Ep32: Why Terms & Conditions Are Important & What To Include

What's going on, everyone? Matt here from pt Profit, Leverage and lifestyle show Hope everyone is having an amazing day so far. We're doing a solo episode today, team. So last probably three or four episodes I've had some awesome guests on. So if you haven't listened to those ones yet, like, Jake's going off with his online PC one, that episode's going really, really well. And the AI episode a couple of weeks back is, is going off as well. So I'm glad people are enjoying the content. It's awesome to connect with these people and actually shout out to Jake. I'm actually doing. He's actually mentoring me at the moment, him and his, his wife mentoring me. So it's a good thing about doing these things because you get to meet people and, you know, learn of their experiences. And also Jackson with the AI software, I've actually teamed up with him. We're going to be partners. So I'm going to get all my clients sorted with their AI software. So super pumped. So I'm freshly, freshly shaven or trimmed after doing the mowing this morning. I'm ready to rock and roll. All right, topic for today is why do you need terms and conditions and what should you include in your terms and conditions? So very common for personal trainers to not have any terms and conditions. And. And second thing is actually to have terms and conditions and not actually follow them. That's even worse. Well, I suppose it's worse by not having any at all. But if you have terms and conditions, make sure you actually enforce them because then there's no point even having them and you're just wasting time and space. So let's get into it. Let's get into firstly, why, why you need to have terms and conditions. And I'm going to go through what you should include with your terms and conditions and also obviously how to stick to the terms ignitions when people don't abide by them. Okay, so firstly, why, why is because you remember, you're like, you're not running, you're not in a job, so you need to set boundaries and expectations with your clients for what is actually expected in the business, meaning how long they're going to be training with you for a minimum term. What happens if they need to pause payments? What happens if they miss sessions? What if, what happens if they don't show up and say, no, you're not going to get, you're not going to get to be a successful PT without having terms and commissions. You see all these big companies, they've Got all their policies and procedures all written out, you know, clear, clear as day. So when you do have your terms and conditions and I suggest having a minimum term that people will train with you for reason being is because if people aren't committed to the journey because you don't want short term results, right. And I'm sure most personal trainers, like I've been a PT now for almost five years, the best type of clients are the ones that stick with you for a long period of time and they get the best results because consistency over time wins. Large progress over a small amount of time is not sustainable. It can be sustainable but the majority of the people it is not sustainable. So I do suggest having some type of minimum term and it really does depend on the club that you're in and also your, your own, not your own opinion but you can obviously extend this as you get a bit more experience. So for the people that are starting out, when I first started I didn't have any long term contracts or lock ins. I did have a minimum of four weeks and a four week notice period. So I never used to train anyone as like a one off bad little minimum of four weeks but I evolved this overtime. So if you're just starting out, we just start with like a four week minimum and a four week notice period. So they could do a four week trial for example and then they want to continue after four weeks then sweet. If not then they can cancel. But otherwise it's just a rolling monthly type of agreement which is fine to start with. Now long term I suggest doing a minimum of 12 weeks these days. So these days most personal trainers will have like a training block of at least 12 weeks. You might have like a, a muscle building phase and then a fat loss phase or whatever, whatever it is. You can obviously train people how you want to train people but a lot of the time, majority of the time you need to go through different phases to actually get the results that they want. Otherwise people would just wouldn't want to work with a personal trainer. So one thing, it gives you stability for income. It gives you confidence in the business as well, gives you obviously cash flow. Predicted cash flow is less stress. Predicted forecasted cash flow helps reduce stress. There's enough stresses in business already for you to, and for you to not know if people are or for you to not know if you're going to get paid a certain amount the following week is stressful. So have terms of conditions so you can, you see can stress less but you can, you can forecast your income so you're like, cool. So for the, for the next 12 weeks or for the next four weeks I've got this amount of guaranteed income at least. And obviously ideally we want to keep them past the 12 week minimum or past the four weeks, but at least you've got that guaranteed income for that time and then you can forecast what, what you do with the business from there. So you know, and I spoke to Jackie about this just in our general conversation the other day. Um, they're, they're online fitness business only, working with women. Uh, 98. I don't know how if this is the right number, but I think it's 98% of their clients that come on board sign up for 12 months of online pt. 98%. And they do, I think last month they did 146k in sales. Last month. Isn't that crazy? Absolutely crazy. So they either have a 6 months or a 12 month option as far as I know. And I could be wrong. So if you're listening to this, Jake or Jade, I don't know exactly, but it's up there in terms of your duration and what people are signing up to. So you just gotta change the mindset around this. Like if, if you really want committed people, they need to, they need to commit properly. And it's a separate conversation in terms of getting people to commit and getting them in the emotional state of mind to make that purchasing decision. That's a separate episode on sales. But you need to make sure you're setting the boundary and the expectation that they need to commit to train with you for a certain amount of time to see any results. And I say this to people all the time. Look, the reason why we have a minimum of 12 weeks is so we can actually get data your results. You're not going to be able to see massive changes in a four week period or in six week period or whatever. You need a good amount of time to actually track the progress and adjust things that are happening. You might not get the results that you want after four weeks. But then if we just make a slight shift in the, in the nutrition, for example, the training style and then re evaluate after another four weeks. How are you going to know that if you're only going to give it a try for a couple of sessions? I see this all the time with people on. I'll just get a couple of PT sessions, then I'll, then I'll