The Weekend Mastermind

This weekend was fun around Fitness Consulting Group headquarters. Allen Hill of Fitness Website Design came to visit for a mastermind session with Nick and I.

If you aren't too familiar with Allen, he's easily the brightest mind in the fitness industry when it comes to creating and monetizing web sites.

So we brainstormed, presented issues to one another and worked on business building strategies. I thought you might be interested in a few of the points we addressed...Specifically when we worked on Allen's business. He's just a sample of strategies we presented to Allen to work on his business (see how they might apply to your business):

• Develop completion plans for every task that is related to your business. Everything you do should be documented in such a thorough fashion that any competent web designer will be able to step in and produce the same quality of work.

• Hire a full-time assistant web designer. Allen is swamped. Even as he's raised his fees, the demand for his services has continued to increase. People will pay for quality.

• Develop a "labor guide." Growing up working in a garage help me with this idea. For every task a mechanic performs, he can look in a labor guide and have an estimate of how much time it will take to perform. Allen needs to do the same so he can give estimates to prospective clients and have a reasonable idea how long it will take his assistant designer (and future employees) to produce sites that match up to the quality he demands.

• Hire a bookkeeper. Allen is a master of Quickbooks (and anything else performed on a computer) - but his time is too valuable to be spent crunching numbers.

• Begin searching for a second niche market. The type of service Allen provides has been sorely needed in our industry, but I have no doubt that other industries have a void in this area as well. As soon as Allen has his systems and staff in place - there is no reason he couldn't go after a different target market as well.

• Use you knowledge and skills to generate passive income from the "end user" market. As Ryan Lee frequently says - and we agree with - the big money is made selling to the general public. Allen needs to leverage his skills by using his ability to create high traffic sites that appeal to the end user and have strategies in place to reap passive income from it. We actually have a JV in the works that fits with this point - but he needed to refine his thoughts on it.

Allen is easily one of the brightest guys Nick and I have ever met. However, he still runs into the same problem that most trainers run into - he spend tons of time working in his business and not enough time working on it. It's easy an easy trap to fall in to. He makes a significant fee for the services that he provides - a substantial increase over what he made as a full-time trainer. It's easy to keep adding jobs because of the short-term gratification on the payday - but it is very shortsighted. Pretty soon, working 40 hours turns into 60 hours and in Allen's case - now 90-110 hours per week. Unfortunately, this approach usually leads to burnout, a shitty quality of life and a real distaste for your profession.

Follow along with me and I'll keep you posted on how Allen's business evolves. I have a feeling that the changes will astound you.