Here’s a clue. It doesn’t stop you from training. It doesn’t stop you from eating an optimal diet. And it doesn’t stop you from reaching your personal goals. TrainerSync is a nifty piece of software that enables you to spend more time helping your client burn calories in the gym than you burning through paperwork under desk lamp bulbs.
This week we’ve taken inspiration from someone we admire in the software field in order to answer an important question: what does TrainerSync stop you from doing?
In this post, I answer questions posed by Jason Fried of Basecamp (formerly 37Signals), in 2013. These answers are related to my experience working as a trainer and the experiences of many others I know who work in similar roles. Obviously, everyone is different, but the main reason we started working on TrainerSync was to provide a solution to our own problems.
What are people going to stop doing once they start using TrainerSync?
For many of you, you’re simply going to stop being disorganised. You will no longer be hunting through paperwork to find your client notes and you won’t be using many different types of software to get your work done.
You are also going to stop repeating yourself. There will be no more writing the same workout again and again, no more writing up the same meals repeatedly and you will never again hunt for the correct forms to print out for your clients to fill in.
What does TrainerSync replace?
An address book, emails, spreadsheets, word processor documents and lots and lots of paper. Oh, and if you’re already quite tech focussed, the tangled mass of fitness apps you might use with your clients to track their workouts, nutrition and general progress.
What are our users switching from?
More than likely, all, or at least part of the above. There’s a small chance you already use some sort of personal trainer software, but it’s not our ultimate solution, TrainerSync, which allows you to run your entire personal training or gym business through the one software application.
How did our clients do their jobs before TrainerSync came along?
Some trainers I know use workout log books, printed out or emailed nutrition plans, spreadsheets and word processor files with filled out forms, progress charts, etc. Some of you use a few apps to make life easier to share relevant information with your clients – although many such apps don’t have more than one login, so getting the data into the app for your client can be problematic at best.
And some trainers I know do none of this and pretty much make everything up on the spot.
What are we asking you to leave behind when you use TrainerSync?
We’re asking you to leave behind old patterns of working and be more productive with TrainerSync. We’re asking you to leave the comfort of doing something manually and to set up patterns of work which will not only leave you with lots more free time to do other things, but will help make you appear significantly more professional to your clients, allowing both you and your client to keep in touch and see all their details at any time.
How hard will that be?
This is the million dollar question. For some of you trainers and gym owners, it will be very easy – you do everything on paper right now, or you’re completely disorganised, and we change all of that together. For others, it will take more effort to change the way you work. We think it will be worth it!
How can you help clients overcome everything that’s tugging them in the opposite direction?
This is, for us, the most important part:
To make you happy to leave your old systems behind, we will be offering everyone with beta access to the software the opportunity to sit down and have a meeting with our team, either face-to-face or over Skype, and we will help you put everything in place to ease the transition.
We hope that gives you a little more insight into how we believe we can help you improve the way you work, and why we think you should strongly consider using our software to manage your fitness business.
That’s it until next time.
Martin-Pierre