Running a gym is already very challenging, but when you add a nutrition business into the mix, the pain points and complexities can skyrocket. As a gym owner, you’re not just managing fitness equipment and workout programming; you’re also navigating the intricacies of managing a nutrition coach, and a nutrition coaching program.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the top three pain points that gym owners commonly discuss during their monthly mentoring calls with me. Additionally, I will provide one HOT tip to help solve each problem.
What Are Pain Points In Business?
Pain points in a business refer to specific problems or challenges that customers or businesses themselves encounter during their operations. These pain points can cause frustration, inefficiency, or dissatisfaction, leading to a negative impact on the business’s performance or customer satisfaction levels. I
Identifying and addressing these pain points is crucial for improving processes, enhancing the client experience, and ultimately achieving business success. Pain points occur in every type of business and can be categorized into financial pain points, process pain points, and customer pain points.
This article will address the pain points gym owners and nutrition coaches see in their nutrition businesses.
Pain Point #1 - "We Need More Nutrition Clients"
This is one of the number one pain points I hear during my mentoring calls with gym owners and nutrition coaches. Not having enough nutrition clients affects revenue and impacts both the gym owners’ and nutrition coaches’ lifestyles.
There are so many things a gym owner and nutrition coach can do to get more clients, like talking about nutrition all the time, running a nutrition challenge each year, and posting on social media. But the lowest hanging fruit in a gym to get new clients is……
Solution
Sell nutrition from day one!
Because your nutrition coaching business is run out of a gym, you should have a solid flow of warm leads coming through your doors on a monthly basis. These are people who may know you have a nutrition program but, if not, are looking to work on their health and wellness; otherwise, they would not be coming to a gym.
Pricing and packaging your nutrition program so that it includes the option to start with nutrition coaching and fitness from the time they sign up is paramount to its success.
The highest-priced package you offer should include nutrition, fitness, high accountability and offers services like this:
4 – 1 hour PT sessions used as onboarding for CrossFit
Monthly Inbody scan & progress assessment
Monthly goal-setting session
Monthly unlimited small group CrossFit class
Open gym daily
Individualized nutrition plan & access to our exclusive HSN app
4 – In-person meetings with a nutrition coach
Weekly virtual check-ins with a nutrition coach
Weekly calls with a nutritionPain Point
Pain Point #2 - "Our Clients Are Overwhelmed"
I hear nutrition coaches talking about their clients being so overwhelmed that they end up not making any progress because they are trying to work on too many things at once.
It shouldn’t be this way.
Solution
Work on one habit at a time.
At HSN Mentoring, we teach our nutrition coaches to educate their clients on a holistic approach to nutrition. So much more goes into our food choices than just deciding what to eat. Factors such as sleep, stress, social circle, exercise, and lifestyle all play into our food choices.
When a client is overwhelmed, the solution I provide for nutrition coaches is to have their client work on one habit at a time. Many clients will give pushback when the nutrition coach suggests this. However, a simple solution is to reassure the client that if they are successful with completing this one habit, another can be added between check-ins.
A great way to help the client decide what habit to work on is to have them look at all the pillars of the holistic wheel and reflect on each one, finding areas they would like to improve upon. Then, have them narrow down their choices to just one.
Telling your clients what to work on typically will not make them successful in the long term. Keeping a client-centered approach allows the client to have a say in the challenge they are about to endure, and they feel empowered to work on themselves.
Pain Point #3 - "Clients Leave After Their Initial 12 Weeks"
Most gym owners and nutrition coaches offer an initial coaching package that is a three-month commitment. The idea is that the initial three months will be more “intense,” with the need for higher accountability at the beginning of the client’s journey. After these three months, the “intensity” dies down, and the nutrition client becomes more acclimated to the process and begins to feel more confident in their ability to succeed. After three months, the commitment is reduced from a three-month commitment to a monthly commitment, and the nutrition client moves into “ongoing” coaching.
Some coaches state that after their clients get through the initial three months, they are quitting the program.
Solution
Make sure the client journey is clearly defined during the free intro and emphasized during the initial consultation.
Many clients feel high on life after their initial twelve weeks in the program because they have seen great success. If the nutrition coach has done a good job of defining the client journey, the client will understand that even though they are seeing success, the hard part is yet to come. In the next four to nine months, after the initial phase of the program, weight loss slows and the client will start to have new struggles which they will need their coach for.
If the client doesn’t understand the client journey, they will quit the program after the initial three months, thinking they can do this thing on their own. A month from then, they will begin to struggle but may feel too embarrassed to come back to the coach for help.
Wrap Up
For every problem, there is a solution! I actually have many solutions to each one of these paint points, but the important thing is to take action! When presented with too many choices, people tend to shy away from action because they are overwhelmed—kind of like our nutrition clients when faced with so many things to work on.
If you struggle with any of these pain points in your nutrition business, what action will you take today to help remedy your situation? Shoot me an email or book a free call to learn more about starting a nutrition coaching program in your gym, which will offer you will have a ton of support and accountability from a mentoring team!
