Are you a gym owner with a nutrition coaching business in your gym or fitness studio? If not – then this article is for you!
“You can’t out exercise a bad diet.” I know we’ve all heard that before. And well, the truth is, you really can’t! Despite hearing this statement over and over, I still run into many people that focus on exercise alone as the main way they plan lose weight. I hear them say, “I’m just going to run some more,” or “I need to hit it hard in the gym to lose these 10 pounds.”
As gym owners, we know that exercise alone is not the best way to lose body fat. And more studies are showing that if fat loss is the goal, improving your diet vs. just exercising is a much better way to actually lose fat than exercise alone.
And although a lot of gym owners are having conversations around nutrition in their facilities with clients, there is no formal approach or program for nutrition that is offered. This leads many owners and coaches to either referring clients somewhere else for nutrition coaching, or having them fend for themselves when searching for nutrition help. And believe me, it’s like the “wild west” online when it comes to nutrition.
I’m a gym owner who knows that nutrition is the missing piece of the puzzle. I would run nutrition challenge after nutrition challenge only to have my clients gain the weight back after the challenge was over because they had no ongoing support. But I was stuck. Even though I knew nutrition could help them, I didn’t have a plan for them to move forward. I found HSN and all that is changed.
And this is why I can say – It doesn’t have to be this way!!! We can help!
In this article I am going to discuss three reasons why starting a nutrition coaching business in house versus outsourcing can help a gym owner and its clients reach their goals.
What Is A Nutrition Coaching Business?
A nutrition coaching business is a type of service that provides personalized nutrition & lifestyle guidance to individuals who are looking to make changes to their diet & habits. Generally, these programs involve one-on-one sessions with a certified nutrition coach, who works with the client to identify potential areas for improvement in their habits.
The goal of a nutrition coaching program is to educate clients on nutrition and healthy habits that can lead to improved wellbeing and sustainability over time.
At HSN Mentoring we pride ourselves on teaching our nutrition coaches a holistic approach. So many factors play into the nutritional choices our clients make that it would be short sided for us not to consider this in our education process.
There are two “sides” to a nutrition coaching business model and we provide both at HSN Mentoring.
The nutrition coaching education side
The nutrition business coaching side
Nutrition Coaching Education
Our HSN Mentoring program provides nutrition coaches with an in depth education on how to become a nutrition coach using a holistic approach. We add to their nutrition coaching skills how to help clients with:
Stress
Sleep
Nutrition
Exercise
Developing a Support System
Lifestyle
Nutrition Business Education
So many nutrition coaches and gym owners are great with coaching people, because coaching is why they got into this business to begin with. They struggle on the business side of things because they don’t have the experience of running a business.
For this reason, we spend a lot of time educating our owners and coaches on how to run a well rounded, profitable nutrition coaching business.
Our HSN Mentoring Program Framework teaches:
Structure
CoachDevelopment
Program Launch
Retention
Expansion
In short, we teach gym owners how to run a turnkey nutrition coaching business in their fitness facility, and provide ongoing support to both the owner, and nutrition coaches throughout our ongoing relationship.
We provide a monthly call with a mentor, continuing education for coaches weekly, nutrition business SOPs for hiring, firing, social media help, marketing materials, education on how to run events, and so much more. Additionally, we provide accountability and support for all the nutrition coaches working for these gym owners in order to help them with their nutrition clients, their coaching style & skills, and to also help them start creating helpful content on their social media platforms in order to get more paying clients.
Why Do Gym Owners Need A Nutrition Coaching Business In House vs. Outsourcing Nutrition?
Without further ado, let’s get into our top three reasons why an in house nutrition coaching business is preferable over outsourcing this service to other programs, or other nutrition professionals.
Adding a Nutrition Coaching Business creates an additional source of revenue for the gym.
While helping people stay fit and healthy is a primary goal for many gym owners, it’s important to remember that a profitable business model is essential to sustaining the gym in the long run. Without revenue, expenses will quickly add up and the business may not be able to continue its operations. By focusing on making money, gym owners can ensure they have the resources needed to keep providing services to their clients. Additionally, success in business can open up more opportunities for growth and expansion of services, thus giving gym owners an even greater ability to help people reach their health and fitness goals.
