Marlin is a fighter who will do everything he can to get your club business pumping. I was sceptical at first… but now I know why he is in such demand. His energy and passion for helping our business is intense. He is the kind of guy you want on your team.

We got a hold of Marlin and the FITBIZ team through Laura at Adfit to turn our club sales around. Stampede immediately produced so many new qualified prospects that we hired more sales staff to handle them. Their marketing systems work and we would recommend them to any club outside Auckland.

Marlins’ training ability is outstanding. Till this day I am still inspired and motivated all over again every time I meet with him. He taught me that sales is not only about making money but more importantly about giving people what they came to get – A SOLUTION, from us – The Professionals.
Coralie Goldfinch, Manager Creo Fitness Club

He got in our face and sorted our club out. Our monthly membership sales have doubled and all staff know their numbers and love driving sales. Thanks Marlin!

Gym owners buying fitness equipment they don’t need…
With money they don’t have…
To impress members who don’t care!

How much fitness equipment is enough?

Most clubs I visit look more like equipment storage… full of machines… than places to move about and exercise. How can you workout in room chock full of gear with nowhere to swing a cat, let alone a dumbbell?

Don’t to waste another cent on more useless fitness stuff cluttering up your gym. For every piece you add… you must take one away.

In gyms… Less is more.

Stop WOFTAM (wasting flippin’ time and money) on buying more fitness stuff.

Gym owners are hoarders of the worse kind… and they’ll throw out the wife before they dare get rid of out that rusty old barbell set made by Joe Weider himself.

Go do it now… I dare you… throw out at least 5 pieces of old equipment that’s sitting on your gym floor… you already know which stuff is out there that no one ever uses.

I promise it won’t kill you.

Members don’t give a ‘rodents behind’ about what gear you have…

If you want to impress members… start by cleaning the equipment first!

What members really care about is that they can use fitness gear that works when they visit the club… and it doesn’t stink like a football player’s sweaty jockstrap.

Stop wasting your flippin time and money trying to fill your club with fitness equipment you don’t need!

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.

© 2009 All Rights Reserved.

Check out some online fitness industry association sites for resources, information, and details on companies that can help you. They can guide you through the potential pitfalls and will save time and money.

2.Building a club to cater for everyone
One of the biggest mistakes new entrants make is trying to build a club that will appeal to everyone. You cannot be all things to all people. Instead pick a market segment that is not being serviced in your community and go after it. We live in an age of specialization. For example, look at professional services such as lawyers. They will choose a specialist field like tax, property, or contracts. As a professional service provider, you’ll be able to focus your attention and activity to owning a specific fitness market in your area. You’ll have much more success by deciding not to try and be all things to all people.

3.Location and access
Convenience and ease of access are vital to the success of a new club. Make sure you wait for the right location than settling for the first available building. It must be located close enough to where your target market lives. Identify your 12-minute during peak traffic. So when you’re assessing possible locations, drive 12 minutes from that site along each of those main routes. Mark these points on a map and assess your market using these reference points. If you have enough of you market living in this area, then it ticks one of the location boxes. Be careful of old industrial buildings. The problem some rookie club owners and first timers make is to choose some cheap industrial building on the outskirts of town. Don’t make this mistake. Often the attraction of a cheap lease or rent holiday can hurt you long term because it located in a place that is inconvenient for members to get to. It may also need additional work to make it look like a great place to work out. It is better to utilize high visibility roads so that signage can attract potential members to the club rather than hidden in a back block.
Don’t underestimate the need for adequate car parks. Members need to find a place to park inconvenience is the key to making it easier for them to make a decision to join.

4.No clearly defined gym concept

Again, do your homework. Assess your target market and build a whole concept around that market. Defining your target market and thinking about their needs will bring focus to your decision-making. It will help you answer simple key questions such as; types of equipment for that market, type of training programs, colour schemes, amenities and programs that will be offered in the club. All of the decisions you make about the club will be based on your target market and a clear concept that you can easily appeal to the market you’re trying to attract.

If you build it they will come. But you need to decide who you want to attract and then build a club that clearly attracts that market.

5.Lack of strong pre-sales and pre-opening promotional hype
It’s amazing how many new clubs open without signing up a single member. The key success factor for all new clubs is to sell as many memberships by the time the club opens it’s doors. Pre sales could start early as 6 months from opening, and foundation memberships sold in stages. Create urgency by selling the most attractive options using a time limit at each stage. Get the word out that a new club is opening soon. Send out teasers. Direct people to the website which will give updates and progress on the development of the club. Aim to capture details so people can be notified of the pre sales dates. Click here for more info about creating pre sales promotional hype

6.Poor operational systems
All businesses need operational systems. Gyms are no different. Systems for staffing, systems for training, programming, retention, administration, sales. Without these you will struggle. Visit out these online club system products

7.Too much focus on fitness equipment and layout
New club owners spend way too much time worrying about what pieces of equipment they are going to have in their gym. Also, new owners spend too much time listening to equipment suppliers for advice about how to open a club. Remember, the equipment supplier is trying to add value to you by offering assistance, but ultimately they are trying to fill your club with as much equipment of theirs as possible. So use them as a basic information resource, but also make sure to get independent industry expertise.

8.No provision for profit centre income
Opening a new club is about also providing a range of complimentary products and services to members looking to achieve their health and fitness goals. Areas to consider for profit centers such as supplements, juice bar, drinks, bars, towels and merchandise are just a few to consider. These areas need to be considered and decided at the planning stage.

9.Internal billing of membership dues

A big mistake is to assume that the collection function for processing member dues will be handled internally. I strongly recommend using a nationally recognized 3rd party billing company. You are in the business of changing lives and helping people achieve their goals, not chasing money. Let a billing company do what they do best, which is to manage membership dues. You might pay fees, but you save yourself the additional hassles. Outsource this function unless you have a strong backgroud in collections or looking to build a multiple club chain. Try to negotiate the best terms and rates. Everything is negotiable and they all want your business.

10. Lack of working capital

Like any new business, you need to have a budget with enough working capital to survive the first few months. You need at least of 3 months cash reserves equivalent to your monthly budgeted expense set aside to cover costs that do occur during the initial stages of the club opening. It will easily be needed for all the small things that you would not have thought of no matter how rigorous your plans. New stock, more chairs, lights, cleaning equipment, tools, parts, uniforms, printing, stationery, legal fees are just a few of the things that will place greater pressure on the business at start up. Think of it like this. Opening a new business is a lot like having a newborn baby. You will need to give it all of your time and attention at the critical early stages. If it’s your first time it will be a huge learning curve. Long days and long nights, coupled with lots of unexpected costs and unanticipated headaches. All new businesses need a lot of nurturing and resources. Do not underestimate the need of the cash reserves during your first 3-6 months.

11. Hiring the wrong people

Gyms are a service business. This means a lot of what we offer is intangible. In order to provide effective service we need to hire the right people. The right kinds of people in our business are those that have great people skills and can communicate clearly. Ideally you want to match the type of people with those that are similar to your target market. In this way they can identify readily with those members in the club. Get the right people on board.