How to tell whether your gym is fighting fit or out of shape

Think of a gym business as a car that needs to move toward a destination each day.

For a smooth running healthy car, the engine needs oil, gas, battery and a cooling system to move it along. The engine for a gym is the system that drives it toward it’s business goals and financial targets.

The sales functions of the club is the fuel. It’s your lifeblood. The fuel that powers a club is new membership sales followed by profit center income.

Membership retention activities perform a similar function to oil and water. These club activities and programs keep everything nice and cool, and running smoothly.

In a club, the cooling system relates to your staff and their ability to provide excellent service and effective program delivery. Your team members, such as your front line staff, gym instructors, PT’s and managers all work to make your club programs run properly and keep your members happy.

When I visit gyms, I’m always surprised to find out many owners couldn’t tell me specifics about the performance of their club. In other words they don’t know if their club is fighting fit, or out of shape and in need of a tune up.

Many club owners have no set targets. There is no sales focus and they don’t check sales figures daily. To them, the “dollar spend per member visit” ratio to track profit center income… is a foreign concept.

Some couldn’t tell what their retention figures are for the month, or how this is measured… and whether they are on par with the rest of the fitness industry.

If I refer back to the car example, many clubs operate continuously with the fuel light on… meaning they only get enough sales income to cover expenses each week.

What’s worse is that many don’t even know that the fuel light is on because they aren’t even looking. That’s because they spend countless hours caught up in less important activities.

These are things that have a lower priority, like devising new fitness programs, cleaning the gear, covering shifts, surfing the equipment catalogues drooling over fitness gear, and then there’s their daily workout…

I’m an ex club owner, so I know what its like. I know there is 101 things to do everyday, but there is no excuse for not checking your dashboard to see if there’s enough fuel in the tank or see if you need an oil change.

Not checking membership sales, attendance figures and profit center income targets DAILY…

is just like cleaning the car, checking the tires, and tidying up the boot…

but failing to check the fuel, oil, water and temp gauges on your dashboard.

These sales numbers, income figures and profit center ratios immediately give you feedback and indicate the areas of your fitness business that may require attention.

Club owners must check on how the engine is running EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Let me finish by explaining briefly how you can do this…

The first step is to set up a club dashboard. Your dashboard contains your key monthly sales and income targets.

First set targets with your team before the new month starts. So in your sales meeting, you begin by outlining the promotion for the month ahead.

Then look at what your club did on the same month last year…

Next, look at the average figures from the past 3 months and take the average. Also compare each individuals performance on previous targets (if you have that information).

Then set individual sales goals with each team member, and then set a team target for the month. Make sure these are realistic and achievable, but most of all make sure they are set and confirmed by each member of the team. That way you’ll get ‘buy in’ from them to achieve the target.

It is important that these are their targets, and not targets you gave them.

Post these targets in a prominent area where only staff can see and drive this target each shift. Place and update the actual month to date sales figures next to the target each day.

Use this target board to track each shift as a measure whether your club is on track toward achieving your monthly target.

For the other areas such as member retention and profit center income, follow the same process with your front counter staff and other team members who have responsibility for driving numbers in each department of the club.

These visible targets become your club dashboards where everyone knows whether the club is on target or off target.

Remember…

Be careful not to get caught up in doing everything else in the club without checking the dashboard and taking the necessary actions needed to move it forward daily.

Now Workitout…

Don’t be like most Gyms that have problems with their engine, and spend all their time looking in the boot.

By making sure if you haven’t already… to set up a dashboard to monitor whether your business is moving forward, or still parked in the garage…

Monthly targets for sales and income in your club will tell you whether your club is fighting fit, or out of shape.

Make sure to get into the routine of checking these targets DAILY.

P.S.
If you still need help and are unsure what to do, just drop me an email and I will send you a copy of a monthly tracking sheet with instructions on how to use it.

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