Once you’ve become self-employed and established your services, where do you go from here? If you want to expand your offering and grow your business, there are many steps you can take to help you get there.
One way to grow your business is to expand your service offering. You may already have skills and qualifications that you can incorporate into your current business model, but you could also develop your skillset to allow you to offer something that is in demand or totally new.
A popular option for upskilling is diving into niche markets. By catering to a population or environment that requires specialist skills to manage, you can increase your reach and avoid saturated markets when growing. There are lots of options to choose from depending on your interest and current experience – perhaps you could offer classes for antenatal women or offer after-school activity sessions. The sector’s professional standards, created by experts and managed by CIMSPA, define the skills and knowledge required to work in a range of specialist areas. Find out what you could offer by exploring our library.
Once you’ve decided what new services you’d like to provide, you’ll need to gain the know-how to do so. Our endorsed training directory is a searchable library of learning opportunities, all quality-assured by CIMSPA and aligned with the sector’s professional standards. This means that you can find a training course to match your needs and be confident that it will equip you with the necessary expertise. Plus, you will receive a high-quality learning experience from our approved education partners.
Communication – it’s an essential part of your work as a sport and physical activity professional. From attracting clients to managing your classes, the way you talk to potential customers can make or break your business. There are many ways to improve your reach and some might suit your business better than others. While some take time to get going with, here are a few to start you off on the right track:
It can be tempting to try and cater to everyone, but the best way to engage new customers is to identify your target audience and shape your communication and services around them.
To help you decide, you may wish to conduct market research to understand who might need your services. You can also ask existing customers about their preferences and needs to get an idea of who you are already attracting.
Having a strong online presence is crucial for expanding your customer base and driving business growth. Whether via social media, email marketing or online advertising, there is a wide range of ways that you can connect with new potential customers online.
Our digital marketing hub has a range of CPD available to help you become just as skilled in communicating as you are in circuit training.
Word of mouth can be a powerful tool for expanding your customer base, so it’s important to make sure that your existing customers are happy and likely to recommend you. While speaking kindly to your customers in person is perhaps an obvious part of customer service, responding promptly to messages is also an important part of the experience.
If you are a CIMSPA member, you can expand your customer service knowledge to include dealing with difficult customers as well as care, feedback and many more aspects of customer service using our sector guidance notes. These can be found through your member portal.
As an established sport and physical activity business, you might have found that as you’ve become busier, it has become difficult to keep track of your time and finances. When you want to expand your business further, it’s important to make sure that you are working as efficiently as possible to allow you to grow in a sustainable way. There are a few things you can do to make your work easier:
When you are responsible for a business, it can sometimes feel like you always have to be on call. In fact, it’s extremely important to set boundaries and give yourself time to switch off so that you can remain on top form. While it can be difficult to set specific working hours in the sport and physical activity sector, it’s worth deciding hours that you will (and won’t) respond to messages.
Many self-employed professionals also struggle to give themselves full days off and particularly extended holidays, but these are essential for recuperating your energy – you probably tell your clients to take rest days, so you know that you need them too! Taking time to recover will also reduce the likelihood of you needing to take sick days, as a rested professional is a healthier one.
If you find that you can’t keep up with the demand for your services or simply want to benefit from the expertise of more sector professionals in your business, recruiting new employees is a great way to grow your business and reach more customers.
In our Careers Hub employer section, we offer support and advice for every stage of recruitment, from understanding workforce requirements all the way to hiring – all tailored to the sport and physical activity sector.