Introducing TrainingSpaces, a new personal training studio in Toronto

TrainingSpaces is a new business venture from my partner Laura and me. (Let’s get that disclosure out of the way right off.) I’m writing about it here for reasons that should be pretty obvious, but also to do some linking so we can get some of that sweet, sweet SEO.

Laura is not only a wonderful person and a truly amazing partner; she’s also a kickass trainer. You can read some of her clients’ testimonials here. When this amazing space became available, it struck her (and me, a couple of days later — can I help it if I’m slow sometimes?) as a terrific chance to take charge of her own operation and build up her business. TrainingSpaces was her idea (if you like it. If you don’t, it was mine). She’s been putting an incredible amount of heart and energy into redesigning the space, bringing in fantastic new state-of-the-art equipment, getting new floor surfaces put down, and setting up the back room for massage and acupuncture. I’ve been helping too, by … drilling holes in walls and hitting stuff with a hammer.

I’ve also become the de facto IT guy. (You get what you pay for.) In addition to building the website, I’ve been setting up social media accounts, trying to wrestle a little consistency out of Facebook Locations, tweaking the group Google Calendar so that it works for everyone, trying to plan a blogging/newsletter strategy, and applying whatever small digital marketing skills I may have to our advertising and outreach efforts.

For the moment, that’s a two-track initiative. We’re appealing to prospective clients who can benefit from working with a personal trainer, and also reaching out to freelance trainers who want to train their clients in a private, contemporary space, free of distractions and intimidation, and who don’t want to lose most of their income to large fitness chains or franchise gyms. I guess you could call it building the TrainingSpaces brand.

That’s just started, but it doesn’t mean we can’t evaluate our efforts as we go along. I’ve found Mailchimp pretty useful in the early going, and as God is my witness, I will figure out Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager again. Well, at least well enough to make them seem useful.

Both that and the studio itself are works in progress. We’ll keep you posted, both from there and from this space, which has been dormant for a bit too long.