We set up PropaneFitness back in 2010, initially, it was a blog that was designed to document our own journey and experiments of trying to get in better shape, drop bodyfat and reveal our abs for the first time. 

We set up a website on blogspot (which doesn't even exist anymore) and the strategy was simply: 

Back in 2010, it was a much simpler time in the fitness industry and lack of information was the problem that most people experienced. Our hope was that in sharing the lessons we were learning (that are quite embarrassing to read over today) someone would be interested in working with us formally. 

We actually did make a few sales from inquiries (a handful each month) of a £9.99 programme (our first product) that involved 121 support and coaching from both of us. 

I know, I know. We aren't proud of this. 

As I'm sure you're aware - the online fitness world is a very different place these days. These strategies simply wouldn't work at all today and to continue running the business (and built it to the point to coaching online full time) we've had to adapt and pivot out strategies several times. 

Looking back over the last 10 years, we've certainly done some things right (we've actually been living off PropaneFitness full time since 2016) but we've made far more mistakes. 

The purpose of this article is to share the key mistakes we made to help you avoid the wasted time in trying to move your services online. 

When it comes to starting and running your business you must keep one thing front of mind at all times: 

This may sound simple but it's the essence of successful business. 

Focussing on the customer and making a great product gives them what they need will set you up for long term success...it's just that doing this isn't sexy, exciting or likely to bring in new business by this time tomorrow. 

This is why we advise that you view the growth of your online business in a 1 year timeline. 

If this time next year your online business had 20 clients paying £100 per month (for example) who were loving the service - that would likely give you enough to make a reasonable full time income. 

Getting to this point requires making the right decisions and patience. Rushing things for the sake of making short term cash will always leave you in a worse place than if you'd taken the time to build things properly and ethically. 

These days we know that nearly every assumption you make (that isn't based on numbers and data) is false and we see so many coaches building their online business in a way that will actually great a worse quality of life than their offline business. 

Let's face it, most coaches build an online fitness business to have more flexibility in when, where and how they work. 

If that becomes replying to messages 12 hours per day, 7 days per week to work with 30 online clients for less than minimum wage...I wouldn't say that's an improved quality of life. 

Look at how you want to run your business first and then build the model around that. 

Right now, we operate group based online coaching that allows us to work with an (almost) unlimited number of clients without linearly scaling our time for every new client. 

Our marketing processes are largely automated. 

Our programmes and systems mean that clients always have what they need even when we aren't working. 

This means that our revenue per hour stays at £200/hour+. 

However, there are also a lot who have never actually DONE what they profess to teach. 

We've worked with our fair share of coaches who we realised (after we'd paid) had never actually run an online fitness business.

They'd read some marketing books, sold business advice to PTs and now were teaching us to run PropaneFitness like a business consultancy. 

This lead to all the tactics you've likely seen before...

All we really learned from these methods is that they didn't work for the average, aware, intelligent client who was weighing up whether to hire us as their online fitness coach or work with a personal trainer offline. 

With these strategies, we lost every time. 

Make no mistake about it. An online fitness business is still a business. 

You need to get leads and make sales, of course. 

But you also need to deliver a consistent, quality service to your clients - beyond what they're expecting. 

If you have any ambition to scale this means that this can't just be you sending emails and Whatsapps, writing weekly programming from scratch and doing weekly check in phone calls. 

Because eventually...you run out of the only thing that approach is selling (time). 

When you're building this business, find people who have done the whole thing. 

They have a brand you can see when you Google it, they have plenty of fitness testimonials and a track record of having actually DONE what they're teaching you. 

You wouldn't hire a driving instructor without a license. 

Or work with a trainer who'd never been to a gym. 

So don't hire an online fitness business coach who has never sold to and worked with FITNESS clients online. 

We made this mistake countless times and ended up needing to work things out (and fix expensive mistakes) ourselves. 

Hopefully this is helped and resonated somewhat. 

If you'd like to see more of what we do formally with clients, click the blue button below and check out PropaneBusiness.