Greenville Gains Podcast: Episode 3

The main purpose of a business is to provide a solution for the customer. Amazon is successful because it makes buying and selling easy and convenient. Another example is a fitness apparel company that focused on product quality, easy ordering, fast shipping, and fun marketing. In fitness coaching, being on time, providing a clear plan, using a user-friendly app, fast communication, and delivering results are key. Focusing on providing value and solving customer problems will lead to success. Yo, what up Gaines fam? This is Evan Levy and welcome to the official Greenville Gaines podcast. Here we'll be discussing lifting, nutrition, business, and mindset along with other topics in the future. On this episode we'll be talking about business. I've been listening to podcasts by Gary V, Andy Purcell, and Ed Milett for many years and they've helped me along my business journey. So now I want to share some of that knowledge with you guys. Alright, so the topic today is what is the purpose of a business? Okay, if you ask the majority of people what are they going to say? To make money. Now we entrepreneurs of course want to make money but that's not necessarily the main goal. So the main purpose of a business, I'm going to say this real clear, the main purpose of a business is to provide a solution for the customer. Okay, I'm going to say it again. The main purpose of a business is to provide a solution for the customer. Now think about it. The customer is coming to you with a problem, right? They have a problem and it's your job to solve it. So this applies whether your business offers a product or a service. Your main priority must always be to provide the best solution possible for your customer or client. That's it. When you focus on doing this the best that you can, the money will just come naturally as a side effect. And the more value you can provide, the more money you can charge, the more people you can help, and the more money you can make. So I'm going to give you guys a couple of examples just to kind of elaborate here. So let's go with number one. We'll go with Amazon. Alright, say what you want about big corporate but Amazon is an amazing company and Jeff Bezos is a genius. How do they become such a massive worldwide company? By making the process of buying or selling something as easy and streamlined as possible. You know if you're looking for something, no matter what it is, 99.999% of the time it's going to be on Amazon. Here are a few things that make Amazon the best of the best in the world. One of the things is one-click ordering. You go to the app or you go on the website, you're already logged in. You just click whatever item you want, one-click order, boom. All your info is already in there, it's done. Now of course this could be dangerous when you go on like a shopping splurge, but you know as long as you can control yourself, it's pretty convenient. The second thing they do is fast shipping. So you know with Amazon Prime, if you have Amazon Prime, it shows up at your doorstep in two days, one day, or even the same day. I mean that's insane. Like the fact that you can just, you need something and you don't feel like going to the store and getting it or you can't find it, and you can one-click order it and it can show up at your door the same day is just mind-blowing. So there's a reason they're so big, there's a reason they're worth so much money. It's easy, it's convenient, it provides tons of value for the customer and makes things as streamlined as possible. So that's the first example. My second example is work out apparel. It could be any clothing, but I actually, I don't know, some of you may know, I used to own a fitness apparel company back in New Jersey called Driven Lifestyle. So this is back a few years ago. We sold workout t-shirts, tank tops, and hoodies. So this is quite a while ago and I was still a newbie, but I tried to make the customer experience as smooth and enjoyable as possible. So here are a few things I did or tried to do to, you know, provide more value for the customer. So number one was product quality. So I paid extra for premium quality clothing and screen printing so my customers were getting high quality apparel and not some cheap stuff that's gonna rip in a couple weeks. It was very easy to get like Hanes or something like that or Russell and it would have probably been half the price, but it also wouldn't have been durable and it would have ripped. So I made sure to get what's called next level apparel, really good quality, and you know the shirts came out much nicer and it lasted a long time. I still have a lot of people who wear them to this day. The second thing is it's easy to order. Okay, so they go on the website, every item had a professional clear photo or a few of the photos of the of the item so it's easy to see exactly what it looked like and they could zoom in, they could see from different angles, and then they know exactly what they're getting. Number three is fast shipping. So I could have gone with different, you know, postal providers. I could have done USPS, UPS, FedEx, whatever. I actually went with USPS. They gave me a pretty good price, but I paid extra for a priority shipping because it made sure that all orders were received in two business days. So whether the customer was in New Jersey or Greenville or somewhere in California or even Canada, they received their item within two days, which is it's pretty fast. It was fun to share. So this is number four, fun to share. So whenever they got the item, they would, you know, they could take a picture of the shirt, but of course we want to see them in the apparel. So they would put it on, get a workout in it, and take a picture and share it on their IG story and I would share it on mine. So that was just great marketing and a fun way to showcase the product and get referrals. Now I closed it down a couple years back because I realized I just don't really like clothes that much or care about clothes that much, but you guys get the point. Those are some ways that I try to make the customer experience as good as possible. Now, number three, and this one is probably the one you guys are interested in and maybe some of you are doing it too, either as a client or a coach, is fitness coaching. And this could be in person or online. So this one of course is near and dear to my heart. That's why I've been doing it the longest and got the chance to help hundreds of people. So yeah, whether in person or online, the same rules apply. Alright, so here are a few things that came to mind. Number one, as the coach, as a trainer, here are a few things that I think are beneficial to give your client the most value and give them the best solution possible. So number one is be on time. Okay, you want to be on time for your session in person or if you have a call. You know, the worst thing you could do is show up late or, you know, constantly cancel or move times around. Now look, it could happen here and there. Emergencies happen. But in general, just set a time. Whatever you say, just be on time for it. It's huge. And hopefully the client does the same. Number two, I do my best to write out workouts and meal plans in advance so the plan is all laid out. Number three, I use the Trainerize app so it's user-friendly. It has everything in there. You know, workouts, meal plan, photos, body weight, body fat percentage. It keeps track of everything. You know, workout numbers. So definitely a user-friendly app and it's an easy experience. Fast communication. I strive to get back to my clients within 24 hours even if it's a weekend or holiday or I'm traveling. The most I'll take to get back to someone is, let's say, 48 hours, two days. But, excuse me, but I try to get back to everyone within a day. And last but not least, this is most important, is results. So going back to the first point I made, the purpose of the business is what? Not just to make money, to provide a solution to the customer's problem. So if you're a coach, someone's coming to you, their quote-unquote problem is they need to get stronger. They need to lose body fat. They need to gain muscle. They need to improve their stamina. They need to fix an injury. They need to be able to play with their kids or grandkids. Whatever their goal is. So whatever their goal, that's their problem and it's your job to provide a solution for them. So my only goal with coaching or training is to get my clients results the best that I can. So if I do my job and they do their job, then everyone gets results and everyone wins. I hope this makes sense and makes it more tangible for you guys. I know a lot of us listening are fellow entrepreneurs and fitness people. So try to keep these points in mind the next time you're working with a customer or client. It seems obvious and you know this is all, you know, this isn't like groundbreaking. It's all common sense stuff but I think too many people get wrapped up in focusing on the money aspect and then the service suffers. So what I've seen over the years, you know, I have been doing this a while, what I've seen over the years is when people focus on the money, they're usually the ones that don't make the money because they're so focused on the money and the numbers that they're not putting the time into their customers. But when they're focused on their customers and given the best possible solution and the best value they possibly can, then they're giving a good product, giving a good service and the money will just come. You know, focus on the product and the service and your customers and the money will just happen. Anyway guys, I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you liked it and got value out of it, please do me a favor and share this show with your friends and family who may benefit from it as well. Thank you and I'll see you next time. Have a great day and let's keep getting those gains!