Rome was not Built in a Day !!!

Rome was not built in a day.
Take one step at a time.
Walk before you run.

All of the above are phrases you have all heard before. Yet it still amazes me how people, including myself, get overwhelmed with the never ending tasks that need to be done each day to operate a successful business. You might even handle the daily tasks, yet miss important things that are needed to grow your business successfully.

For example, you might make sure that you return every email that someone sends you each day, but do nothing regarding having a plan to handle, track and communicate with prospects that are needed to ultimately grow your business.

Shape.Net management software can handle everything you need to manage and grow your business effectively. Yet sometimes, the owner of the gym will not utilize all of the great features in the software because he/she is overwhelmed with daily operational tasks.

Shape.Net provides comprehensive value to any business that uses it, including: Membership and Personal Training management, Scheduling, Prospect management, Check In, Point of Sale, EFT, Fitness Assessments, Videos, non-member registration, digital contracts, invoices, collections, expense tracking, online access for members and trainers, Class scheduler and much, much more. Instead of using several software systems to run your business, you can use one web-based system to do it all !!!

Instead of being overwhelmed with all of these features that can help your business, implement and learn each one every 2 weeks. For example, create a simple plan to start offering and recording fitness assessments for your members. 2 weeks later, integrate your website to your Shape.Net system (easy to do) so that you can start capturing people that have an interest in your gym easily from your website.

Take it one step at a time and you will be taking strides in making your business more effective and more successful.

Hope this helps….

Larry

9 out of 12 is not that Bad.

Hi Everyone,

I would like to share with all of you a great line I read a couple of days ago.

Ed Koch, the former mayor of New York City (1979-1988) was asked before an election how a voter should determine whether or not they should vote for him. Mr Koch said that if you agree with me on 9 of 12 issues, vote for me. If you agree with me on 12 of 12 issues, you should see a psychiatrist !!!

What a great point.

There are not many things in life that you will agree with someone on every single point. That's especially true with software.

Shape.Net software can help your business grow many different ways. The core functions to run a business effectively and efficiently are handled in the system. You might not agree with every single process and feature in the system, but collectively, it is very difficult to find a system that is more comprehensive than Shape.Net in the health and fitness industry today.

Have a great day......

Larry

How FACEBOOK can help your business !!!!

Hi Everyone,

I tried to resist FACEBOOK for as long as possible.
I finally broke down about 2 months ago.

The reason I held off was because I've been focusing most of my time growing my software business. I felt that if I got involved with FACEBOOK I would be distracted.

After exhibiting at the IHRSA trade show in March 2010 in San Diego, we decided to create a FACEBOOK page for our company Shape.Net. We would create content to help people understand how our software product can help any type of gym. If I wrote a BLOG or wanted to share useful information about our company or product, we would post on our FACEBOOK page.

A month later, I began using my personal FACEBOOK page. I started connecting with some old and current friends. I then went to the SHAPE.NET FACEBOOK page and clicked the LIKE icon.

Two days later I log into my personal FACEBOOK page and I get a POST from SHAPE.NET.

This may sound simple but this one simple POST from SHAPE.NET was able to reach all of our clients that had a FACEBOOK page and clicked LIKE on the SHAPE.NET FACEBOOK page (just creates a technical thread). This makes it very easy to stay connected with all of your clients and/or prospects.

POWERFUL !!!!

I get it now but there are still many businesses that are not getting it and using it.

What you need to do to use FACEBOOK effectively for your business:

• Create a FACEBOOK account for your business
• Get people to know about it via emails
• Get people to know about it via your website
• Get people to know about it any way you can think of.
• Post useful information on your FACEBOOK account at least once a week.

If you want to join the FACEBOOK page for Shape.Net, just go here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/ShapeNet-Software/369326429238

See you on FACEBOOK !!!

Larry

People Like To See Their Progress

There are several reasons why people go to a gym or personal trainer. One of the main reasons is to improve upon their physical shape. They might want to trim their waist 3 inches, lose 20 pounds, gain upper body strength, etc.

One effective way to measure progress is to record various measurements during the member’s first visit. For example, you could record a member’s weight, body fat percentage, and waist measurement. After 2 weeks, you could record the measurements again to see if you they are moving towards their goal.

When their goals are reached, these members can be placed in a maintenance program where they can be monitored once a month.

