This One Hack Will Generate Early Feedback Here’s a tech term that you can use as a principle to drive your small gym business empire ahead: In tech jargon, they call it Dogfooding. The expression, to “eat your dog food” is not a literal thing, obviously. I don’t think that trend has gotten off the ground yet thank goodness. However, if you don’t take heed and begin to practice this brand-building principle, you might literally end up sleeping in your back office. Dogfooding applies most intensely when you’re attempting to make significant changes. For example, when you roll out changes [...]
Retention, Retention, Retention! The subject of retention keeps coming up on the Gym Insight Blog because it keeps gym owners in the business. In fact, any business that depends on periodic payments and satisfied customers must make retention a priority. As long as you maximize the length of time that you retain your members, you’ll minimize the cost of replacing them. Retention touches on issues such as membership turnover and the lifetime value of a customer. So let’s review some of the things that you can do to hang on to your clients for the long haul. Build Trust In [...]
The Latest Gym Insight Turnaround Success Recently, on the Gym Insight Blog, I wrote a post about small gym business turnarounds for struggling gym owners. That post referenced a video published by Grant Cardone, which followed him through the process as he coached a struggling fitness center back from failure. Well, we’re celebrating the turnaround success of one of our customers! So, how could I not share the experience? Video Coaching Podcast With Anthony Pasquale Our gym-software and gym management trainer-expert, Anthony Pasquale worked with one of our customers recently, who had asked for help in improving sales. The client [...]
I recently finished reading Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs, which I thought was a fascinating life story. There are so many things about this guy that pertain to any business that it’s an irresistible topic to tackle on the Gym Insight Blog. But I promise to visit the subject only one time, unless there is a call for an encore in the comments of course. Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple computers, Next, and Pixar Entertainment was a complicated person to be sure. On one hand, he had a genius for design and business. Jobs had an amazing eye [...]
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. [...]
Updated the Dues Change Report to add year-over-year changes: The Dues Change Report will now show you a comparison with how you’re doing from the same date a year ago. This helpful snapshot can show you in a split second if you’re making progress or if you need some help! Remember, under your user profile you can have the Dues Change Report automatically emailed to you every night if you turn that option on! Learn More Added welcome letter, past-due letter, and past-due email previews: If you go to your location settings, you can now see a preview of the welcome letter, past-due [...]
Parallels In Gym Ownership And Software Services Companies I am fortunate to have had the privilege to see the inner workings of two different industries. My background and education is in computer science but my passions and enterprises have always been in fitness. That led me to having both a career in computer sciences through gyminsight.com and in gym management by owning a small but successful local gym business. Since the readers of the Gym Insight Blog tend to be fitness professionals I thought it would be useful, as a contrast, to talk about the computer industry and the differences [...]
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 [...]
Platform As A Service Or Software As A Service I was recently talking to a local small business manager who told me about how his company saved itself by switching format. Clients demanded to get updates and they felt compelled to comply. Payment in a one-time fee meant that the longer clients used their software the less they profited. This turned around when they went to a monthly plan: clients became a cash flow and they have the resources to update generously. I wanted to share this because it is so similar to the experience I had in deciding the [...]
This month, Gym Insight had the honor of welcoming our two thousandth customer! This is big news for us because we still pride ourselves on bootstrapping our company. We believe that the focus is customer service and providing innovative software to keep even the smallest fitness studio two steps ahead of the big-box franchise down the street. Our reputation and the the quantity of customers that we service, speaks for itself. This family business grew organically and is here to stay. Come on aboard with us to enjoy personal communications and streaming updates and features of the next generation gym [...]
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 [...]
When television production companies catch onto a formula that’s cheap to produce and popular with viewers, they really work it for all it’s worth. Having an expert, who rescues failing small businesses, is a simple and compelling formula within the genre of reality TV. The premise is usually that a business, in some specific industry, gets help and a makeover just as it’s about to go under. The super-expert, no-holds-barred host comes in with a camera crew and they proceed, in a period of about three days, to whamp the tar out of the downtrodden business owner. They clear out [...]
Measuring Stimulation There was a lot of information that I left out of the Moscow Subway article because it was getting too long. For example, there was an interesting article on The Daily Beast Blog about how short bursts of vigorous exercise has a more stimulating effect than a cup of coffee. An intense burst of exercise such as dropping for pushups for thirty seconds has been shown to be more effective at generating the kind of focus and mental stamina of which coffee drinkers can only dream. That’s all according to the study cited in the Daily Beast article. [...]
Barcoded Key Tags Or RFID For Easy Entry RFID and Barcoded key tags are two widely used types of systems for gym access control, in common usage with gym management software systems. Gym Insight supports both key technologies, it’s just a matter of which suits your needs best. Each has its uses, advantages and weaknesses. Fortunately there are two clear paths along which to tread and they match up neatly with one or the other of the access types. A small gym that has remote management and unattended 24 hour access has different needs to the one that has open [...]
How does a small gym get the most out of its software and payment processing resources? What is the right combination of services to best support gym owners and their managers in the battle against the seemingly unlimited resources of the multinational big-box brands of the fitness industry? I have been working hard to answer those questions both for Insight and for my own small gym. The extensive market research that I have been conducting has showed me that there literally is a middle way. To that end, I am proud to announce that Gym Insight is launching a new [...]
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