be sleeping. Nope, not the type of clients that you want. So it gives them the commitment, gives them the financial commitment. To actually make the changes. Because if they, if they're committed to, you know, spending 100 bucks a week for 12 weeks, that's $1200. It's not, it's a, you know, it's not massive, but it's a lot of money as well. If you, if you imagine the type of clientele you have, if they committed to 12 months at 100 bucks a week, 5 grand a year, you think that person is going to be committed 100% they are. So that's all I'll say on the commitment. The other stuff you want to put in your terms and conditions, so I'm just going to go through mine is so I've got like a minimum 12 weeks and then 30 day notice period to cancel. So the reason why you want to have a notice period, it's because people cancel on a motion as well. So they don't want to cancel, but they feel like they have to, the financial reasons or whatnot. But you want to have a notice period so you have an opportunity when they're not emotional to either try and talk them out of it or drop sell them to a different option which might be more affordable to them or something that's a bit more, I suppose, a different option for them if that's what they need. Gives you the opportunity. Session cancellation policy 12 hours notice. So there's nothing more annoying when you've got Sessions at like 5am and someone messages you at 4:30, saying, Hey, I slept in, I'm not going to be able to make this session. Can we reschedule? No, no, you cannot reschedule, unfortunately you've got to give 12 hours notice. So unfortunately you just lose this session and I'll see you at the next session. So basically it's obviously in your discretion. So in the terms and conditions is a 12 hour notice period. Usually what I would do if the first time I would be lenient, but if it's after that, say, hey look, the first time I'll, I'll let you reschedule. But next time I'm not going to be able to because you lose on that time to get paid for that time, you're not going to have time to fill that spot. Which is the whole reason why you need to have the notice period. Okay, if people don't show up, what happens then? If they don't show up for the session, it's just a straight no refund. And the other thing about this is when you're setting people up on direct debits, what you really need to be doing is getting people to pay a week in advance. That makes sense. So if they sign up, they pay on the spot. Ideally pay on the spot. Then their first session is the following week. So they're always paying a week in advance. That way if they don't show up or they don't tell you with enough notice, they've already paid for the session. So you use no refund. That's what happens then that's if. Because if you don't have that and they're paying after the session's meant to be completed, they can just, you know, block the payments or chuck up a stink. Say hey, I'm not paying, I was slept in order, but I'm sick. Sorry. Go to business to run, go to family to feed. Sorry people. Now the other just general stuff. And if you want, I can, if you guys want a copy of my terms and conditions, just, just send me a message, send me a DM and I can send you my terms and conditions template and just some standard stuff like this. Like if you, if you cancel the contract before the 12 weeks, you'll need to pay out the 12 week balance. They, the appropriate paperwork will need to be signed before any cancellations are done. So this is where I'm talking about the process. Again, cancellations can be in a separate podcast and I think I've, I have actually done a separate podcast on terms and conditions. So if you haven't watched that, go back to. It's towards the, towards the start that cancellation policy and how to actually how to enforce the cancellation policy. Now the next thing, payment defaults or arrears. So depending on the direct debit company that you're with, they may charge an overdue fee which you will then pass on to the client. So you should not be paying this fee if their payments are declining. Some clients will chalk up a stink or dishonor fee. It's completely normal to charge dishonor fee. Everyone, everyone else does it. All the big companies do it. So why should you have to suffer because they can't get themselves organized. I say this comparison all the time to my clients. You should be, you should be making decisions as if your calls or Woolworths in terms of policies and procedures at some other day. One of the clients of mine said I had a client cancellation and they canceled within an hour of the session. I was, and, and he's like oh, I'm not sure if I should just give her a refund or, or just give her a half refund. And I was like, why why would you do that? What'd your term signature and say, oh, they got to give a 12 hour notice period. Okay. Is there a reason why you're going against the boundary that you set? Because you're allowing people to walk all over you. And when you have that shift in mindset saying, you know, I'm a, you know, although I'm a small business now, I'm going to operate as if I'm an established business and people will respect you for it. I've got clients that have trained with me for years now, and, you know, some of them have lost sessions, but it's their fault. It's not your fault that people aren't showing up for sessions or that they cancel last minute. So don't let people take advantage of you. Now, some of the other things in here as well, non attendance of sessions. So if people do need to reschedule, I, I do say they absolutely can need to reschedule, but they need to give me the notice period. And then the makeup sessions need to be done within two weeks. Otherwise they're just banked up over time and it's too much to. Too much to handle. So I give people two weeks to get makeup sessions done. Otherwise it's just the, it's just the no refund. If they can't prioritize it then. And we can't just keep holding on to these makeup sessions. Previously, when I first started doing PCI and some clients had like seven or eight makeup sessions, it was ridiculous. You need to set the boundary. So you got to make sure you go through this with the client in their first session. So just a reminder, I'm going to send you through the terms and conditions. This is the notice period you need to give if you can't make this session. This is what happens if you need to cancel. This is what happens if the payment declines. This is what happens if this happens. Blah, blah, blah, okay. And then of course, just get them to sign it. So that's essentially what I would include in your terms and conditions and make sure you're actually sticking to it. So the biggest thing I think from today is make sure you get people to actually commit to a certain level of sessions, whether it's four weeks, 12 weeks, six months, 12 months, whatever it is, whatever you want to do, just fine. But as long as you have a minimum term that people commit to, because then you have predictable cash flow which equals less stress. So I hope that makes sense. If you do want a copy of the terms and conditions, let me know. Send me a message. Send me a DM on, you know, the normal channels, Facebook, Instagram, and I'll send it to you. But apart from that, enjoy the rest of your day.