I think if you are doing a good job as a coach first and foremost the business side will fall into place. Plus it's a whole lot more fun to yell at athletes then crunch numbers!

Yes! the business side of the affiliate is boring as hell to me sometimes--I am just not an organized person. I love ideas and to brainstorm, but the tedious parts of the business would be great to pass off to someone else when we can afford to do that.
That being said, it is a necessary evil. When nobody else is going to do it, suck it up buttercup!

I am definitely a trainer first because that is the most important part of the business.

I THINK IT'S A NECESSARY EVIL, YET I FEEL I HAVE LOST A LOT OF WHAT I WAS HOPING TO GET OUT OF AS A BUSSINESS OWNER, I WAS SEEKING FREEDOM AND THE ABILITY TO TEACH/COACH MORE YET THE BUSSINESS ASPECT TOOK TOO MUCH FROM ME SINCE OUR BI=USSINESS GREW TOO MUCH AND TOO FAST. IN THAT PROCESS I LOST GOOD PEOPLE AND FAILED AT TRYING TO BUILD A SOLID BUSS STRUCTURE WITHOUT THE EXPERIENCE. MY SUGESSTION TO ALL NEW AFFILIATTES IS TO TAKE THE BIZ SEMINAR FROM PETRANEK FITNESS AND TO DEVELOP A SOLID STRUCTURE ON YOU SERVICES AND SUCH TO AVOID ALL THE BUMPS WE HAVE ENCOUNTERED IN OUR 2 YRS IN BUSSINESS. CROSSFIT NORCAL HAS THE PERFECT MODEL IN MY OPINION AS TO WHERE ALL AFFILIATTES SHOULD STRIVE FOR. THANK YOU

Everyone should read "The E-Myth" before going into business. It's a quick read and explains the difference between the inner technician (coach), the manager (working in the business), and the entrepreneur (working on the business). When you start your business, you're all three. And they don't get along and they get in the way of each other. The technician just wants to train people. The manager wants to keep the books and get organized. And the entrepreneur wants to free think and have grandiose plans of how the business will be long term. The secret to success, in this endeavor, is to franchise your business. I'm not saying create duplicates of yourself, but set the business up to run efficiently by creating systems that work and free you up to work on your business, not in it. Andy Petranek and John Burch have done this with their Affiliate Business Seminar. There are others out there, but this one is already tailored to CrossFit.

So, yes, getting into this was sparked by a desire to train others, but at some point you have to do the business work too in order to survive long term. It's way easier to put systems in place when you have 10 clients than when you have 100.

The business side is interesting to learn about but not something I desire to continue to do. My goal is to take the Petranek seminar and bring on a business partner like Andy did, John Burch.

Congratulations Stacey and Dave!

As far as business vs coaching: I predominantly coach, run the blog (which in a way is business - marketing tool etc) and ride the Deuce around as Marketing. Any paperwork related stuff gives me a headache. That's why me and Monique make a good team.

She runs the business while I make sure that the coaching and programming is solid and the website looks sexy.

Now we have one more trainer that is already training without us being there, which helps out a lot and two more are in the pipeline of education, ready to get Level 1's soon.

As a business owner, your job is to deploy available resources, cash or credit, as effectively as possible. In every case, this means using those resources to improve your business, priming it for future growth.

The worst mistake you can make is not knowing how much cash you have on hand, and how it stacks up against your current and short-term liabilities. This boils down to a simple question: can you pay the bills?

When the answer is "no", it doesn't matter how good of a coach you are, because the building, the barbells, and the bumpers will be gone.

Knowing the answer to this question requires a knowledge of basic accounting, and an acute awareness of tax law. If you choose not to educate yourself in these arenas, you will constantly teeter on the edge of failure.

Once you get a grip on cash flow, and know how much money you have available, you can make choices as to how to spend that cash. This is the heart of being an entrepreneur.

The best use of your cash, after feeding yourself and paying the mortgage, is reinvestment in your business.

Every time you put money back in, you're sowing the seeds for a harvest of more money: hiring new trainers, buying new equipment, upgrading your website, improving your customer service, refining your systems. Reinvestment shields a large portion of your income from taxes, as everything you purchase, unless subject to depreciation, will immediately reduce your taxable income dollar-for-dollar. Again, an understanding of basic accounting makes the wisdom of this action crystal clear.

