Continue reading »]]> There are a number of great ways for promoting your fitness business that can provide a steady stream of new customers for very little money. Many of these promotional ideas are easy to do and will take a short amount of time to setup. Once in place, these fitness marketing programs will continue to help you expand your business with very little effort.

Be Creative with Traditional Media

Even though there are a number of established ways of promoting your fitness business through local newspapers and radio spots, these vehicles can be expensive and complicated for a new business to exploit. Both of these require a fair amount of capital to fund and require an advertisement that takes some experience to craft. A clever way of using these same resources for your fitness marketing efforts is by volunteering your time. For example, you could offer to write an article or two for the local papers about a fitness related topic in exchange for a small advertisement. Most papers are happy to make this trade as they are always in search of fresh content for their readers. You might even be able to turn this into a regular column that you write for the paper each week that will quickly develop a loyal following of readers who are all potential customers. The local radio station may also be hungry for material to fill their airwaves and offering to be a guest on one of their weekly shows provides a way for you to offer free fitness advice while promoting your business. This seems like a simple suggestion but can be a very effective way of generating a lot of credibility for your business and providing the exposure your fitness marketing plan requires.

Your Website is Critical to Your Success

The internet is another great resource that you need to take advantage of when promoting your fitness business. While many businesses have web pages, to be really effective your page needs to rank high in the search engines and provide useful information for your visitors. You can accomplish both of these tasks by adding fresh articles and videos each week that either explain a new exercise or promote a program at your location. By constantly updating this information both the new visitors to your site as well as your established customers will benefit. You might even decide to incorporate your website into your customer’s fitness program and allow them to track their progress and schedule sessions through the site. This ensures that they will be visiting the site on a regular basis and allows you to update them about any new programs or promotions you have at your location. This type of targeted advertising is the most powerful and productive method you can hope for and will not only attract new customers but will keep your current ones loyal.

Social sites are another great place to find new customers. Applications like FaceBook and Twitter provide you access to people who may be interested in starting a fitness program at your location. You can use these vehicles to update them on new fitness techniques and offer free classes and other promotions to introduce them to your business. Many towns have community pages that anyone in the area can post to when advertising your business that can be very effective.

If you do have a budget for fitness marketing, try to choose a solution that only charges you for results. There are several new companies like Groupon that offer you guaranteed customers for your business for a set fee per person for the advertising cost. Unlike traditional media that charges you for an advertisement, regardless of the results, these newer companies charge a portion of the sale for any customer they send your way. This type of guaranteed result is worth paying for and has been a very effective fitness marketing technique for many companies.

Continue reading »]]> Starting a business can be an expensive undertaking and making sure you have the start-up capital you need to succeed is one of the most important factors in determining if your business survives. Most business failures are due to not having the proper start-up funding to survive the challenges of the business environment. You have a wide range of choices when deciding how to acquire this start-up capital and all of these options are based on either equity or debt.

When deciding on the amount of small business funding you’ll need for your business, there are a number of things you’ll have to take into account. Any business has a list of monthly expenses that need to be paid from this start-up funding and knowing what these will be is the first step in determining how much funding you’ll need for the business. These expenses can include rent, taxes, medical coverage, advertising, professional services like legal and accounting as well as salaries for you and your employees. Most experts agree that you should have at least a full year’s expenses ready before starting your business to allow it time to develop the cash flow required to keep it going on its own.

How Debt Funding Works

Most small businesses start by using personal funds or money borrowed from a traditional lender. This form of start-up funding is called debt financing because you are essentially creating debt by using these funds for your business. The money you borrow will need to be paid back over time to the lender with interest. The advantage of this type of funding is that it keeps your business independent and under your control. The lenders will provide the funding without any material interest in your business. They simply want to earn an interest on the money loaned to you and receive their payments on time. This type of debt funding can come from a variety of sources that may include personal savings, friends and family, silent financial partners, and loans from banks or government agencies like the Small Business Administration. If you decide to use debt financing, be sure the business is profitable enough to allow you to make the loan payments on time.

