Let me make it official and announce that I decided to go with Fit Body Boocamp for my new training studio.  I mentioned this in the last issue of the newsletter, and various people that know me in this area or met me at FBS have known for a while.

And from the reaction I’ve got, a few people have been puzzled.  They’ve straight out asked me why would I jump on another brand when I can create my own.

The first thing I’ve got to say on that is that business is strategic, and you can’t let emotion or ego get involved.  One thing I’ve developed in my time in the fitness business and through all my ups and downs is self awareness.  I’m starting to see what I’m good at and what I’m not good at.  And rather than devote too much time to what I’m not good at, I look for a fast, instant solution to help solve them.

This explains why while most trainers would take years to open a studio, mine was open in two months flat from the time the idea popped in my head.  This couldn’t have happened if I didn’t align with an already existing and simplified brand.

The way my brain works is that I tend to over-complicate things.  I’ll make a 2-step process into ten steps.  My brain thrives on solving problems – the bad side of that is it will create problems to solve.

I realized this early while I was fleshing out the plans for my studio, staffing, and marketing.  I was designing logos, creating a site, and planning a floor layout that were all highly intricate.  And this was all bogging me down, costing me money, and eating up my free time.

The only thing you get paid for is the marketing and client-getting – I didn’t want to have to worry about anything else.

And in a flash of inspiration, I realized that a Fit Body license would solve many of these issues for me, simplify the process, help me appeal to my target market better, give me more credibility … let me just spell out the reasons in a list:

– help me patch into a network of existing bootcamp owners many of which are already successful

– in my opinion, the Fit Body Bootcamp image resonates well with “regular folks”, which are the kind of people I want my new business to serve

– coachines like Cara Eckerman and Steve Hochman are a great counterbalance to my analytical nature and help me connect with my customer base better

– I was going to steal many of their facebook fan page designs, signs, and offers anyway.  And stealing other people’s shit is not the basis of a good business model

– the networking is great

– FBS is a great party

– Bedros not only has the strongest camp in the “personal training get rich” category, but it’s the one I more strongly resonate with and have the most existing contacts in

– A lot of the other FBBC owners are real cool – they’re a very connected and strong community

– to be able to buy-in to the credibility of a national brand for just a couple of thousand bucks is a steal.  Sure, most of the locations are run out of gymnastics centers, but that’s cool and nobody knows or cares about that.

– running Fit Body puts you into a more streamlined mindset.  You stop thinking in terms of expensive training studio or tons of minutae, and you immediately start thinking about getting the job done and getting clients.

– Fit Body emphasizes the relationship component of training, which is my weakness

– most of the Fit Body licensees use relationship and social media marketing, which are very effective for a training business

– Bedros and Steve are two of the more ambitious and focused people in the personal training business and it’s a good idea to be aligned with them

– it cuts away the time it takes to develop a logo, marketing materials, and other materials when you consider that someone in Fit Body has probably already done it

– the red, white, and blue colors build trust and comfort in my opinion.  They are also make it easy to find stuff that matches

That about sums it up.  Those are just the conscious reasons why I decided to jump on Fit Body – the rest was just my gut.  Like I said, I spent a few days planning out my studio and making the process complicated, and my gut told me that Fit Body would be the solution to simplifying it.  I haven’t regretted the decision since.

So I hope that makes things more clear to people that were shocked or puzzled by my decision to open a Fit Body location.  To sum things up, it addressed my weaknesses, simplified the process, saved me money, gave me a great network to tap into, gave me a national brand to tap into, helped me resonate better with my target market, and I’m sure will pay off in other ways in the future.  And note, I didn’t mention any of the marketing tactics which is the reason why a lot of people jump on it.

There’s my no-hype, no affiliate link breakdown of why I made my decision.  Take it for what you will and in some way or another, I hope it helped you out.