Let’s talk Memorial Day gym promotions. The national holiday is only five weeks away — what about using it to increase your membership numbers while expressing gratitude for those who’ve given their lives in service to our country? What is Memorial Day? Memorial Day is a federal holiday established in 1868 to honor and remember United States personnel who died while in service in the U.S. armed forces during both wartime and peacetime. A commemoration organized in 1865 by formerly enslaved people in Charleston, South Carolina, is the first known recognition of the day, which was frequently called Memorial Day within the [...]
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Gage Bowra opened 24/7 Fitness in Coolidge, Arizona, after running a steady pre-sale campaign that resulted in signing up hundreds of early members. Yet, the cash he pulled in just barely covered new paint and carpets. So why did he bother with it? Because there’s no price on hope. And Bowra needed a lot of it. When he closed on the 5,500-square-foot gym in the tiny town of barely 20,000, he had one choice: success. Failure ... was not an option. Why gym pre-sales were the only answer Bowra is a construction guy and a father. More than five years ago, he [...]
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Easter just ended and it feels as if summer is nearly here. The weather is warming and your gym members are planning vacations. Take advantage of this bright season to try something new and build a strong base of loyal clients. Here are three membership-building strategies you can start now. 1. Market to college students It's a no-brainer gym growth strategy — Every year students return from college to hometowns searching for jobs and things to do. Don’t lose this lucrative market to big box competitors. Build promotions targeted at college students through social media, word-of-mouth, email, and local mailers. Geo-target [...]
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Customer profile: Coastline Fitness, est. 2021 Coastline Fitness opened amidst the pandemic when gyms were considered an endangered species. But as with most difficult situations, vision defines the outcome. To owners Brian Vanderveen and business partner Michael Lampanski, fitness was not dying out. It was just a great deal. This mindset crafted an approach calculated for expansion. As a result, the two negotiated favorable leases and built the full-service gym Coastline Fitness in 2021. Since launching the Clinton Ct. location, they duplicated their success at Old Saybrook, and now have plans for additional brand growth. They are a natural team: Vanderveen [...]
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Employee Profile – Alison Lynch Gym Insight employee Alison Lynch's one-year anniversary with our gym management software firm has nearly arrived and we are so thrilled to have her on board. When we asked Alison to join our customer service team last May, we were excited by her career experience, which included nearly 25 years of customer service and benefits administration with her family-owned insurance company. We know the best customer service representatives are a hardy bunch and Alison has not disappointed. She comes equipped with nerves of steel, a sense of humor, and the intuitiveness to handle diverse personalities – [...]
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In this issue of Hidden Features, we present our newest software update: Recurring Scheduled Payment (RSP), a tool that lets you automatically charge gym services, punch card add-ons, and annual fees. We’ve also added recurring payments to our Sales Guru© membership software – this way you can automate payments through membership packages. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Truthfully though, this is a game changer. RSP is an essential feature for services requiring regular payments, such as personal training sessions, tanning, massage, smoothie bar access, pickleball courts, towel rentals, and other add-on services. This functionality automates the billing process, ensuring a steady [...]
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The new year is behind us and gym membership sales are dwindling. As a gym owner, now is the time to make every sales opportunity count by slowing down the process and closely evaluating how effectively your staff handles each prospect. Are they missing sales? Let's figure out why. Four steps to a building sales team. Ask yourself: 1. How skilled are your salespeople? First off, to discover which sales people might be facing obstacles, dive into your software and pull up sales data. If a particular salesperson is selling the same membership and/or personal training package over and over again, they [...]
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Crossing The Streams For Fun And Learning I'd like to think that there's some extra value hidden within the Gym Insight Blog: This is a company that crosses the two industries of software and gym management to help gym owners be competitive and offer better service levels for their customers. The software industry has some great lessons for all business owners. When you need to come up with results such as opening a new gym or creating a franchise, taking the actions that get results is the difference between success and failure. The software development industry is very competitive and [...]
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What is your retention strategy for keeping new members in your gym? If you've focused solely on sales, then you're missing a big slice of future revenue. If members drop off quickly, then your business strategy is really sales based and not retention driven. Instead of keeping existing members happy, you’re constantly on the push for new ones. If you’re losing as many customers as you are signing up, considering looking into your retention strategies. Increasing customer retention rates “by 5% increases profits by 25-95%,” according to a survey by Invesp Consulting. Why? Because you’re more likely to sell additional services to [...]
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Employee Profile – Abigail Bell Welcome, Abigail Bell, to Gym Insight! Now in her fourth week of employment, we are proud to announce our newest customer service representative came to us from long-time Gym Insight customer Whetstone Fitness, where she was their general manager. Hiring Abigail is a huge win for us. She brings eight years of hands on, daily experience using our gym management software at a rapidly growing club. We feel this practice will be invaluable in her ability to help our customers. Don't worry. We did not steal her! Honestly, we just got lucky. Abigail and her husband [...]
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View in browser "To begin, begin."- William Wordsworth Cheers to a New Year and Congratulations on another healthy year! Encouraging, supporting, and living the dream of physical fitness for your clients is an extraordinarily important job and a truth worth recognizing. In this newsletter, we're debuting a brand new section: Science Corner, where you'll discover just how significant regular exercise is in preventing disease; next, we'll catch up on the latest Gym Insight product updates, stop by The Kage Gym where our Gen Z client shows us how to increase business through bussin' social media, and finally pick up [...]
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Welcome to our Hidden Features blog, where we introduce tips and tricks you can use to optimize your Gym Insight software. Simplify gym management with these four powerful software features: 1. Automatically Charge Personal Training and Add-Ons Don’t miss out on recurring revenue. Now Gym Insight lets you create a scheduled payment for an add-on service so you can keep growing this profit-making segment of your gym! This feature allows you to automate and manage payment for an add-on (punch card) service, such as a series of tanning sessions or personal training. For example, now you can charge an account [...]
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Happy Holidays from the first Gym Owner's Newsletter! View in browser Welcome to the inaugural edition of our monthly Gym Owner's Newsletter! Here you’ll find product updates in “Toning Up!,” deep dives with club owners in “Gym Life,” and top-quality industry advice in “Pro Tips.” Gym Insight has grown exponentially since starting in 2008 thanks to input and feedback from our beloved users. For this we are deeply grateful. Through the Gym Owner's Newsletter, we are excited to broaden this inspiring feedback by encouraging YOU to stay in contact with us! Read on to discover how. Finally, from the whole Gym [...]
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Don’t let your gym’s size get in the way of negotiating a great gym lease — you’ve got more power than you think. Gyms are the darling of commercial real estate these days and here are four reasons why Four reasons landlords prefer gym leases 1. Gym clients stick around. Gym goers are known for something in the industry called “stickiness.” This odd word is the amount of time a person stays in the retail plaza after visiting (in this case) the gym. While in the plaza, gym goers frequently stop for a refreshment, socialize with friends or finish errands. According to Creditntell, [...]
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How can you sell more personal training without losing money or increasing staff? Kage Gym in Mundelein, Illinois, has figured out the secret sauce resulting in an insane closing rate of nearly 70%. They’ve been so successful with personal training that, after two years in business, they’ve just begun promoting memberships to the general public. What's Kage Gym owners story? Owners Omar Sanchez and Gonz Sanchez (no relation) opened Kage Gym in September 2022, taking on and renovating an existing gym. The two young entrepreneurs dipped into their enthusiasm and love of bodybuilding to create a gym that has become a magnet [...]
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