Sharing The Conversation With Podcasting When you own a twenty-first century gym you really should support it with all the up-to-date media resources you can get. In my opinion, using the available tools of the Internet is the best way you can leverage even the leanest budget; many of them for free or less than the cost of an ad in the Yellow Pages. Podcasting is one of the most intriguing of these potential resources. It's under-utilized as yet but it could be a really powerful voice for your business. It's a way to connect with likeminded business owners and [...]
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The Fitness Experience Companies like SoulCycle and Spartan Race are focused on the experience you have during training or as goals to meet for preparatory training. Other systems like CrossFit demand much of your body and even with proper supervision by certified staff you can easily strain muscles and joints in practice. SoulCycle is a great example of a fitness business carving out a niche because it defies the trend away from spinning classes, which are apparently in decline. By matching charismatic instructors and style with what might otherwise be a limited format the company has created an enthusiastic base [...]
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There is nothing more worthy of celebrating, when you own a gym, than bringing in new memberships. It gives you hope for the future as you watch your list of members grow. This so-called on boarding period is a highly critical time that you can use to secure your relationship with customers. You have the perfect opportunity to assure a high lifetime value for you, and positive experience for them. Selling Means More Than Surviving This transitional time period can determine how long new members stick around and how they present their experience to friends and on social media. It [...]
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Get Gym Business Leverage From Digital Media These days we hear a lot about customer engagement and brand advocates. These are customers who vocally and enthusiastically support your brand. Combined with digital marketing channels and social media they can bring in the new business without an expensive advertising campaign in sight. Well it's not that easy of course. But then again it's not that hard either. The central feature of success in creating brand advocates is the understanding that there is a hierarchy, a series of concentric circles of influence around you, which you can do much to cultivate. I [...]
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Finding A Buyer I recently wrote an article about how and when to sell your gym. It covered the basics about the topic but there is so much more information out there that it's likely something that I'll revisit a few times. There are many motives behind selling, from fast exit to slowly easing into retirement. Most likely, you love your independent gym business and it's prospering. But it's hard work and there are other worthy things that you intend to achieve before you settle into retirement. Or perhaps the time to retire is approaching. Even if that day is [...]
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Giving The Value Might Just Return It At A Premium Obviously I have been writing copious amounts about marketing and premium business models. However, with the potential for value and return on investment (ROI) I think that it's important to cover it as thoroughly as possible. As the saying goes: When you aim for the stars you're not likely to end up with a face full of dirt. If Gym Insight can give you some true value in words you might see that our software is also worth looking at. There are a couple of ways to increase ROI and [...]
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This Quirk Might Give Your Business Away When you are responsible for everything that happens in your business you are juggling so many hats it can be extremely stressful when you have to make choices and decisions in marketing. Decisions range from selecting the color scheme of your brand and the look of your logo to managing your website and social media. Some choices in this realm can be forgiving and others not so much. Names, domain names and toll-free numbers have a few quirks that can make them work against you if you don't take adequate care and foresight [...]
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What Is Lean Body Mass Of Your Gym? Marketing is a funny business, funny as in strange but not so much hilarious. You pursue what you think is the best market solution and then it turns out something works better. What do you do? Go after the new opportunity? Ignore it and stick to what you know? How does anyone know what the right answer is? Marketing strategies are changing rapidly for the modern small business. The entrepreneurial concept of the lean startup has taken hold and there are some awesome principles and lessons that can be learned from it. [...]
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Breaking Down Boundaries 2014 saw changes and much activity in the fitness industry and new some trends. The hope of new things brought us the excitement of things like getting down in the mud with Spartan Fitness. CrossFit stepped up to be the exemplar of the aggressive type of training that only truly fanatical fitness enthusiasts understand. New gyms popped up, studios rode the trends and some big names ebbed and flowed in their fortunes. The combinations of fitness and digital will continue to throw up unexpected and tantalizing opportunities. The importance of the digital component of any business is [...]
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Because The Bigger They Are... As the big guys get bigger, and keep pouring cash into their fitness center locations, you might think that they would be impossible to beat. It's just a fact that large corporations have all the money and other financial resources at their disposal that anyone could wish for. That does not mean they have a monopoly on innovation or competitiveness. The independent gym owner can still do much to fight back effectively because having capital resources is only part of the equation. You have to have a human side that doesn't crush customers in the [...]
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Do Premium Gym Memberships Have A Future? Why are there some gym business models that seem to be in huge demand while still charging top dollar for memberships? I think that the simple answer is that there are enough members who are shopping by value and not price. It's not about competing based on what the gym across the street is charging, it's about finding the things that you are truly great at and which are in demand and matching the two together. Too many small businesses fail to understand this important distinction, not just in the gym business but [...]
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It never hurts to look back at the predictions of the past and look at where the trends are leading at the present moment. I recently posted about the latest trends that were published by the American College Of Sports Medicine (ACSM). So I figured it might be appropriate to go back and look at how things are coming up from the view of the International Health, Racquet, and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA). Long time readers of this blog will remember that I posted an article about their trends for 2013. Now that we are through 2014 effectively it seems like [...]
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OK so it is about time to start looking at the trends for fitness in 2015 and the ACSM has released their most recent survey of club owners. There were not a lot of surprises but there are some interesting conclusions from that report and some other things that come up elsewhere that are really worth taking a look at. The trends for High Intensity Interval Training, bodyweight training and an increasing demand for trainer professionalism all seem to be holding course and continuing onward. It's like there is no real change from last year but that is sometime how [...]
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Taking Your Reputation Forward By Asking For Testimonials If you have a system that currently gets testimonials and positive reviews from your membership that is a gift! If you can get testimonials easily, you're golden. If not, join the club! It's not usually easy to elicit praise from customers on the record, even when they are completely happy with your service. The secret is to ask, and to ask at the right time. Two Words Explain Why Customer Testimonials Work So, the question is: What do testimonials matter? Getting testimonials and positive reviews from your membership is worth a lot [...]
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Change Management Is Risky Business Crunch Fitness is on the market for around $200 million. Wow! Wow, not just because that's a lot of dough but because of the company's unique business model that they use and how it could be hit by change coming in from the outside. As far as I know Crunch is in good shape so I assume there is no need to do some sort of elaborate gym-rescue. If Crunch is a successful company, they need to keep doing what they do best, which is to creatively mix and match classes and fitness trends to [...]
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