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- March 23, 2020
I've been thinking a lot about the impact of Coronavirus, not only on our communities, but also on our businesses.
You might have received the recent email I sent out with tips to communicate with your athletes. But a lot has changed since then.
I've been thinking a lot about how I can help my customers. But before I can do that, I have been thinking about what I can do in my own business to make sure we not only get through this but that we come out of Lockdown in a better situation than we went in.
The important thing to remember, is that no one is sure what to do at the moment.
What are some things you know you should do in your business that you aren't currently doing, whether we are in a global pandemic or not?" Is there anything you could do to improve your business regardless of or even in spite of the current global pandemic.
For my thoughts, you can watch my video (Ft Frankie the Tonk) or read the text version below.
The Value Ladder
The value ladder is designed to maximize the revenue fo your business by creating a "ladder" based pricing and value system for your products and services.
Following on from the previous post on the value ladder concept this video covers some specific examples of the products and services that fit into the first and middle rungs of the value ladder and also how to practically create them and implement them in Training Tilt so you can start selling them.
Value Ladder Examples
Following on from the previous post on the value ladder concept this video covers some specific examples of the products and services that fit into the first and middle rungs of the value ladder and also how to practically create them and implement them in Training Tilt so you can start selling them.
Graphic Design for Coaches
In today's world, as a small business, you can't really afford to hire a graphic designer for all the designs you want to do. You might hire them for a logo and/or initial website design, but after that, it becomes prohibitively expensive for small business because literally you should be creating new designs for all of your Facebook posts, your blogs, your ads, etc. We're creating designs daily. If not daily at least a few a week. So hiring a graphic designer just isn't really feasible cost-wise. So I'm going to show you a tool that we use. It's called Canva.
Weekly and Daily Planning for Coaches
In this post, I showed you how I plan my weeks and days using Training Tilt as a task management app using the template plans and calendar features
Weekly and Daily Planning for Coaches
Improving your Skills
In this post I talk about how being a generalist can be particularly valuable in times of uncertainty and challenges (like a global pandemic)
Considering Different Types of Customers
The pandemic has changed a lot about how the world works and how people behave and live their lives. In this post I discuss how you might be able to cater your services to different types of people with different challenges and goals than your regular customers.
Considering Different Types of Customers
New Customer Behaviour Ideas
Following on from my last post I dig into more detail about specific new customer behaviours and how you could adapt to offering new services.
Avoiding Distraction
How to maintain productivity when the world seems to be in turmoil
Recording Screen Videos
In post I do a "how to guide" on recording screen videos to demonstrate things to your clients and also create marketing and help videos.
The Six Human Needs - Understanding your emotions
This is a video I shared on my personal social channels. I needed a break from creating my business videos and I thought it was a good opportunity to share something from a more personal perspective.
The Six Human Needs - Understanding your emotions
Email Marketing isn't dead it's just different
In this post I discussed the popular misconception that email marketing is dead and how Email Marketing is still one of the most effective marketing strategies as long as you adapt how you use it.
Email Marketing isn't dead it's just different
A Free Facebook Advertising Course
I had a bit of an issue with my recorded video on this day so instead I shared a link to a free FB advertising course for you.
A Free Facebook Advertising Course
How to have more than one link in your Instagram Bio
I did a quick video on how to create a page on your website to use as your Instagram bio link so you could reference more than one link in your Instagram posts
How to have more than one link in your Instagram Bio
Landing Pages for coaching products and services
Most coaches make the mistake of promoting their products and services on social or in emails and then sending the potential customer to their website homepage rather than a specific landing page for the specific product or service.
Landing Pages for coaching products and services
Captioning your videos
Did you know that up to 70% of people watch videos on their mobile phones with the sound muted? In the video I cover how to caption your videos so those with the sound off can still watch and learn.
Painkillers, vitamins and candy
In business, products and services typically fall into three categories: painkillers, vitamins and candy. Painkillers solve a problem, vitamins improve something and candy is a treat. Considering your products and services in these terms will help you promote and sell them.
Painkillers, vitamins and candy
Structured Workout Builder preview
I took a day off recording tips on this day to show you the work we were doing around our Structured Workout Builder tool.
Structured Workout Builder preview
More website traffic with calculators
In this post, I talked about how you can get more website traffic by hosting a useful tool that your potential customers could use on their website. In the example, I used the triathlon race calculator that comes with a Training Tilt coaching platform.
