It's not just about what you think the identity of your gym or fitness center should be. It's more than that. It matters what all of the other people think: the employees, contractors and other stakeholders. The way to guide their understanding is by having a clearly stated, present-focused, mission statement. This is another in the set of articles I've been writing about values, vision and your mission. The overarching theme here is getting your business to work as smoothly as possible and for this trifecta to become a shared idea. My exact point here, is to have a statement [...]
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Who Are You? Where You Are Going & The Vision Thing This is a follow-up to the article about the key values that you need to consider in regard to your customers. There are three things which customers value most, in my experience, that I elaborated in the first article of this topic. Beyond that, you will need to decide on your own list of values, because only you know the reason that you got into the gym ownership business in the first place. Likewise, only you can decide on the vision for your organization. The vision statement of your organization sets out [...]
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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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You’ve got the energy, ideas, and passion for your sport. But what about some solid facts about how to open your own club? This June, we’re going to help you learn what it takes to start a gym. Each week, we will cover an important step to your successful new business launch and provide some common sense advice from established gym owners. First, do you have a business plan? Why do I need a business plan? Too many small business owners open their first fitness center without creating a strong plan of action. A business plan is a written guideline [...]
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Gym Management Netflix recently made headlines when it came clean on its subscription sharing problem. Too many users are slipping passwords to friends and family. To rectify this bottom-line problem, they are pivoting to new policies and trying to stem the leak. However, if sharing passwords can make a company the size of Netflix quake, imagine its impact on small, privately held gyms. For gym owners, the answer to account sharing lies in digital keytags, a QR-embedded phone app nimble enough to save money and build customer loyalty. Gym Insight’s digital keytags eliminate unauthorized users by providing a dynamic QR code [...]
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We invite you to test our newest product – digital keytags. If you've ever worried about customers sharing keys or have lost business because you can't get to the club in time, this key is for you. Gym Insight's newly released, app-based digital keytags are equipped with a QR code that can never be copied or shared. At the same time, members enjoy immediate, secure mobile access to your fitness center within minutes of sign-up. How does our digital keytag work? Customers download an app on their mobile phones. Embedded in the app is the digital keytag. Your member simply pulls [...]
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As a gym owner, you’re a natural entrepreneur. Capable of weighing risks and making decisions. Yet, diversifying companies or running multiple gyms is a difficult leap — powering through even one gym can seem insurmountable. How can you run multiple gyms successfully? To answer this question, we turned to Troy Barnum, who owns two Total Fitness gyms and a successful ATV ecommerce store. He bought his first gym in 2011 after running other ventures. Here’s his key advice. For a full recount of our conversation, go to our “Gym Owners Podcast” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxZ2Q5ExbQ0 10 Tips for Running Multiple Gyms 1) Expect to work hard. Barnum puts [...]
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What could be better than exercising every day and hanging out in your own awesome health club? If owning a gym is your dream job — keep reading our blog. The truth is – opening a gym is a lot more than just buying gym equipment and unlocking doors. Succeeding at owning a gym takes planning, perseverance, moxie, and money. Today, we've spoken with experienced gym owners to learn four of the most common mistakes new gym owners make when getting started in the business. Understand your lease fully before signing on the dotted line! #1 — Signing a lease too quickly [...]
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Every gym owner intends to run a profitable health club, but reaching that goal can feel impossible. There are, however, small effective steps you can take today to position your studio for a stronger, healthier future. These good habits start by conducting a line-by-line review of every expense and considering new ways to run an old business. Accountants and business analysts recommend printing out a 12-month profit-and-loss statement twice a year (or even quarterly) in order to accurately appraise every company expenditure. Although such effort sounds tedious, watching every penny is the only way to ensure you’re not wasting money. As [...]
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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 [...]
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The new technologies of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality are set to change the fitness industry if the current trend continues. Both VR and AR have threatened to do something interesting for years now. But this time the promise might turn into VR products that consumers can use. Your gym members may soon demand fitness equipment that allows them to connect to digitally rendered worlds and games while they work out. Digital devices and smartphones have changed the way consumers use technology; they don't think twice about exploring and testing new apps. Keeping up with your neighbor means having the [...]
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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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I was just reading about some big-box gym managers earning salaries in the high five figures, without having to risk personal wealth or credit. Well, that $80K paycheck probably helps these big box managers sleep at night, even if they're beholden to the bureaucracy of corporate America. So, how as a small gym business owner, do you get the best of both worlds? After all, if independence is good, then independence combined with prosperity must be better! Automation - Building A Gym That Runs Itself The answer has to be in being smart and efficient, and in this day and [...]
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Do you know what I object to most in the fitness business? It's those big-box chains that sign up members for the low monthly rate, but secretly hoping that customers never turn up to occupy space in any of their one million and six facilities. Low membership fees are fine in themselves, and it's a good thing that gyms give their members the hope of getting off the couch and getting fit. However, it just offends my sense of honor and the principles that got me into the business in the first place. Also, a strategy that delivers premium services [...]
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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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