Business just started, not taking off as I thought

[Ross Mack]

Hi everyone, been trolling this forum for a few years. Never joined, but I thought I would today.
A bit of a background, I have spent 12 months patiently building a website, so Australian personal trainers can be found easier by clients. I know this wouldn't have much use elsewhere as it is Australian.

Anyway, I've spent $45,000 of my own money, and waiting 12 months for it to be built. Over 6 months of this time, was collecting Personal Trainers mobile numbers from Facebook business pages ect.

I know businesses take time to grow, but I thought the texts would have sped things up. I'm using Facebook paid advertising, and free instagram posts with hashtags, but I was wondering, when others have started out with such a crappy start, mentally, how do you all handle this? I'm a very carefree, stress-less person, but I can't help but feel somewhat disheartened by the flop of a start.

I will certainly continue to push harder, and not give up, but any advice would really be appreciated.

Ross
Thank you

 

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[Daniel A]

Hi everyone, been trolling this forum for a few years. Never joined, but I thought I would today.

I think you meant lurking instead of trolling. Otherwise, you're the best lowkey troll on the forum! Welcome to the forum!

 

[hughjasle]

Man that's hard, but you aren't alone.

What was the $45k spent on? Just coding the site?

Are you currently looking to grow you database of personal trainers or grow your audience of people looking for trainers?

 

[Ross Mack]

I think you meant lurking instead of trolling. Otherwise, you're the best lowkey troll on the forum! Welcome to the forum!

Haha yeah trolling probably isn't the best way to describe my voyeur stats

 

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[Ross Mack]

Man that's hard, but you aren't alone.

What was the $45k spent on? Just coding the site?

Are you currently looking to grow you database of personal trainers or grow your audience of people looking for trainers?

The 45k was all sorts. The coding, the wages on my other guys i.e. data collectors, the money spent on logos, and written blogs, and basically everything on the site.

I'm trying to get the Australian Personal Trainers on there, as they are the ones paying. I have heaps of blogs, and a fitness forum, to get public web traffic, but the paying trainers is the main concern. Once I get more money, I can reinvest in advertising , to get more traffic again.

Thanks for your reply.

 

[sharkas]

Well, that's something that happens often. The problem is that you build the website before knowing if there was a real demand. Or maybe you know if there is one, then you are not getting the right traction. Read this : https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Startup-Achieve-Explosive-Customer/dp/1591848369/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1472455116&sr=8-2&keywords=traction book

If there is no real demand, or you don't have a real USP, then you will have some difficulties to get back to these 45,000$. You should have embraced the "Lean Methodology". You did a little website to see if people were interested, you got traffic, and then you will have pay for a coder. Or no https://www.skillshare.com/classes/business/How-to-Launch-a-Startup-Without-Writing-Code/2136395606 . You need to get the product ASAP to the marketplace, only customers will valid your idea or no.

I hope I helped, keep going

 

[Ross Mack]

Well, that's something that happens often. The problem is that you build the website before knowing if there was a real demand. Or maybe you know if there is one, then you are not getting the right traction. Read this : https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Startup-Achieve-Explosive-Customer/dp/1591848369/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1472455116&sr=8-2&keywords=traction book

If there is no real demand, or you don't have a real USP, then you will have some difficulties to get back to these 45,000$. You should have embraced the "Lean Methodology". You did a little website to see if people were interested, you got traffic, and then you will have pay for a coder. Or no https://www.skillshare.com/classes/business/How-to-Launch-a-Startup-Without-Writing-Code/2136395606 . You need to get the product ASAP to the marketplace, only customers will valid your idea or no.

I hope I helped, keep going

Thank you very much for the time you took to respond.
There is a hole in the Australian market for this, but getting traction is the real problem.
Sometimes when its a niche idea in a saturated market, people don't realise it can be of use to them. Obviously the market dictates what succeeds. So many personal trainers over make a facebook business page, and have maybe 5 posts, or dont have a business website. Then they wonder why their client base is so low.

