Ready to own a gym but need to keep your day job? It can be done! Read on to learn how one of our clients runs a gym while working full-time. Fit Factory, Idaho – How greatness began In January 2023, Tanner Boudrero fulfilled a lifelong dream - to own a small business. A sales analysts with iFit, an international equipment and sports technology manufacturer, he loved the idea of being his own boss. That vision came true when he acquired Fit Factory in Preston, Idaho. Modestly, despite his lack of experience, he believed his background prepared him to operate a gym [...]
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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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It can be scary converting your fitness center’s database over to a new gym management software program. Every client phone number, account, and credit card is listed in that database and now you’re handing it to another firm for import into a new software application. What if something, maybe everything, gets lost? Tangled in a web of encrypted material, like an exploding black hole… Ok, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but converting data from one software program to another is the number-one reason gym owners put off switching gym management software companies. Owners hang on to their old software because they [...]
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Looking to increase your gym’s revenue quickly without bumping up marketing costs? Anthony Pasquale, Gym Insight Sales Manager, recorded this excellent video to help gym owners discover new ways to expand and increase your club’s earnings through soliciting corporate accounts. We thought there might be even more to learn about this subject, though, so we decided to look a little closer at his suggestions. Strategy #1 — Explore corporate accounts and gym reimbursements. As Anthony states, corporate accounts are an awesome way to lower a member's out-of-pocket gym costs without reducing your monthly fees. In these cases, a company — usually the [...]
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By Sam Monempour, NAI Capital Commercial Real Estate Services, Worldwide Opening a gym/fitness center is a challenging and complex venture with many moving parts. Before diving in, it is essential to carefully plan and prepare for the ever-changing aspects of the fitness industry. Over the years, gyms have gone from standard places of exercise and bodybuilding to a social environment with integrated social media influences, new technologies, new formats of exercise, and many various forms of build-out. 1. Decide gym style and market before signing a lease. The first step in signing a well-designed lease is to determine the type of [...]
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In our latest Gym Owner’s Podcast, “Your Burning Questions Answered,” sales managers Anthony Pasquale and Natalia Schulte cover common questions sent in by gym owners as they struggle to balance customer service and growing a profitable gym. For a full listen, go to our YouTube page at The Gym Owner’s Podcast. Check back often because our sales duo will take on your questions again soon. Q: What do I do about members who don’t want to leave a card on file? This often happens in gyms that start without software in place. And since many members don’t use the gym after [...]
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Our Gym Insight Sales Guru© software is changing for the better this season as we unveil our newest version of Insight. Soon, users will have the choice to create a membership that will auto add a scheduled payment to the new account. This will eliminate common mistakes made from entering a yearly enhancement fee by hand after the sale is complete. Enhancement fees, sometimes also called maintenance fees, often act as a financial buffer for owners, providing that extra cushion needed between rock-bottom pricing and a well-managed gym. The money has to come from somewhere, right? But adding those annual [...]
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Health club owners still need — and want — employees. These friendly faces greet guests, handle minor emergencies, and keep the business running smoothly. It’s the human dimension that adds the zip to the brand. The tough part is keeping these employees busy and on track. Often, as we wrote in our "We Call It 'The Money Catcher'" blog, the only time an employee may start working is when you show up. How can you fix this problem and gain employee buy-in at the same time? As simple as it sounds, it may all come down to making a list. [...]
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Five steps to sidestep a bad economy. It took 16 cameras and a digital key tag to inflation-proof Scotts Valley Gym in Scotts Valley Calf. After that, it was pure gumption. Today, when rising consumer prices are forcing all of us to make decisions as to how and where we spend our money, gym memberships are often first on the list. So how do you ensure your gym makes the cut? Or, if the economy really sinks, how can you be prepared? Should you raise rates to manage increased costs or decrease overhead? Scotts Valley Gym took the second choice. Originally one of four [...]
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Who Are You? A Foundation of Values You know in your heart why you founded a gym and what you want to achieve with it. But as a small business owner, your success depends on the support, hard work and cooperation of all the people who are part of your organization. Your employees need to know why they are doing their jobs and be able to see a road map to find their way on the journey. Once you start to build your business, you may still be the one in control but your entire organization needs to have an [...]
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It is not a daily increase, but a daily decrease. Hack away at the inessential. This quote from martial arts legend Bruce Lee is so simple, yet it says so much of what success is all about, in gym ownership, in business and life in general. You can spend hours doing little things or find the big things that matter; they may look the same at first. But when all the other things drop away you can still take the essential factors and use them to achieve the final outcomes you desire. This is what sculptors do when they carve [...]
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What your fitness business should do in 2022. At first glance you might think that I've already covered this topic for the year. But this is a little different; it's intended to be a straightforward list of resolutions for the New Year. I want to make this a post about looking forward and in the last post on making plans there was a lot of content that I left out simply because there was too much good stuff for one post to cover. So, this is a list of what a fitness business should resolve to do in the New [...]
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Ensuring your fitness center appears in an internet search engine's local business listing feed is one of the most important marketing steps you can take as a new gym owner. Your health club needs to be on the list when a potential member types in “gyms near me.” Here’s how to make sure you’ve got a shot at the top spot. Which are the top business citation sites? There are literally hundreds national directories, but you need to make sure your gym is listed in the top business citation sites. As well, your gym should be listed on top industry niches. Niches [...]
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The fitness industry is always in competition with itself. Although we would love to think everyone wants to join a gym, in reality, we are all fighting for the same people, many of whom already belong to another health club or fitness center. That’s why your health club needs a gym referral program. Tapping loyal members for friends and family referrals is one of the most effective methods of luring new customers. What is a gym referral program? This is a specific marketing effort created to encourage existing members to refer other people. It can be baked into your signup process, [...]
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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 [...]
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