Sweat Equity: Small Business Commerce Trends

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Small Business Commerce Trends for 2021

The future of commerce is bright..and digital.

The term commerce may not be the first to surface when strategizing how to sell gym memberships and online personal training. However, commerce isn’t just about selling goods––it also includes services. And changes reflected in commerce trends can impact how consumers are interacting with you as a fitness professional.

Some ecommerce trends to stay ahead of in 2021 include:

1. Mobile shopping – Make sure you have a mobile-friendly website and that you take advantage of social media market places
2. Voice command – Optimize your website for voice search with devices such as Alexa, Siri, and Google.
3. Online shopping – This trend is about more than just offering online shopping; the shopping experience itself should be effortless.
4. Omnichannel sales – Customers want to be able to shop your brand via your website from a variety of channels, including social media and other search applications.
5. AR/AI recommendations – Personalize the customer experience with applications that make recommendations and suggestions during a customer’s buying experience.
6. Social media integration – Allow customers to shop directly from their Facebook or Instagram social media accounts
7. Varied payment options – Accept payments from traditional credit cards, Paypal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.
8. Dynamic pricing – Know your market and choose a pricing strategy with maximum revenue potential.

Shopify’s Future of Commerce report describes five key predictions that could impact your small business’s revenue strategy. One of those predictions is directly related to selling personal training: “Younger consumers are also more likely to shop via social media and to make decisions based on their impact on society.”

Shopify also predicts that customer retention will be a trending business strategy in 2021 since the cost of digital ads for new client acquisition rose significantly in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Facebook advertising costs reveal that the demand for Facebook advertising is on the rise so get ready to pay a little more for social media marketing.

Your Clients’ Need for Community and Convenience

Community and convenience are still at the top of customers’ wants and needs. What does Facebook’s Emerging Trends: The Forces Shaping the Future Today have to say about the online community and the need for convenience?

Convenience. “Convenience Seekers are looking for ways to do the things that actually matter to them—and whether that’s being together with loved ones, getting fit, learning new skills for a new career, or giving back to their community, time is the most valuable currency on the journey to personal fulfillment.”

Community. “People are engaging in online communities to gather information, educate themselves, interact with brands, get different perspectives and connect with like-minded individuals across the globe… They are also connecting with those who are physically nearby in order to build neighborhood bonds, sell products and tackle local challenges.”

From the Sweat Equity archives, “Gym Member Engagement: It’s Time to Tweak Your Customer Engagement Strategy” offered up some insights to glean from COVID-19’s effects on the fitness industry. We’ve summarized a few:

• Increased consumption of fitness on-demand and live streaming services and memberships. What was once a niche has now become mainstream.
• Decreased overall fitness activity, even among committed fitness enthusiasts.
• Increased ecommerce spending.
• Heightened cost control measures for gyms and clubs, affecting both employees and members.
• Shifted client demands (for example, some clubs in China saw an increase in personal training demand upon club reopenings).
• Implementation of staff training for new safety measures.

Side Hustles for Fitness Professionals

Paying off debt or chasing a dream? Try a side hustle

Whether you’re looking to pay off debt or generate some capital for a new business idea, the right side hustle can generate a consistent cash flow to fund a host of financial and business aspirations. Just to be straight, a side hustle is any type of income-generating activity that’s performed in addition to a full-time career. It’s often a type of freelance self-employment and stems from some passion or interest that the individual has.

Why a side hustle?

• Earn extra cash: diversify or supplement income
• Keep your creative edge
• Complement personal goals
• Find purpose, make a difference

According to creditloan.com, here are the top motivators for pursuing a side hustle:

Side hustles don’t have to be time-consuming or majorly life-altering. In ‘Ideas are nothing; doing is everything’: 5 tips for getting your creative project off the ground, Ji Lee, a creative director at Facebook and Instagram, recommends breaking your pursuits into three categories: short-term, midterm, long-term.

Side Hustle Opportunities for Fitness Professionals

While the fitness industry is booming when it comes to online training, not every fitness professional has found their stride in the wake of this global pandemic. Gyms in many states remain closed and masses of personal training clients have opted for at-home fitness programs. It could be, for the time being, that a side hustle is about supplementing income during the transition from the pre-COVID fitness industry to the post-COVID one.

While a side hustle doesn’t have to be related to your day job, finding creative routes for generating revenue can be built solely on your professional experience and skill set. Here are a few ideas for fitness professionals looking to capitalize on their current skills:

1. Freelance copywriting
2. Sell stock photos
3. Influencer, affiliate marketing
4. Write an ebook
5. Teach online courses
6. Airbnb Experiences 

Death of the New Year’s resolution

Has your New Year taken off to a shaky start? You’re not alone

An Argument for Ditching Those Resolutions

It might seem a bit radical, but how about punting those New Year’s resolutions for basic goals.

What do we mean? Zapier, the king of efficiency in productivity, talks about why making sweeping changes at the beginning of the year is a bad idea. Essentially, their take is that, at the beginning of the year, the world just may be conspiring against you––recovering from holiday partying and enduring the shorter days of winter can sabotage motivation. Also noted, building habits shouldn’t be just a yearly thing. Read more here.

You may want to check out additional productivity advice from Zapier: Seriously, don’t worry about New Year’s resolutions for 2021 and Why you should set aside one day every quarter just to think.

Not willing to give up your New Year’s resolutions? Check out The science of how to stick to New Year’s resolutions and truly change your habits to keep your focus.

Training With Efficiency With Dave Hedges, Co-Founder of Wild Geese Martial Arts & Fitness

Our resident interviewer, Schimri Yoyo, sits down with Dave Hedges, Co-Founder of Wild Geese Martial Arts & Fitness to discuss the importance of training with efficiency.

Notable Quotes:

• “So can you train in a manner that gives you the biggest return for the effort you’re putting in? And that’s what we’re looking at. So if I’m training, I’ve got a couple of very competitive martial arts people at the minute…And they’re training their sport at least once a day, maybe twice a day. And then they’re coming to me on top of that and they’ve got a full-time job and they’ve got this and whatever else.”
• “So how can we be as efficient as possible in the training room, in the gym? Why would we waste that precious energy that we’ve got so many things pulling at that energy, so many things pulling at our time? It’s too precious to waste. So that’s very much what the star point is, the core point of what we do.”

Read the full interview here.

Interesting Internet Finds

Share these links on your social media platforms for increased reach and engagement

Taste: With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, check out this twist on the traditional cupcake: Chocolate-Beet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Buy: Just for fun this Valentine’s––add a little laughter to your romance with these Knock Knock Apology Nifty Notes

Watch: In case you missed it, the iconic post-game moment between quarterbacks Drew Brees and Tom Brady after the Tampa Bay Buc beat the New Orleans Saints in the playoff game. And don’t miss 30 Super Bowl Trivia Questions and Answers to Stump Your Friends and Family for the Big Game.

Read: With the passing of the world’s greatest interviewer, here a few facts that you may not have known about Larry King: 5 Things You Didn’t Know About Larry King.

And that’s a wrap! We hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s digital issue of Sweat Equity: Insider Fitness Business Insights. We’ll see you again in two weeks.

If you’re ready to grow and manage your business better, book a demo with our team today.

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