When you have undertaken a continuous program of reinvestment, you'll find that your business will grow, along with your pool of available resources. Then, you can hire those folks to do the things you don't want to do: accounting, human resources, etc.

Until this day, it is an absolute folly to neglect your business education. Ignorant of your cash flow, you'll always wonder if today is the day of the bill you can't pay, if this is the month your Box goes under.

The financial success of the Affiliates is crucial to the growth of CrossFit and our collective success in righting the fitness wrongs in the world around us. You don't just owe it to yourself to be an educated business owner. You owe it to CrossFit.

Some resources:

Financial Accounting, 4th Ed., Libby, Libby, & Short

Corporations, 4th Ed., Alan Palmiter (Chapter 2)

Good to Great, Jim Collins

The Knack, Brodsky and Burlingham

Best,

Jon

That's a 50" box jump in JEANS. Weird.

A trainer's success is based on the number of figures he makes. A coach's success is based on the performance of his athletes. A coach is invested in the goals of his athletes. That is part of my business model. I don't think you can offer virtuosity in training when you are worried about your books.

Now, in order to offer your best in time and energy, you need to be fairly compensated for the services you offer. This will allow you to put more focus on an excellent product. In judo we call this "Jita Kyoei" or "mutual benefit".

I like what Gilson said.

I am relying heavily on my ten years of Operations Management and reporting experience to get my box up and running. In my day job, I take thing that don't run so well and I make them run really well. So with the affiliate, we're taking the time to get our operations streamlined right from the start. And every second of real-world business experience and education I've had is coming in handy. It's slow going and somewhat tedious right now, but a year from now, I'm hoping my house will be in order (from a business perspective) so that I can focus the majority of my time on continuing my education as a trainer and developing my athletes.

Melissa

As a good coach (I hope) and a not so good businessman, I struggled for over a year. Then I got smart and got two new partners with a passion for CrossFit and strengths that I am lacking (it was my coaching that brought them the passion they have for CrossFit). In short order, CF West Santa Cruz had new capital, a new box, new members, a killer updated webpage, among other things.

So, my answer to the question is that I consider myself a coach, and my partner breakdown is coaching and marketing, and business manager and web/computer work. It has worked perfectly and I couldn't be happier. I am also learning a huge amount from them that I wish I had known from the start.

I agree totally with Jon.

I have spent the last 8 years doing everything that people like Alwyn Cosgrove and Mike Boyle and Gray Cook have told me to do. I now know TOO much about these movements and 'training'. And none of that means all that much to people that just want to be more fit.

I have no doubt in my mind that I am the first or second most qualified coach (period, NCAA, comm. gym etc) in my community. The reality is, this has yet to translated into a paycheck. Business systems that free your coaches to truly coach (whether that is you or your employees) are now an obvious necessity to me. Too many years I have watched SH*TTY trainers make more than me. That crap stops now!!!

Let Betamax video tapes be an eternal lesson for anyone that goes in to business: a superior product (or service) does not guarantee success. Thats not to say that "success" and "quality" are mutually exclusive - in fact, quality is a key component of success. But quality of programming alone will not keep a CrossFit Box (or any business) alive if other key components are lacking.

I couldn't agree more with Jon (above), you need to have a firm grasp on the business stuff otherwise your box is just a ticking time bomb. Maybe not today, but someday, it will catch up with you and the business will go under. If you are absolutely not willing to learn it, hire someone or bring in a partner that can do it.

Otherwise, educate yourself. Now more than ever (due to the economic slump) there are lots of FREE services out there to help small business owners. The U.S. Small Business Administration has SBDCs (Small Business Development Centers) all over the country that offer free business consultation, a library of written resources, and free workshops on everything from accounting to marketing to technology for small businesses. If you are having problems, or just plain want to learn more about running a business, find your local SBDC and drop on in:

http://www.sba.gov/aboutsba/sbaprograms/sbdc/sbdclocator/index.html

Did I mention IT IS FREE?!

-Cliff

Congratulations Stacey and Dave! Alyson (pictured above) is our very own CrossFit studette!

Jon,

Awesome insight and a hard pill to swallow for some who think that just being an excellent trainer will make your business successful.

Congrats, guys! And thanks for teaching me to skydive and pack my parachute between WODs.