Developing Business Templates

In this topic, we focus on the development of business templates and important forms of documentation needed for the everyday running of your business. You will learn:

• The process of creating a business plan
• Important documentation between trainer-client
• Regulations relating to privacy and confidentiality.

Terminology and vocabulary reference guide

As an allied health professional, you need to be familiar with terms associated with basic exercise principles and use the terms correctly (and confidently) with clients, your colleagues, and other allied health professionals. You will be introduced to many terms and definitions. Add any unfamiliar terms to your own vocabulary reference guide.

Activities

There is an automated quiz at the end of the topic. This is not part of your assessment but will provide practical experience that will help you in your work and help you prepare for your formal assessment.

In order to ensure you get off the ground successfully, you must have a plan for your business, this should include “what, where, when, why, how and for who”.

The plan for your business should be something you spend time on and think about in a high amount of detail. The more time you invest in your business plan, the less time you will need to invest in rectifying errors down the track and set yourself up for a smoothly running business so you can focus on your clients.

A good business plan should include the following:

• Business name
• Information regarding the business structure
• Information about taxes
• Business location
• Date established
• Business owner
• Mission and vision statement
• Business statement
• SWOT
• Competitor analysis
• Marketing strategy
• Client retention strategy.

Considering each of these in as much detail as possible will enable you to get off the ground running smoothly. A well-developed business plan will also be of great value to you when you perform activities such as going for a job interview in a gym or applying for a franchise agreement or in the event you wish to apply for a bank loan. All parties will need to know and have confidence in your desired business set up in order to ensure they are dealing with an organised and well-planned individual.

There are many business plan templates that exist which you can adapt should you wish to create your own, your trainer will supply you with a template for your own reference.

In addition to creating your business plan, you also need to consider the paperwork required in order for yourself and your client to work together both safely and effectively. Let us discuss some of these below.

Pre-screening form

When welcoming a client, one of the first documents that you will need to be completed is called a pre-exercise screening form. This document will highlight important medical information, family health history, information regarding the client’s exercise history and future goals and objectives.

At a minimum, should you wish to create your own version of this for your business, you should ensure it includes at least the following information:

• Medical history questions: injury, disease, or condition (past or present) and medications
• Questions that allow you to judge “risk stratification”
• Medical clearance: should risk stratification require medical clearance
• Lifestyle evaluation: diet, recreational activities, exercise history (and current), availability, personal commitments etc.​
• Client consent: the client should be made aware of how their personal information may be used and how this will confidentially be stored. There should be a section on the form where this is stated and the client (or parent or guardian should the client be under 18 years of age) sign to state their agreement/permission
• Things that can also be included:
  • Informed consent and commitment statement (signed)​
  • Exercise and biometric testing – baseline data (BMI, weight, waist to hip ratio etc.)
  • Client goals
  • Blood pressure and heart rate.

As we all know, every client is unique and will have different expectations and requirements based on their individual circumstances, so it is important that you identify any underlying health issues from the beginning. Not only does it support you in maintaining a duty of care, but it also provides you with an idea about who your client is and how you can best support their health and fitness needs.

These documents may vary from trainer to trainer however it is important the essential information is captured. Refer to the REPs Pre-Exercise Screening Form for a template to adopt or to use directly.

New client agreement form

Along with a pre-exercise screening form, a new client agreement form is highly recommended as this sets out all policies and procedures that will be adhered to throughout the practices of your business.

It is important that clients are aware of their rights and responsibilities when training with you, therefore, these policies should clearly outline the expectations and guidelines that need to be followed by both parties in order to avoid any misunderstandings and reduce the risk of issues developing further down the track. Policies and procedures that will need to be implemented can include, but not limited to:

• Code of conduct and code of ethics
• Refund policy
• Cancellation policy
• Injury policy
• Work health and safety policy
• Payment forms and policies
• Contract of sales agreement policy.

Other documentation

Depending on the nature of your business set up, i.e., self-employed, independent contractor, or employee of an exercise establishment, you may require or access addition paperwork such as:

• Client contract: a signed agreement where the client commits to a certain number of weeks or months of training
• Incident and injury report: the client should be made aware of responsibilities in the event of an injury
• Client tracker: here you may wish to record client details such as:
  • Client progress report
  • When clients attended or missed a session
  • Any additional advice you have given, such as nutritional guidance
  • Additional activities suggested out with their program such as yoga, boot camp, Pilates sessions etc. to support their goals.

Note: you will also need to consider, should you decide to run your business out with an established exercise facility, any of the above documentation (with exception to the client tracker) particularly those which pertains to collecting personal information and payments. These should be appropriately structured and worded from a legal standpoint. Should you work within an exercise facility, however, they will typically have these in place already which would prevent you from needed to create these.

A great way to think about this, if you are creating your own is, if, in the event you are standing in a court of law, defending a complaint or a claim, would your paperwork have all the information required in order to highlight you have captured all the required information to safeguard yourself.

This is a crucial part of your business, as having written agreements and business documentation will be able to provide you and your clients with the ability to understand the basis of your agreement together. This is also important as it is an effective practice to assure continuity of care and to minimise as much risk as possible to yourself, your clients, and your business.

It is important to be aware that, along with information being gathered appropriately, i.e., with clients awareness and consent, it also needs to be stored appropriately. Each country has its own legislation governing good practices around document storage, Archives and Records Association of New Zealand outlines their Record Keeping Legislation for both paper and electronic-based documentation along with other various types of documentation such as financial records. The Securities Act 1978 states all records of an accounting nature should be kept for a minimum of seven years.

Archives New Zealand also outlines important information that pertains to how this information is stored, such as in a locked cabinet at a minimum of 150mm off the floor, with files being stored in an orderly manner and procedures in place for retrieving and handling files within. The guidelines also cover other vital information regarding documentation such as:

• Identification and accessibility
• Facilities
• Protection and preservation
• Privacy and security
• Shelving packaging
• Environmental control.

Take time to read these guidelines as, should you fail to meet these, this could result in significant issues, potentially of a legal nature.

In this topic, we focused on the development of business templates and important forms of documentation needed for the everyday running of your business. You have learnt:

• The process of creating a business plan
• Important documentation between trainer-client
• Regulations relating to privacy and confidentiality.