Building My Business: Lessons You Can Apply
By Pat Rigsby
Building PatRigsby.com I’ve followed the same principles or concepts that I teach the people I work with. Because of that I thought I’d give you some examples of what I’ve done with my own business and how you can apply those concepts in your business.
Decide Who You Are For…And Who You’re Not
I built PatRigsby.com specifically for high quality fitness and performance entrepreneurs who want to build their Ideal Businesses.
Virtually all the other industry coaching / licensing / franchising solutions that are out there are aiming at a much broader audience. They are not only trying to work with the people I am, but with non-business owners, people outside the fitness industry – the business opportunity crowd, the same people that might buy a Subway, and fitness business owners who just want to make more money or are ok with fitting into someone else’s system.
I was very clear from day one with whom I was trying to serve. I don’t want business opportunity seekers. I don’t want people just trying to make a quick buck. I only want trainers and coaches who are 100% committed to delivering a great service and want the strategy, knowledge, systems and coaching that I can provide to build the Ideal Business that they want.
This means that I have to sometimes turn away business. Fine by me. If someone isn’t the right fit, I must turn them away or we eventually lose my ability to attract those who are the right fit.
How You Can Apply This:
Determine who your ideal client is and be the best in your market at serving them. Take a look at the people who you currently work with. Who do you love training? Who are your best clients? Start working to attract more of them and (politely) make it clear that those who aren’t this type of client aren’t really a good fit for your brand.
Choose A Niche And Be The Leader In It
This may seem like it’s the same thing as the previous concept, but it’s not really. For PatRigsby.com, I wanted to build a business to serve those who seek to build their Ideal Business. I don’t really have any interest in being part of the shiny object, marketing hacks crowd or trying to ask you to just fit yourself into my one-size-fits-all approach like a square peg in a round hole.
And, in truth…I only want to be known for these things that fit under that Ideal Business umbrella…so much that when someone in our industry says them, they think of me:
– Ideal Business
– Production
– Brand Building
– Business Coaching
That’s about it.
I feel very strongly that the future of the fitness industry is in alignment with this and the type of people I want to work with fit with this, so I’m committed to building my business centered on those things.
Not to toot my own horn too much, but I immediately jumped to the front of the pack as the market leader for my niche – in part because no one else really focuses on those things I mentioned. There are no solutions focusing on creating an Ideal Business other than me…and really no others that focus on the components I listed either.
How You Can Apply This:
So who do you want to serve and how can you be different than everyone else? That’s really what it boils down to. Go to any big box gym and you’ll find trainers that claim to be experts in fat loss, corrective exercise, post-natal, wedding weight loss, sports performance training and anything else they can tell you to separate you from your money.
Who can you be the specialist for and deliver a service that clearly stands above the competition? What do you love to do? What do you want to be known for?
Figure out what you can be the best at and who you can be the best for and go all in on it.
Provide Solutions To Your Market’s Biggest Problems
When I was building my new business I basically wanted to solve the problems the good trainers and coaches in the industry were facing that was preventing them from building the business that they wanted…their Ideal Business.
Some of the common problems were:
- Not knowing where they wanted to go…not getting clear about what their Ideal Business looked like.
- Not having a brand reflective of what they wanted to be known for…one that would attract who they wanted to work with.
- Not being Producers.
- Not having a plan that attracts and converts the right clients.
- Not being happy…working hard and not feeling like they’re getting what they want in return.
- Not having a coach to bring out the best in them.
There are other problems that fitness entrepreneurs face when building a business but these are what I want to focus on…what comprise my Ideal Business.
How You Can Apply This:
So what prevents your clients from reaching their goals?
- A lack of time?
- A lack of knowledge?
- A lack of motivation?
- Simplified solutions to make attaining progress easier?
- Accountability?
Once you get clear on what’s holding your Ideal Clients back then your job is simply to give them the solutions they need to get where they want to go.
Not Being ‘One Size Fits All’
This is probably where I differ most from other fitness business solutions. When you think of franchising, you think of McDonald’s or Subway, right? Everything looks exactly the same. In our world there are plenty of franchises, licenses and programs that take that approach.
I didn’t want to be that at all.
I wanted to provide strategies, systems, tools and coaching that allowed my Ideal Clients to build their Ideal Business…with zero regard to my preferences.
I wanted to let them play to their strengths, build on their passions and do the things they could be best at rather than just creating another ‘me too’ business.
How You Can Apply This:
Are you assessing? Are you truly listening to your clients’ goals? Are you building their programming around what you discover or are you just trying to fit them into what you do?
Individual needs call for individual solutions.
Even if you run a group program…you don’t actually have a group of 20 in a session…you have 1 person who wants to be great 20 times over.
People are important…treat them accordingly.
Connecting
One of the first things I did was invest a lot of time connecting with friends in the industry. Not really asking them for anything…just connecting. Learning how I could help. Asking for their advice and feedback.
This was one of the most rewarding parts of my new venture. In the past I’d been so caught up in what we were doing I wasn’t focused enough on what my friends were doing unless it related to the events or projects my company was involved in.
That had never been my approach in the past…but I’d drifted into that approach and I knew that I wanted to change it.
So not only did the connecting rekindle and enhance relationships…it opened doors, created opportunities, allowed me to help friends…and, in truth, was just really fun.
How You Can Apply This:
Do the things I’ve consistently told you to do when it comes to connecting. Reach out to your connections…and not just the people you see in the gym every day or two. Ask how you can help. Ask for advice. Tell them what you’re doing. Communicate regularly.
Your business will grow because of it…but you’ll have more fun in the process.
Know What You Want
I’ll close with this…know what you want. Know what success looks like to you. To me success looked like:
- Putting my family first. Spending time with them on my terms…being able to coach their sports teams, take vacations, share experiences.
- Spending 90% of my time doing the stuff I’m best at and enjoy most.
- Helping people build their vision instead of just cloning mine.
- Working only with people who make me happy.
- Enjoying income that allowed me to reach my ‘today’ goals and my ‘long term’ goals.
How You Can Apply This:
This one is pretty straightforward…create a list of what success looks like to you and then start incrementally working toward it. It’s not an overnight thing…I was back to building some web pages and doing some tech oriented customer services when I launched – I felt like I needed to do it to get a handle on what I should be hiring. But I’ve systematically moved toward the things I listed above…step by step. And you can too. Just set a target and go after it…daily.
Hopefully you got some takeaways from this. It’s truly an overview of how I started building my Ideal Business and the concepts I’ve used are the same ones we teach to you.
