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01

ABOUT NPE

NPE is the leading fitness business coaching company for business

owners to grow their business and create the life they want.

Fitness business coaching includes one-to-one and group coaching, online education,
tools and templates, technology, live events, and a supportive community that empowers
business owners to grow.

Unlike simple online courses, marketing agencies/services, and mastermind groups that
serve the fitness industry, NPE is the only one that digs into the real numbers that drive
long-term success and stability in business.

We empower fitness business owners to grow their business and create the life they want.
Since 2006 we’ve helped over 36,000+ fitness business owners in 96+ countries grow
their business and create the life they want. We’re an award winning global company with
a team of over 50+ staff across our three offices in Orlando, London, and Sydney.

Award winning

London
Orlando

Sydney

2
02

WHY THIS GUIDE MATTERS

M
ost fitness pros start businesses because they love helping
people. They want to convince their clients that real
change is possible, and that no matter how many times
these clients have failed before, there is a way they can achieve their
goals--whether to lose weight, gain strength, or have more energy to
live their lives.

As the business grows, fitness business owners face more

challenges. They need a system for bringing in leads, or for
selling once leads come in. They may have to work split shifts,
and then there’s payroll taxes and renting space … and when
you’re strong enough to make it through all that, there’s still
overhead, working too many hours, and the struggle to find
good people.

All these challenges root back to the fundamentals of your

plan. Your plan’s strengths and weaknesses will determine your
success or failure.

3
02

WHY THIS GUIDE MATTERS

T
ruth is, you need an organized way to figure out who you are
going to serve, how you are going to find clients, how you are
going to sell, how you are going to get paid,
and so on and on.

Most fitness business owners find the idea of writing a business plan scary and daunting.
Where do you start? What needs to be in it?

In this business guide, we’ll show you:

01
Why a plan is important

02 03
What elements you need The crucial element that
for a successful business will make the business plan
plan, and work for you.

4
03

THIS IS WHAT A FLAMING WRECK

LOOKS LIKE

N
ancy and Bob started their
own fitness business. They
were both awesome personal
trainers and their clients loved them.
Bob loved to sell and Nancy had
online marketing experience.

And their business shot into the sky and just as they thought they had it made, the
business crashed to the earth in a flaming ball of twisted metal.

Their accountant conducted the forensics and mumbled something about

“cash flow, debt, taxes.”

They sold their equipment at a loss and shut down their facility.

5
03

AND THIS IS WHAT A TWISTED

BURNING WRECK LOOKS LIKE

J
eff was a local star athlete. After
his career, he built his fitness
business from 0 to 10k a month
over 18 months. His clients loved him.

He worked night and day and kept trying to hire people. One took off with a bunch
of clients. Another quit without notice. Jeff fought through it all.

One day, Jeff’s father got sick. Every day Jeff took off to care for his father cost
Jeff money.

The neighbors whispered kind, respectful words about Jeff’s thoughtfulness. Jeff
shut down his business and went to work for someone else.

6
03

AND THIS ONE ALSO BURNED UP

ON RE-ENTRY

S
arah left her management job
and opened her own fitness
studio. Good with numbers,
Sarah had a solid financial plan. She
did plenty of online marketing.

But she found a wide variety of people showing

up. In fact, she had too many people with too
many diverse interests, and some of these people
sucked the life out of her.

Her business was working, but she found herself

losing her passion for her business. This wasn’t
what she planned.
SOLD
She wasn’t really even sure where it all went
wrong as she sold the business and returned to
her corporate career.

7
04

WHAT’S THE COMMON PROBLEM?

R
unning a successful fitness business requires a collection of
skills that are rarely found in one person, or even two people.

Most fitness business owners

possess two strengths

(1) The professional skills (the ability to deliver fitness

services), and (2) the ability to handle operational
details, such as fixing equipment and keeping the gym
clean.

Problem is, those strengths are just table stakes.

Actually running the business requires a whole lot
of other skills, ranging from sales and marketing to
leadership, recruiting, hiring, admin, and finance. And to
succeed at those, owners need a business plan.

Without a fitness business plan, few could make it a

year. The lucky and the stubborn might last longer, but
they won’t have much fun doing it.

8
04

YOU ALREADY
HAVE A BUSINESS PLAN

Let’s address one objection right now:

Do you need to have a business plan?

Yes, and you already have one. Your plan might only be in
your head, but it exists.

“A wing and a prayer” is a plan. “Fly by seat of the pants” is a

plan. “I still have money in the checking account” is a plan.

