The concept sounds simple: Just make an extra $100 per week. But how? It’s not just working more, or working harder.
Coaches, Trainers, Consultants and Experts are most often small business owners. In some cases, they work for larger companies, but the vast majority are self-employed.
The question is this…. How can you quickly and easily increase your weekly income by $100? That is $400/month or $5,200 each year. What will you do with the extra money? Savings? Vacation? Pay off bills? Vegas? What?
Ok, so here is the list. Before, we get to it, know this…. this is only 5% of what is possible. It’s what comes to my mind first and makes the most sense in this economy, and doesn’t take much to get started.
REMEMBER: Speed of implementation is essential for optimal success. AKA – Move your A## and get going!
In no particular order –
#1 – Double the traffic to your website. What? Yes! Now, if you don’t even have a website, that’s a whole other story, and you likely need more than an extra $100 each week. If this is you, see my other posts on building a website. Hire my fitness business web ninja if needed. Here’s his life/wellness coaching web site program. Ok, how is doubling your website traffic going to give you an extra $100/week? First, you need to know your numbers. If you get 50 people each day to your site who want your service, and of those 50 people, you get 2 emails or calls, and you close half of the inquiries. You have 1 new client. Get it? So, when you double your web traffic with more interested/qualified people (and all other factors remain the same), you should increase your new clients by 2x. That should be at least $100 per week.
How to double your website traffic:
a) Submit SEO (search engine optimization) friendly press releases to PR.com, PRweb.com and/or Webwire.com.
b) Submit niche specific articles to article directories. (google for list).
c) Get listed for free on http://www.fitnessprodirectory.com. This is my site, and you can go crazy here. You can post articles, classifieds, videos, events, and much more. Over 12 fitness and coaching niches available.
d) Get listed in all local directories. Google: “List of all local directories”
e) Try JSE Inner Circle coaching. I teach advanced (and easy-to-do) google ranking techniques.
f) Use social media to drive traffic to your site.
#2 – Use LinkedIn to Connect with People Who Make More Money and Have More Influence.
Yes, as compared to Facebook, people who use LinkedIn on a regular basis, earn more money and have more influence in the workplace. This is a fact, not just my opinion. What does this mean to you? More money + more influence likely means more desire to get fit, improve themselves and having the resources to hire you to help. It’s that simple.
But, how can you master LinkedIn?
Find who you know. Start with your existing contacts by letting LinkedIn scan your email address book to find out who you know is on LinkedIn. Don’t worry, LinkedIn won’t automatically send requests to your contacts; you can choose to whom you want to send a request.
Personalize your URL. Change your LinkedIn profile URL from the default set of numbers to your name. This helps people find you when they search for your name within LinkedIn as well as in Google and other search engines.
Link to your profile. If you have a Web site or a blog or a Twitter account or other social media profiles, link to your LinkedIn profile from them. If possible, use your name in the text of the link. This helps the search engines find you and helps boost your rankings in the search results.
Recommend. Give and ask for recommendations. But be sincere or it will not sound authentic. When you recommend someone and when someone recommends you, that fact is displayed on your profile for all to see. (Don’t worry, you can control which recommendations appear on your profile). Don’t be afraid to ask people who you think have high regard for you for a recommendation. Recommend those you think are worthy before they ask you to recommend them.
Join industry groups. Search for and join industry-related LinkedIn groups , even if there is no activity within them. The icons for those groups will show up on your profile which tells people at a glance that you are involved in your industry and presumably knowledgeable about it. It also creates a connection between you an anyone else who is a member of that group. If the group is active, join in the conversation where appropriate. This is an opportunity to demonstrate your expertise.
Post news. Many groups allow you to post links to news articles intended to spark conversation. More often than not, conversations do not arise from these links but that doesn’t mean that no one pays attention to them. Like status updates, this function can be used to position yourself as knowledgeable in your field. But think before you go down this route. Before you post anything, ask yourself if what you’re about to share is truly valuable to the group. If it’s sheer self-promotion don’t do it.
Potential weekly income: 2 new leads per week. Close 1 of them. Train/coach them 2x/week at $70 per session. This is $140/week additional income.
Connect with me (JSE) on LinkedIn.
#3 – Run a transformation contest.
Transformation (or makeover) contests are big business. Reality TV has shown that most people (basically everyone) loves competition. Their personal workout, life change, diet or race is no different. Use this to your advantage. Your transformation content can be all physical, all “life change” oriented, or a hybrid format. It’s up to you. The good news (regarding $$$$) is that people will pay more to be a part of a content or competition. By default it creates more hype because people want to share their “experience” in the contest. There will be more social shares, more photos, and more personal testimonials than you could never want. It just works that way. If you are wondering how to manage and promote your transformation contest, there is a simple solution. It’s Fitness Business Ninja, which has a simple and very, very cool transformation contest management software solution. You can use this tool to create any contest parameters you want to measure (weight, running time, push-up reps, flexibility, blood work results, resting pulse, happiness index, and anything else you can imagine).
Potential weekly income: 10 people enter transformation contest. Contest is $400 per person for an 8 week program. $4000 total revenue. $500 per week income.
