards (20:18)How a hybrid model works best to service all personality types (23:15)Being ready to pivot quickly in either direction by having the right assets in place (25:51)Additional Resources:www.AlloyPersonalTraining.comLearn About The Alloy Franchise Opportunity---------You can find the podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.If you haven’t already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts!

Our programs are geared towards a full-body workout every time a client walks in. There is no metabolic benefit to doing body part workouts. This means within the hour they are here, we ensure that the programming gets them some mobility, stability, metabolic and emotional work. The full-body workout is very efficient.In every workout, we get four main movements and two core movements. The four main movements are pushing, pulling, hip dominant, and knee dominant. These four patterns are compound movements that involve a lot of muscles at the same time. The two main core movements are anti-extension and anti-rotation movements. These are about resisting movement and remaining as stable as possible to strengthen the core.In addition, to these four compound movements and two core movements, we have a metabolic finisher to raise the heart rate. This is for cardiovascular health and an emotional workout for the client. We talked about this in the previous episode.There is so much science and thought that goes into building these great programs. Tune to learn how we use the best programming conventions to come up with custom programs for every client. Key TakeawaysWhy our programs are geared towards a full-body workout every time (01:05)The four compound movements that we use for our programs (04:26)Resistance core movements to stabilize the core (08:44)The core is meant to prevent movement, not to create movement (11:30)Our programming is scientific and systematic (12:24)How we create custom programs but within the best programming conventions (13:35)The three levels of fitness we place our clients and how we do it (16:44)How we accommodate health history, injuries and different fitness levels to build truly great programs (25:06)Additional Resources:www.AlloyPersonalTraining.comLearn About The Alloy Franchise Opportunity---------You can find the podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.If you haven’t already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts!

Welcome to another episode of the Alloy Personal Training Business Podcast. In this two-part series, we break down the process we go through to design great programs for our clients. We explain in detail the how and why of what we do. Today’s episode is part one, and we go through the process through which we figure out where to place the client into the programming.Once a client comes to us, we have the starting point session. We are trying to get as much information about them as possible. We call it peeling of the onion or golden needs analysis. We take their health history and their fitness goals. We take note of any injuries they may have now, or they had in the past, their pain motivator, and their expectations.We then marry the health history with the measurements of the Functional Movement Screen. The FMS is a scientific way to measure movement. In our case, we use an abbreviated version called Modified Screen, which is appropriate for the general population.  We then tie this with their health history to determine what programming to place them on. We place our clients into four quadrants based on a scored system. So all clients fit in one of the four quadrants. Listen in to this episode and learn more about this process and how to determine the right program for every client. Key TakeawaysGetting the health history of a client during their first session with us (04:07)Using the Functional Movement Screen to place our clients in either one of four quadrants (05:39)Marrying health history and functional movement screen scores (08:03)How many our clients fall in the second and third quadrants (09:21)Why you may have to refer people in the fourth quadrant for medical help (12:48)How we accommodate our client’s emotional needs in the programming (15:48)Additional Resources:https://www.functionalmovement.com/www.AlloyPersonalTraining.comLearn About The Alloy Franchise Opportunity---------You can find the podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.If you haven’t already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts!

