In this solo episode of the Marketing Muscle‑Up Podcast, host Richard Toutounji answers the question “how many businesses does it take to be successful?” Drawing on his own experience of buying over 200 domain names and juggling multiple ventures, he explains why trying to run several different businesses at once is a recipe for disaster in today’s market. He highlights the increased difficulty of building brand equity online due to algorithm changes and the need for trust, and stresses that fitness studio owners should concentrate on scaling a single business—aiming for a $500,000 revenue milestone—before considering a second studio or an online venture. He contrasts the distinct marketing strategies, cost structures, and resource requirements of brick‑and‑mortar versus pure online fitness businesses. Toutounji also links business focus to pricing strategy, arguing that mastering one’s craft, delivering results, and building trust are prerequisites for raising prices. He advises listeners to capture new ideas in a notebook rather than buying domains, and to make deliberate decisions about whether to keep, sell, partner, or exit a business once it reaches the target scale. The episode ends with a call to action to share the podcast, leave a review, and join the “Crush Your Fitness Marketing” Facebook group for additional resources.
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Welcome back to the Marketing Muscle Up podcast show. I'm Richard Turtungi, and today we're talking all about your business. I got a question asked me yesterday, and the question was this: how many businesses does it take to be successful? And I said, what do you mean by that? There's a few different ways to answer that question. There's a few different meanings to the question. And the meaning that he was referring to was that how many businesses do I need to run at once to be successful And successful in his definition was to make the money that I wanted to make— that he wanted to make, sorry. And before I answer that question, I want to start off by saying I have been a domain name purchaser at masses. What does that mean? I used to buy every domain name that was an idea that I had in business. So if there was an idea I had, I purchased domain name to it. True story. I had over 200 different domain names, meaning I had over 200 different business ideas that I was going to put my mind and brain to. I got to a few of them at, at the same time, ran multiples at the same time. I tried to run very similar concepts at the same time, and that wasn't too bad. However, trying to do different styles of businesses on different brands this day and age is very hard. Why is it hard? For a couple reasons. One, It takes time to get to market than before. You can't just buy a bunch of Instagram fans, Facebook fans. You can't just get engagement straight away. The algorithms have changed quite a lot. You can't just— I mean, yes, you can go set up a website relatively fast. Fast and easy. However, with brand equity and with trust factor online, it takes time to do all those items and build up all that equity that you need to ensure that you have trust in the marketplace. Our profiles are online more than ever before. Our personal profiles are online more than ever before. And if they're not online, it means that you're running a business and that business has to build up a brand. You're either pushing your own personal brand or you're pushing a business brand. Either way, they both require time and effort. So to answer your question, the only way that you can grow and be successful in this day and age is to focus on one business only. Build it up to the point that it needs to get to. I always say studio owners, at least it needs to get to a $500,000 mark, and then you can move on to the next venture, the next thing, opening up a second studio, deciding to renovate, opening up a new, you know, bigger place, whatever you want to call it. But having a brick-and-mortar business and then saying, I want to do an online business at the same time, that's a pure online business, not just like, you know, some Zoom trainings. And then I want to run some events. They could be all based around the same activity, like the same outcome, getting people healthy and fit. However, running an online business and running a brick-and-mortar business requires 2 different, totally sets of things. It requires 2 different ways to market the business. And of course, when you're running 2 businesses, it requires 2 different sets of costs, meaning more money to run the business. So the next time that you feel you want to start a business, my recommendation is to get a book out And write it in a book. Write it in your notepad on your phone. For me, I purchased the domain name. Now I'm— I think I've— for now, I do believe that I'm much better at not purchasing domain names. I've pretty much sold and got rid of most of my domain names. I believe I'm down to around 20 names that are probably businesses, but they're related to my main businesses. And why do I say this? For— it's because if we just focus on the one outcome, we get known for one thing, we can move to the next thing. It's not to say we always have to stay at this particular business or this particular studio or this PT business, but you have to You have to carry success on and you got to start, you grow it to the point that you think you can get it to, and then you make a decision. Am I going to keep it? Am I going to sell it? Am I going to exit it? Am I going to get a partner? Or is it something that I want to start again? I want to start something else. But doing 2, 3, 4 different kind of businesses at the same time is a disaster. It's a recipe for a disaster, I should say. It's a recipe for nothing really to actually take shape, nothing really to work. And this is kind of coming off my podcast 2 days ago when I talked about take your prices up. To take your prices up, you must be a master of what you do. To take your prices up, you must understand that people need to know you, trust you, and like you. And you need to obviously get the results for that person. When you're doing that, when you are taking a price on, when you are getting results, we don't have to have multiple businesses. It's not necessary because the one business pushes us forward, drives our success, makes us money, and then eliminates all the other concepts that we have. Remember, if you— sorry, remember, if you're going to have other ideas— sorry, if you ever have— if you're going to have other businesses, I should say. What am I saying? If you're going to have other businesses, that's fine, but you're also going to need a few things. You'll need a new You need to have more resources, more money, multiple team members to do that. And so if you've got that, totally fine, no issues. But you don't have that, it's a windy road to the bottom. Team, love to know your thoughts about this podcast episode. If you didn't— haven't listened to my episode a couple days ago about price, take your price up, definitely listen to that. This is like a continuation that I've had some great feedback and different comments around that. A lot of people in agreeance to say, yes, why are we accepting a lower rate than we should be? Let's all work together to stay focused and mastering our craft so we can master our money and stay in this industry long-term. keep longevity, get amazing results for our clients, and be known for doing something amazing. Team, I'll catch you next time. If you enjoyed this episode, you know what to do— share it with a friend, with a colleague that's going to get some, um, insights into this. Put on your stories and leave a comment in Apple Podcasts. If you do want to engage more, join our free Facebook group. It's called Crush Your Fitness Marketing. jump into there, just say you've heard about us at the podcast, and we'll be sure to direct you to the next place that you can get more information. There's a whole bunch of free resources and videos in that group. I'll catch you next time on the Marketing Muscle-Up Podcast Show. Bye for now.
