I’d like to vent a little bit in this post. Recently I had an issue and wrote about it, and forgot how much better I feel after writing. Writing is something I used to do. Something I forgot about. We forget about lots of things that make us feel better. As is the case with exercises or yoga maybe and I’m sure anyone who’s tried meditating goes through the same process of doing it everyday or as often as possible until one day you stop for whatever reason and then start all over again.
I am starting a workout class in the area so I am marketing, putting up flyers and using word of mouth. What happened was I put the flyers up on a public board and one day they were gone. I figured maybe the city removed them after so many days so I put them back up there. A couple weeks later I went back to the same board and sure enough they were no longer there. Although this time, everything remained except for empty spaces where my flyers used to be. Clearly someone was removing them.
A little background on the subject. When I first decided I was going to run classes I contacted every other fitness business in the area to let them know I will be around and would like to work with them should they think it was beneficial to their clients. In response I received, exactly nothing. My reasoning behind contacting other businesses in the industry is to possibly offer customers more value. Let me explain.
Lets say I am running classes and my costs are more than a competitor, I have no problem referring one of my clients to them should they come to me and tell me they can no longer afford my class (should the competitors class cost less). Now, not being able to refer clients to other businesses (for lack or cooperation) I would lower my price, because I care about my clients. What else would I say, too bad? That’s not how I work.
Something else that could happen is my classes could be offered on different days than a competitor. So one day my client can’t make my classes on the days I offer them, I then direct him/her to the other class where there are more suitable times and in return expect the same from the competitor. Makes sense doesn’t it, it’s called cross reference and used all the time in business. Not only did my competitors turn me down but they put their clients (and mine) below their ego along with prevented their business from expanding.
Let me continue. One of my competitors was running their classes at a public park, the same park I would like to do mine at. Out of common courtesy (the parks are public, anyone can run classes wherever as long as they have the proper paper work, which I do) I tried to contact this person and ask if they mind if I run classes on different days at this same place. I send an email. No response. So I call, get an answer to a friendly person, although as soon as I introduce myself the tone lowers on the other end of the phone, ‘oh it’s you’, I get cut off by the person saying “I’m driving right now, can we talk another time”. No call back, no email response. I’d guess what a normal reaction would be is to run the classes at the same park in spite. That’s not how I work either. Neither of our clients would benefit from the two of us having problems with each other. So I moved to another location. Clearly this other person was putting themselves in front of both theirs and my clients.
My explanation behind doing the classes in the same area…There’s lots of space you say, I could do it anywhere, right. Well I figured since this person only offers a their class a few days a week I could offer my class on different days a week in the same area so EVERYONE would benefit. If my clients couldn’t make it one day they’d go to theirs, if the other persons clients couldn’t make that day to theirs they could come to mine. It’s all about the client, they could go any day they want. On top of that if everyone saw and knew there would be a workout everyday at the same place at the same time don’t you think more people would show up knowing there would be a class there?
I don’t know what that means, I have confidence in what I do, am I over confident? Am I secure in what I do? Is the other person not? I really don’t know, I kind of feel naive like I’m missing something. Like everyone knows something I don’t. Is everyone sitting around thinking, why on earth would they want to work with us, we’re competitors. He wants to steal our clients. That’s the only thing I can think of.
Back to the flyers. So this bulletin board that my removed flyers were on is located on the street right next to this same park. I’m not pointing fingers here but what do you think happened? Really I don’t know, I can only guess. I couldn’t imagine it was the actual person I talked to on the phone but you never can tell with people. What about this person’s clients. Again, I couldn’t imagine having my clients remove a competitors advertisements, I wouldn’t even accept it if I heard about one of my people doing it.
It’s all a little ridiculous to me. What’s next a gang fight over territory about who works out where, at least that way I’d know what I was getting myself into. What about a gun fight at the O.K. Corral (excuse me while I entertain myself on the subject). I had to laugh when I knew someone was removing them. How threaten would you have to feel to actually take down someone elses signs? I haven’t even started yet. The best part of it is I’ve never had a client come to me because of a flyer, never. The truth of the matter is before I starting reading this great book (Getting everything you can out of everything you’ve got, by Jay Abraham) I had no other ideas how to advertise (a weak area I’m working on). So what they accomplished by doing this, I have no idea. Made me write this post I guess.
The only thing this person who took the signs down achieved was taking away an option for other people to live a healthier lifestyle, maybe lose some weight, gain strength and muscle, feel better about themselves, possibly give back some confidence…should I go on? It’s really hard for me to believe what lengths people will go to.
I’ve been an athlete all my life, I’ve been conditioned to compete. That’s not how I see running these classes, that’s not how I see helping others achieve their goals. But all this person has done is motivate me. All they’ve done is encouraged me to find other ways to promote, find other ways I can help people. I will run classes, I will expand and build and I will be successful.
If I could talk to this person, I’d have 2 words for them, THANK YOU.