It’s tempting to take cash payments from clients as a personal trainer. It seems simple enough. until it isn’t. I mean cash itself isn’t bad… but if you’re still dealing with card hold cash during yoru sessions – you are going to continue to live in a small PT mindset, plus it’s creating a whole lot of unnecessary work, conversations and worry.

Cash Creates Unnecessary Work & Conversations

You know the drill… you get to the end of your session and have to have the payment conversation. Maybe a client forgets to bring cash and says they’ll pay next time. Then it gets to the end of the week and they forget to pay. Your constantly chasing them up for the cash. Now your job has become a cash collector rather than a personal trainer!

At first it seems like cash is the easiest option. And that might be true when your dealing with a few clients. But imagine having 50 people turn up at your bootcamp on a Saturday and trying to collect cash from each one of them (true story: this is exactly what Sophie was doing).

Having some kind of system around payments makes it easier for you, easier for your client and you can focus on what you do best.

Dealing With Cancellations

We all have cancellation policies. If you cancel less than 24 hours out you still have to pay a fee. But then if you’re accepting cash it’s much harder for that person to part with their cash (For the session they didn’t have), then to just have it automatically be billed to them.

With Cash Your Always Having To ‘Sell’

Whether you accept cash per session or you sell people into the infamous ‘10 sesson pack’ at the end of every session or the end of their pack – you are having to sell them into another session or another pack. This is unneeded stress for you really.

Having a direct debit that automatically charges, or getting someone into a membership means that your no longer having to convince people to keep buying packs – the hard work is done for you.

Inconsistent Cash Flow

Sometimes people’s lives are not consistent. They go on holiday, they get sick, they have to go to their son’s assembly at school. They miss sessions – and guess what – you miss getting paid and your cash flow suffers.

Even a 10 pack creates inconsistent cash flow for you. You are always waiting for that 10 pack to finish so you can get paid again.

Creating ongoing memberships for clients is a much better way to create a consistent cash flow, so that you know what’s coming in each week. It’s also super convenient for clients as well – many people are used to being on ongoing memberships nowadays as well.

The Key To Creating Consistent Cash Flow

• Stop accepting cash payments
• Get off the 10 pack treadmill and implement a membership for your clients
• Use a Direct Debit system like PT Minder, Mindbody or Paysmart.

Cash will keep you in a small PT mindset, moving away from cash to direct debits and credit card systems will move your into a growth mindset.

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