You can’t NOT have a plan. It might be: “I will play this out
as long as it lasts, ditch in the ocean, and swim away to a new
adventure.”

All you can do is choose a plan that will guide you through
KNOWN challenges to success - or choose a plan that will
eventually smack headfirst into the thing that ruins it.

CHOOSE WISELY.

9
04

TRUTH: ALMOST ALL PLANS

ARE MISSING SOMETHING

T
hose may sound funny, but the
truth is, most people have a plan
that sounds a lot like that. Most
business plans contain a gap-or more
likely, three or four.

Our experience with 36,000 fitnesses over 11 years is that there are 9 essential elements
of a good business plan.

You gotta have all 9.

But most fitness business owners get three or four and miss the rest.

“I’ll take care of my clients and the rest will work itself out” is a plan with gaps.

“I understand training and nutrition, finance and marketing, and hiring people” is better, but
still has holes in it.

10
05

THE COST OF GAPS

W
herever the gaps are in your business plan, you’re going
to get challenged. (But that’s good news, and we’ll get to
that in a moment.)

About half of new business startups (any kind)

don’t make it four years, according
to the most recent global small business
statistics. Of those, about half are caused
by lack of business know-how, according to
Statistics Brain Research Institute.

From mispricing services to financing issues

to admin/recordkeeping problems, small
businesses fail because their owners don’t plan
for entirely preventable issues.

11
05

MORE ON WHAT GAPS CAN COST

YOU, BUT ...

A
nd that’s outright failure statistics. Plenty of others are
limping along.

Many fitness owners are stressed out, putting in long hours because they:

01 02 03

Don’t understand their Don’t have a strategic Fail to have marketing

financial structure of their sales and marketing and lead generation
business model programs plans

04 05

Try to be everything to Just make their lives

everyone, and more difficult than they
have to be.

That’s the bad news. Next, the good news ...

12
05

THE GOOD NEWS

T
he good news is that with an effective business plan, you will
KNOW where you will be challenged.

That’s because you will be challenged in the gaps. If

you IDENTIFY and PLAN for the gaps, you won’t
get blindsided, like all the flaming wrecks we dis-
cussed earlier.

Besides uncovering gaps, a real fitness business plan

has real, immediate benefits. It’s not just a guide for
your future actions.

You can take a real business plan to the bank. Literally. You can get credit and
financing with a sound business plan.

You can use it to grow your business faster.

You can use a business plan to communicate to your team how you are going to get
there and onboard new hires, so they know what you and your business is all about.

13
06

THE 9 STEPS TO A SOLID,

SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PLAN

Here’s your business plan. You need to cover 9 required elements:

1 Do a fearless personal assessment of your strengths and weaknesses.

2 Choose the type of client your business will serve.

3 Assess your business’s potential through a market analysis.

4 Decide how your business will serve clients (and how you’ll differentiate your
concept and brand).

5 Determine the resources and team you’ll need to support your business model.

6 Determine your packaging and pricing model.

7 Create a sales forecast and complete a financial analysis of your business.

8 Develop a sales and marketing strategy and plan for acquiring new clients.

9 Create a financing strategy to grow (or launch) your business.

14
STEP 1

FEARLESS PERSONAL ASSESSMENT

T
he business starts with you. If you aren’t aware of your
weaknesses (or your strengths), running a business will soon
smoke them out.

Self-awareness is the number one most important

characteristic that any entrepreneur needs to have.
That’s especially true if you want to grow your business.

You have to always be growing if you want to be

successful. Successful business owners find their business
starts to outgrow their own strengths and skillsets.

One day, you may have to become a more assertive

manager. After you build those skills, you may have to
become a tough negotiator.

15
STEP 1

IMPROVING SELF-AWARENESS

Successful business owners constantly invest in ways to learn more

about their own strengths and weaknesses, for ways to grow, because
for your business to grow, you’ve got to grow.

You have to always be growing in your self-aware-

ness if you want to be successful. You can start with
simple tools like 16 personalities. That can help you
figure out the strengths and weaknesses of your
personality type.

Assess your skill sets. Some people love sales and

marketing, and others love spreadsheets. Others
love the operations side.

People rarely are good at all of these things, so ...

16
STEP 1

IDENTIFY YOUR STRENGTHS AND

WEAKNESSES

Start with awareness of your strengths and weaknesses, and where

you need to “level up” to be successful. Many people start a business
because they have a passion in one area.

