Starting in a new area or location? Here’s how to get started.
We’ve all been there, just starting out with our business, or moving to a new area or a gym. It can be daunting and hard to know where to start. But there are a few things you can do both online and offline to establish yourself in a new area.
Firstly, you need to choose a location. That might be an outdoor park or a in a gym in the local area. Wherever it is, once you’ve chosen your physical location where you’ll run your classes or sessions now you can put into place the four step starter strategy to establish yourself as part of that area.
1. Position Yourself In The Community
Find a local cafe within 2km of where you’ll train. Ideally it will be somewhere you’re ideal audience hangs out. Take a photo at the cafe and tag them in your social media (even better – have the owner of the cafe in the photo). This does two things for you – it positions yourself with business owners as the new PT in town and people in the area will see that you are around the area.
2. Use Facebook Groups To Engage with People in the area.
We’ve all seen those local community Facebook groups – buy, swap, sell, residents of this neighbourhood or another. They are a great place to engage with people in that particular community. People are always asking questions, asking for recommendations plus chatting and getting to know each other. Facebook groups are a great business strategy as long as you treat them with respect. NEVER go in all guns blazing promoting your services. Go in with the mindset to get to know people and HELP others out. Get involved in conversations and establish a rapport with people. People will gravitate to that.
3. Find local meetups
Next thing to do is to get off Facebook and go meet some real people! Most communities have a local BNI or rotary club – that’s a great place to meet people. Meetup is also a great tool to find local places and events to meet people. Go along to events and meet new people. Again it’s the same as being in Facebook groups, you won’t always sell – but build rapport with people and be known as the PT in that community. When people are ready, they’ll always remember you.
4. Partner with professionals in your area.
Find a local doctor, physio and any other professionals that you can personally use. Again this is about building rapport. Tell them that you’re a PT and new to the area, what your goals are and who you like to train. The more rapport you can build with like minded professionals that ‘get you’ the more you will find that they will refer their own clients to you.
Once you’ve completed (or at least started) the 4 stages of the starter strategy you’ll be well on your way to have a few new clients in your location. The key now is to get those people to refer you to their family and friends and so the cycle continues!
Hope that episode of Quick Wins With COM is helpful not only if you are starting out in a new are, but if you are just looking to establish yourself as the go to PT in your area then these are also great strategies.
What strategies do you use to dominate your local area? Let us know in the comments below.