One of the biggest business model mistakes we see from the Fitness Businesses we work with is a ‘Straddled Strategy’.
The path to this faulty business model is pretty consistent, and might be familiar to you.
- You work out what you’re best at and offer this as the ‘thing’ your business does. Maybe it’s Personal Training, maybe it’s gym memberships, maybe it’s classes, maybe it’s semi private training.
- You work hard to market and promote this service.
- You realise business is hard, and the service you provide isn’t making as much money as you would like.
- You get distracted by other business on social media who seem to be raking in the cash (spoiler alert, they’re most likely not!).
- You copy the services they’re offering in addition to what you’re doing already.
- The services you’re copying turn out to be not what you’re best at.
- Not only are the new services of a lower quality, but the stuff you ARE good at (the reason you started the business) suffers to.
- The quality of the entire business drops and the cycle continues.
In a Straddled Strategy, the business owner tries to ‘straddle’ multiple different types of services, which ends up diluting the experience the customer gets to the point that the business suffers.
So what can we do about this?
Firstly, do your homework. Go DEEP on investigating what it is that you’re best at, the sort of people you are best positioned to help, and the problems they have that you can solve.
It’s very important to get this first step right, because if you don’t, you may not have the conviction to ‘stick to your guns’ when business gets hard.
Then, once you’ve identified your unique selling proposition (the things that you’re best at) and your avatar (the person you’re best positioned to help) – DO THE WORK.
Double down on this service offering to this particular person. Don’t be distracted by shiny opportunities (unless they will also contribute to solving the problems of your avatar).
Ever time you say ‘yes’ to something that doesn’t fit your business model, you’re saying ‘no’ to the stuff you are good at.
