Ah, history … it repeats itself. If you’re old enough to remember Gold’s Gym before it turned into an aerobics studio, then you’ll appreciate the irony in the American College of Sports Medicine’s “Worldwide Survey of Fitness Trends for 2023” results. It originally published in the January/February 2023 edition of the ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal. Now in its 17th year of publication, the Worldwide Survey identifies 42 top-rated trends gleaned from past World Survey lists and emerging trends. Selecting the trends are editors representing corporate, clinical, community, commercial and academia. The list is then sent by Survey Monkey to more than 125,000 individuals involved [...]
Read more...
Gym Insight customer profile: Abb’s Muscle & Fitness Gym Abbe Hockaday started Abb’s Muscle & Fitness Gym the morning after she retired. After a career in the corporate world, she was ready to launch her own brand of fitness. It would be a place of harmony, peace, healing, and growth. Or, as her Silver Sneakers members wrote on a handmade entrance sign, “Welcome, you will fit in here.” Six words to define a workspace. And a future. Profile of an unlikely gym owner https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVzTE9nUJTU Many of Gym Insight’s clients are gym owners who discovered fitness early and spent their lives in the industry [...]
Read more...
Sales can be a numbers game. The more people walking through your gym door, the more likely you are to close a few of them. That’s true, but it’s a tough way to make a living. A better idea is maximize each sales prospect by following a specific sales protocol and applying it to every person who visits your gym. First — Conduct a Proper Tour Don't leave membership sales up to chance. Here are five steps to an awesome tour: Introduce yourself and ask their name. Slow down. Find a quiet spot. Ask them a few questions, cover the [...]
Read more...
December 2022 Profile. Superior Fitness of Granbury LLC., Granbury, Texas It takes courage to follow your ethics. Samuel Frederick, owner of Superior Fitness of Granbury, Texas, framed his life around that very concept: Right is right. Wrong is wrong. In July 2021, he accepted the challenge of taking over a 2,600 square-foot personal training studio and gym courting a small, but dedicated customer base. Together with Donald Mathis, a long-time friend, they set out to create a fitness center reflecting their values: exercise as a gateway for progress, movement and long-term change. “I want(ed) people to learn to work out effectively,” by [...]
Read more...
Read About Our Updated Task List Feature Recently, in response to customer requests, the software team at Gym Insight updated our tasks application. The newly redesigned Task List is robust and easy to use, resulting in increased employee initiative and fewer lost opportunities. Here are five ways the Task List feature saves you money. 1. Encourages employees to begin working before you arrive. The truth is, many employees don’t start doing stuff until the owner walks through the door. To get them moving on time, our new “assign task” feature allows owners/managers to do just that — assign tasks. This way, when an [...]
Read more...
November 2022 Profile – The Gym at 214 Main, Fort Mill, South Carolina The Gym at 214 Main is located on a busy main street in a small town in South Carolina In 2020, current owner Jovon Times, along with his wife Keisha Unger-Times, decided to make a bid for the twice-sold gym after training clients there for 12 years under the moniker of “Exercise Times.” He and Unger-Times soon owned the 24/7, 5,500-square-foot gym — a turnkey operation with a roster of clients, excellent equipment, and a contract with the Jazzercise brand. Now, everything else, as he says, is gravy. Times went from [...]
Read more...
On fitness forums, I have seen this question posted quite frequently: Which is better, to hire a personal trainer as an employee or as an independent contractor? In Part I of this series we looked at the very basic options that both gym owners and personal trainers have when hiring and being hired. I received a great response with an overwhelming majority of personal trainers who work as independent contractors. I have yet to receive feedback from gym operators. Regardless, some of the personal trainer responses described their independent contracting experiences as "win-win" both for them and the gyms that [...]
Read more...
Part I: Which is better…? On fitness forums, I have seen this question posted quite frequently: Which is better, to hire a personal trainer as an employee or as an independent contractor? In the following weeks, I will attempt to explore this question from different topic angles with addressing the very basics. However, I would like to get a more in-depth perspective for my own personal knowledge as a gym owner. I ask for feedback from you, the reader, no matter where you fit in the fitness industry! As a Gym Owner What Type of Personal Trainer is Right for You? [...]
Read more...
It takes passion to run a small gym. Not just an interest in hanging around weights, but a true desire to be in the industry, to pull it off when so many factors are pushing against you. We all want you to succeed, but what does it take to make it in today’s competitive fitness industry? Who are the ones succeeding? Most Americans are not gym members! Fewer than 40% of people in the United States currently have gym memberships, according to Policy Advice’s research. That totals about 64 million people who visit a club regularly. So although the number [...]
Read more...
After students leave for college and the costly fall shopping season starts, many health clubs experience a surge in gym membership freezes. But these short-term fixes can be costly to a gym owner. With a little planning, though, your fitness center can avoid this seasonal ritual and come out ahead — with happier customers and, maybe, even more personal training clients. Why do members freeze their gym membership? Customers are on the defensive when they're ready to cancel or freeze memberships. Often, freezing a membership is just a polite way of saying “cancel my membership.” The customer wants out but is looking [...]
Read more...
How to Conduct a Proper Tour Selling a gym membership is more than presenting a monthly fee and hoping it fits the customer’s budget. As we discussed in Part I Introduction & Goal Assessment, employees need to make the customer feel comfortable by using their name and asking questions to determine their fitness goals before revealing prices or touring the gym. In Part II, we go over the essential steps to successfully introducing your gym to a prospect. In terms of the value sales process, this is where you sell both the tangible and intangible benefits of joining your gym, such as [...]
Read more...
Selling gym memberships is the lifeblood of any fitness center. Yet most gym owners don’t think in terms of the sales process, instead leaving the most critical component of their business unscripted and unmanaged. To help club owners better understand how to train their employees so they can guide clients skillfully, we are running a five-part series that breaks the gym sales process into discrete, manageable training points: Introduction and goal assessment How to conduct a proper tourPrice presentationClosing the saleAsking for (additional) business Part 1. Introduction and Goal Assessment Introduction: Say My Name It seems elementary, but the first step [...]
Read more...
Fitness Trainer Staff & Sales Training If I had wanted to be in sales . . . Yes, it’s true, if we wanted to be in sales, we probably wouldn’t be working in the physical fitness business, would we? I know that it’s a common sentiment in this business. People become fitness trainers for lots of reasons. However, I’ve yet to hear anyone convincingly state that they did it because they wanted to consistently up sell to the "platinum package deal" or make sure clients walk out with sacks full of merchandise. I get that. But this is a business and [...]
Read more...
Checklist for Hiring Personal Trainers Do you use a checklist when you are hiring staff at your gym? What follows here is the checklist for hiring personal trainers that I use as a structure for the interview and hiring process. As a small business owner and fitness center owner and manager you have to be organized to the point of being obsessive compulsive. In the corporate world of big gyms and worldwide fitness franchises you get all kinds of support that’s not available to the independent owner. Being an independent business owner also has its virtues but as an entrepreneur you need to be [...]
Read more...
You’ve probably thought about opening your gym to youth athletes. After all, it’s big business in the United States. About 60 million children play in organized sports every year. And, for better or worse, many parents see their kids' talent as a ticket to college scholarships. With that in mind, creating a program targeted at tween and teen athletes may be a great way to build a base of new customers and make up for billing lost to the pandemic. Selling sports specific training to parents First, make sure new members know about your services. When going through a price presentation, [...]
Read more...
