The Price Of Taking Gym Payments In sales, they say something like, "you're only as good as your last paycheck!" That rings true for small gym business owners too. So, it's a problem if a service takes a payment on your behalf and delays sending funds to your bank account. One of the most useful automations for a small fitness studio or gym is the one that keeps the payments flowing in, without delays or excessive amounts of work on your part. Unfortunately, that's not always a given. Allow me to explain. Taking Recurring Payments For Memberships The system you [...]
Read more...
Give Great Customer Service To Secure Your Business Future I've come to the conclusion that there's one simple key to effective customer service. It's a principle that's so obvious that it is quite simply missed most of the time. Sometimes genius lies in the simple, the unsophisticated and the literal. The key that I'm talking about here is the practice of hiring only people for customer service roles who are naturally inclined to help others. One of the best business practitioners of this sort of policy is Southwest Airlines, which has long known the importance of finding the right person [...]
Read more...
Credit Card Crackdown What is going on with that whole credit card change out, due to be completed by October? It looks like there will be a big panic right at the last minute as retailers (including the fitness industry) will be doing all of the things that they should have done already to try to accommodate the mandatory shift over to the EMV Chip-and-PIN cards for all electronic payment transactions. In recent years credit card companies and merchant services have clamped down on the amount of information that they allow vendors or retailers to retain at the point of [...]
Read more...
Doing Well By Doing Good Membership retention is the one weightiest factor in running your business, after winning initial sign-ups. I've been reminded of this because, according to the author of the book Blue Zones, Dan Buettner, almost all of your members will drop out within three years of first signing up. This is your recidivism rate. Improving and extending these numbers will reduce the turnover rate at your gym. The Importance Of Membership Retention Your revenue is going to benefit from marginally extending the averages on your memberships. Revenue comes from your subscriptions and if you are doing the [...]
Read more...
I recently posted a blog about statistics in the fitness business. I really only just scratched the surface with that one. In this blog post I want to address a few things that I had to leave out, and tie up loose ends. It's always good to know where the next generation of competition could come from. I tend to think the source of competition to watch is self-employed trainers building followings through social media and then establishing studios once they have enough of a revenue flow. Also there were some statistics that relate the demographics of the industry to [...]
Read more...
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 [...]
Read more...
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 [...]
Read more...
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 [...]
Read more...
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 [...]
Read more...
Social Networks are the fabric of community. I'm writing here about the social media networks that have emerged with the invention of the Internet and which connects people in a way that hasn't been possible for past generations. Like This Article on Facebook! The arrival of facebook, Twitter and other social networks like Google Plus have put social connection onto a different level. The spread of these networks into every aspect of daily life have made it possible to create targeted networks that are focused on particular interests, like fitness. There are now some great tools to make your small [...]
Read more...
Recently I wrote about New Year promotions and also about working with and connecting to your local business community. Anything that gives you increased standing and respect in the community is a good thing, in my opinion. The importance of marketing and promotion can't be overstated. Unless you've hit on something that takes all the capacity you can produce without you lifting a finger (let me know about that please), marketing and promotions must be ongoing activities. My point here is that you have to be in the habit of actively pursuing promotion opportunities. They won't all work out but [...]
Read more...
If you own a small gym, you probably know about taking on the heavy burden of capital investment and leasing your venue and equipment. It'll keep you awake at night when you're signing the checks, believe me! Like all small business owners, you really need to look at every possible way to bump up the value of foot traffic entering and leaving your gym. One effective way to do that is to sell retail items at the front desk or at a cash register in the foyer or lobby. What will people buy? It may take you some research and [...]
Read more...
Over the past week I learned a very important lesson. For my small gym, I wrongly thought that my manager and personal trainers were enough. What I realize now is that this isn't true. Having one employee dedicated to member retention is a necessity. I had a revelation: Member engagement, satisfaction, and overall care must be the responsibility of one person alone. This role has to be completely separate from anyone that has a sales, customer service or training role. As a team that operates a small gym my staff understand that selling memberships, other services and products piggybacks every [...]
Read more...
Flyers and leaflets give you an inexpensive way to promote your gym and attract new members. Whether or not they offer an effective solution is up to you and what you decide to do with them. Not every flyering campaign brings you the reputation that you want or the clients that you need. If your campaign is not done correctly, you might end up running at a loss and dealing with a bunch of agitated residents complaining about the littering. To ensure that your flyering campaign brings you the good exposure and business that you need, you need to ask [...]
Read more...
Like I've mentioned before, the fitness center market is highly competitive (as if you didn't know that already). To gain any leverage in the marketplace you have to be extremely creative in the way you attract new members. I've developed some enticements for members by experimenting, building on what works and letting all the rest go. Gym Membership Management With Self Service Marketing There's one promotion that's worked particularly well over the years. I let members work for discounts on their monthly rate by bringing in referrals, down to a certain amount. It works like this: my monthly membership amount [...]
Read more...