I will read the links provided.

Thank you again,
Ross M.

 

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[Ross Mack]

Not sure how to do a shout out, but just had a phone call from one of the members, @Joey El Had some great advice. Thank you so much!!

 

[Joey El]

Hey thanks again.

So as i mentioned, the dog grooming software got all her few clients by a free trial period mentioned on the facebook groups of her target market.

I don't wanna plug possible competition here, but an 'endorsement' or 'partnership' with a prominent trainer or even school for trainers has worked for them.

Like I'm doing, this targeting students (who need the advertising at a better budget) provides a steady stream of new users.

And finally, like some directories do, just put them on there!

Good luck.

 

[JoeB]

I'm sure I saw a post on here recently where someone did exactly the same thing in 2 days.

My method would be:
Build site
Add PTs for free
Track how views/leads they get in a month
Contact them to see how much it is worth to them once they are getting leads

The main downfall of this method is you have to provide value for them to sign up, and without spending $$$$$ on marketing your site, you're not going to do that as you probably won't be sending them any leads.

Finding PTs is easy, not sure why people think this is a 'gap'.

BTW, found the thread, 3 days not 2 https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...t-an-online-business-surely-impossible.69614/

 

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[Ross Mack]

I'm sure I saw a post on here recently where someone did exactly the same thing in 2 days.

My method would be:
Build site
Add PTs for free
Track how views/leads they get in a month
Contact them to see how much it is worth to them once they are getting leads

The main downfall of this method is you have to provide value for them to sign up, and without spending $$$$$ on marketing your site, you're not going to do that as you probably won't be sending them any leads.

Finding PTs is easy, not sure why people think this is a 'gap'.

BTW, found the thread, 3 days not 2 https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...t-an-online-business-surely-impossible.69614/

Thanks for the advice. I did consider a freemium model, but I guess with patiently waiting 12 months without the option of bringing in money, now that the doors are open for business, I wanted to try and reclaim some cash. But yeah, I better be more patient and work on bringing in users.

Thanks for finding that link. I opened it, but I'll have a proper read now.

 

[Scot]

Shot you a PM.

 

[HoneyBadger]

Have you called those personal trainers instead of the one time text? You may think it wouldn't be scalable to spend that much time per sale but you are just trying to reach a critical mass at this point. Once you have enough of them on there and gain traction in the market you could be more passive - not on the launch.

Also can I ask out of curiosity - of the $45k how much was spent on the website coding alone?

 

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[Ross Mack]

Have you called those personal trainers instead of the one time text? You may think it wouldn't be scalable to spend that much time per sale but you are just trying to reach a critical mass at this point. Once you have enough of them on there and gain traction in the market you could be more passive - not on the launch.

Also can I ask out of curiosity - of the $45k how much was spent on the website coding alone?

Yeah the trainers could be cold called. As I specified in the texts, it was a once off text, so it would be against spam laws if started contacting them again. But I can definitely collect more numbers, and cold call those.

I will call a lot of gyms as well, to offer them free use of the site, and show them how to use it.

It was around 20k, but there are a lot of unique features to the site, its not just a search engine. I had a mobile app built too.

 

[HoneyBadger]

Do you mind linking or naming the law you are referring to? I haven't heard of that particular scenario so I would love to learn.

Ok - maybe there is more than I saw from poking around / features you list in the sign up. If it was only what meets they eye I was going to say it definitely seemed pricey.

 

[Ross Mack]

Do you mind linking or naming the law you are referring to? I haven't heard of that particular scenario so I would love to learn.

Ok - maybe there is more than I saw from poking around / features you list in the sign up. If it was only what meets they eye I was going to say it definitely seemed pricey.

In Australia it falls under the Spam Act.

I tried to make all the features known on the sales landing page but I think I need to work on it more. There are a few features, which are unique but aren't blatantly obvious, such as they get their own personal bio page, which they can use the URL on business cards, if they can't afford their own website. Or when they post on the forum, their profile states their professional, and links to their bio page. This essentially allows them to create free contact marketing, to build their online footprint, which the whole of Australia can see.

