We all know one; some even live with them, control freaks. Now being this kind of freak can have benefits but for the fitness entrepreneur it could lead to major disaster and even failure in their business plans.

First thing you need to know is are you a control freak?

Second thing is do you have control freaks in your business, either as partners or staff?

If any of the following symptoms apply to you then chances are you are a little freaky in the control department. You may need a non-biased evaluator to read the list for you, if you can let them.

1. You brag, boast or often tell people how you never take vacations or you work during vacations and you need to tell people about it
2. You are always swamped with a backlog of to do items on your list that could go on for months even years
3. You are often angry when other let you down or make a mistake
4. People ask you a ton of questions, mostly because you are angry when they make mistakes
5. Your employees are actually annoyed when they see you coming because you constantly check up on them, your excuse for this is if you didn’t nothing would get done

And the number one way you can tell you are a control freak....

You honestly believe that nobody else can do it better than you.

So now you know you are a control freak. The good news is that most first time entrepreneurs are. The bad news; it is also one of the top reasons a lot of fitness businesses fail. What can you do about it? Simple, let go! You need to allow others around you to take things on or you need to hire to get things done. For some of you that are too far gone in the control deep end you may need to start with a good counselling session. But most I assume just need to learn how to do the following 5 things to have success in your fitness business.

Success will come faster and more often if you can implement these 5 steps:

1. Hire people; it is good to hire the right people but even if they turn out to be wrong the first time around it is better than not even trying. Hiring forces you to departmentalise your business and starts the process of finding the things that you can let go of. 2. Delegate; assume that you’ve hired you now need to give them something to do, if you don’t they will either quit, never a good feeling, or just do nothing even a worse feeling as it reinforces your faulty belief that only you can do it.
3. Learn to trust others; ok this is probably the hardest of all the things a freak needs to do because trust is typically earned but since control freaks tend to be too involved in projects they need to completely trust people without checking up on them and they will not know if the person can even do the task required.
4. Learn that mistakes are a fact of life; some would even argue that if we did not have mistakes we could not have any success. Accept, embrace and learn how to turn a mistake into a positive by growing from them and trying to never repeat the same mistake twice.
5 Learn how to build a great sandwich; not the kind you eat but more a way that you communicate with others. Compliment, suggest and then reassure the person they can do it as well as you or even better, this turns you into the mentor instead of the ogre that some staff may see you as.

By enlisting some of the above techniques and possible some therapy even the most controlling person can learn to let go, trust and accept that other people are there to help and not hinder the growth of their business.

This is how any entrepreneur will succeed because the greater your success the more your business venture will attract qualified people to assist in achieving greatness beyond your dreams.