So I’m going to tell you about James – and how in less than 2 years he went from being a self employed personal trainer making 100k a year to growing to £10m.
He did this by becoming a key person in the fitness industry and making sure she was oversubscribed. Here is what he did:
He was a very successful personal trainer but was working 60-70 hour weeks to make 100k – he would deliver circuit training charging customers a fiver each time they came, he would run three a week , filling a gym hall . In addition he acted as a sub contractor in a number of gyms who paid him to deliver fitness classes and one on one personal training. What happened though is he broke his arm and as it was a bad break and couldn’t work for 3 months.
This showed his business was only viable with him working in it. And the only way he could influence his income was to work less or more hours.
What he did whilst being unable to work he had the time to think about how he could turn his business into something really valuable that didn’t require 60 hour weeks and if he wanted to go on a holiday he could.
He used the time wisely and wrote a book on the subject of personal training . He then built a website that positioned him as a leader in his field (and had written and published a book) – so if someone googled him they found he had written a book. He wrote tons of content which he published on social media, in fitness magazines and recorded some training videos.
He then positioned himself as a personal trainer to the rich and famous in London.
From the PR he was getting he was now getting quite a following. He captured people that engaged with his website by offering some free tips and videos on fitness. He then wrote a series of emails that sold his services and still gave away free content.
One of his emails said he was a personal trainer but was fully booked – but if anyone was interested in his services they could add their name to his reserve list when a space became available.
He charged each client £5000 a month which gave them three 1h30 sessions each week of one on one personal training. They also got access to all his content videos nutritional information etc.
He partnered with a leading nutritionist who was able to provide content and information on how to eat healthy to compliment his fitness program.
He chose the nutritionist wisely by ensuring they were a key person in that sector (they had also written a book appeared on Tv had a massive social media presence).
This worked well also for marketing as he was able to get the nutritionist to market his fitness program to her network and he did the same for her to his.
He only had space for 8 clients a week.
When someone put their name on his reserve list he would interview them to make sure they are committed to fitness etc and his program. After the interview he would tell them they can have a place in three months time.
This generated £40k per month.
This is how he became oversubscribed by creating the demand and becoming a key person in the fitness industry (writing a book !).
That was part one. For all those people that really wanted his time but couldn’t get a place (remember there was only 8 spaces) he would run a boot camp 3 times a year – it cost £25k for a week in a luxury villa or hotel in Bali were it was an intense week of fitness. On his first program he had 25 delegates (£625k). He did three in his first year. He marketed the program with ‘limited spaces’ to his subscribers.
Now part three is when he went from about £2m revenue in the first year to £10m in the second year.
At this point he had created a marketing machine for high net worth people wanting fitness and training across he globe. He was only based in London and only serviced his 8 clients in London. But he had subscribers in Sydney, Singapore, New York, LA lots of global cities.
In fact some of the people that went on his boot camps were actually successful personal trainers. So what he did was offered them a license.
He said pay me £25k license fee and 15% of your revenues and I will guarantee to find you 8 clients. You can also use the boot camp training program.
From a balance sheet thinking point of view he had created assets . He ended up buying two hotels in Bali and LA which he uses for boot camps. All of his intellectual property now generates revenue.
To grow a business like James you need to become a key person of influence and get yourself oversubscribed.
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