 

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[Scot]

Yeah the trainers could be cold called. As I specified in the texts, it was a once off text, so it would be against spam laws if started contacting them again. But I can definitely collect more numbers, and cold call those.

I will call a lot of gyms as well, to offer them free use of the site, and show them how to use it.

It was around 20k, but there are a lot of unique features to the site, its not just a search engine. I had a mobile app built too.

That's a good point, hit up gyms. Most gyms, to use their personal trainer, you've got to have a membership for the gym. If you can get them to sponsor or encourage their PT's to use your service, it can get them customers.

If I'm looking for a Olympic lifting coach, and I find Jimmy in my city who's rated the best, but he's at Gold's Gym but I have a membership at planet fitness, I might be encouraged to switch memberships because of Jimmy.

 

[HoneyBadger]

I think in the beginning a pay per lead may be the ideal way to go about this without any built up traction. For instance make it free for the trainer and they only pay to access each message sent to them from prospects. Then you are playing the classic optimize the conversion funnel from adwords game trying to convert a search for a personal trainer into a profitable lead sale.

The way you have it now I can't see you getting very many fitness instructors paying to sign up when you can't throw heavy numbers around (100k searches last month, 50k users, 500000 trainings booked, etc.) on your sign up page. I mean you are business minded - pretend for a second you a personal trainer. Going to your sign up page how would you justify the $50 expense? Features don't matter - more bookings do and you are not currently selling me on more bookings.

If you can't get those numbers for a while you will need to probably pivot your marketing to pushing the fact that for $49/ a year they get a professional website and maybe scheduling calendar app plus the perks of being integrated into this network. That you can deliver now.

Alternatively you are going to have to make them see the demand by putting up a billboard/signs in parks where people train in one city targeted to consumers with a theme like "Find your next personal trainer" - trainers will see this and go to the website to see how they can sign up.

In terms of building a community on the consumer side - I don't see any copy on why anyone should sign up.

 

[devine]

Guys, you should at least try to validate your idea before going all in.

btw, I took a look at your website, you'll have a hard time trying to convert with a website like this in 2016 in AU.

 

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[Kinematic]

Welcome.

What did you do to validate the service?

Like others have said it looks like you may have put a huge cart ($45k) in front of the horse. I like the idea and hope it does well but if the people don't want, the people don't pay.

Also, what is the aim of your instagram? The first impression makes me cringe with all the "inspirational messages". Not trying to bash, I see it all too much on lots of fitness accounts and its a pet peeve of mine.

 

[ZCP]

Two things:
1) The $45k is a sunk cost. Forget it. Figure out how to provide value to your target audience. What need can you satisfy? Pivot if needed.
2) How did you get the one sale? Have you contacted them directly? What made them sign up? Have you contacted some that didn't sign up to see why not? Get on the phone!

 

[Scot]

Took a quick look at the site. Here's my first impression, I didn't even want to search for a trainer. Way too many options. People don't want to fill out 50 answers just for a search.

With my site it's a simple, enter location or search current location. Then displays a map with each business ranked by avg review. At that point, allow users to have advanced search options.. "Looking for something more specific? >" then can pick what type of coach, location, available times, male/female, etc.

 

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[Scot]

I also went to the profile of the guy who signed up for your service. There's a lack of interactivity, no real CTA for people. It has a send message button but that's about it.

There should be a clear CTA. "Click here to get started with Gustavo!" Or "Click here to get a personalized quote, free, from Gustavo!"

If you want to go the click > quote model, great. You can keep it all in house.

Or you can have easy contact details. A required phone number at the top of his profile, or an email address. There just doesn't seem to be a solid easy connection between a user and your PT.

One other major thing to consider, legality. Is there a legal licensing process to be a personal trainer in AU? If so, you may want to require that to sign up. Last thing you want is someone getting injured, they find out this guy has no business being a PT because he's never trained to be one, then you get sued for "recommending"

 

[zdb]

Looking at the site I think there are a few issues you need to address. Your first problem is the classic chicken/egg problem. You don't have leads because you don't have trainers, and you don't have trainers because you don't have leads.