Perhaps it’s the operations side, but not sales and

marketing. Maybe you need to learn to read a balance
sheet, or a P&L statement, or how to forecast cash.
Some people love spreadsheets, but they don’t know how
to talk to people in terms of delivering exciting sales and
marketing messages that attract prospective clients.

Figure out which one you are, admit to yourself your

required areas of growth, and make a plan to “get after
them.”

We’re going to revisit this at the end.

17
STEP 1

WHAT TO DO

The key take-home for you right now:

01
Become ready to set aside time to work daily on your personal
growth and development. Do not say, “I will work on that after [I
make this sale, complete that deal, open this studio... ] You need
to work daily on personal growth.

02 03
Identify your personal As you go through the
strengths and weaknesses. rest of the plan, identify
Perhaps you do not suffer strengths you can build on
fools gladly and need to and weaknesses you need
become more patient. to address.
Perhaps you are a people
pleaser and need to tell
people “no.” On the flip side,
maybe people naturally look
to you for leadership and you
can build on that.

18
 STEP 2

CHOOSE THE TYPE OF CLIENT

YOUR BUSINESS WILL SERVE

W
ho are you going to serve? Not knowing the answer to this
question is a HUGE issue, because lack of clarity here will
spread throughout your business and make everything
else more difficult.

The biggest mistake every new business owner makes is they think they should work with
everybody (or anybody). They’ll take everybody because they need money. They don’t
want to turn work down because they’re afraid that’s the only chance they get.

But you’ll end up with clients who can’t afford what you’re worth, or who will use up your
time, or who will be frustrating to work with. And your business itself will have no focus
and will be difficult to market.

You need to target clients who:

01 02 03

Have a big problem/goals You are going to love to Who can afford you, and
they’re willing to invest in work with
solving/achieving

04

Who exist in enough quantities (and are easy enough to reach) to support your business.

19
STEP 2

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF

W
hen you write your the “target client” section of the
business plan, get clear on the following:

01 02 03
Who do you want to What problem are you What pain are you re-
work with? getting paid to solve? lieving for the client?

Repeat:

Get really clear on that. If you’re not solving a big hairy problem for your
target client, then you’re just a luxury. You’re going to struggle.
But if you’re solving a problem and there’s pain that you’re relieving,
you’re going to be successful.

20
STEP 3

ASSESS YOUR BUSINESS’S POTENTIAL

THROUGH A MARKET ANALYSIS

By now, you have an idea:

01 02
what you are good at, and who you want to serve.

Next, you need to figure out if your plan is realistic so far.

You do this through market analysis.

• Are there enough potential clients for your business to serve?

• What other businesses are already serving this market?
• What are they charging? How are they marketing and selling to reach the market?
• Does it look like they are succeeding or struggling?
• How competitive is the market?

If there are not enough potential clients, then you’re dead in the water even if you
have an amazing service to offer. Go back to Step 2.

If there are already successful competitors in the market,

this is generally a good sign that there is a healthy
business opportunity… but you will need to learn how
to differentiate your business so it succeed.

21
STEP 4

DECIDE HOW YOUR BUSINESS

WILL SERVE CLIENTS

K
now that you’ve researched and have some under-
standing of the market, what type of services (and/
or products) do you plan to offer to your target
client? Furthermore, how will you differentiate your busi-
ness from existing competitors already in the market?

First, get clear on what your primary service

offering is. Too many businesses fail because
they attempt to be the “jack of all business
models, master of none.” For most small
businesses just starting out… keep it simple.
Start with one core service offering, get known
for being the best around, then build on that
reputation.

Whether it’s one-on-one training, group

training, semi-private training, online training,
or something else you want to offer… pick one
service you do really well, and focus on building
a strong and stable client base.

22
STEP 4

BEWARE ONLINE TRAINING

Watch out for online training. People think they can do it from their
laptop anywhere in the world, and they’ll have a lifestyle business.

They often lack awareness that need to be highly skilled in digital marketing and
online client acquisition. They may know how to train people online, but they don’t
know how to get clients online consistently. Plus, you’re competing against brands
with billions in revenue going after the same clients you want.

Bottom line:

01 02

Pick a service offering that Make sure there’s enough

matches your personal clients to fill up your
strengths and skillsets, and business easily.

Otherwise, you’re going to fail.

23
STEP 5

RESOURCES AND TEAM YOU

NEED

W
hat is your staffing plan to support
your business model?

Depending on your model, you are going to determine what resources and team you
require. You’ll need to determine:

01 02 03
What kind of What type of staff How many will you need
equipment will you will you need? What to start? How many will
need? will be their roles? you need as the business
grows?

