Following on from my article on winning personal trainer business plans, I’ve had a few emails from people about it. One email in particular caught my attention.

The writer, who asked not to be named so I’ll call him Paul, said he’d been rejected by a lender when asking for loan for his business and when he asked why he’d been told the figures in his business plan didn’t add up. Paul checked and said, in his own words, “felt bloody stupid” to realise he’d made some “daft errors in my sums”.

This set me off thinking what other basic errors are often made. Here then are four common mistakes to avoid in your business plans. Oh, and yes before you ask, I’ve made a couple of them in my time.

1) Poor English: Spelling, grammar and poor structure
Lenders and financial organisations that will use your business plan to make a decision won’t expect you to be a master of English but they will expect you to be credible, capable and have done your research.

A business plan littered with spelling mistakes will raise questions about your competence and the reader start to ask what else  might be wrong with the business so have someone spell check your work and proof read it. There are plenty of proof reading services on the Internet if you don’t know anyone personally.

Tip: A technique I learned a long-time ago is to read each paragraph backwards. Doing so prevents the brain from skimping over words it recognises by their shape (there’s a fascinating article on this subject here if you’re interested) but which you may have spelt wrong and so catch silly mistakes you’d otherwise overlook.

2) Lack of clarity and focus 
Make sure you state in clear terms what the business is about, what the opportunities are, why the business will be successful, what the competition is and the reasons why you’ll succeed.

Look at it from the eyes of an investor.

If you were reading your plan as potential investor would it excite you and does it answer the questions you’d want answered? What’s your fitness niche? Where’s your edge as a personal trainer? What will you do that no one else is doing that will make you stand out, known as a USP your unique selling proposition.

3) False figures
Do you research and make sure your numbers are correct, that you’re key assumptions are well founded and backed up and your costs and profits are and double check all the sums.

Talk to other personal fitness trainers and local small business owners to identify what realistic costs will be when starting up, my article what does it cost to become a personal trainer will give you some good pointers.

Once you’ve got all the figures check and double check your calculations. Ideally, use a spreadsheet and cut and paste the numbers from it directly instead of manually working them out (there’s a free spreadsheet available from Google).

4) Incomplete
An all too common mistake is not providing all the information, ensure your plan has all the elements outlined in the personal trainer business plans or use one of the pre-written commercial personal trainer business plans here that provide an outline of everything you’ll need*.

Hopefully, and unlike Paul, you’ll avoid these common mistakes, your business plan will shine and get you the funding you need for your fitness business but either way I’d love to hear your story and reasons for success or otherwise.  Add your comment below or use the form on my contact page, I read every comment and email.

you might be interested in another series of articles on how to become a personal trainer, which includes:

> What a personal trainer does
> How much do personal trainers earn
> What does it cost to become a personal trainer
> What insurance do personal trainers need
> Personal trainer qualifications, and
> What equipment do personal trainers need

* Business plans linked to via an affiliate link.