Getting active with Lazy Bones Fitness
Find out how Tom started, and grew, his fitness business to help others to get more active – welcome to Lazy Bones Fitness
Building your own fitness business is more than just helping clients to achieve their ideal weight, drop a dress size, or run a marathon, it’s also about helping them with their mental wellbeing, shredding their anxiety issues, building confidence, and achieving happiness. For Tom, owner of Lazy Bones Fitness, this is exactly why he does what he does.
“Unlike most fitness professionals I have to admit that I couldn’t stand any type of physical exercise at school. I would avoid PE like the plague. If you told me back then that I would have my own fitness business, I think I would have died laughing.”
Tom – Lazy Bones Fitness
Little did Tom know, but all those years of avoiding any type of physical activity would actually lead him to help others into fitness. Did this happen overnight, well kind of, in 2009 Tom was made redundant and decided to join the Royal Marines – I know, talk about jumping in at the deep end!
This was were Tom gained a love for fitness, and actually started to enjoy it. Following his service, Tom fell into a 9-5 job and started to help a friend run evening boot camps and classes, before venturing out on his own.
Initially providing personal training, Tom quickly discovered that there were a lot of people who wanted to become more active, but just didn’t have the confidence to step into a gym. They had their own perception of what lay beyond those doors, and their own confidence issues were holding them back.
This was Tom’s eureka moment, he had discovered his niche, and in 2017, Lazy Bones Fitness was born.
“I created Lazy Bones Fitness to help people with their personal wellbeing, and rather than focusing on people that wanted to achieve a particular goal, like running a marathon or entering a competitive sport, I would help people to just become more active. People who want to be happier, want to pick up their kids without getting out of breath, and want to be around to see their grandchildren.”
Finding your niche is one of the first steps to building any successful business, it’s very easy to fall into that trap of ‘we can help everyone’, and whilst that may be true, finding your niche will certainly help you to focus on a particular clientele.
For example, when you have identified your niche market you can then profile and identify your ideal client, allowing you to create a look and tone that will resonate with the people that you want to work with. Tom, knows that he’s not going to attract a new client by advertising killer workouts, he understands that, and more importantly sympathises with his chosen audience. This allows him to focus his marketing message to attract like minded individuals that share the same needs and wants, which also allows his clients to meet other like minded individuals and create new friendships.
Initially providing personal training, Tom quickly discovered that there were a lot of people who wanted to become more active, but just didn’t have the confidence to step into a gym. They had their own perception of what lay beyond those doors, and their own confidence issues were holding them back.
This was Tom’s eureka moment, he had discovered his niche, and in 2017, Lazy Bones Fitness was born.
“I created Lazy Bones Fitness to help people with their personal wellbeing, and rather than focusing on people that wanted to achieve a particular goal, like running a marathon or entering a competitive sport, I would help people to just become more active. People who want to be happier, want to pick up their kids without getting out of breath, and want to be around to see their grandchildren.”
Finding your niche is one of the first steps to building any successful business, it’s very easy to fall into that trap of ‘we can help everyone’, and whilst that may be true, finding your niche will certainly help you to focus on a particular clientele.
For example, when you have identified your niche market you can then profile and identify your ideal client, allowing you to create a look and tone that will resonate with the people that you want to work with. Tom, knows that he’s not going to attract a new client by advertising killer workouts, he understands that, and more importantly sympathises with his chosen audience. This allows him to focus his marketing message to attract like minded individuals that share the same needs and wants, which also allows his clients to meet other like minded individuals and create new friendships.
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows
Building a new business is fun and exciting, but there are always a few bumps along the way. Having identified his ideal client, created a name, brand, and marketing material, we asked Tom if there were any ups and downs that he would like to share.
“There are a lot of ups with Lazy Bones Fitness, especially when you see people coming out of their shells and enjoying exercise. We also have a great social life outside of our classes, with our Lazy Bones Family, where we get together and have a few drinks and cocktails and build long term friendships.”
“The downs, well I’d have to say, even though I had identified my ideal client, when I first started I offered lots of different classes, which catered for a wide range of people. It wasn’t until I stripped everything back to our core beliefs that we then started to grow. We now focus everything we do around our FUNdamentals classes, which provides easy access to getting active in a fun and enjoyable way.”
Sometimes if you’re finding that you’re stagnating, your classes are a little thin on the ground, or you’re just not getting the right type of clients, it’s good to have a rethink. This can often be a little difficult, but ultimately will help you to move forward.