04 05 05
What skills will the staff What will it cost to find Will you be hiring
need to have? What and hire the staff needed? employees or contractors?
training will be required? What can you outsource?

All of these things will need to be determined to support the daily operations of the
business in the beginning, and as your business grows. Not only does this give you the
insight required to determine the cost structure of the business, but then you can put a
plan together for recruiting, hiring, onboarding and training the team needed to succeed.

24
STEP 6

PACKAGING & PRICING

M
ost fitness business owners do not charge what they are
worth. They also do not charge what the business requires.
Besides that, they do not set the business up for stable
income because the over-rely on short term fitness packages.

You need to be able calculate what you must

charge to run a profitable business (see finance
section). Charge that.

And you must be able to set the client up for

success. Packages should solve the problem
that the client is coming for you to solve. If
they’re not signed up to the length of time to do
than you’re allowing them to not really make a
commitment.

25
STEP 7

SALES FORECAST AND

FINANCIAL ANALYSIS

A
t the most basic level, financial analysis boils down to what’s
coming into the business and what’s going out (and how
you’re going to make a profit!).

But to succeed, you have to figure those numbers in advance. That is, you have to
be able to do projections:

$ 01 02
What are the fixed What type of sales
and variable costs volume is required for
required in the the business to break
business? even?

03
How quickly can sales and
revenue be ramped up?
04
What type of start up
capital will be required
to get the business off
the ground and support
expenses until break even
is achieved?

26
STEP 7

SALES FORECASTING

Your sales forecast is crucial to your business plan.

How does the sales and marketing work you do translate into new client sales (and
revenue)? What can you get into your sales pipeline in the form of leads and how many
of those you can expect to close?

Your sales forecast helps you determine if your business plan is viable. You need to get
really clear on your financial model to assess:

01 02 03
Is this a viable plan? Do you believe this is Is the sales plan too
going to work – or are aggressive?
the costs too high?

This is where we at NPE encourage business owners to get feedback. Once you have a
basic pro forma, you want to get feedback.

You want to challenge the numbers and you want someone else to challenge them with
you. Because you want to make your plan as strong as you can. Look for ways optimize
the plan. Lower costs where you can. Look for ways to drive in more revenue. If you learn
to optimize your plan at this stage, you will be much better prepared for adapting in the
real world when you’re executing it.

27
STEP 8

SALES & MARKETING PLAN

Your sales and marketing plan has three

basic elements:

01. MESSAGING
What do you do? Who is it for? What does it do for the client? How is
it different from competitors? What is your business’s purpose? Why
should clients believe what you have to say?

02. SALES PROCESS

All successful sales people, no matter what their field, use a system to
communicate with prospects. For example, AUTO-CLOSER® is a 7 ½
step fitness-business sales process that we teach for most services busi-
nesses that are selling face-to-face. AUTO-CLOSER® takes you from
a pre-qualification through the consultative sales process and enrolling
new clients. We also work with a lot of businesses who sell their product
or service online, and there’s a sales process for that as well.

03. LEAD GENERATION PLAN

What is the process for getting the word out about your business and
attracting clients? What tools and resources will you need to get there?

28
STEP 9

FINANCING STRATEGY

The old saying is true,

‘It takes money, to make money!”

You will need an investment of capital to grow or launch your business. You will need to
pay for startup costs, for example, and pay your operating expenses until your business
brings in more cash than it spends. There are many different strategies (and combinations
of strategies) we’ve seen work successfully with fitness business owners we work with
including:

• Saving money

• Raising money

$ • Crowd-funding

• Borrowing money

• Pre-selling

29
BONUS: THE ABSOLUTELY
CRUCIAL ELEMENT

Now, we have the absolutely crucial element to making this work:

Your Personal and Professional Development Plan. Ask yourself:

“Where do I need to grow to execute this plan?”

Just like every other successful fitness business owner,

you will uncover gaps in your personal and professional
skills as your business grows. You’ll need to find these
gaps and take aim at them, because your business
success depends on your ability to execute.

Figuring all this out on your own is tough. That’s why

we believe even the best fitness business coaches need
coaches.

At NPE we offer one-to-one and group coaching, online education, tools and
templates, technology, live events, and a supportive community that empowers
business owners like you to grow. And unlike simple online course, marketing
agencies, and mastermind groups, our business coaching programs are the only ones
that dig into the real numbers to drive long-term success and stability in business.

30
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