How to Start a Walking Club

Suppose your town doesn't have any kind of walking clubs or hiking clubs, but you'd like to be in one. Well, it looks like you'll have to start one. And how do you go about starting a walking club? As a certified personal trainer, I can offer some great ideas on how to get a walking club started, be it just four or five people, or 15 or 20 people.

First of all, make up some fliers that you can pass out. Use orange, yellow, red or bright green paper, and the first words that the recipient should see is WALKING CLUB. This way, the recipient will know immediately that you are not trying to sell a product or ask them to fill out a survey.

Now, where shall you go to hand out these fliers? How about to the local mall, early in the morning, when there may be some mall walkers? This is when they usually show up to do their walking. And you can spot them real easily. They often walk with an exaggerated arm pump, and keep walking the same area in the mall without going into any stores. And they are wearing sneakers. Give them your flier with your name and phone number on it. Details about when the club would meet, and where it would walk, can come later. Right now, just find some people who are interested.

The next place you can hand out fliers is at a park where a lot of people walk dogs. Sometimes, the people who enjoy walking their dogs at a park are also people who walk, on their own, for exercise. You can also give fliers out to walkers without dogs. There are plenty at parks. You can catch a lot of them early in the morning, at dusk, and on weekends.

Next, visit a sporting goods store and see if you can post the flier somewhere. Some sporting goods stores have public bulletin boards.

Visit also recreation centers. They almost always have huge public bulletin boards. Put several of your fliers up.

If you belong to a health club, talk to people who are walking on the track or on the treadmill. But I do not advise you to hand out fliers at a health club. Health clubs have no-soliciting rules, and even though you are not selling or marketing a service or product, it still comes across that way, and can be perceived as a "threat" to personal trainers seeking clients.

So instead, just start talking to men and women, and this is easy on the treadmills when you are walking side by side.

However, if you don't feel like going around and talking to a bunch of strangers, you can place your fliers on the windshields of cars parked outside the health club, and outside other gyms that you do not belong to. Though a lot of people hate seeing papers on their windshields, this method might get you some responses.

If you belong to a homeowners association, place an ad, which may even be free of charge, in the association's monthly newsletter. Imagine how many people will see it. Your ad, like your flier, should include of course your name, phone number and e-mail address. Details about how often, and where, to walk, can always come later, once you collect a list of interested people.