My gym, Live Active 563 in Bettendorf, Iowa, has been running the HSN Mentoring program for almost 5 years now. Apart from our first year running the program, the lowest producing year for nutrition revenue has been $26,000.
We pay our nutrition coaches 44% of the revenue we make. Payroll, and the monthly fee we pay to HSN for ongoing support are the only expenses for running the program. Support includes one monthly call with a nutrition professional business mentor, usage of the amazing HSN app, access to all the in person weekly continuing education Q&A, free entry to the monthly webinars, and the online portal that includes resources for coaching education, marketing & business education, plus client resources.
Some gym owners running the HSN Mentoring program are producing $10,000 per month in consistent nutrition coaching revenue. During the months corporate wellness initiatives are running, often times this number is doubled.
What gym owner wouldn’t want to have an additional $26,000 – $100,000 per year revenue AND help their clients too?
.
Believe me, if you don’t offer programs or services your clients are looking for, they will find them somewhere else. Did you know that 2,220,000,000 results populate when you type “nutrition help” into Google.
This leads us into our next reason you should have an in house nutrition coaching business…
Clients benefit by having a reputable program to follow and a clear consistent message from you and your staff
By offering in house nutrition coaching services your clients who are most likely busy professionals, don’t have to look elsewhere for the help. This increases the integrity of your business, and again, allows you to help more people and make more money.
Additionally, by offering an in house program, you can control the narrative that your clients are hearing about nutrition. This is so important because there is so much mis information out there regarding nutrition and weight loss. If your clients were to go elsewhere for nutrition coaching, it’s up in the air as to what a potential coach would teach them, or what the coaching process would look like.
We saw the Google search stats on “nutrition help”. A client’s ability to determine a “good” program vs a “bad” program is not there. So many people will do crazy things in order to lose weight and see a physical change in their bodies. And, so many coaches will do anything to gain more clients. Even if it means coaching nutrition without any formal training or education.
If your clients end up not seeing the results they are looking for, they are more likely to blame what’s in front them rather than rather than the crappy nutrition program they are following online. They could quit your gym and go elsewhere thinking it’s the fitness that is the problem. But, really it’s the terrible nutrition program they are on that you have no control of.
Opportunity For A Nutrition Coach
Offering an in house nutrition coaching business provides an opportunity for aspiring nutrition coaches to make full time money. They can then have more freedom to quit the job they don’t like, and work only for you.
The day I hired my first full time employee I literally cried quiet tears of joy.
One of the goals I had when I first opened my gym was to one day be able to hire a full time employee. I did just that!
Now I have a full time head coach and manager, and both of my nutrition coaches make over $30k per year nutrition coaching clients and being personal trainers. Both of them have kids and a family they are able to take care of because of their flexible schedule. They are now all busy getting new clients, teaching new habits and sparking personal change in so many of our community members.
By having these employees work for you, but also be in charge of their own destiny, aka intrepreneurialism, you empower them to be all they can be. You take the risk away by actually owning the business and paying the bills. But, you give them the autonomy to make as much money as they want to by allowing them to be in charge of the majority of the program. We teach all of this in the HSN Mentoring program.
Your coaches are making money doing something they love, you are making money by them doing something they love, and the client is seeing amazing results.
It’s a win win for everyone as far as I can see.
Conclusion
Gym owners are passionate individuals who got into this business to change lives. Teaching clients the proper way to lose weight, gain weight, and eat for life could help save them. Given your mission is to do just that, it only makes sense that you would use all the tools you have available to you to start a nutrition coaching business of your own.
Sit down, think about some business goals and create a business plan. What would your life and a potential coaches life look like making an additional $26 – $50k per year? Most people would probably agree that adding these services would be a good choice.
HSN Mentoring is here to help. We have a ton of FREE resources talking about how to run a nutrition coaching business in your facility. In addition to that we a blog and podcast with a ton of education for gym owners and coaches.
If you are interested in running a professional nutrition coaching business in your gym, I would highly recommend booking a FREE call to find out more and see if we are a good fit for you.
