Structure Your Offerings with Client Programming for Fitness Client programming is your menu of good things that you offer your market. In the fitness business, it's one of the fundamental dimensions that define a successful training practice. The big-box fitness brands can afford to stand back and cover all of the programming bases. As a small gym business owner, you are probably better served if you focus on one or a few. The irony, of course, is that the corporate brands would do better if they could do the same. However, in my experience, excellence doesn't scale all that well. [...]
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Survey of What Is On The Horizon for Special Populations in Fitness Specialty Fitness Fills Niches and Gyms Humans come in a delightful diversity of shapes, sizes, and physical needs. I think it is super-rewarding to see people achieve spectacular levels of fitness achievement. It is even more rewarding when you can help special populations take small steps to better health and enhanced mobility. Special Population Niche Opportunities The fitness profession offers opportunities to assist people at all stages of their fitness journeys, as well as their extended sojourns through life. Special populations present you with many unique niche opportunities [...]
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Management Metrics and Where You Find Them Like fitness programming, gym business management is about setting goals and defining improvements. It's how you measure them that provides the framework to get the work done. You can't know what you've achieved until you've measured it. Whether it's measured in lean body mass, inches of muscle, or maximum deadlift weight, measurement tells you how much progress you've achieved relative to your workout goals. It's the same for business goals. If you want a leaner company, better sales performance, or higher rates of retention, you measure your actions to hit your targets. The [...]
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Of Belly Laughs and Leg Lifts I was listening to some comedians talking on a podcast recently. It seems to be a thing in comedy for comics to interview their friends and idols. However, I was struck by the similarities between owning a gym and running a comedy club. The fitness and entertainment professions both appeal to the general public as markets. They each bring in people to participate in some sort of experience. Although, they do it in different ways, perhaps. The Changing Culture of Comedy Lately, comedy clubs are growing in popularity and revenue. The number of would-be [...]
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If you take the self-help advice of the gurus, who write books and give seminars about how to get ahead in life, and boil it down to its essential ingredient, it would be three words: Get things done. In business, executive action is what makes the winning difference. Executive Action in The Fitness Industry The need to take action is the same whether you're in the technology or the fitness industry, healthcare or wellness if you operate retail sales or sell nutrition products online. Execution is everything. It is why the top boss at the multi-national big-box fitness giants is [...]
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If you started a business where the point was to chill out and relax, it might seem like the opposite of fitness. However, it would have to utilize many of the client programming aspects of a fitness club. Stress Good And Bad I want to cover the full spectrum of activities on the Gym Insight Blog. So, I think it's worth touching on some counter-trends, such as offering relaxation space as a membership. The modern world is full of the causes of stress, some negative and others, such as working out, are positive. The good stress is called eustress, which [...]
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So, what's the point of implementing a corporate wellness program? Is it about building company culture and togetherness? No, at the highest level, corporate wellness is about having healthier, more productive employees. On the most practical level, it's more about minimizing costs and workers who get more done with less friction. Savings is a worthy goal, so is productivity, but creating a program that matches long-term benefits against short-term costs is a difficult thing to achieve. In theory, fitter workers should yield higher levels of productivity. While healthcare costs generally bill you in yearly chunks, quantifiable wellness improvements might take [...]
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Categories for client programming must align to sales goals and be complementary to one another. After all, the most fundamental activity in any business is selling. In a people-business like fitness, it's as true as ever; gym business owners have to do some selling to survive. Fortunately, you don't have to start again from scratch to get every sale. The secret is that, as your gym members come to you on a regular basis you have a warm and receptive audience for your products and services. Your Client Programming And Sales Audit If you have never done such an exercise, [...]
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Client programming is all about personalizing the experience and service you provide. Members want guidance for fitness and an enjoyable, rewarding experience that gets them there. You can adopt a client programming system or invent one of your own. Either way, this is a vital dimension that will help to establish your position as a force in the fitness industry. Everyone Wins With High-Quality Client Programming Personalizing the experience that you provide to individual members gets right to the very heart of what consumers value about fitness club memberships. Your members place their hope and trust in you and your [...]
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The point of client programming is to add value to the lives and fitness of your members. There's a lot of talk about specialty programs that appeal to hyper-motivated gym aficionados. We all know those shining stars of fitness, those super-fit fanatics who continuously push the limits to find new fitness experiences. However, what about the rest? The average people who just want to get into shape and stay healthy? Here's the thing, most consumers are just looking to get fit stay fit and fit fitness into an already overcrowded schedule. It's up to small gym business and fitness club [...]
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