Business Fitness

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This can sound like at least two things: the business of fitness or the fitness of your business.

If you address the former, the business of fitness is comprised of polar opposites. So many disciplines, gurus, options, preferences, proven techniques as well as snake-oil salespeople. How do you even discern what’s right for you?
As a whole, the fitness industry is doing well, despite the recession. People attach more value to what is important and especially to what they can control. You can’t control whether your company will keep you employed, though you can control the search for a back-up plan, but even that is oftentimes a gamble. But more and more, people realize that the one thing that can be improved regardless of the times is their physical wellness. Even the fittest of the fittest continuously improved their personal records or abilities, while rookies get started on adding years to their life, increase their chances of fighting all sorts of diseases and witness tangible improvements in their quality of life.
While some business have to scale back (for instance, individual personal training has dropped), one can always find their way to a group class (which can benefit both the trainer and the trainee alike, creating volume and savings, respectively).
Which leads me to the fitness of one’s business: Just like a barbell allows you to spread a load evenly and lift more with proper leverage versus 2 dumbbells of the same cumulative weight, how do you keep your own business fit? How do you leverage your load? I’ve already given an example for the business of personal training (group vs private classes), but here’s another example: corporate fitness, for instance, is about survival of the corporation before the individual. Which is why companies result to lay-offs when money is tight, rather than focusing on improving productivity in an already negative climate.
Think about our species: reproduction is essential to the survival of our species, while on an individual basis, it does little to affect you other than fulfill an emotional need even before addressing a primordial one. Not everyone choose to have children. Whether you do or not has nothing to do with your individual survival. Heck, not having kids can be an argument when you see the state of the world! But rather than focus on this pessimistic view, let’s turn back to the fitness of a business.
If a company addresses the individual needs collectively, its chances of survival greatly improve. But, how can you address individual needs “collectively”? Stay with me: find what it is that most people need, and employee appreciation tops most everything. Yes, everyone wants money, and everyone works for the ability to pay for things. But sooner or later, it is in our nature to want more. Sooner or later, productivity drops if there isn’t some form of incentive.
Incentive doesn’t have to be monetary. Rewards can come in the form of a company luncheon, an afternoon off or better yet, fitness.
Don’t roll your eyes just yet. You know what I do and what my passion is. But ask yourself: why do we all want more money? To get things we want? What do those things do for us? Make us more attractive to potential mates (it’s called “peacocking”). Looking good is part of the mating process too 🙂
But more seriously, find me ONE person who ultimately doesn’t like feeling better and looking better in the process. The feeling alone can boost one’s confidence enough so they appear more attractive. When you feel strong and healthy, you feel like you can accomplish a lot more.
So, business owners, CEO’s and HR managers, invest in the health of your employees by offering workshops or lectures on how people can better manage their wellness (fitness, health, safety -nothing boost more confidence like the ability to kick butt and defend yourself!-).
It is actually very cost effective, because that expense promotes not only productivity, but also employee loyalty. Additionally, a healthy employee costs less than an unfit employee whose immune system is weaker, thus more likely to call in sick or infect co-workers. In the long term, you can also benefit from breaks for insurance carriers for providing such benefits to your employees.
See, you can take care of individual needs collectively 🙂
Hire a fitness coach for your executive fitness. Schedule a luncheon presentation or a series of lectures on nutrition, posture, easy remedies and how to choose the best approach for each person to improve their wellness, and you’ll have happy employees instead of grumpy ones!


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