Don Roberts’ Fit 24/7 Gym keeps things simple. His gym does not boast a sauna, day care, or exercise classes. Customers know to follow the rules or get kicked out. And his club is open every day, 24 hours a day, frequently without a single employee on premise. Stripped bare of any extras and run entirely by himself, his 550-member facility in Durango, Colorado, has been profitable — very profitable, he insists — from day one. The key to making money is minimal expenses and 24 hour access. The advantage of 24-hour gyms In a time when nearly 20 percent of gyms closed permanently [...]
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Promote Your Fitness Club with Private Label Branding Nothing brings credibility to a small fitness club like a unique fitness concept built around a strong brand. As long as you have a robust gym management software system as a foundation, you start to develop streams of income that complement your client programming. It also helps to have your brand on merchandise and products for sale in your gym's store or front desk. You don't need much floor space for these high-margin sales. Now, you can even add custom merchandise and e-commerce pages to your club website with ease. This is [...]
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Personal Branding Revisited This is a follow-up piece to my recent post about Personal Branding for Fitness Entrepreneurs. There's a lot to cover in the topic, as well as about branding in general. Also, once you have it as part of your entrepreneurial mindset, branding is as powerful as a clean and tidy gym in drawing new members through your front door. As a fitness professional and business founder, you should consider that your personal name is an asset worth building, as well as the brand of your gym business company. If some big box fitness brand offers you many [...]
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Fitness is one of the more efficient industries, in the economic sense. The same is true about gym management software. It's a good thing in that competition leads to better products and services. On the other hand, it goes in the opposite direction as well. Economics drives free markets toward commoditization, which means cheap, bland products. Here at Insight, we recognize that, and we work to deliver a stand-out club management platform that defies the odds. As a gym business owner, so should you. The best strategy for small gym business success is unique offerings that command premium fitness club [...]
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Leverage These Life Hacks to Produce More Results Technology has brought a whole new style of entrepreneur into existence. Independent trainers, small gym business owners, or even franchisees of big-box chains, like Gold's Gym, can make the most of some of the life hacks that complement the things they already do daily. I've written about some of these tips and tricks on the Gym Insight Blog before, but a few are new. 1. Do Remote Training Sessions with FaceTime or Skype It's the human contact that clients want from their training sessions, as well as fitness, and almost everyone has [...]
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The Old School Of Martial Arts Fighting and martial arts account for a large portion of today's fitness industry. The old school boxing clubs are an inspiration and fine example of what club owners can achieve in tough neighborhoods, with not much more than leadership and space in a backstreet gym on the wrong side of the tracks. If you're looking to start a gym or find a new specialization for the one you have at present, then the appeal of martial arts and boxing has never been stronger. You might have a successful studio, a thriving membership, or be [...]
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In fitness, client programming is the key to operational success. There are several reasons for that. Let's explore them and look at why it is that gym business operators can't ignore this organizing principle. The best way to consolidate new gym membership sales is to draw your new members into a series of instructions to get them moving ahead and focused on fitness, not buyer's remorse. Of course, client programming is much more than that, it is the professional basis for any organized fitness activities. Gym Members Need Structure It's the people who need a structure the most who can [...]
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Planning For Client Acquisition Success After my last post about starting your own business, the logical follow-up is a blog about client acquisition. Yes, that post did go into details about how important it is to understand your customers. Also, there is no doubt that finding your niche is the key to success too. You need a practical, step-by-step plan to acquire new members. What that means is a plan to get them in the front door, signed up, and working out. While you should build a funnel for membership sales, you don't want to get caught in a formula [...]
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Alternative Revenue Streams For The Good Of The Team Monthly memberships revenue is the engine that puts you in business and keeps you going. However, that doesn't mean you can't do better and deliver more value to your clients by adding alternate revenue streams to your income. In fact, finding the premium products and services are the sauces that take you beyond just being in business and into the realm of financial success. Even so, the winds of fortune are fickle, that's a saying or something, and, from the experiences I've witnessed, I'd say that it's a fact; everything can [...]
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The point of client programming is to add value to the lives and fitness of your members. There's a lot of talk about specialty programs that appeal to hyper-motivated gym aficionados. We all know those shining stars of fitness, those super-fit fanatics who continuously push the limits to find new fitness experiences. However, what about the rest? The average people who just want to get into shape and stay healthy? Here's the thing, most consumers are just looking to get fit stay fit and fit fitness into an already overcrowded schedule. It's up to small gym business and fitness club [...]
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A Pro Tip For Small Gym Business Client Acquisition If you look at your small gym business from the broadest perspective possible, client acquisition is the one central function that drives your operation. Arguably, everything else is a detail. Of course, some of the details are critical, but they address the members you pick up as part of the acquisition process. However, the cost to acquire new members isn't as useful a measurement for you as the lifetime value of those new memberships. Everything other than that drive for client acquisition is a refinement or facilitated by it. Your income [...]
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The Digital Age gives small gym business owners real choices for club management software. Now, everyone can have enterprise-grade options for information technology. That means that what was once the exclusive privilege of the big box fitness brands is out there for you in one form or another. Fitness entrepreneurs still have the temptation to collect different capabilities piecemeal, but that leads to much less useful results in the long run. That is why you should start as you mean to go on and invest in dedicated club management software. Liberation And Efficiency Through Automation So, what is ROI? And [...]
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What Does Mobile Mean For Fitness? The latest trends in mobile apps for fitness and healthcare are heading toward an exciting destination. Mobile devices are everywhere, and it's amazing what you see when you observe at any gathering of human beings these days. Half or more of any group seem more involved with the devices in their hands than the world around them. So, what are the ramifications of this behavior for fitness centers and health clubs? It's About Millennials And What Controls The Lives Of Consumers As a gym business owner, you always need to look to the future [...]
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It's not about having the most technology, but rather the right equipment that is going to help you run your small gym business most efficiently. By running your club resourcefully, you'll get into profit sooner and make the quality of your offerings better. Technology is evolving so rapidly now that you can check in every six months and find new solutions for just about everything. The hazard of occasional check-ins is that you might have missed something in the months in between. The right technology for small gym businesses is that which disappears into the background, allowing you to focus [...]
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Big Fitness is doing well these days, and that can have an impact on small gym businesses. However, the market looks set to continue growing over the next few years, which means there's enough business to go around. The shape of the fitness industry is changing, and it may be unrecognizable by the mid-2020s. Success at the top is a good thing; it represents expanding opportunities for small gym business owners, here's why. The Shape Of Big Fitness Companies I was reading a report about the Top 100 Health Clubs of 2016 that Club Industry posted last August, and as [...]
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