My family recently stayed in a hotel where we were greeted by an employee vaping behind the counter. Later, I found the hotel’s gym equipment broken and worn out. On my next visit to the city, I stayed at another hotel, in a different part of town. This excursion made me think about the similarity between gyms and hotels and what the fitness industry can discover from the leaders in leisure. And, how devastating bad first impressions are on customer retention. How the best hotels create brand love. Hilton understands good customer experiences — coupled with excellent customer service — [...]
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Is it possible to prosper as a gym owner in a small town? After speaking with several gym owners in cities of fewer than 5,000 residents we discovered it’s a definite “heck, yes!” With the right dedication and planning, you can succeed and grow in any sized hamlet. Advice from our Gym Insight customers on how to flourish as a small-town gym. 1. Adapt to your community’s needs. As Justin Green, owner of the Source Fitness Center in St. Clairsville, Ohio, explained in our Gym Owner's Podcast, the household income for his small town gym are not high. As a result, [...]
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Who Are You? A Foundation of Values You know in your heart why you founded a gym and what you want to achieve with it. But as a small business owner, your success depends on the support, hard work and cooperation of all the people who are part of your organization. Your employees need to know why they are doing their jobs and be able to see a road map to find their way on the journey. Once you start to build your business, you may still be the one in control but your entire organization needs to have an [...]
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Sometimes the simple stuff is not so simple. Gym equipment is like that. Strength machines and treadmills – weights and rubber decking, right? What can go wrong? Well, in fact, a lot. As any veteran gym owner knows, cables snap and treadmills smoke. Never a good scene. Yet, avoiding such mini disasters is as simple as investing in a preventative maintenance service plan for your commercial gym equipment. To better understand this concept, we turned to Dave Pirri, owner of Fit Service, a New York-based gym equipment sales and service company established in 2004. We asked him to discuss preventative maintenance. Pirri [...]
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The fitness industry is always in competition with itself. Although we would love to think everyone wants to join a gym, in reality, we are all fighting for the same people, many of whom already belong to another health club or fitness center. That’s why your health club needs a gym referral program. Tapping loyal members for friends and family referrals is one of the most effective methods of luring new customers. What is a gym referral program? This is a specific marketing effort created to encourage existing members to refer other people. It can be baked into your signup process, [...]
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Don Roberts’ Fit 24/7 Gym keeps things simple. His gym does not boast a sauna, day care, or exercise classes. Customers know to follow the rules or get kicked out. And his club is open every day, 24 hours a day, frequently without a single employee on premise. Stripped bare of any extras and run entirely by himself, his 550-member facility in Durango, Colorado, has been profitable — very profitable, he insists — from day one. The key to making money is minimal expenses and 24 hour access. The advantage of 24-hour gyms In a time when nearly 20 percent of gyms closed permanently [...]
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Did you know most universities cancelled spring break for 2021? These students will return home for summer after two full semesters of taking online classes, alone with their computers. Wow. What a drag. As a gym owner, summer 2021 may be your best chance yet to reach these sedentary, cooped-up college kids. Take advantage of quarantine fatigue by creating marketing strategies designed to get them in shape and around friends again. College students love socializing Build a summer promotion encouraging referrals. Meeting with friends is one of the top reasons college students even go to the gym. This translates into an excellent opportunity [...]
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Gym owners, here’s a crazy idea – how about marketing New Year’s-style resolutions in March? The moment is perfect: COVID-19 vaccinations are rolling, cities are opening, and people are venturing beyond their bubble. And most people gained a bit of weight these last months. In fact, health studies suggest the average person packed on an additional 12.5 pounds while sheltering in place. Losing weight is the #1 New Year’s resolution. No matter what study you read, losing weight or gaining physical fitness consistently tops the chart for ambitious resolution makers. Why New Year’s? It’s something called the discontinuity effect. Basically, when someone’s life changes — a move [...]
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If you have opened a new gym, you must know that it is, after all, a new business. So you should be prepared to run and develop that business as a business. To do so, you must acquire knowledge about the fitness business industry, and also be aware of the pitfalls of why new gyms fail so you can be sure to avoid them. In my opinion, here are the top 10 reasons why new gyms fail... #1 - No proper business plan No business plan can be fatal to your new gym. Before starting a gym know: Successful gyms watch finances, [...]
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Let’s deep dive into digital fitness’s world of one-on-one coaching software products for gyms, health clubs, and boutique centers. The streaming market is broad and rich with choices. However for this blog, we explored three well-known companies. Let's look at Trainerize Trainerize is designed specifically for the fitness industry. Its software offers an integrated platform for owners to manage their fitness training from a single spot and offers a new service – online personal training. Owners can choose from a custom-branded fitness app or white-label their own to build brand awareness. Content capabilities include lifestyle, nutrition, and general wellness coaching, [...]
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By this time, most everyone knows the basics of keeping their gyms and health clubs COVID-19 clean. Since we've figured out the basics, now is good time to consider the chemicals, techniques and emerging technologies that may make the difference in keeping your gym healthy and safe. Disinfectants When choosing cleaning products for your gym, consider that every product approved against SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) includes an EPA registration number on its label. Although the CDC tracks coronavirus cases, it is the EPA which regulates chemicals and is the go-to source for correct cleaning information. Does that chemical work? To determine if [...]
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Health clubs are in a pickle right now. Not only are they struggling under a load of new regulations and expectations, but they must figure out how to lure clients back into the gym -where the money is made. Just how can gyms rebuild faith in their brand, their facility, their people? Is there a roadmap to follow? Here are the facts In truth, gyms are not petri dishes of disease. Early non-peer reviewed research shows minimal transmission of COVID-19 at gyms when proper distancing and hygiene methods are in place. The Oslo-based study randomized 3,764 people split into two [...]
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The COVID-19 pandemic has cast a long shadow on the question of how to maintain a clean and sanitized gym while running a successful, profitable business. The increased vigilance required by staff, the infrastructure investments, the heightened customer awareness coupled with suppressed demand all combine to swell both costs and risks. Today's gym owner walks a fine line between keeping his or her business open and losing it all to an uncertain market. However, for gym owners, their single greatest decision could be to see this pandemic as an opportunity-a chance to grow and change for the better-rather than view [...]
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As a gym owner, you have likely been concerned with keeping the fears of your paying members at bay in the post-COVID-19 world. You probably have spent the mandatory lockdown coming up with ways to maneuver your business through the crisis and putting plans in place for your grand reopening strategy once the stay at home orders are lifted. But what about your employees? Many workers are facing huge numbers of uncertainties surrounding their jobs, as well as worrying about their own health and that of their families. Now is the time to plan how you will address your employees' [...]
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So many business owners are facing uncertainty due to the COIVD-19 crisis. Will your business weather this period of being closed down? How well can you recover once you reopen? What are the best ways of minimizing financial losses and maximizing health and safety standards for your staff and members? The best way to combat this uncertainty is to drive forward with a clear and determined strategy for reopening. This strategy should focus heavily on enforcing stringent health, safety, and sanitization protocols. When you take the guesswork out of your plan, you reduce your own anxiety as a business owner [...]
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