When to Consider Equity Funding

The other type of small business funding is called equity funding. With this type of funding you are accepting an infusion of money from investors that now own an interest in your business. You aren’t required to pay these funds back, but also no longer own the entire business yourself. These equity partners are willing to invest in certain businesses that they think will do well in the hopes of making their investments back and more from the profits of the business if it’s successful. Venture capitalists are a good example of this type of funding although the money can come from a variety of sources. Sometimes a family friend or silent partner will also negotiate this type of equity investment rather than loaning the money so they can share in your success. The thing to remember with equity funding is that accepting this type of funding gives you less control over your business as you now have additional partners involved. Equity funding is the best type of start-up capital to use for a fast growing business because you always have the option of asking the equity partners for more funds as the company expands.

Continue reading »]]> Any new enterprise hoping to attract funding from investors needs to clearly understand how to write a pitch deck. This single piece of communication can be the most critical part of any young companies funding efforts and will enable them to convince any potential investors that their ideas have merit.

Every company that needs to present their project to potential investors for funding will have to decide on how to write a pitch deck that is unique and clearly describes their idea and it’s potential. This short collection of slides should be creative enough to express who the company is while still maintaining a sharp focus on the merits of the project. The delicate balancing act between presenting the product as well as the company is important. Most investors provide funding to companies with great ideas that also have passionate and inspired people driving them. In many cases, this presentation will be your only interaction with these investors and it needs to convey the merits of your ideas and clearly explain why you deserve their funding.

Make the Format Your Own

The pitch deck format can vary considerably, but there are certain elements that need to be included in all of them. Most of these presentations are between 10-15 slides that cover all the details you need to present. The flow of the presentation should reflect a logical progression that includes specific details about the company, the market, the competition, the potential of the idea, the expected need for funding and the possible return on that investment. The way that each of these is woven into the pitch deck format is a very individual decision but all of them should be addressed as clearly as possible.

While one of the primary pitch deck uses is for a live presentation to possible investors, these decks also need to be clear enough to make logical sense on their own. Expect that your presentation will be shared with others in the company who won’t have the benefit of your explanation of the slides. For this reason, complicated concepts should be avoided if possible and the slides need to be self-explanatory so that others can understand them. Avoid using too many acronyms or industry terms as many of the potential investors may not be familiar with them and won’t completely understand elements of the project if they are reviewing the pitch deck on their own. If your project has graphics that illustrate how it works or looks, include these in the presentation to provide a glimpse of the final product.

Always Stress the Positive

The key thing to remember when creating a great pitch deck is that you are trying to convince a group of investors that your idea has enough merit to warrant their interest and funding. The tone of the presentation should always reflect the positive potential of the project to allow these investors to understand the benefits and long-term viability of your ideas. Most investment firms represent a diverse group of clients and need to justify any investment they make for these clients as having a sound return. Just because a particular idea is interesting isn’t usually enough to warrant an investment from most firms. They also have to know its commercial potential before making a decision to back the project. Your pitch deck needs to make the case that the project will fill a need in the marketplace and generate a profit once fully realized to attract the interest of these investors.

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There is a lot of misinformation being spread around about the availability of grants for businesses–especially since the economic downturn began several years ago. Perception is not reality though and the truth is that there is not an abundance of “free government money” available to small businesses just for the asking.

You’ve probably heard or seen the advertisements and websites that that claim that they can show you how to tap into hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to start or expand a business that the U.S. government “gives” away each year. Despite what these people would have you believe, the government isn’t just “giving away” money to small businesses. There are however, lots of opportunities for small businesses to connect with Federal dollars. First though, you need to understand a few things. Here are the facts about business grants:

• Nearly all federal grants go to states, local government agencies, schools or universities and qualified nonprofit organizations. Most Federal grants given to businesses are for specific purposes relating to the development of advanced technologies and renewable energy development.
• Every federal grant program is for a specific purpose, has required activities and requires that the recipient account for every dollar. If the specified activities aren’t carried out or the money isn’t accounted for properly, there are very serious consequences.
• All of the “secret” information that people will try to sell you is available for free at your local library or on the Internet.

