The fitness industry is absolutely FULL of scams taking advantage - TopicsExpress

The fitness industry is absolutely FULL of scams taking advantage of people, over promising and under delivering results (if delivering at all), but that’s what we have come to expect in our business and well, pretty much every industry has their fair share. Unfortunately, not everyone entered the fitness industry to genuinely help people and make a nice living in the process; many of the health products out there are just cheaply produced widgets, backed with huge marketing budgets, designed for profit. That’s what our clients have to deal with every day. Massive advertising campaigns telling them that they don’t need personal trainers or gyms or to eat healthy; all they have to do is hold onto a vibrating dumbbell and drink a can of preservatives to get the body that they dream of. But what about us fitness professionals? Every day we’re promised ‘How To Get More Clients’, ‘Where To Buy Cheap Equipment’, ‘Congratulations You’ve Won Something’…it never ends. In this article, I thought I’d highlight 4 scams that are designed to suck you in and I see getting around on and off the net lately and what to do or say when they present themselves to you. 4 Common Fitness Business Scams And How To Avoid Them 1. Email Scam: I bet you’ve received these gems in your email inbox! “Congratulations you’ve won _____!” If you didn’t enter a competition, delete these bad boys straight away. Here’s how it works: The e-mail says you’ve won, but to receive your lottery winnings or treadmill or whatever the prize is, first you must pay the taxes or a handling fee. If you didn’t enter anything, you didn’t win anything. And even if you did enter, taxes go to the government, not to the organization running the contest. Never reply to any of these emails and DEFINITELY never send them any bank account details or social security numbers. 2. Online Auctions: Ebay is huge and has inherited a reputation for being the place to go for cheap gym equipment, training gear and all that stuff personal trainers need. Guess what; you can probably buy cheaper! Scammers have cottoned on to this bargain mentality and buy cheap products from other sites likeAmazon, then sell them at a profit on Ebay. If you haven’t researched the price of what it is you’re after and you go straight to Ebay (for example), you’re probably paying too much. So what do you do with this information? Well I guess you could join the scammers and do what I just described, or before your next online purchase, do some price research. 3. Fraudulent Jobs: Yep, there are business owners out there who plot and come up with ways to rip off their staff. I’ve been a victim of it, particularly in the membership sales channel. They prey on fresh faced personal trainers, or young people who think that this is the opportunity to crack it into the fitness industry. Things that they don’t tell you in the interview: Your base salary is below minimum wage You will not be given any leads You have to sell a certain number of memberships before you even achieve commission (I have heard of one large chain that doesn’t pay commission until you have sold 50 memberships for the month) Many gyms use a ‘position vacant’ advertisement simply to generate membership leads and there is no job even available. My advice in this situation; if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. Ask the big questions, explain that you have been mislead in the past, sign a contract that you agree to the terms of and good luck. 4. Fast Money Making Schemes: I’m sure you’ve seen the product based fast money ‘pyramid’ type schemes out there. You know the ones; you sell a certain amount of their product and then you bring on another wholesaler and then you make a commission of their sales and on and on it goes. In theory, these things sound great and I’m sure the products are no worse than anything else on the market (albeit extremely over priced), but if you’re going to get involved in these kinds of things do your research! The over hyped meetings and the INCREDIBLE success stories are all there to suck you in and make THEM more money and you are the lowest on their food chain. Believe what you like about these types of organisations and their promises; but there are only get rich slowly schemes that work and it’s no coincidence that the word work is in that sentence. - Josh Schlottman