Turbocharge Your Income With Gym Guest Passes There are many different ways to increase your gym's revenue. Let's focus on how you can use gym guest passes to increase your income, in the way a turbocharger boosts the horsepower of a small car engine. Of course, your own particular approach to this strategy will be strongly influenced by the unique layout of your local racetrack. So, here are two different approaches to gym guest passes, for very different local markets. Gym Guest Passes To Bring In New Members The best and most consistent form of income to keep a gym [...]
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New gym owners come to the business with many different levels of expectations. It depends on things like their previous experiences in management, small business ownership, gym operations and leadership, to name but a few. The one thing that consistently catches new owners off guard and causes much stress is how many routine, repetitive tasks need to be handled on a daily basis. In theory you just sign up new members and they give you a payment each month, so you build up a nice little stream of revenue to enjoy. Well, it sounds a little fanciful when I put [...]
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The concept of experience marketing is generating a lot of buzz among business consultants and academic thinkers right now. It encapsulates the emotional and subjective associations that come with using a product or taking part in a service. It is how your members feel about how they get along at your gym. It is all of the subjective associations and emotions they have relating to everything from the hygiene levels to the staff's attitude and the results members get from their workouts. A State Of (The Customer's) Mind As long as members are happy enough to keep coming back, whether [...]
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Digital Media Puts a Human Face On Business Here's an ironic fact: Digital media can actually add a human touch to your gym! In this day and age it's absolutely imperative that, as a business owner, you take full advantage of the low-cost high-impact resources that you can find online, in social media, blogging and video blogging. If you're a bit more ambitious, even podcasting can be a great way to promote your gym. The subject of social media is vast and rapidly changing. I'm just going to put this out there as an idea. It's just a quick overview, [...]
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These days it's almost impossible to avoid the online community and customer feedback. Think of that as a good thing! Make the effort to be aware of reviews of your gym or studio and be prepared to respond. The secret is first knowing where to seek them out and then responding to them, before you find yourself digitally tarred and feathered. Of course some of what you get is going to be positive. However in business it's almost impossible to do anything that provides a customer experience that's universally loved. Misunderstandings and miscommunications can occur even in ideal conditions. Just [...]
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Maybe you've heard about how retail giant Target had a huge data breach in 2013. If you were exceptionally unfortunate, you know about it because of fraudulent activity somewhere in your personal credit profile. As a gym owner it may be hitting you particularly hard by interfering with your monthly membership revenue. In response you have to chase after payments and update card numbers on a scale that is putting a lot of pressure on you, your managers and your bottom line. The Target Scandal So, what happened to Target? The short answer is that they had something like 70 [...]
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If you don't yet have a social media presence for your gym, you really should start now. Your business might have a passionate and active membership out there on Facebook or Twitter, just waiting to engage through social media as a community. Of course, that's the holy grail of social media in business; you want to use social to drive your business. Realistically, you're probably going to have to work at it a bit but once it picks up momentum it'll be much easier than doing promotion all by yourself. Your gym has a community of members and employees. People [...]
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The Memorial Day Weekend is approaching as I write this and I am reminded that those who served our country are among the most deserving of our support. When it comes to charity donations gym and fitness center owners can make a great contribution by including marketing promotions that give back. I have a bias toward giving to veterans' causes and I make no apologies for it. There's a vast amount of need because, as a country, we've been asking so much of so many for so long now. It also troubles me to hear of the delays and shortcomings [...]
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Leadership has an element of theater and what are we as gym and fitness center owners if not leaders? Personally, I got into the gym ownership business out of an urge to follow my passion. I had a burning desire to make a positive impact and make a living doing something that shares that passion with other people. All of the trainers that I've worked with over the years also appear to have been just as determined, as far as I can tell. I think that you really only get into a career in fitness to make a positive statement [...]
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Did you ever hear the old story about two shoe salesmen who were sent by their employers to one of the poorer countries of the world? The first rep sent back a telegram that said "No good here. Coming home. Nobody wears shoes." The other one also sent back a telegram: "Great opportunity here! Send shoes! Nobody wears shoes!" That ringing phone in the back office or at the front desk can be so annoying. But you have to remember that the phone is at the heart of your business. If you want that heart to keep beating for a [...]
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This is part 2 of a multiple part series. Fitness Metrics Revisited It's about time for an update of fitness industry trends once again. Although many of the numbers that I relied on last year are still to be released, there are enough statistics around that I thought i could get an early start. There is a lot of information out there and I don't want to dump it all at once. It's much better to put out chunks of numbers in a controlled way. There is some Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data about employment in the industry to [...]
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Since I am writing this on tax day, I am reminded of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and what it means for your small business. I want to look at some of the features that will result from the impact on small gym owners, of health coverage and collecting the indoor tanning tax. But First A Disclaimer This is intended to be informational and not to take a stand politically, on one side or the other. Businesses that have employees are going to have to respond and deal with the ACA and some cases of non-compliance may result in penalties. [...]
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All Crunch and No Judgment Every once in a while I like to give a shout-out to a company that's doing their own thing in the fitness industry and being rewarded for it with success. Crunch Fitness and their franchisees are a great example of exactly that. They have a business model that is unique and creative. I'm not suggesting that you should run out and get a Crunch Fitness franchise; I'm writing this out of interest and passion for the industry. I have no affiliation with Crunch Fitness or their franchisees. The last review that I posted was for [...]
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There are some principles that are true for all businesses, not just for small gyms or fitness centers. You need to find the right balance of service and retail merchandise sales. If you can fit retail into your gym business model it's going to be a good insurance policy. It can complement your memberships, training and class sales. I've written before about retail sales and the pros and cons. I think it's worth revisiting with a few updated thoughts on the subject. Turnover Counts When You Stock in Large Or Small Amounts The key is to move stock and get [...]
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Beating Functional Obsolescence Gym ownership is actually a pretty dynamic business, in case you didn't already know that (you're welcome). Rapidly changing trends mean that you always have to be on the lookout for a shift in what the membership expects. On a more basic level you need to reinvest to protect your assets, as they say. You can't have old, broken-down exercise machines that just take up space. You can't afford to have shabby signage outside with burnt out lights or missing letters. That is why, as a gym owner who sees other gym operations all the time, I'm [...]
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