Not sure about market demand but some things I would do:

1. Use pay per lead or Free Beta period (6 months?)
Reduce the risk that trainers take. Why would a trainer pay for a site that has no leads?

2. Reduce as many barriers as possible for trainers
Anything you can do to reduce the barrier of entry is helpful. Call trainers to get signups. Offer free listing, input their information for them over the phone during that same call if possible.

3. Improve UX
3a. Search
The search has too many initial options. Considering you don't have thousands of trainers to sort through, many options will yield empty results. Evaluate sites for inspiration like:
https://findyourtrainer.com/
Asks for Location, provides additional filter options after initial search.
http://fitnesstrainer.com/
Asks clear, simple questions, 1 at a time.

3b. Search Results

Your results have very limited information. You want to provide a better overview of the trainers in this view. Some things you should consider displaying:

Name
Photo
Fees (per session, per person, per group fee)
Specialties
Availability (Day of week and time of day)

3c. Actions a user takes should have an impact. When you click the territories on the map, it doesn't do anything for the user. Clicking the map should fill in details for the Suburb field.

4. Change your tagline to something that connects better to your sites purpose.
'CONNECT WITH THE WORLD' is too generic and doesn't convey what the site is about. Change it to something like 'Connect with your Trainer' or 'Find your Personal Trainer'


Assuming there is market demand, I think the site has potential, and with a few tweaks could take off. Good luck!

 

[AustinS28]

What's your monetization method?

 

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[zdb]

What's your monetization method?

He charges a $49/year fee for listing on his site.

 

[AustinS28]

He charges a $49/year fee for listing on his site.

Thanks.

OP Why not charge a % of each sale made through the application instead of a listing fee. More potential for revenue, less risk to the person signing up who has no idea if your service will get them a customer or not.

 

[The-J]

That's normal. Keep improving your offer as you get more market feedback.

By the way, PM me, I might be able to help in some way depending on how much info you're willing to share with me.

 

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[Ross Mack]

I think in the beginning a pay per lead may be the ideal way to go about this without any built up traction. For instance make it free for the trainer and they only pay to access each message sent to them from prospects. Then you are playing the classic optimize the conversion funnel from adwords game trying to convert a search for a personal trainer into a profitable lead sale.

The way you have it now I can't see you getting very many fitness instructors paying to sign up when you can't throw heavy numbers around (100k searches last month, 50k users, 500000 trainings booked, etc.) on your sign up page. I mean you are business minded - pretend for a second you a personal trainer. Going to your sign up page how would you justify the $50 expense? Features don't matter - more bookings do and you are not currently selling me on more bookings.

If you can't get those numbers for a while you will need to probably pivot your marketing to pushing the fact that for $49/ a year they get a professional website and maybe scheduling calendar app plus the perks of being integrated into this network. That you can deliver now.

Alternatively you are going to have to make them see the demand by putting up a billboard/signs in parks where people train in one city targeted to consumers with a theme like "Find your next personal trainer" - trainers will see this and go to the website to see how they can sign up.

In terms of building a community on the consumer side - I don't see any copy on why anyone should sign up.

Thank you for the advice. These are all valid points, and I will definitely take them all on board. I appreciate it.

 

[Ross Mack]

Welcome.

What did you do to validate the service?

Like others have said it looks like you may have put a huge cart ($45k) in front of the horse. I like the idea and hope it does well but if the people don't want, the people don't pay.

Also, what is the aim of your instagram? The first impression makes me cringe with all the "inspirational messages". Not trying to bash, I see it all too much on lots of fitness accounts and its a pet peeve of mine.

I'm still trying to work out what direction to take the Instagram account in .I figured I would cycle through different types of posts, whether it is motivational, or healthy recipes, and such and see what gets the best response. Trail and error for the Instagram page.