Fitness In The Healthcare Business Prescription Healthcare and fitness are closely related, as you already know, no doubt. There is also a consensus among organizations like the ACSM and the medical profession that exercise is essential to human health, also that technology changes the way we deliver care. As fitness becomes part of medical prescriptions more frequently, it sounds like good news for fitness professionals who have the knowledge and certifications to capitalize on the trend. Before you rush into any healthcare related business commitments, though, make sure you understand the burden of responsibility you'll take on for data protection. [...]
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The Great Marketing Concepts Are Eternal Channels are big in marketing these days. Not that the concept is particularly new or changed recently, but there are more ways to connect to your customers than ever before. I have already written about strategy and marketing, but I want to discuss marketing channels here. Your communication channels for marketing can be digital such as email, social media such as Facebook and Twitter, text messaging and IM platforms, Slack, et cetera. They are also your telephone lines, your front desk, and the script that you have your staff use to close sales. The [...]
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Sometimes you have to do things that you know will be risky and time-consuming. Risky things are only worth doing if the change that they bring is transformational. That is why Gym Insight has become an expert at helping our customers change from outdated, piecemeal gym management information systems to something that ties your business and membership together. Transitions And Transformations In The Fitness Industry Running a gym is a way of life as much as a job, and if you own the business, you have a calling that takes over your life. If you've been conducting business the way [...]
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The Gym Insight Blog has already taken a look at 2017 trends in gym ownership. However, as you will find below, I currently have doubts about how wearables will fit into 2017. This post is more of a round-up of what the blogosphere is thinking about for the coming year. The beginning of 2017 marks the third year that this blog has covered the trends; follow these links to the posts for 2015 and 2016. How do they look compared to your personal experiences of the last few years? Tech For Gyms Trends Videos for search engine optimization are now [...]
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Is There A Fitness Retreat In Your Gym Business Future? Here's something different to consider offering to your members: Organize a fitness retreat. By this I mean a trip to a resort that is conducive to fitness and travel as a group and deliver a suitable set of fitness classes and activities. What would it take to set up a new part of your business that specializes in traveling with members to distant locations and hold classes and activities with them as paying guests? A retreat can be a service that is very profitable. Set Up Promotion And Process Bookings [...]
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Fitness was a $26 billion per year industry at the end of 2015 and it's all too easy to think that taking part is the same as having success in it. That is not the case; the difference is between churning through revenue, where you spend it as rapidly as you earn it (or worse), and making a solid profit on your labors. To achieve that it will require your leadership, a comprehensive map of where you are going, and the right analytics and dashboard solutions to accurately measure the process of getting there. Getting To Grips With Key Performance [...]
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Going From Zero To One One of the most interesting books about startups and innovation is Zero to One by Peter Thiel with Blake Masters. The principle is that a running business is one, and you start at zero. Everything that you do in between is the hard work of founding a business. Once you are in operation and making enough income to survive you can think about expanding. Beyond one you can use the principle of duplication to repeat the initial success in a second, third, and further locations, this is the empire-building phase where you go from one [...]
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Put Some Life Back In Your Marketing There is always more room for another list on the Internet, particularly when it is as important as reinvigorating marketing strategies for small gym business owners. There may be more relevant marketing ideas that only you can know about driving your business ahead. So, while you ponder on what business marketing ideas will give you a boost, read through these seven marketing tips for gym owners, and perhaps you will find something that inspires you. 1. Free is worth more than any discounts The first tip is a warning with a healthier alternative: [...]
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Building A Business In Fitness A recent post on the Club Solutions Magazine's website reminded me of how proactive you have to be as a business owner; in the gym management business you live and die by your ability to lead. As an independent gym business owner, you've probably found the key to your success is working with people to achieve a common objective. The goal of your business is to inspire and assist in the growth and improvement in the physical health of all of the people around you. It's the ultimate secret to success in fitness; you have [...]
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Retention, Retention, Retention! It seems like retention is one of the biggest topics here at the Gym Insight Blog. Well, it is a critical issue that you absolutely must address. That's because holding on to your membership is the difference between success and failure in any people oriented business; it's the difference between sleeping in the back office and purchasing a comfortable home with the profits from your successful fitness center. Your marketing goals must be to gain new customers and hold on to the ones that you already have, these are two complementary but different functions in marketing your [...]
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If Humans Use It The Internet Of Things Will Connect It The world is changing around us all, and we here at Gym Insight are working to track the new trends, and attempting to relate them back to gym business ownership. If you can start a fitness business with a laptop or tablet, the right membership management software and a rack full of kettle bells, congratulations! You are probably on to a good thing. That accessibility comes from the power of your hard work, people skills and Gym Insight software. We would certainly love to help you find your success. [...]
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The Chip Yet Again Have you started using the appropriate slot for taking payments by chip cards? As I wrote earlier many large companies still have not done so. We have reached the time of the retailer taking more responsibility for fraud and at this point I hasten to add yet again too many still have not done so. I think in all of the card transactions I've used in the last few months, with a chipped card and a chip capable terminal only once have I been instructed to use the chip port instead of the strip swipe port. [...]
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Apart From Your Club Members That Is Sometimes, when you are a fitness industry small business owner you feel like your gym is a boxing ring with your office right in the middle of it. You might even feel like you are the punching bag from time to time. Owning a small business is hard work and not something to take lightly. Of all the things that will give you stress and worry the one that you must deal with most effectively is financial pressure. That pressure is the question of profitability or the net income that your business brings [...]
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Picking Up The Pace Of Fitness Business Marketing Having a website is pretty much a fundamental part of marketing for any business these days. In the gym business there are numerous ways that having a digital home helps you communicate and connect. But there are different levels of presence of effort that are completely disconnected from one another. First, it's now a standard that your website has to be equally readable from computer screens and mobile devices, so anything you publish must be readily accessible to each. Second, like anything else in business, you get a return out of it [...]
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The Price Of Taking Gym Payments In sales, they say something like, "you're only as good as your last paycheck!" That rings true for small gym business owners too. So, it's a problem if a service takes a payment on your behalf and delays sending funds to your bank account. One of the most useful automations for a small fitness studio or gym is the one that keeps the payments flowing in, without delays or excessive amounts of work on your part. Unfortunately, that's not always a given. Allow me to explain. Taking Recurring Payments For Memberships The system you [...]
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