More website traffic with calculators
Creating Meal Plans
Lots of people including myself struggled with maintaining their good habits around diet and nutrition in the early days of the pandemic. I discussed offering meal plans as part of your coaching service to help with this problem and how to use the Training Tilt recipe and meal planning features to accomplish it.
Training Tilt Webpage Builder
In this post, I showed you some tips and tricks for using Training Tilt to create web pages.
Creating Video Thumbnails
In this post, I showed you how to create thumbnails for your videos to inject a strong brand presence and to make them look professional when shared to social media or on Youtube or Vimeo.
Taking time to re-energize and have fun
In this post, I took some time off from work and went surfing to re-energize. I discuss how even if you are busy you must prioritize time away from work for the long term benefit of your business and your health
Taking time to re-energize and have fun
Distributing swag globally
In this video I showed you the tools we use to globally distribute swag like our Trainign Tilt caps to customers all over the world without having to ever handle the stock ourselves.
Time to get moving
In this post I suggested a bit of a check-in with yourself to see whether it might be time to take a little more action rather than just waiting to see what else would happen as part of the pandemic.
Professional Fun Blog and Article Banners
In this post I showed you how to create professional images to use in your articles and blogs to keep a consistent look and feel across your content and your website.
Professional Fun Blog and Article Banners
Google Search Insights
I show you how to use a Google tool to discover what people are looking for on Google and what different trends might be surfacing around endurance sports because of COVID-19
Setting Up Google Search Console
In this video, I walk you through how to get your Google Search Console setup so you can start monitoring the performance of your website and pages inside Google Search.
Setting Up Google Search Console
Disagree and Commit
In business, it's easy to make the mistake of thinking that coming to a consensus or agreeing on a way forward is a good thing. But sometimes you won't agree but you should still make a decision one way or another to keep moving forward.
Video version
Text version
I have this feeling of inertia. I'm not quite ready to keep moving.
If you look around, you can see that most people are just waiting to see what happens.
But I think there are plenty of positive things that you can do in your business in the meantime.
What is the best version of your business?
There are going to be a lot of businesses in various states of disharmony at the moment. Some of them are not going to make it through this process and will fold. Others will make it but might struggle. And some will thrive.
I've been thinking "what is the best version of my business?" This is not the same as "what is the biggest version of my business?".
If you look at the businesses that are already starting to fail, they are some of the bigger ones. You would assume that they would have cash reserves for something like this. But big businesses are so reliant on revenue to pay their employees and expenses. Some of the biggest businesses will fold first.
For me, the question is"what's the best version of my business?" Not the biggest, not the most cost-effective, not the cheapest. What's "the best"? The best will mean different things to different people.
I'm not seeing a whole lot of new coaches signing up at the moment. Coaches with new businesses or coaches using alternative systems are not typically making those decisions at the moment. So I've got some downtime.
I'm thinking, "what am I going to do with any spare time I have to create the best version of my business?"
Make a list to create an action plan
I'm going to take action and not just wait to see what happens.
I'm going to list all of the things that I'm not happy with in my business. Not necessarily those things specifically related to Caronavirus, but all of the things that I've had in the back of my mind that I know I could improve on.
Then I'm going to prioritize the list based on what will have the most impact on creating the best version of my business.
I'm also going to list attributes of my business that are positive in terms of Coronavirus - eg - we are fully remote, our software allows online coaching and isn't reliant on in-person coaching. I'm going to write down all of those positive things about my business that are beneficial in these times. If I can improve on or add to these, then I will.
I'm going to list the greatest assets in my business and determine how can I protect them during these times.
For me, my biggest asset is my customers.
You should do all of this as well. The point of this video is to help you protect and improve your online business.
I know that my customers are my biggest asset and that I need to protect that asset. So I'm going to give you as much help as I can during this period.
Every day for the next 30 days, I'll be giving you a tip by video or blog to help you protect, grow or improve your business so you can get closer to being the best version of your business as possible.
Look out for these tips coming over the next 30 days. Things are changing pretty quickly at the moment. So who knows what will happen.
I'll be keeping you up to date via our social channels and also our email list. You can get on the email list here.
Please reach out using the chat widget if you need any help creating the best version of your business.
Cam Langsford
Enthusiastic age group triathlete, software architect and founder of health and fitness community platform "Training Tilt".
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