I recently had a very successful fitness pro visit me to take advantage of my “VIP day with Sam”

That’s when I spend an entire day with a fitness pro, answering their questions, dissecting their business and showing them various different methods and systems I use in my 7-figure businesses.

This fitness pro asked me an EXCELLENT question that I have never been asked before.

She asked me “Sam name 10 big mistakes you have made in your business thus far”

Man what an excellent question…

Most people attribute my success to all the right things I have done.

But as we all know, success comes from years of trial and error.

Years of blood, sweat and tears.

Success has many, MANY rainy days.

Like Rocky said “It’s not always sunshine and rainbows”

“IF YOU LEARN FROM DEFEAT, YOU HAVEN’T REALLY LOST”

SO without further ado, Here is the top 10 biggest mistakes I have made in my business.

Mistake #1 Spend too much money on equipment and not enough money on the culture.

I used to think “the more equipment the better” these days I emphasize less equipment and really concentrate on our overall atmosphere and energy. We emphasize results, fun, music and client events and parties. Relationships are the cornerstone of ANY business.

Mistake #2 Too high of an overhead

Back in the day, I was paying LA fitness 17K per month for the rights to personal training in their Chino location. Guess what? I still made money. But I got smart and started my own studio for a quarter of what I was paying them.

The older that I get the less risk tolerance that I have. It’s just not me anymore.

I have 3 girls to feed and they are HUNGRY ;)

Mistake #3 Listening to way too many people and not trusting my own intuition

I think when we are all starting out, we want a short cut. We are limited in our budget and want to hit a home run. So we look for others who WE THINK are doing well in our industry and seek for advice.

I definitely believe in having a coach BUT I believe in having ONE coach at a time.

I also think that sometimes you just have to trust your intuition and run with what you truly believe will work for you.

Nobody can tell you yes it will work or no it won’t work until the rubber meets the road.

“TOO MANY COOKS SPOIL THE BROTH”

Mistake #4 Thinking Success = Money

Look I am all about making money. That’s what we all came to this great country for.
However, I will tell you this. As soon as I started concentrating on being a Go-Giver my bank account started to EXPLODE.

Coincidence….I think not.

Concentrate on being SIGNIFICANT and financial success with follow.

“IF YOU HELP ENOUGH PEOPLE GET WHAT THEY WANT YOU”LL GET WHAT YOU WANT”

 

Mistake #5 Not Inspecting What I Was Expecting

Employees need leadership and constant encouragement and feedback.
Employees are not mind readers. You need to constantly train them, incentivize them and give them constructive feedback.

It’s your job and duty to be a leader. Lead don’t manage.

“YOU CAN’T THROW MONEY AT A PROBLEM AND EXPECT IT TO GO AWAY”

Mistake #6 Ignoring little things.

We all see little things that we ignore in our business. We just tell ourselves things like:

“I just don’t have time to deal with that”

“I have more important stuff to deal with’

“That’s really not going to matter”

Until one day that little problem becomes a big problem and bites YOU in the A$$.

As the leader of your team, it’s your responsibility to blow the whistle on anything that’s not congruent with your company’s mission.

As a leader if you don’t care enough to fix these “little things” then who will?

Little things will lead to big things and then you really have a BIG problem on your hands.

“NOTHING IS A BIG DEAL IN YOUR BUSINESS UNTIL YOU MAKE IT A BIG DEAL”

Mistake #7 Spending too much time behind the computer and not enough time building relationships.

Somehow somebody has sold fitness pros a bill of goods saying that they need to be miserable business men, sitting behind the computer, getting fat to be successful.

Like I have said before they are too busy trying to learn infusionsoft and other crap that doesn’t matter to their bottom line.

This happened to me as well. in 2007-2008 I bought into the hype and got away from what I truly enjoyed and was miserable.

Today, I am less and less behind the computer and more and more out there building relationships and making connections.

“THE PRESIDENT WASN’T ELECTED BY SENDING AN EMAIL. HE WAS ELECTED BECAUSE HE TRAVELED ACROSS THE COUNTRY, MET PEOPLE, SHOOK HANDS AND KISSED BABIES”

Mistake #8 Focusing on pleasing everybody.

This goes hand in hand with trying to make maximum revenue at all cost.

When you become a slave to money, you will do and say anything to make a buck (kinda like a prostitute)

By doing this not only will you REPELL money but more importantly you will not be able to build a business culture.

A business without a culture is A DEAD BUSINESS EXISTING.

You have to realize that you can’t serve everyone and not everyone should be your customer.

“SOME OF THE BEST DEALS ARE THE ONES NEVER MADE”

Mistake #9 Not having a great attorney

Look in the perfect world nobody should need an attorney. But unless you’re living in Disneyland you need a VERY good attorney.

(Imagine how many lawsuits the happiest place in the world has on their hands at any one time)

Don’t be cheap, have an attorney look over your lease, agreements, etc…..

Spend a few dollars now to avoid HUGE disasters in the future.

“BEING IN BUSINESS IS LIKE BEING IN THE BOXING RING PROTECT YOURSELF AT ALL TIMES”

Mistake #10 Having one successful business and thinking you have the magic touch

Let me be straight up with you. Even the sun shines on a dogs a** every once in awhile.

Just because you have ONE successful studio don’t get all happy thinking you can go do it all over again.

Having a multiple businesses will TEST you.

It will test your:

Time management skills
Organizational skills
Leadership skills
Marketing skills
Money management skills
etc…. etc….

The first time I tried to expand, I literally almost LOST it all. It was one of the worst times of my life.

Now don’t let me scare you from expanding. I learned from my mistake, the first time, recovered financially and now own 7 locations with another 8 locations planned to open this year.

I really hope you learned from some of my mistakes. I can literally write a whole book on all the mistakes I have made in business and life.

“I HAVE LEARNED MORE FROM MY MISTAKES THAN FROM MY VICTORIES”

Sam,

PS- I am having a one day mastermind Thursday March 6th at one of my facilities in Chino.
Isn’t time for you to take your business to the next level?