A friend introduced me to the owner of a nice gym in the suburbs of Mumbai. He has a nice ‘civil service’ background but quit all that to start his own gym. While talking to him I came to some fantastic observations which people in financial services could use:

1. Even though he pays a good salary,  he cannot hold on to good trainers for long.

2. His revenue sources include gym joining fees, personal trainer charges, selling food / protein supplements, selling accessories like gloves, shorts, water bottle, energy bars, energy drinks, etc.

3. His most qualified trainers are not the most sought after.

4. His most sought after trainers do not tell the truth to the customer for about 5-6 months! Depending on how the relationship is developing they decide to tell him the truth.

5. His most popular (men’s) trainer does not train women at all – even though the women do seek his expertise. The owner thinks this helps specialization, but does not know why the trainer behaves like this.

6. Trainers who get repeat business tell the clients continuously how good they are in THEIR core business -EGO massaging – and not how little they know about body sculpting.

7. The most successful clients are the ones who have a clear goal (the trainer endorsed, reachable goal), maintain a register of food consumed and another register of the workout done.

8. The top trainers give up on clients who cheat on the workout or on the notebook. Simple-  easier to show case successful clients rather than have a cupboard full of skeletons.

9. Film stars, models, television stars, serious amateur sportsmen, small professional sportsmen – are the categories who stick to the schedule as much as possible.

10. Some very aggressive merchant bankers are as aggressive on the bench too! However the trainers insist on the presence of a doc if a client gets too demanding – work outs are risky too.

11. Clients still try to cheat the gym by offerring to pay the trainer (and saving some money, tax, etc.). However all his trainers seem to be loyal to him. He ensures loyalty by splitting the total collection into 3 parts – 1/3 for the gym, 1/3 for the assigned trainer, and 1/3 for the ‘gym pool’ – this is split on a quarterly basis amongst all the trainers. This helps the junior trainers get something – only a trainer with 3 years experience is allowed Personal Training.

Check each of the above out…it can all be implemented in a financial planning business too!!