October 2023 Gym Owner’s Podcast, “The Power of Control: Dr. JES Returns” Welcome back to How to Avoid Negligence Lawsuits! As we discussed in Part I, negligence settlements are in the millions of dollars now and can take years to weave through the courts. Additionally, most negligence lawsuits occur due to employee error in instruction or programming. With this in mind, one of the best ways for your gym to avoid a negligence lawsuit is to properly train and prepare your staff. Put your new trainer through a hand's on test - before assigning clients! Don’t rely on certificates – [...]
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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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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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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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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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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 [...]
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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 [...]
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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 [...]
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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 [...]
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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 [...]
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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 [...]
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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 [...]
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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? [...]
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