Going green is a great idea, and it also happens to appeal to many consumers, including many of the people who’re likely to join your gym. You may be hearing the term Sustainability; it’s basically the technical term that means going green. Sustainability For Gym Facility Endurance As a buzzword, sustainability is popular in commercial real estate (CRE) circles. As you probably know painfully well, when you establish a gym facility, a substantial slice of the cost of being in the gym business will go to real estate, along with the associated costs of occupying a commercial building. Sustainability is [...]
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Let’s Talk About Success What does it mean to have a waiting list? First, you should be thrilled that your fitness club is so in demand! If you have a strict upper limit on capacity such as class spaces adding new members beyond that limit can be a dangerous game. When your gym is overcrowded, service delivery tanks and cancellations skyrocket. Keep A Steady Buzz with A Waiting List You might even want to have a contingency plan that includes cutting off new memberships and waitlisting applicants to prevent chaos. If your gym gets overcrowded or the staff overwhelmed, service [...]
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Blink these days, and the state-of-the-art in fitness has changed. That being said, these are some trends, events, and concepts that will dominate the gym management world in 2019. These six fitness industry news items may sound off-the-cuff or random at first glance, but what they say to me is that club owners, and managers need to plan for change the way a batter needs to be ready for a fastball from the pitcher. 1. Acquisition Strategies abound in 2019 Do you have an exit strategy? When you start your business, you should keep in mind the alternative paths out [...]
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Powering Your Way Out of The Twilight Zone Picture yourself on a treadmill and the faster you walk or run, the more new clients you add to your gym membership base. At the same time clients are dropping out and, to stay in business, you have to keep adding new ones to replace them by running faster. The metaphor of the treadmill could become a nightmare if your client acquisition doesn’t keep up with your cancellations. This picture shows the paradox of retention, and if you’re struggling, it’s like watching yourself in an episode of the TV classic series, the [...]
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Technology Moves The Needle in 2019 Can you believe it’s almost 2019 as I write this? In the traditions of the Gym Insight Blog, that means that it’s time to look at the American College of Sports Medicine’s Worldwide Survey of Fitness Trends for 2019 to mark the holiday cheer. The Top Five Trends Worth Celebrating Wearable technology Group training High-intensity interval training Fitness programming for older adults Body weight training The year promises to be an exciting one as all the pieces slot into place, and clear directions come to light. The survey and other sources agree that fitness [...]
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Background for Success Starting a gym business is probably a dream for a significant fraction of the population. Whether you’re in this country or around the world you may yearn to open a fitness club someday. If you think you have knowledge and finances, that dream may even turn into a plan. For those that do attempt it, the journey can be long, hard, and possibly heartbreaking. If you want to succeed in the fitness industry, there are a few things that are certain about your journey to get there. Can You Sacrifice And Struggle for The Cause? Even in [...]
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Wearables Have Hit The Big Time for 2019 According to Club Industry, one-in-six consumers now use a wearable digital device, such as a smartwatch or fitness tracker. In the valuable 18 to 34 demographic, the trend is even more pronounced, with one-in-three. It’s starting to look like there’s a critical mass of people out there, for which you can enhance your gym business with the data that they’ll help you gather. You can add a new level of experience for your membership with gamification features. In return for the improved experience, you’ll get a stream of insights into the workout [...]
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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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Games Put The Fun in Serious Fitness Did you know that there are techniques that help you lead and guide people without them realizing that you’re doing it? You may already be using this method without even realizing it. It’s called gamification, and it helps to nudge humans in the direction you want them to go. You can use gamification to inspire your members and staff to get better results, complete actions where they tend to drop out, and even help reduce the cost of healthcare for companies. What Is Gamification? Turning your goals and objectives into games motivate people [...]
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The Short Answer Is Still “No!” That guy who wrote a book about having a business in only X hours per week now has a book out about fitness. OK, that’s nice. So, completely separate from that, what I’m wondering, is whether there can be a gym business that you can run on half a workday per week? I’ve gotta say, I’m skeptical about the whole short-time easy-money approach to anything. If you’re already the owner of a small fitness club, just the title probably made you roll your eyes, right? I’d bet dollars to doughnuts that anyone who follows [...]
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To Change Or Not To Change Are you thinking about starting a new gym business or changing the direction of the one you operate now? If you’re not, I’m not suggesting you should, but if things haven’t worked quite the way you planned or, if the market has peaked and begun to tail off, you might be wondering about making a change. The choice between staying the course in a mediocre business model and finding a new one that’s better is the conundrum of the ages. There’s even a name for the syndrome that business owners and entrepreneurs face, it’s [...]
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Four Organizational Culture Types Did you know that there are four different categories of organizational culture? I didn’t. Some researchers at the University of Michigan figured it out, and I’m glad they did. So, let’s take a look at these four cultures and see how they show up in with the fitness business. Business schools that develop management theories have been covering the structures of companies for decades. Formal structures have the backing of authority; they are the written tables of organization, policies, and procedures. The formal structure of your company goes all the way up to the corporate documents [...]
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If you’re a fitness entrepreneur at any stage of the gym business, you’re likely to have a need for a space in a building. If you want to open your doors somewhere, you will have to face the commercial real estate (CRE) industry. For you, negotiating a tenancy might be a daunting task or just a matter of phoning a friend. I’m not looking at the search or leasing process here, but I think it’s worth taking a quick look at some of the changes going on in CRE and how gym business owners like you can work it to [...]
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The Old School Of Martial Arts Fighting and martial arts account for a large portion of today’s fitness industry. The old school boxing clubs are an inspiration and fine example of what club owners can achieve in tough neighborhoods, with not much more than leadership and space in a backstreet gym on the wrong side of the tracks. If you’re looking to start a gym or find a new specialization for the one you have at present, then the appeal of martial arts and boxing has never been stronger. You might have a successful studio, a thriving membership, or be [...]
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