Client programming is all about personalizing the experience and service you provide. Members want guidance for fitness and an enjoyable, rewarding experience that gets them there. You can adopt a client programming system or invent one of your own. Either way, this is a vital dimension that will help to establish your position as a force in the fitness industry. Everyone Wins With High-Quality Client Programming Personalizing the experience that you provide to individual members gets right to the very heart of what consumers value about fitness club memberships. Your members place their hope and trust in you and your [...]
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As we've discussed here on the Gym Insight Blog several times before, special populations provide a path to an alternative business model that could take you to another level of success. Have you considered working with Special Populations to differentiate your gym business? Specializing your fitness club offerings is part of finding the niche that is the best fit for your business goals. Working with one or more category of special populations is a way to achieve that objective. As a fitness center owner, you face an uphill battle if you attempt to compete with the big box fitness brands [...]
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The Digital Natives Expect You To Bring Your A-Game There is a simple logic that justifies marketing to Millennials; it is the fact that, being young people, they will be around for years and years to come. So if you can capture the mood and attitude that appeals to them, you have a shot at building relationships with a valuable demographic. Millennials are the offspring of past generations that were subject to sophisticated marketing, even if the media was less advanced. This recent generation has grown up within that context, and they are the first generation that is truly native [...]
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Here's some more economics stuff, but it's golden, so if you're an aspiring fitness entrepreneur, stick with me here. If there were perfect competition, no one would make a profit. The fact is there are hidden opportunities that arise because the gym industry has quirks that make it possible for an enterprising gym enthusiast-slash-professional to make a splash. Getting In The Mix While Standing Apart Even if the biggest McBigBox franchise were to open right across from your studio or club, the fact that it's there might be a sign that you are in the right place and you can [...]
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Giving Back To Your Local Community It seems like schools always need help and, as a local business owner, you have the opportunity to help out by sponsoring a fundraiser that helps schools get the exceptional things that make a difference in education. It might be a great opportunity to give back to your local community and to get a little more involved; there's even an argument that, if you can help, it's a responsibility that you shouldn't overlook. At some point, after you have established your business, and you no longer have the worries of the new owner, you [...]
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Sometimes keeping your small gym business lean is just a matter of tying your proverbial shoelaces, sprucing up your operational practices and squeezing that little bit of extra mileage out of your resources. Even a fundamentally sound business needs to protect itself against the risk of squandering resources and frittering away advantages in a competitive market. Keeping costs down takes a mix of flintiness, shrewdness and negotiation skills. There are different parts of the business that give you opportunities to cut costs. If there is any fat in the cost of creating sales removing it gives you a bigger return [...]
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6 Best Gym Machines for Beginners to Use Gym equipment is divided into gym machines and free weights. For beginner use, it is advisable that you work with gym machines first. Right about everyone wants to look younger, have an amazing body, as well as great skin. To meet these objectives, it is important that your gym is equipped with the best machines. This is more so if you are attending to beginners who are fragile and need a stepping-stone. Gym machines come in handy in offering a variety of exercises. While it is important to incorporate the use of [...]
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Working in the fitness business is a really rewarding way to make a living, as many of the readers of Gym Insight Blog know from personal experience. There are some great lessons from training and working out that apply well to the practice of small business ownership. What follows here are some lessons from fitness, applied to the business of fitness, which I have picked up along the way that I want to pass on as thoughts to share, food for thought if you will. Step Outside Your Comfort Zone As trite as it sounds, no pain no gain. It [...]
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Niche Fitness Vacations Apparently, somebody recently discovered that if you created a Venn diagram of the fitness and vacation markets, there's an overlap. I reckon that was how destination fitness trips were created. This market serves the people who want more than just the indulgence of a luxury hotel. Destination fitness trips combine the fun of a vacation at a luxury resort and the development and personal growth of facing a physical challenge, and knowing that you are a little stronger for having done it. Spartan Races represent the best of this trend. They have 140 planned events for 2014 [...]
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Fitness trends have had lots of ups and downs that are related to culture and fashion. But there is also an influence on trends that comes from the innovations of technology. Still it's hard to read the tea leaves out beyond a year or so, as the apparent trend today can quickly show itself to be a fad that disappears overnight. In the gym business we always have to keep a lookout for what is coming because it can determine the capital investments that we would make and nobody wants to take six months to refurbish for the latest thing [...]
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Dirty Work Continued... As a business owner there's a plethora of rules regulations and certifications that you have to navigate through. Of course, on top of that, gym ownership comes with its own specific headaches. When you own a business of any description you quickly find out that there are all kinds of tasks that seem to have been designed to distract you from your purpose and the mission of your enterprise. As always, I try to avoid the controversies and politics of ownership but we all have to deal with them. So, my discussion point here is how to [...]
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A while back I wrote an article about the ten reasons new gyms fail. It was well received by the readers of Gym Insight and the discussion was very gratifying for me. But as a believer in fitness and getting results in a positive way I feel compelled to balance it out with an article about the positive side of gym startups and success. I admit that there is likely plenty of overlap between this and the previous article. These things are worth saying over and over again and doing more reps never hurt anybody. Arm Yourself With The Most [...]
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Pre-Sales Fill The Void In the lead up to the Christmas holiday, members and prospective gym members have their thoughts elsewhere. This always means less foot traffic into gyms and fewer inquiries for memberships. So, you need some sort of seasonal boost to your small gym's revenue stream. The bills still come in, of course, and your staff needs to have something to keep them motivated and sharp. You don't want your trainers looking elsewhere for income and making connections that may lead them away. You can't afford resignations, right as you need your trainers the most, when the members [...]
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Flyers and leaflets give you an inexpensive way to promote your gym and attract new members. Whether or not they offer an effective solution is up to you and what you decide to do with them. Not every flyering campaign brings you the reputation that you want or the clients that you need. If your campaign is not done correctly, you might end up running at a loss and dealing with a bunch of agitated residents complaining about the littering. To ensure that your flyering campaign brings you the good exposure and business that you need, you need to ask [...]
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Doubling up on employees may seem like a luxury, but when the pressure's on, you'll be glad you did. Just as Noah filled the Ark with animals two by two before the flood, you have to hire staff in twos. The alternative is that you risk being stuck at the most awkward and stressful time without someone to whom you can delegate a critical function of your gym's operation. If you own or manage a small fitness center you always need contingency plans, especially when it comes to staffing. Large companies have all kinds of luxuries that come with the [...]
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