When I move to a new place and the kids are settled and hubby is going well. The cars and the house all seems figured out, I join a gym.
In this case, I joined the 123express and met wonderful people there who had few enough clients to give the clients they did have enough energy and attention.
As time went by they also became clients of mine in my kinesiology practise and I went to Casey's for facials and massages.
It was a great friendship and we really enjoyed each other's company, but then the couple had a few rocky moments and split up. Their business was not the same anymore and after one of my trips back to South Africa, I realised, they sold the business to someone else.
Well, that was sad, but a few months later, hubby went to the shops close by and found a pamphlet for the first month free at a new gym that opened in the area. He never falls for these things, but this time he said I should go and try it out.
That worked out to be the most expensive month, and gym membership in my life.
Shortly after joining Jo's Personal Fitness Centre, and enjoying it, I might add, he became ill (that is Jo). He needed someone to take over the business and seeing that I had "nothing" to do at the time, I fell for the Personal Fitness idea. I could add my kinesiology and my nutrition expertise and do some counselling at the same time....
The gym was just too small to really work and there were no windows to the outside, but hey, the business was going well and the people I meat there were all great! Jo had trained up a few of his clients to a Cert III and Cert IV level in Personal Fitness and it looked as if I could even have a partnership with one or two of them.
Everything planned did not turn out as it should have, without me knowing anything, Joe told the other two girls that they should not stay and should open their own places within a 1km radius from my premises.
Joe had two other gym about 8-10kms from this one and these two had to close because he moved upstate.
Again he had an idea that I would let his clients work out their credit with him in my Fitness Centre so that he wouldn't have to refund them. He also had one trainer at the one premises, who wanted to work with me, or for me, as he owed her time and money.
At the time I didn't think much of the situation as it obviously filled my Fitness Centre up and it felt good. Within a month of him leaving, I realised what was really happening. The trainer he had left to "help" me, basically took all the clients with her that had come over from the other centre and in retrospect, they were her clients too. They trained with her before and there is always loyalty in such a situation. So, when their credit was used up, they left. With them, some of my client left as the gym was plainly too full for everyone.
This was around the time of the year when daylight savings kicks in and that is normally when people leave the fitness centres to "train outside". They never do the training, but they save money until next winter anyway.
This was okay, I still had money to do some advertising and all was well. Except for the fact that the economy was going into a steep decline and the world was tumbling for everyone around me. Instead of going for fitness goals and motivating people to get fitter and thinner, it was more of a battle to get them to keep paying. I fully understood why it was too hard for them to pay the membership and I would have loved to change the fees to something ridiculously cheap, but the landlord set a steep rate and I had to keep paying the rent.
Keeping that ship afloat was a great learning experience and I really had so many quality clients that became quality friends that I cannot complain.
When the going gets tough, the tough get going!
Now the one thing I could not do myself, was to get up at 5 or 6 am and work the whole day until 7 or 8 pm, so I had Marnie, Su, Lachlan, Wanda, Bridie, and Cameron doing their bit.
Su and Lachlan kept going for the whole time and Cameron did his Cert IV as one of our clients and later worked with some of my and his clients in the gym. He is really good with a one on one situation where the client really needs the attention and understanding that he can give them.
They are all great people, friends and trainers in their own right.
Without Su, I might have given up, a lot sooner, but she is such an inspiration! Always up early, always working as hard as she can, giving leadership in the morning to Lachlan when needed and always dependable. A great person but even a greater athlete.
What I have learnt in the Fitness environment is that everyone has a big goal to reach, but sometimes the goal to get through the door is just as big as the goal to run 100km in the Blue Mountains.
As a trainer it is often good to push the clients limits, but never forget that they really are in the gym to make their life's purpose a little easier to reach.
That is why I enjoy working with clients in a small environment giving them the time and motivation they need, not only to get through the session, but to realise the benefits of training in their lives.
The tears in the our little gym was never about the program or exercises, it was because of life the universe and everything else.
It was very interesting to realise how many clients came to that little centre because the commercial centres were too impersonal and even though mine was not inexpensive, everyone knew they would get the attention they needed.
Everyone needed rehabilitation, whether it was a little or a lot, there was always something that needed fixing.
We kept going for two years and for the last yeast hubby had to work everywhere but at home, so it was sometimes lonely for us, but we managed.
Having the time of my life with all my wonderful clients and the great people who helped me run the business for two years, made it extremely hard to leave. I will do it again in a flash!
I am now writing about all my experiences in my new country and one of the books I am writing will be published soon on www.diabetesexercisesonline.com . I invite you to join my blog on that website as well and if you leave your comment and information, you can get the ebook 50% off.
