October 2023 Gym Owner's Podcast, "The Power of Control: Dr. JES Returns." How can gym owners avoid becoming embroiled in a negligence lawsuit? Savvy business professionals recognize that all manner of legal claims have increased in frequency over the years. But how can a small business, like a fitness club, avoid becoming embroiled in a negligence lawsuit? Proactive gym owners can sidestep potential negligence lawsuits by rethinking their hiring and member management strategies. Attaining a waiver signature is not enough protection. As discussed in previous blogs and podcasts, the waiver law defense only comes into play after an injury has [...]
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Gym Insight Member’s App Replaces Text Messaging If so, you might want to cut that out. The Campaign Registry (TCR), sanctioned through the federal government, has stepped in and created a labyrinth of new rules, procedures, fees, and fines for businesses who direct-message their customers, effective August 31, 2023. Yep, you missed the TCR deadline. Although the overall intent of TCR is to reduce spam messages sent to consumers, the end result for fitness clubs, and other small businesses, is to throttle text messaging. In effect, every phone number your company uses to text customers for marketing purposes must be registered per campaign. One-time fees, [...]
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David Flench, president Medical Fitness Association. Recently our Gym Owner’s Podcast welcomed David Flench, president of the Medical Fitness Association, for a conversation on how gyms benefit from offering medically integrated healthcare services. Here's the lowdown on what we learned. To listen to our podcast, click on the embedded YouTube link. What is the Medical Fitness Association? It is a nonprofit professional membership organization providing industry standards, certification opportunities, educational programs, benchmark data, professional development and networking to improve the operational success of medically integrated health and well-being centers. It strives to be the resource for new and established gyms [...]
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By a quirk of standards adapted from the Federal government's SIC codes, you will find gyms for sale on business broker sites under recreation. Whether you're in the market for a gym empire or not it helps to know what's going on in your neighborhood, state and industry in the way of gym businesses for sale. Information Is The Ultimate Resource There may come a day when you wish to put your gym on the market. The more information you have, the better you know what to aim for when the time comes. Alternatively, you might decide to buy [...]
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Brian Way, owner of Iron City Gym in Houston, TX, spoke with us this month on our Gym Owner’s Podcast. The enlightening conversation revealed just what it takes to turn a hardcore $10,000-a-month bodybuilders’ gym into a $130,000-a-month power center of fitness and energy. Persistence, Passion, Purpose: The Story of Iron City’s Success It takes a leap of faith to make change work. And the passion to believe in your decisions. When Brian Way purchased Iron City, he faced the takeover of a gym packed with bodies bigger than he’d ever been in his lifetime. Could he do it? Could he transform [...]
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The number of specialties within personal training certifications is exploding. From adaptive special needs to sleep recovery, the range of human conditions now addressed by the fitness industry is stunning. For ambitious gym owners this evolution in specialty training programs creates the perfect opportunity to build a very profitable niche business. By selectively choosing to encourage your trainers to continue their education within specific categories, gym owners can sculpt and introduce their gym to a completely new set of members. Whether you wish to pursue individuals recovering from health conditions or pivot to holistic remedies or youth athletics, the specialties are out [...]
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There are people in the world who are naturals at selling and performing in public situations. Personally, I am not one of them. It amazes me when someone seems to be naturally cool and confident when eyes are all on him or her. Also, those people tend not to be trainers or managers working in gyms. I suppose that figures, helping people motivates most of the trainers that I know but they tend to have a history in jobs that are not sales related. I love working out and hanging out in the gym So do most of the trainers [...]
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Part II: Creating a Culture of Safety If a member sues your health club for gym negligence, how can you fight the case? Can you create a solid defense that will help you successfully fend off, or at least survive, a lawsuit? To explore these questions, we interviewed an expert in risk management and fitness liability JoAnn Eickhoff-Shemek. Dr. JES, as she is known, spoke with us on our podcast recently, enlightening our team on the critical steps every gym owner can take to reduce their chances of a gym lawsuit. In Part I, we covered waivers, assumption-of-risk documentation and group training. In Part II, [...]
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Gym owners, wake up! You're all fighting for a piece of the same market — slim, fit people. It’s time to embrace the nearly 70 percent of people in the United States who are overweight or obese. They want to exercise, too — just not for the reasons you may think. For this article, we spoke with Louise Green, founder of the Big Fit Girl campaign. Green is a personal trainer, spokesperson, and author who has created an online community supporting, encouraging, and training individuals in larger bodies.From a founding bootcamp for plus-sized women to creating a weight-neutral fitness movement that includes [...]
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What To Expect As A New Gym Business Owner Founding and operating your own gym is as demanding as any other business you can decide to build. As the owner and founder you are going to be constantly called upon to make choices, decisions and judgments that seem to demand the wisdom of Solomon. In fact, if you're thinking about starting your own gym, it will help you very much if you can see this as a positive situation and a challenge. The irony is that the more rapidly you get to the point of takeoff, the sooner you'll lose the business [...]
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20 Things Successful Gym Owners Do Everyday Part 2 This is the second part about the things that gym owners should be doing every day to be successful. If you haven't done so yet, go back and read the first part of the list before reading this final part. Dave Ramsey writes about a whole raft of great stuff. He discusses things like getting out of debt and building wealth. If you want to develop a successful abundant life and also make a big contribution it's easier than you think. The list of things that the wealthy do and don't do touches [...]
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20 Things Successful Gym Owners Do Everyday Part 1 I was recently reading a post entitled: "20 Things The Rich Do Everyday" on Dave Ramsey's Website. If you're not familiar with Ramsey and his teachings his website is truly worth giving a close inspection if you're a small business owner or gym owner. He writes about finance and emphasizes getting out of debt and building wealth. When this first came out, it seemed to spark controversy because of the direct percentage comparison with the poor. Regardless, these are great healthy habits to incorporate not only into your own personal life but also carry [...]
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Company Profile: Whetstone Fitness, Donnie Whetstone, owner Sometimes it takes a rainy day to see the future. The gym IFBB Pro Donnie Whetstone co-owned was closed. The keys were in his hand. And the darkened building stood alone against a gray sky, waiting for his decision. Now, he thought, I have to breathe life back into it. It’s going to be hard. Eventually, it will be worth the effort. That’s the message this 63-year-old Master Pro Body Builder wishes to impart to our readers. That no matter how hard the struggle, if you have faith in your intuition and a [...]
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Company Profile: Raegan Reed, The Cardio Club Welcome to our monthly customer profile series! This May, we feature Raegan Reed, owner of the Cardio Club and Delhi Dance Studio in New York state. Read on to discover how she built a successful, multi-faceted fitness center in a small town along the Catskill mountains. Raegan Reed’s living her destiny. There is a saying, “You are the sum total of all your decisions.” Nowhere is this wise adage truer than when considering the life of Raegan Reed. With a servant’s heart and a dancer’s energy, she’s taken an established aerobic studio in [...]
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By Sam Monempour, NAI Capital Commercial Real Estate Services, Worldwide Opening a gym/fitness center is a challenging and complex venture with many moving parts. Before diving in, it is essential to carefully plan and prepare for the ever-changing aspects of the fitness industry. Over the years, gyms have gone from standard places of exercise and bodybuilding to a social environment with integrated social media influences, new technologies, new formats of exercise, and many various forms of build-out. 1. Decide gym style and market before signing a lease. The first step in signing a well-designed lease is to determine the type of [...]
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