Today, we talk about the technologies we use at Alloy, how we use them, and why we picked each one over others in the market. We begin with the CRM. This is the software that runs your business. At Alloy, we use MindBody as our CRM, we took advantage of the coaching they offer, to learn more about it then simplified and customized it for our model. We closed off all the options that didn’t relate to our model.The reason we decided to work with MindBody is that their customer interface is excellent. This is very important as our clients can schedule and maneuver with ease. For the backend, as with any other CRM, you have to invest time and money to figure out how it works.One guiding principle for picking software to work with is simplicity and that the software should enhance human engagement not eliminate it. A personal conversation beats an automated message all the time. Besides lead management, we use Mind Body for communication, billing, and scheduling, which it does well.For our franchisees, we have a backend dashboard where we see their high-level metrics. This way, we can see where they are doing well and where they might be having trouble and look at ways to coach them. Lastly, we talk about our Alloy app and how it helps us improve the customer experience and how it came in handy during the lockdown as we pivoted to virtual training. Listen in to this great episode and learn more about the different fitness technologies available in the market and how to pick the best to work with. Key TakeawaysWhy we use Mind Body as our CRM (02:57)Using Frederick as our lead management software and marketing suite (06:54)Technologies should drive better human engagement not replace it (10:35)How MindBody handles scheduling well for a personal training model (17:01)Why we use Zipwhip for communication with our clients (20:10)The software we use to run our reward system and why we chose it (23:44)How the Alloy app helps us improve the customer experience (32:08)Additional Resources:www.AlloyPersonalTraining.comLearn About The Alloy Franchise Opportunity---------You can find the podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.If you haven’t already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts!

Most of our clients who come to the gym have a secondary goal of fat loss especially the ladies. It is our duty as fitness professionals to figure out how they can achieve these goals. There is the misconception that some people think that for fat loss you have to do cardio. They have been led to believe that the intensity of cardio burns calories and helps lose fats. However, strength training is how to lose fat. In as much as cardio may be more enjoyable and appealing to a lot of people, it is not as effective in fat loss as strength training. Natalie takes us through why this is the case and shares her experience coming from running seven days a week to strength training four days a week and slowing down on the cardio. To achieve better results sooner, Natalie advises women that they should cut back on the running, biking, and cardio and do more strength training. This way, you’ll feel better, your hormones will be happier, you’ll have less inflammation and you’ll sleep better. This is how you create the right environment for fat loss and getting leaner. Some women have the fear that strength training will get them big. This is not true. You become lean and achieve your fat loss goals sooner. It will also make you feel better physically and mentally.Listen in to this episode and learn some other interesting facts about strength training and fat loss.Key TakeawaysWhy you’ll achieve better results through strength training (03:41)Cutting back on cardio despite enjoying it for the bigger goal of leanness (05:44)Why strength training won’t make women get big, but will make them lean (09:37)Doing more will not result in more results and may reverse your gains (12:24)What is strength training and how to go about it safely (14:50)How over-exercising messes up your hormones and works against you (20:10)Creating the right environment for fat loss through strength training, sleep, and nutrition (21:46)Additional Resources:www.AlloyPersonalTraining.comLearn About The Alloy Franchise Opportunity---------You can find the podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.If you haven’t already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts!

The first concept we discuss is known as the Stockdale Paradox. Stockdale was the highest-ranking POW in Vietnam. In explaining how he and his troops survived the ordeal, we get some interesting perspectives that apply in life and business. He had unwavering faith that he would make it out of the prison camp but was also very realistic about the daily realities of the horrible conditions and uncertainties of life in the camp. The second concept is known as Productive Paranoia. This basically means knowing what you need to protect to survive. You can’t just have blind optimism without knowing what you need. It might be cash, people, or brand equity, Once you know what is important for your business to survive, then you need to stick with it and protect it.The third concept is Fanatical Discipline. As a business, you need to understand your metrics and once you do so, stay disciplined in achieving those metrics without getting distracted. Good times and tough times can distract us from metrics. Successful businesses are those that remain fanatically disciplined. Listen in to learn more about how these three interesting concepts apply to your business and how they help you have a different outlook, a different way to judge your performance as a leader and ultimately how to operate your businessKey TakeawaysGetting our first Alloy franchise up and running (00:53)What is The Stockdale Paradox and how it relates to your business  (06:11)Having unwavering faith in the long term outcome of your business but being realistic of our current situation (10:00)The concept of Productive Paranoia and how it helps your business survive tough times (12:40)Fanatical discipline, how to avoid distractions in your business (19:48)Avoiding distractions and making rash decisions during good or tough times (24:33)Additional Resources:www.AlloyPersonalTraining.comLearn About The Alloy Franchise Opportunity---------You can find the podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.If you haven’t already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts!