Know Your Numbers So Your Business Can Thrive

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My guest today is Jeff Sherman. The founder of many things including Tech Sweat and Train Aggressive.

We’re together today to talk about what it means to be an entrepreneur. Including the ups and downs along with the challenges that come with it.

[00:35] Jeff’s Start as an Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur is more than someone who owns a business. Someone who wants to run a business and work for themselves is a business owner. An entrepreneur is someone who wants to start a business then sell a business. Their passion is more towards building systems and processes to run that business.
You need to have the mindset of being liberated from the company. Jeff’s first business experience was a multi-level marketing company. He tells us his biggest takeaway was his knowledge in sales. This helped him build his skills to hustle and sell almost anything. But, he wasn’t making a lot of money.

When he got into the personal training space he quickly realized it wasn’t for him. Jeff didn’t like being controlled with how much he could charge his clients and be able to do with them. He wanted the freedom to be able to provide the best service to his clients. He then started his own personal training gym where he could exhibit that freedom.

Jeff is one to figure things out on his own. It was working out well for him but was taking too much time. He surrounded himself with knowledgeable and successful people. This helped him to learn what he needed to be successful.

[05:20] Expanding Your Business

Jeff shares with us how personal trainers have a goal of six figures. When he would ask other trainers how he could increase his revenue and get to that, their response was to add a zero. What they meant was to expand and open more locations. This started to make sense to Jeff on how he could begin to maximize his revenue.

Bedros Keuilian was the first business coach for Jeff. At the time Jeff was a national guard and was activated for two years to go to the middle east. He needed a way to continue to train his clients while he was away. Bedros had a software called high tech trainer. It allowed him to make workout programs for his clients.

Once he came back he attended a summit with Bedros. He was immediately bought in. He joined the seven-figure mastermind group and began to attend more summits. He learned internet marketing skills and put together an e-book. These helped expand his business. He realized that most gyms weren’t using internet marketing as a platform. Jeff utilized this to his benefit and preyed on the lack of marketing.

[11:49] Systems and Process – The Entrepreneur Way

It’s all about building the right team and hiring the right people. Along with treating them well to ensure you keep them. Anyone can generate leads and create good offers. It’s about being able to teach people how to put in place processes and systems. Processes and systems are the most important part of our business.
The upcoming birth of Jeff’s daughter was a motivator in changing his model. He began to incorporate more employees to help his business. This allowed him to have more time for his family and focus on where he was lacking in his business.

Time is very important. It’s important to have the right person in that right role. Jeff references an episode of Shark Tank where Mark Cuban helped shine a light for him. He realized that hiring people who are smarter or more talented than you will help bring you up. Jeff has hired a team of talented people so he can focus on the important parts of his business.

[16:48] Fit Clients

Fit Clients is a software developed to keep clients accountable. Personal trainers can use this to track their clients progress. The client can receive notification reminders. These remind them of weigh-in dates and create a plan with them to get to their goal. It’s the only software that follows up with your client.

[17:57] Struggles of an Entrepreneur

Tyler shares with us a concept he recently heard from Russell Bronson. There are three types of people in a company. There’s the entrepreneur who has unlimited income and risk. Without them, there’d be no jobs. Once the business begins to grow there’s the technician. They can make good money but there’s a ceiling because they’re not the entrepreneur. Then you have the rainmaker whose income is unlimited as long as they keep the sales going.

There’s a lot of entrepreneurs who identify as really good technicians or rainmakers. They end up finding themselves limited. They end up only focusing on those areas without having time for the rest. Jeff found the areas that were lacking in his business and hired talented people to fill them.

Through the coaching’s Jeff gives he hears a lot of entrepreneurs say they can’t afford to hire. He asks them instead of saying they can’t afford to, ask how they can afford to. Figure out a way where you can make enough money to get past your limitations.

The one problem we struggle with as an entrepreneur is ourselves. The idea that I’m not my business but it’s my obligation to run it is the mindset you need to be in. You need to pay yourself as if you’re paying someone else for the work that you’re doing. To grow and expand, your business needs money. If you are paying yourself 100% your business has no money to grow.

It’s not only a financial disconnect but an emotional disconnect. You need to detach yourself emotionally from your business. Doing so helps you make the detrimental decisions needed to run your business. You can’t have opportunity and security.

[25:26] Roadblocks of an Entrepreneur

Jeff Sherman looks at failures as learning experiences. You either win or you learn. Entrepreneurs do their best work with their back against the wall. When you have nothing to lose you put everything out there and make it happen.

Some of Jeff’s coaching clients want a guarantee for their efforts but it doesn’t always happen that way. When you don’t get what you want from your efforts, you need to double down. Keep going and put in more effort to get to where you want to be.

It’s all about building a formula. One hit wonders and overnight sensations didn’t happen right away. They had honed their craft. Some big bands had 3 albums and been around for years before they were noticed. They also usually don’t remain successful because they don’t understand how they go. But the ones who made failures and came up slowly know what works and what doesn’t.

[28:02] Learn from Other Entrepreneurs Mistakes

We need to take advantage of learning from other people’s mistakes. Save time and resources by learning from other people. Figuring it out on your own takes more time than if you were to learn from someone’s mistakes. Finding the right person is essential. It’s important to learn from someone who’s in a similar situation to you.