If you’re thinking about creating a Fitness Business (or maybe already own one), who better to learn from than some of the most successful businesses using LEGIT FIT!

In this series, we asked some outstanding customers to tell us about their experience setting up a business and what they learned along the way. Thank you CM Fitness & Personal Training for sharing these insights!

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Hey Everyone!

My name is Cian, and I am the proud owner of CM Fitness & Personal Training in Cork. I made the precarious move from employment to self-employment just over 2 years ago. If I were to say that I’ve learned a lot since then… that would (definitely) be an understatement 😅. There were so many different learnings since I started, and I could probably (like so many others I assume) put quite a lengthy list here. But so I don’t go on and on and on… here are my top 3!

The Foreground vs The Background!

Firstly, for myself, time management has been a huge thing that I’ve had to really work hard on. When I started out, I took on as many PT clients as I could… and then kept onboarding more and more. Now this was great because I was getting busy fast and money was coming in… but all of the background stuff was getting massively neglected! Books, marketing planning, emails, social media content and everything else a self-employed person has to do. Eventually, it ends up like sweeping dirt under a rug… it’s only going to get worse and it has to be done sooner or later. So when I brought on more staff, I had some time to do a retrospective and introspective on myself and the business. It’s only now I see how I should’ve set times in my schedule to prioritize working “on the business” as opposed to “in the business”.

Resilience is Key

Secondly, realizing everything isn't going to go perfectly (or exactly to plan) was crucial. I used to set targets for myself that were quite high and I always aimed at achieving them (no matter what) for perfection. But unfortunately, these ambitious targets I set — more often than not — were unachievable. But I’ve learned to be ok with that. It’s more about the act of setting the target and working towards it vs. actually attaining an overly ambitious KPI. Setbacks happen, clients move away or dont sign back up, and there’s nothing that you can do about it. Some times, you just have to focus on moving forward and working relentlessly towards your end goal. PS Don’t sweat the small stuff.

Continuous learning is simply a must!

You have to keep educating and upskilling yourself. You’re never going to know everything — but that’s not a bad thing. It’s ok not to know something a client may ask you because guaranteed the next time you get asked you're going to know and that makes you better as a trainer !!

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