Shape.Net software provides the ability to record over 80 different fitness assessments. You can create simple and comprehensive assessment programs. Additionally, you can set goals for each assessment and the member can access their results anytime/anywhere via the internet.

With Shape.Net, you can easily find members who never had an assessment and send out a mass email to these members explaining the benefits of people getting assessed.

You can charge a fee for these assessments or include them is various training programs or memberships you are currently selling.

Bottom line, incorporating fitness assessments into your business will provide opportunities for you to generate more revenue in addition to adding more value for your members.

To get started, just do the following:
· Create 2 different fitness assessment programs (basic and advanced)
· Include them independently and in existing training programs
· Create a one page flyer at front desk so all members can see
· Process orders !!!!!

Hope this helps…..

Larry King

Easy way to make money with Internet Ads

Hi Everyone,

When running your business, at some point you will typically spend money on advertisements to promote your product or service. There is some financial risk involved. You might spend $2000 on a full page ad in a magazine and hope that you get new business that exceeds the amount of money you spend on the ad.

I will now provide an example of placing an ad with zero financial risk and a good chance that you will make money and help grow your business.

Shape.net management software provides the ability for members to login and access many different services. Some of the services that are available to each member:

* Ability to schedule for personal training
* Ability to register for a class
* View Videos
* View prescribed workouts from trainer
* Track cardio workouts
* View daily fitness related articles
* Purchase services
* View receipts
* View Fitness Assessments (and your progress)
* View your appoinments
* much more.....


With Shape.Net, you can place advertisements in the member login area.

When each member logs in, they will see the ad.

Bottom line, each member has a good incentive to login throughout the week. If you have 300 members logging in every day, that is alot of visability for an ad.

You can sell this ad space to businesses in your area. You will also have the ability to track how many times the ad was clicked.
We have clients that use the Shape.Net system receiving $100 a month for ad space. Additionally, the gym using the system can also use this ad space to promote products and services they are selling to their members.

In summary, you now have another way to help grow your business by using the power of the internet and effective web-based management software.

Larry

Reminders are Important for your Business !!!

Hi Everyone,

Have you ever had a client miss a personal training session or a class that they ultimately wanted to attend and they basically just forget about it.

One of the best ways to remind them is to email and/or text your client a reminder of the appointment.

We all lead busy lives and simple reminders will keep your business running smoothly. Reminding your clients to attend their scheduled appointments will help them achieve their fitness goals.

Shape.Net software has several ways that these reminders are automatically sent to your clients via email and/or text message:

1. When the front desk adds appointment to the scheduler
2. When a member logs in via member web portal and schedules appointment
3. At 5pm, all clients in the scheduler for the next day will get an email and/or text message reminder about their appointment.

These simple reminders are great because they are automatically being sent to your clients.

This is just another example of how powerful management software can make your business better.

Larry

People Like to View Videos !!!

Hi Everyone,

Videos are a powerful way to communicate with prospects and clients,
yet there are many businesses that do not take advantage of this opportunity.

Any process that you visually repeat over and over again can be captured in a video.
For example, you might show every new client how to properly and safely execute a bench press. If you created a video for all new members to see this process, every client will get the exact same message.

You can easily create a video library referencing each exercise. You can also create videos on different topics, such as nutrition and reasons why your members should buy your products.

These are great services to offer new and existing members. Videos will not replace your training program but will supplement it. Any member that went thru a training session can use the videos to reinforce how to do an exercise or to understand the benefits more clearly.

Sometimes just offering these video services to a prospect that is interested in joining your gym will be what's needed to have them try your facility.

Shape.Net software provides each member with the ability to login to their personal account. This is where your member will view the videos. Additionally, you can control the videos that each member can view. You might offer your entire video library if they purchase a membership or training services for a year. There are other ways to sell this new service, but I will not go into the detail in this short blog.

The steps needed to create a video library are easier than your think:

1. Get a flip cam for about $200 (http://www.theflip.com/)
2. Open a free You Tube account. (http://www.youtube.com/)
3. Create videos and upload to your computer.
4. With the Flip Video, this can be done in 3 minutes, it's easy
5. Upload video to your YouTube account.
6. Connect video to your shape.net system (takes abour 2 minutes).

There are ways to make your videos private so only your members can access the videos with their Shape.net login.

Start your video library today, taking it one video at a time.

Remember, if a picture is a thousand words, a video is a.........

Hope this helps,

Larry