What the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says:

• Don’t ever pay any money for a “free” government grant. It’s not free if you have to pay for it. Government agencies would never ask you to pay a processing fee for a grant that you have already been awarded – or to pay for a list of grant-making institutions. The names of agencies and foundations that award grants are available for free at any public library or on the Internet. The only official access point for all federal grant-making agencies is www.grants.gov
• Never give your bank account information to someone you do not know. Scammers pressure people to divulge their bank account information so that they can steal the money in the account. Always keep your bank account information confidential. Don’t share it unless you are familiar with the company and know why the information is necessary.
• Look-alikes aren’t the real thing. Just because the caller says he’s from the “Federal Grants Administration” or something similar, it doesn’t mean that he is. There is no such government agency. Take a moment to check the blue pages in your telephone directory to bear out your hunch – or not.

7. File a complaint with the FTC. If you think you may have been a victim of a government grant scam, file a complaint with the FTC online on their website (www.ftc.gov) or call 1-877-382-4357.

If you are interested in learning about legitimate sources for business grant information, a good place to start is with your local Small Business Administration (SBA) office. The SBA does not offer business grants but they can help you connect with the proper resources for uncovering local, state and Federal business grant opportunities and they also may be able to guide you in the proper direction if you’re interested in pursuing cooperative agreements or contracting opportunities with the Federal government.

Alternatively, you can also work with a professional business grants consultant. These are persons who are skilled in navigating the Federal maze and can help your business connect with local, state and Federal dollars. Before hiring a business grant writer, check them out and make sure you’re dealing with a professional who knows what he or she is doing and has a track record of success.

Continue reading »]]> The ability to communicate persuasively is a cornerstone of both personal and business success. Most everything you want to achieve in life is dependent on your ability to persuade others, whether it’s a job, a date or just about anything else. When you applied for your first job you had to persuade the person that interviewed you that you were the right person for the position. When you asked someone out for the first date you had to convince that person that you are fun or otherwise interesting to be around. It’s no different in our professional lives. If you want to promote yourself as an expert, you need to persuade others to trust in your expertise. Likewise, when you want someone to buy your product or service or otherwise embark a desired course, you must persuade them to take action.

Whether it’s in person, online or through any other means, effective persuasive communication takes work—it doesn’t just happen. The following three steps are involved in the persuasive communication process:

1. Build a relationship with your audience (customers): In order to sell yourself, your company, your product or your service you must establish a relationship with your customers—the audience for your message. This is also known as building rapport. By definition rapport refers to relationships of mutual trust among people, feelings of sympathetic understanding and sympathetic compatibility. People pay attention to those they trust, have confidence in, look up to or respect.
2. Uncover their wants and needs: If you don’t know what your audience wants or needs, you won’t be able to persuade them to do what you want them to do—read your article, brochure or proposal; click a link; make a purchase or take some other desired action. People take specific actions because doing so fulfills a particular want or need.
3. Make certain that your work speaks to those wants and needs: When your message doesn’t speak to your audience’s desires and needs it is ignored so if you want people to pay attention you have to quickly grab their interest and engage them. Your audience only cares about what you do when you can meet their wants and needs so your message needs to address their concerns and speak to their interests, values and aspirations. You must tailor your message to clearly demonstrate how you, your product or your service delivers benefits that fulfill your audience’s wishes or needs.

Notice that not one of the three points above is about you, your company or your service. It’s all about your audience. They are the ones who determine whether or not you succeed. Therefore, it’s your responsibility to connect with your audience, establish rapport with them, determine what they want or need and then tailor your message to address their desires or meet their needs.