The Trackster

The Trackster is online software that helps Personal Trainers communicate with and motivate their clients.

This week I read a blog post on the Saasu.com site about how businesses can communicate using Twitter.  After commenting on their post, Saasu’s Community Manager Tony Hollingsworth offered to have a chat with me on Skype, so I asked him for his tips on what Personal Trainers should do on Twitter.

Saasu.com is easy online accounting for small to medium businesses.

Links from the interview:

@hollingsworth – Tony’s twitter account

@craigmillman – my personal twitter account

@thetrackster – our business twitter account

Klout.com – Discover your influence.

Empireavenue.com – See what your brand is worth.

Yesterday I came across an interesting summary of the Future of the Fitness Industry, which was a panel discussion at the 2011 FILEX Business Summit held in Sydney recently.  The summary was written by Justin Tamsett from Active Management who I recently interviewed on this blog.

The main focus seems to be on health clubs, but there is some interesting insights for the future of Personal Trainers.  It’s a good article and worth reading.

I wasn’t surprised to read that the panel was a little divided on the future of technology in the fitness industry.  When talking about technology, I separate it into two broad categories 1) consumer software and 2) business software.

I don’t think there is any doubt that the second category of business software has a future.  That is software that helps PTs, clubs and anyone in the industry run their business, communicate with clients and keep everything organised.  This can range from a simple spreadsheet, to a website, Facebook and Twitter, to large software for Health Clubs to obviously something like The Trackster for Personal Trainers.  This is an area where I actually think that the fitness industry is a little behind.

The first category of consumer software is where I think the panel may have been divided.  When I talk about consumer software I’m thinking of things like iphone apps, software that builds training routines, online guides to getting fit etc.  Some in the industry may be a little scared of this increasing market, and may be thinking that there won’t be a role for clubs and more importantly Personal Trainers in the future.

I don’t think that it’s a concern for PTs at all.  I think they should embrace it, because it’s making their job easier.  The PTs can start to focus on the main part of their job which is to motivate and encourage their clients.  Let’s face it everyone these days knows the basics of how to lose weight and get fit.  Knowing the basics and actually losing weight and getting fit is two very different things!

Like Justin says in his summary, these tools should be used to complement staff, not replace them.  PTs should never forget that they are PERSONAL Trainers, not just trainers.  People will always need specialists like PTs to help them curate all the information that is out there, and help them on to the right track with their health and fitness.

It’s also a time to consider what PTs learn when they study their courses.  At the moment, I think the focus from most of these courses is on the exercise science part of being a trainer.  This is obviously very important, but there needs to be more work done on small business management, psychology and motivation, which only make up a small part of these courses.

In terms of what the industry will look like in 2016, I think education will be one of the things that changes the most.

What do you think?  Are you worried when your clients come armed with the latest fitness news or gadget?  What do you think about the course you did to be a personal Trainer?  Could it be improved?

This month I sat down with Brendon Sinclair from Tailored Web Services and had a chat about what Personal Trainers should be thinking about when planning their websites and also some basic business marketing that all trainers should be thinking about.

The video goes for 19 minutes but it’s well worth listening to if you want to improve your online presence or you are just about to build your own website.

For more information about Brendon you can find him on Twitter, and his business Tailored Web Services.

Let us know what you think of the interview in the comments below.  Also we’d love to hear any suggestions or feedback you have about the interview and maybe who’d you like to hear from in the future.