Betwixt Jobs

This past week has been largely devoted to getting the business facet of my personal training operation up and running. I got my official trainer certification; registered myself as an LLC; got a federal tax ID number; lined up an accountant to handle my taxes and answer any accounting questions I might have; met with one of my designer friends to discuss logos, business cards, letterhead, advertising, web presence, etc.; got a quote for liability insurance; created my QuickBooks company file; set up file folders for all my paper filing; registered a domain name and set up web hosting for it; and probably half a dozen other things I don’t recall off the top of my head.

I’m excited that my liability insurance will cover outdoor training. Many people I’ve talked with have expressed a desire to exercise outdoors, so it’ll be nice to have that as an option for those folks. My coverage will be a bit more than some of the other estimates I’ve heard, but it’s still extremely reasonable. I just need to run through the fine print of the coverage to make sure there aren’t any gotchas.

The past week has been an emotional roller coaster for me. What lies ahead is the big unknown, and it’s in our nature to fear the unknown. That fear has really hit me hard the past few days and I’ve had at least a few total freak-outs. This is my first time setting up a “real” business, and there’s a lot I’m learning for the first time. This is lending itself to a real “I don’t know what I’ve gotten myself into here” feeling.

It also wasn’t helping that due to some health issues (nothing major, fortunately), I’ve had to ease off my own exercise for a bit until things get better. Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal, but being a personal trainer, that really cuts to the core of what you do. I feel really weird having people do exercises that I myself can’t (or at least shouldn’t) do right now. My reduced exercise (or on many days, no exercise) sort of creates a feedback loop and I just feel lazier in general, less concerned about my diet, more depressed, etc.

I’ve been pulling myself around the past couple of days. I had a doctor appointment yesterday and we were able to confirm that the main problem I’m having now is relatively minor and isn’t indicative of anything serious, which helped eliminate at least one of the unknowns in my life. This morning I resumed my own workouts, albeit at a slightly-decreased volume and intensity. I also have to eliminate/replace many of the exercises I do, at least for the time being. The problem I’m having is GI related, so I don’t want to gross you out with the gory details, but in a nutshell I have to lay off of any exercises involving isometric contraction in the abs. It’s kind of frustrating, because those are some of the best exercises in existence, but such is life. On the plus side, I at least now know what accommodations need to be made when working with clients with similar problems.

I’m doing better so far today. I’m (mostly) back on track with my diet, I’m (mostly) back on track with my exercise, I’m keeping myself busy plowing through my todo list, and I’m trying to focus on those things I can control rather than on worrying about those things that I can’t. I’ve been starting to think about back-up plans in case I don’t bring in enough clients right away. One option I’ve been pondering is taking a part-time job somewhere to help fill in the gaps. This may sound a bit odd, but one job that sounds really appealing to me right now is working as a package handler at UPS or FedEx. I kind of like the idea of a job that involves non-stop physical labor. I keep wanting to find excuses to move around more and do more physical stuff, whatever it may be.

Ok, back to my todo list…