Tom now runs all of his classes based on his FUNdamentals, with low impact Aqua classes, Pads, Yoga, and Lazy Pilates – which, by the way, is held in a tipi, how cool is that 🙂
Along with understanding the type of classes he needs to offer, Tom also recognises the importance of the people around him. Lazy Bones Fitness doesn’t have any trainers, they have ‘motivators’, a team of dedicated fitness professionals with the same core values.
“We have an amazing team who really understands our clients, none of us is intimidating, we are just normal people wanting to help others to get active.”
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows
Building a new business is fun and exciting, but there are always a few bumps along the way. Having identified his ideal client, created a name, brand, and marketing material, we asked Tom if there were any ups and downs that he would like to share.
“There are a lot of ups with Lazy Bones Fitness, especially when you see people coming out of their shells and enjoying exercise. We also have a great social life outside of our classes, with our Lazy Bones Family, where we get together and have a few drinks and cocktails and build long term friendships.”
“The downs, well I’d have to say, even though I had identified my ideal client, when I first started I offered lots of different classes, which catered for a wide range of people. It wasn’t until I stripped everything back to our core beliefs that we then started to grow. We now focus everything we do around our FUNdamentals classes, which provides easy access to getting active in a fun and enjoyable way.”
Sometimes if you’re finding that you’re stagnating, your classes are a little thin on the ground, or you’re just not getting the right type of clients, it’s good to have a rethink. This can often be a little difficult, but ultimately will help you to move forward.
Tom now runs all of his classes based on his FUNdamentals, with low impact Aqua classes, Pads, Yoga, and Lazy Pilates – which, by the way, is held in a tipi, how cool is that 🙂
Along with understanding the type of classes he needs to offer, Tom also recognises the importance of the people around him. Lazy Bones Fitness doesn’t have any trainers, they have ‘motivators’, a team of dedicated fitness professionals with the same core values.
“We have an amazing team who really understands our clients, none of us is intimidating, we are just normal people wanting to help others to get active.”
Any advice to help grow your business?
Lazy Bones Fitness has now established itself in Newton Abbot and Torquay, with plenty of new members, so we asked Tom – If you could go back and give yourself three pieces of advice, what would they be?
“Consistency is key, as a fitness instructor you’re always telling your clients that consistency is key and it’s all about repeating the small steps. That translates into your business, it’s all about the small steps to getting to the big dream. I remember in the beginning we lost our message by doing too much, taking too many steps, as soon as we realised that and focused on our core FUNdamentals we started to grow.”
“Source external professional help as soon as you can, I wish I had done this sooner, for example, get a good booking system, we use GO Retrieve. It has saved me so much time and money and has allowed me to focus on my clients. Initially, we were taking cash payments, keeping booking records on spreadsheets, and wasting lots of time. I’m not an expert on computers, I’m an expert when it comes to fitness, nutrition, and wellbeing. My time is best served with our clients and growing the business. Actually, thinking about it, I think this would probably be my number one piece of advice.” – you know it makes sense 😉
“Create an awesome team, not only does this help your clients, but it also helps you as an individual. We keep each other motivated and the office is always buzzing with fresh ideas. It’s also important to remember that you can’t do it all, and other people will have skills that you just don’t.”
Lee co-founded GO Retrieve in 2016. He is the Managing Director and principle visionary, with a passion and drive to help fitness professionals to grow their business and free their time.
Grow your business with GO Retrieve
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Custom Branded Mobile App
Promote your brand with your very own custom-branded mobile app available for IOS and Android. A great way to keep your brand in front of your clients, allowing them to book and pay for all your classes, appointments and workshops.
Engage and re-engage
Send automated and targeted push notifications to remind your clients of upcoming classes and events. Re-engage with clients that have stopped booking with personalised “we miss you” messages. And automatically send ‘Happy Birthday’ messages with a free class if you’re feeling generous.
Secure Payments
Online booking and secure payments for your classes, appointments, and workshops any time of the day or night. Create recurring memberships, single and multiple class passes with added incentives.
Keep your classes full
With online booking and real-time scheduling, your clients can book your classes on the go. And when a class becomes full they can add themselves to your class waiting list. Automatically send Push Notifications when a space becomes available.
Recurring Payments
Create unlimited bespoke memberships with class and appointment flexibility. Automatically create recurring payment collections with a click of a button.
Staff Check-in app
Provide your staff with their own check-in registers, giving them instant access to client details. View emergency contact details, health information and more.