As a manager or owner of a small business you never have enough hours in the day to do all of the things that need to be accomplished. Work will pile up rapidly. How do you find a way in to the jungle that demands that you figure out what truly needs most of your attention? Having the right gym management software system does help, but there's also one interesting insight to look out for in the stats. The (Gym) Insight of Vilfredo Pareto Possibly you've heard of the Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 Rule. The Italian economist [...]
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So, your small gym business is becoming less small, and you're still spending too much of your time personally promoting your business. You ask, "could I get a marketing pro to do this for me?" Good question, it's a positive development that you even need to consider this point; so what do you do? There are plenty of marketing professionals who'd love to work for a fitness center. The problem is likely to be whether you can afford to hire them full-time and to keep them busy. The way that small gym businesses can bootstrap a solution is to be [...]
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Brian Way, owner of Iron City Gym in Houston, TX, spoke with us this month on our Gym Owner’s Podcast. The enlightening conversation revealed just what it takes to turn a hardcore $10,000-a-month bodybuilders’ gym into a $130,000-a-month power center of fitness and energy. Persistence, Passion, Purpose: The Story of Iron City’s Success It takes a leap of faith to make change work. And the passion to believe in your decisions. When Brian Way purchased Iron City, he faced the takeover of a gym packed with bodies bigger than he’d ever been in his lifetime. Could he do it? Could he transform [...]
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There are people in the world who are naturals at selling and performing in public situations. Personally, I am not one of them. It amazes me when someone seems to be naturally cool and confident when eyes are all on him or her. Also, those people tend not to be trainers or managers working in gyms. I suppose that figures, helping people motivates most of the trainers that I know but they tend to have a history in jobs that are not sales related. I love working out and hanging out in the gym So do most of the trainers [...]
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Let’s talk switching gym management software as a goal for January. If your fitness center is using a management system that takes a percentage of every sale, now is the time to switch to Gym Insight. The process is simple and the results are worth the effort. We know it’s the holiday season. We understand you’re busy with family, friends, and the slow drizzle of diehard gym members. Changing software is the last task you want to add to your to-do list. But listen to us. Why would you not want to switch software right now? After all, January and February are [...]
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November 2022 Profile – The Gym at 214 Main, Fort Mill, South Carolina The Gym at 214 Main is located on a busy main street in a small town in South Carolina In 2020, current owner Jovon Times, along with his wife Keisha Unger-Times, decided to make a bid for the twice-sold gym after training clients there for 12 years under the moniker of “Exercise Times.” He and Unger-Times soon owned the 24/7, 5,500-square-foot gym — a turnkey operation with a roster of clients, excellent equipment, and a contract with the Jazzercise brand. Now, everything else, as he says, is gravy. Times went from [...]
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GHsKOL5wZk Reduce paperwork this New Year by implementing a gym management software system. How Does It Look? What Does It Mean? What Needs To Be Done? It's a great time to draw a line under the past year by looking at what was good, what was bad and what looks to be changing. I'm not talking about Taylor Swift or politics here, but specifically in the marketplace that you serve as a small gym owner. I've been writing about a lot of different topics this year and it's worth a review to remind readers of what's been covered and some [...]
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Selling gym memberships is the lifeblood of any fitness center. Yet most gym owners don’t think in terms of the sales process, instead leaving the most critical component of their business unscripted and unmanaged. To help club owners better understand how to train their employees so they can guide clients skillfully, we are running a five-part series that breaks the gym sales process into discrete, manageable training points: Introduction and goal assessment How to conduct a proper tourPrice presentationClosing the saleAsking for (additional) business Part 1. Introduction and Goal Assessment Introduction: Say My Name It seems elementary, but the first step [...]
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10 Cost-Effective Ways to Promote Your Fitness Business 10 Cost-Effective Ways to Promote Your Fitness Business Marketing your gym is an ongoing process. Placing an advertisement periodically here and there will not be enough for your business to survive. You always have to be proactively thinking about the next promotional idea, slogan, or campaign. There are a handful of ways that are cost efficient and will effectively promote your gym business your within your immediate target area. Here 10 ways to help get you started. 1. Sponsor charities Simply choose a charitable event or charity organization and do short term and [...]
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Every health club owner knows they need to market their business. Advertising, seasonal promotions, social media postings, local signage, and more, all contribute to the intricate balance of maintaining your customer base. Many business owners, though, fail to plan long-term, allowing opportunities to slip as they run their day-to-day operations. These missed revenue generators are needlessly frustrating.Here’s why an annual marketing plan is so important. 1. Long-Term Marketing Strategies Prepare You for the Unexpected Vow this year to plan ahead. Building your marketing plan based on a full year’s calendar assures you are more likely to arrive prepared for a [...]
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Don’t lose out on selling a new customer! When a prospect first walks into your health club, they’ve thought about joining for six months. They’re scared and skittish, ready to leap at any chance to say “let me sleep on it,” or even just turn around and leave, while congratulating themselves on their bravery and effort. Don’t let that happen. Here are five secrets to a great gym tour that are sure to increase sales and create clients excited to join your club. 1. Introduce yourself and ask their name. Use it throughout the tour. Memorize it. 2. Slow down. [...]
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What if I told you there was $500 in monthly gym memberships sitting in your computer? As an owner of a studio, would you search for it? Well, it’s right there — in the cancelled customer column. Let’s look at how we can bring these old friends back into the fold. Make a Plan to Contact Everyone knows turnover is high in the gym business, and lately that number’s crawled upwards. However cancelled and frozen accounts are a golden opportunity. These customers signed up once. They know your club. Now it’s up to you and your sales team to rekindle [...]
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What if every gym employee approached their job like a salesperson? How would that affect your health club's businessevery day? Would it help or hurt customer retention? Why would you even want to train employees in basic sales techniques? Wouldn't that become annoying? Probably not. See, sales is not just about selling something. It's an attitude. Employees are a core component of any marketing strategy.They reflect the composition of your gym, your target market.They are the face of who you are as a business and you hired them because of their skills, personality, and ability to relate to customers. So [...]
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On today's screen cast we teach a new gym owner the basics of gym sales and marketing and how to discover and improve areas of your business that are failing. (more…)
Do The Dip With Your Credit Card Chip How are you doing with taking credit cards at your gym or studio these days? The term is "dip"; you dip your chip card to pay now. That is, of course, if your gym is using the EMV chip card slot on the merchant terminal, rather than still swiping the magnetic strip. As a quick reminder, magnetic strips are "bad" because they carry your account number and information in the open, for anyone to read. And that is what criminals have been doing; they are reading the unscrambled account information on magnetic [...]
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