#4 – Raise your rates.
I know this is in stark contract with what you may be thinking. That’s ok. You are better than you think. You deserve more. Your clients will pay it. If you have not raised your rates in years, do it now. If you have a pain in the a## client and you want to “nudge them out the door” raise your rates. At a minimum – if they stay – it will make the hour more tolerable to you!
To keep you good client, with your price increase, you need to do a couple of things. 1. Make some updates to your website, your studio, your email newsletters, and most importantly your coaching sessions or training routines. 2. If you just attended a conference, workshop, earned a new certification, etc, use this as the “reason” the rates are going up. You have new skills, and can now provide even better service, so the rates need to increase. Plan it out and execute this plan. Your good clients will stay, and the pains will likely leave. Perfection!
Potential weekly income: If you have 10 clients who each pay you $100 per week, and you raise your rates by 15%, that is an additional $150 per week. I think a 20% increase is not unreasonable. You deserve it, don’t you?
#5 – Stop inefficiency.
It’s time to get on my soapbox. Without a doubt, over the many years I have been building successful fitness and personal development business, I see one thing that keeps people from making more money. It is inefficiency. Inefficiency will lead to your slow and painful death. Sometimes, not so slow…
Examples of becoming more efficient:
– If you are plenty motivated, stop watching/listening to “motivational” programs and watch/listen to educational programs that teach SPECIFIC SKILLS instead.
– Stay away from lazy people who never get anything done and suck the last bit of life from your existence. Only surround yourself with “A” players. No exceptions.
– When you have 5 tasks to do in a day (while out and about), think it through and make it as logical, seamless, and progressive as possible. Then take this skill into the remainder of your life.
– Don’t “play on social media”. Use Facebook and other similar sites with specific intent to connect, build relationships, share and acquire new business.
– Stop doing ANYTHING that is not working. I’m not talking about what you are testing or just starting. There isn’t enough info yet to say it’s good or bad. I’m saying if you have been doing a specific business strategy, marketing tactic, training method or advertising format, and it’s not getting a good ROI (return on investment), STOP IT NOW! You have to know your numbers, and you must live by your numbers.
– Implement more group training or coaching. I’m not saying NEVER offer one-on-one programs. There is a time and place. I’m saying that you will never come close to optimizing your efficiency if you do not offer group programs. Group programs can include online coaching, online training, membership programs, transformation contests, boot camps, group personal training and many others.
– Get a coach to help you become more efficient with your business development. Why waste time? It does NOTHING for you. Time is the only think you can never get back.
– Model (observe and emulate) efficient people. Do what they do in a way that works for your business, career and niche.
This is how I have become highly efficient:
1. I hire a coach for anything I want to improve (business, martial arts, social media, communication, technology, neuro health/performance, etc). I consult 3- 6 coaches each week.
2. I have my day structured into blocks of time, and I do not deviate. I know where I will be and what I will be accomplishing each moment of the day. This applies to “free/fun” time.
3. I have a specific work/rest cycle for computer work. 2 hours on and 15 minutes off. Repeat for the “work” portion of my day. In the 15 minute rest period, I do a yoga posture, use the foam roller, drink water and have a healthy snack like an avocado. THIS WORKS!!!
4. I only hang out with “A” players. I refuse to be around negative people who are energy vampires. People who bitch, whine or complain cannot be my friend. My martial arts coaches are all world or national champions, or the world’s experts in their discipline. My “life coaches” are at the top of the industry. My technology consults have created some of the Internet’s best technologies. Why get the second best, right? I belong to mastermind groups with the top fitness and coaching entrepreneurs in the industry. SMART PEOPLE!!! We freely share best practices, and help each other. And, you guessed it…. if people complain, or are a huge pain in the ass, they are out of the group WITHOUT WARNING. This all may sound harsh or direct….. it likely is. It works, and I invite you to try it for yourself and watch how your life and business quickly evolve to the next level.
In short….
Most people are highly inefficient. This leads to frustration, lack of results, poor performance and LACK OF MONEY! Ya…. that sucks!
So, if you have learned anything from this epic blog post. I hope it is that you must become efficient to earn that extra $100 each week. My guess is that the $100 will be just the beginning of many more $100s to come.
I wish you the best.
If you agree, or disagree, leave a comment below.
PS – Here’s a cool way to earn at least $100/week. It’s what I do.
PPS – This is another way I earn an extra (several hundred) dollars each week. It keeps growing. Ya gotta love passive income.
Felicia says
Great actionable steps! Thanks!
jesse says
This is good. You covered some things I never considered here like the transformation contest.
Because you have superhuman discipline JSE its like your cheating 😉
Yaquay B. says
I feel as though I have sooooo much to work on… Nevertheless, you speak words of valuable wisdom, as always. And I highly appreciate it!
shellykaren says
Thank you for the great post. Agreed thoroughly that this great reminder in praticular for myself and point of actions to consistantly follow. Cheers JSE and thanks again!
shellykaren says
*typo* sorry particular ( thanks again)
Ann says
Thanks for the great info JSE!