How often have you heard a story about a personal trainer making it big within a few short months? Do you think to yourself “What are they doing that I’m not?” It’s not that they’ve necessarily stumbled on the next fitness fad; they’ve just employed a few smart techniques for growing their business.

You can be as successful as those trainers, and here is how.

The first thing you should know is that if you want your fitness business to be successful you need an automated management system. Using online studio software can help you achieve the two most important goals for success: Finding clients and retaining them!

Using online studio software allows you the functionality to automate your business. Most average trainers don’t see the value in this. However, all of the most successful training studios and personal trainers do. They automate their businesses, allowing them to maximize their profits and reduce cancellations.

Here are a few tips on how to do this successfully:

• Don’t spend a lot of money on advertising. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube! Top social networking sites help build your client base quickly with low costs. Integrate your business with online studio software and link your Facebook with your scheduling page. Let your current clients use this to market your business to their family, friends, and coworkers with almost zero effort.
• Sell bigger packages, but not more expensive packages. Most trainers sell their services based on a number of sessions. The problem is you don’t want to have a client for only those sessions, you want to keep them for a long time! Your goal should be to keep a client for a minimum of 12 months, not 1 -2 months. Studio management software can help you automate your billing, making it easy for you to sell bigger packages that are paid off monthly.
• Ask for referrals ALL THE TIME.  Did you know you can close 50% of referrals based business compare to only 10% of cold leads? Get referral cards made up and make sure they have a lot of room for names, numbers and emails. Ask every new client you sign up for 5 referrals.  Don’t be pushy! Be genuine and sincere, and your clients will be more than willing to help! And use your online management software to track your prospects so you can keep reaching out to them until they become your clients.

Employ these tips and take yourself from a few clients to a full house!