If Humans Use It The Internet Of Things Will Connect It The world is changing around us all, and we here at Gym Insight are working to track the new trends, and attempting to relate them back to gym business ownership. If you can start a fitness business with a laptop or tablet, the right membership management software and a rack full of kettle bells, congratulations! You are probably on to a good thing. That accessibility comes from the power of your hard work, people skills and Gym Insight software. We would certainly love to help you find your success. [...]
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The Chip Yet Again Have you started using the appropriate slot for taking payments by chip cards? As I wrote earlier many large companies still have not done so. We have reached the time of the retailer taking more responsibility for fraud and at this point I hasten to add yet again too many still have not done so. I think in all of the card transactions I've used in the last few months, with a chipped card and a chip capable terminal only once have I been instructed to use the chip port instead of the strip swipe port. [...]
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More Swag From Our Golden Age Of Television The New Year is always a good time for reflection and taking stock of where we are and where we ultimately wish to be. About eighteen months ago I wrote a post inspired by the reality TV show Bar Rescue and how you can do your own business makeover or rescue program. I think that it's time to draw from reality TV, and to look for lessons once again. Everything I propose here I intend to apply myself, so hopefully, it makes sense without sounding condescending. This time, I am thinking more [...]
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Apart From Your Club Members That Is Sometimes, when you are a fitness industry small business owner you feel like your gym is a boxing ring with your office right in the middle of it. You might even feel like you are the punching bag from time to time. Owning a small business is hard work and not something to take lightly. Of all the things that will give you stress and worry the one that you must deal with most effectively is financial pressure. That pressure is the question of profitability or the net income that your business brings [...]
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The Reason For Reporting Numbers Don't let the numbers distract you; owning a small gym business is still all about relationships. I know that I have spent a lot of time and digital ink over the last few years saying that it's about the experience. But that is really just the same thing isn't it? The experience that gym members seek is a positive training experience or a friendly environment to work out in, with all the benefits of improved fitness. For anyone who takes on the premium membership the price might easily cover the cost of setting up a [...]
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Picking Up The Pace Of Fitness Business Marketing Having a website is pretty much a fundamental part of marketing for any business these days. In the gym business there are numerous ways that having a digital home helps you communicate and connect. But there are different levels of presence of effort that are completely disconnected from one another. First, it's now a standard that your website has to be equally readable from computer screens and mobile devices, so anything you publish must be readily accessible to each. Second, like anything else in business, you get a return out of it [...]
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A Simple Social Solution For Gym Marketing When you have a business where you've put everything into it and you spend every waking hour of the day trying to get it going, when you're always on call to respond to daily crises, you owe it to yourself to get every advantage possible. A humble gym hashtag might just be the thing to help you do that. Do you have a social media hashtag for shout-outs about your gym? The hashtag has become such a simple branding tool so quickly that it's easy to overlook. These little tags can get you [...]
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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 [...]
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Trainers Adopting Tech Could Create New Potential A recent American Council On Exercise (ACE) Survey, quoted by Club Industry Magazine turned up the conclusion that trainers need to be more aware of the potential offered by wearable technology. This refers to the wristband devices such as FitBit that record all your activity throughout the day, from your sleep patterns, to heart rate and calorie expenditure. Well, my natural reaction to that was "don't we all?" However, the point here was that the spread of wearables is making consumers curious about the potential in the data. According to the survey, they [...]
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There was a time when I would have thought that creating a brand was as simple as having an idea and commissioning a graphic designer to put my imaginings into visual form. I have learned a simple and harsh lesson over time: You have to work very hard to get recognized in your marketplace, as a business and as a brand. Be The Brand You can create your brand as an extension of your own personality but you have to make sure that it is the right image for your market and membership. Test your results and take measurements wherever [...]
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The Value Is Real If You Respect It Yourself One of the things that you learn when you're working as a freelance contractor in the software business (bare with me here) is that you get more respect and more clients if you set a price that represents real value and a living wage for yourself. As a case in point, a friend of mine recently qualified for a certification in network engineering. He now works as a contractor and recently raised his hourly rate by a factor of four. An amazing thing happened when he did it: Customers and prospects, [...]
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The Value Of Holding Events What do you do for your marketing and promotions currently? Hopefully, you are connecting with local businesses and getting creative with trial memberships. But in addition to that, have you been sponsoring or holding events that bring people into your gym space? These days, you can put any unused capacity to work better by getting involved locally. Do some networking by using a web-based or mobile application like meetup.com and Eventbrite to connect with like-minded fitness fans around you. This can extend to promotions, sponsorships and even to organizing paid events. Get Some Digital Leverage [...]
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Accounting For The Details There are so many ways that paying attention to your costs will save some money and keep you earning a profit. Think of it like lacing your shoes before you workout. A better fit might only mean a slight advantage, but that could be the difference of winning the race or only taking second place. Small savings add up when it comes to supplies. When you factor in the behavior of staff it tends to have an even greater effect. Gym Insight gives you some great tools for measuring things like attendance and payments. There is [...]
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