How to Streamline Your Business as a Fitness Pro

blog the women in fitness association wifa wifa women women in fitness women in fitness association womeninfitness womeninfitnessassociation Jul 28, 2021

If 2020 taught us anything, it's that fitness professionals have to be adaptable. The most successful pros have been the ones who've been able to pivot away from close contact classes and training, and reinvent themselves as digital-first entrepreneurs. It's a move that can work for any fitness pro, and keeps you well placed if the need to pivot arises again. The creators of mobile business app, PocketSuite, share the following tips for making the switch.

1. Keep Offering Online Classes

While some people are raring to get back out there, others aren't so sure, with health and safety considerations on their minds. But that doesn't mean you have to lose their business. Instead, keep some online classes as part of your offering. That solves two issues. First, you don't have to stress about space limitations at your old premises due to social distancing. Second, you can increase your class size a little - and your revenue with it.

2. Build Recurring Revenue

Every business owner knows that it's easier to upsell an existing client than to win new business from scratch. As a fitness pro, you already have a client database, and you can use PocketSuite to make it work harder for you. For example, you can sell series of classes within the app. You can also waitlist potential customers and have them booked in automatically when a slot becomes free. And you can also sell products, so if you've been thinking of selling branded fitness gear, now's your chance!

3. Get Personal With Your Marketing

Personal customer experiences are becoming more important, as consumers continue to seek out messaging and marketing that's personally relevant to them. You can easily deliver a personalized experience with PocketSuite. One simple way to do this is by texting your customers to let them know about appointments, upcoming classes, events, and deals. SMS has a 98% open rate, so the odds are high that they'll see and act on your message.

And you can go one step further in nurturing your relationship by using PocketSuite's Smart Campaigns to send messages based on the customer information you have. This is great for sending birthday and anniversary greetings, for sending updates on a class you already know they're interested in, and for recognizing when they achieve a milestone in their fitness goals.

4. Build Your Community Online

PocketSuite data shows that one of the hallmarks of successful fitness pros is their dedication to building an online community. It's the best way to showcase and leverage your expertise. For example, you can keep your community up to date by sharing fitness information, industry updates, success stories and more. Start with your existing regular customers, then use PocketSuite's built-in lead generation tools to grow your community. It lets you add signup forms to your website and social media pages, and learn more about potential new clients.

5. Cut Your Admin Load

One thing that's particularly time-consuming for any small business owner is the admin. Onboarding clients, making sales, communicating about appointments and follow-ups, invoicing and collecting payments can take a lot of time, especially if you have to use a different app for each function. With its "business in a box" approach, PocketSuite helps you save time and effort, because you can handle all those key business administration tasks, and more, from within a single app.