If your gym operates solely on income you bring in from client memberships, you could be leaving a whole lot of money on the table. Opportunities for Alternate Revenue Streams you can operate from your gym or your website are nearly endless.
Passive (Or Almost-Passive) Income
The least time-consuming revenue opportunities will earn money for your business with little to no effort or time spent on your part once the initial setup is complete. Truly passive income is difficult to generate, but it is entirely possible to build low-effort revenue streams into your business. From simple to complex, you can pick and choose one or multiple passive revenue streams that will work for your business, because they require so little ongoing upkeep.
Offer Locker and Padlock Rentals
Locker and lock rentals may not sound like huge income generators, but small rental fees add up over time. With the minimal upkeep required to maintain clean and functional lockers, the money made from rentals ends up being mostly profit.
Create Membership Levels
Offering a premium membership adds benefits for your most loyal and frequent customers while allowing you to charge a higher membership rate up front. When building out your membership plan levels, try to think of benefits and services that don’t dramatically increase your operational costs, but do dramatically increase value and convenience for your premium clients. For example, a premium member may choose to pay for locker and lock rentals up front in a set fee, rather than deal with the hassle of the rental process every day. Or, they may appreciate a clean towel and a bottle of water provided at the end of their sessions, for a small convenience charge included in the premium membership plan.
Use Time and Money Saving Software
Saving time and money is as good as making money. Make sure your gym has a tight management software system like Gym Insight that automates as many menial tasks as possible. Automation cuts down on hours spent managing memberships, invoicing clients, organizing member information, scheduling, looking up client contact information, and managing payroll systems. Your invoicing software should also include automatic retrying of declined credit card payments and an automated invoice saved to the client’s profile so he or she can take care of the declined payment during their next visit.
Sell Digital Goods and Services
Commission expert trainers to provide high-value items such as training tutorial videos, recorded classes, nutrition and fitness e-books, and other digital products that can be purchased from your website or other online vendors. Selling digital items is one of the best ways to generate truly passive income over time, because the products only need to be written or recorded one time in order to be sold forever.
Take Advantage of Print On Demand
Print on demand services also utilize the passive strategy of designing the product one time and then selling it forever. Design products with your business logo or other specialized branding and list them for sale from your website or other vendors. When a client orders a product, the print on demand service will take care of printing your design onto the item and shipping it to the customer, with no extra time or effort on your part.
Network With Other Businesses for Ad Space
Building symbiotic relationships with related businesses in the fitness and nutrition fields allows you several opportunities for extra revenue. For example, sell ad space along empty walls using banners, ad boards, or even electric screens to display friendly business’ messages. In return, you can receive monthly ad revenue or trade for ad space in their businesses.
Active Revenue Options
Though "set it and forget it" passive income is the holy grail for many business owners, it is not necessary to limit yourself to only passive revenue streams. If you are willing to invest some time and money into setting up and maintaining one of the following options, you might find that the income ceiling is higher than with passive revenue streams alone.
Contract with Specialized Trainers
The more specialized trainers that work out of your gym, the wider the variety of clients you can attract. Dance classes, spinning, bodybuilding, fat loss, water aerobics, yoga, Pilates, CrossFit, kettlebell training, group fitness, solo sessions… The list of options is limitless.
Offer Drop-In Classes
Aside from the variety of fitness classes your gym offers, expand into non-fitness but still health-related areas. For example, you may have a trainer on staff who is also a registered dietician. He or she could provide nutrition counseling and healthy eating classes to the community for a small drop-in charge. Motivational groups and goal-setting sessions are classes that fitness trainers would be qualified to lead even without any further training beyond their fitness certifications.
Focus on Being the Best in a Niche
If you have a trainer who works at a world-class level for clients with mobility issues, for example, capitalize on that rare and specialized knowledge. You can have that trainer develop adjacent, related training programs in this niche and work toward dominating that industry in your local area. Following the mobility issues example, your trainer might choose to offer flexibility practice, classes for building core strength safely, one-on-one sessions for clients who have a specific injury to work around, or any number of other offerings. Mastering a niche attracts clients to your particular gym over other non-specialized competitors.
Provide Drop-In Childcare
Expand your clientele by having in-house daycare for an hour session at a time. Busy moms and dads will happily pay a small additional fee to be able to leave their children with a trusted caregiver while they squeeze in a workout.
Sell Refreshments
If your gym has the space for a small refreshment stand, consider taking advantage of that. Cold water, energy drinks, nutrition bars, and healthy snacks will look very tempting to tired gymgoers who just finished working up an appetite. A snack bar adds an extra level of convenience for clients who may be rushing in and out of the gym on a tight lunch break.
Host Progress-Tracking Sessions
Clients who work with trainers out of your gym may appreciate the opportunity to attend motivational progress-tracking meetings with their trainer. Body fat caliper measurements done by qualified staff, BMR measurement, and progress evaluation keeps clients motivated to continue their fitness journeys. This translates to better client retention for your facility.
Provide Exclusive Boutique Experiences
Professional boxing lessons, martial arts classes, and official CrossFit training sessions are all great additions to the schedule if you have the space to host them. Allowing certified trainers in very specialized areas such as these to operate boutique fitness experiences inside the walls of your gym is a win-win for everyone involved. Your clients have the benefit of fun and challenging new classes, the trainers can operate out of your gym for a lower overhead cost compared to renting their own buildings, and your facility will draw in more clients at a higher, boutique rate.
Sources:
https://smartgrouptraining.com/adding-additional-revenue-streams-to-your-fitness-business/
https://www.ihrsa.org/improve-your-club/10-exciting-new-revenue-streams-for-health-clubs/