A portal of some kind must have opened somewhere. A rip in time and space that allowed a strange and interesting phenomenon to happen more than once this week. Occurrences that could have only been created by a time when my business life was not in as much order as it is today.
Two different clients...past clients came back for an uninvited visit. One came back from more than three years hence, if only for a moment. Both of them wondering what they might have left in their 'account.'
If you're a fellow fitness business owner, I'm sure you can relate to the phenomenon. Those clients who for some reason decide that their choice to purchase training was not quite enough to help them past other obstacles standing between themselves and their health and fitness goals. Money talks and bullshit walks, and sometimes the two take place at the same time.
This is a warning for all you fitness pros out there who want to run your own businesses...
Contracts between you and your clients are paramount to your success, and they are worth nothing if you don't have the guts to honor them. Because remember...they are in place for two very important reasons and in the following order of importance. First, they allow you to run an effective and profitable service business. Second, they help (for some more than others) to hold your clients accountable to the process. Accountable to the consistency of the training and coaching that is necessary to achieve significant body transformation results.
I guarantee you that your stance on these contracts will be difficult at first. After all, you're a caring person and you want to give people the benefit of the doubt whenever you can. And you should. But not at the expense of taking care of both you and your business and ultimately your ability to deliver for those who ARE fully committed to the work.
No one else will look out for you except you. Remember that. And don't go getting all self-conscious about how selfish you might feel in thinking and acting in this way. Your selfishness is essential for your success, and for the success of your clients.