Let’s assume you have setup your business right. That means you have done your competitive and market analysis, you have setup your concept with all its elements, you have found a good location, you completed the club design, completed the interior fit out, hired right people, done some pre-sales and that you have started your operations.
All the above activities are part of the setup that we will discuss separately in upcoming blogs.
You have figured by now, to run a successful Fitness Club business there is lot of activities in the setup phase. It will need research and planning, time sensitive and strategic execution, but it will certainly take daily, weekly, monthly activities that cover most essential segments of Fitness Club Operations once the club is open for public.
Marketing and Sales in Fitness Club is crucial part to assure constant flow of fresh leads and new members. Every business needs new leads. It is not different in Fitness and Health Club business either. Although the essence of the Fitness Club relies on returning customer frequently, therefore the retention of the customer plays a big role; filling up your club with new members is equally important. You should set up your sales funnel which consist of different strategies/activities and marketing/advertising channels through which you will generate leads. The sales funnel starts with fresh leads. Those fresh leads will be distributed to your team who will contact these potential members, set appointments in the club, give tour to present your club, services and product, present membership options most suitable for the prospects (future members), and hopefully close the sale of the membership.
It is important to say that with previously described process you have set expectations with your new member. Now, it’s time to meet those expectations. These expectations will need to be met every single time when your member visit your facility, and that is where the fitness business becomes different and more difficult than most of the other types of industries and businesses. The chances to meet and even exceed the expectations are through services that you provide in the club. While for new member the most critical period is 4- and 12-weeks period during which you need to install new habits in lifestyle, with all your members the key component is utilization and retention. Utilization refers to a frequency of the usage of your facility by individual member, while the retention refers to a process keeping your member over a period.
One of the important parts of running your facility successfully is to consider innovations. Innovations in services, products, amenities are important as you will need to “re-invent” your business every now-then. To be fresh and new for your customers is important in the rapidly changing Fitness Industry. Trendy stuff you will need to keep eyes on and incorporate innovation in your Fitness Club.
The next segment is expenses. While all the previous points were aiming to bring customer and keep customer in your club, controlling the expenses is to assure you do not spend more than what you suppose to. The best way how to keep an eye on your expenses is through the balance sheet. You will enter all you fixed and variable expenses in the monthly balance sheet, through which you will be able to keep an eye on each of these month-in, month-out. This will show you the trend, so a monthly analysis of the expenses is not only crucial but necessary action to see and manage all the lines.
Once you have setup and started executing all the above, the bottom line will be the next and final part of the business that you will have to analyze. To all investors, business owners and operators who want to have long lasting, sustainable, and successful Fitness Club it is important to have bottom line in positive value. That means your business is generating more than what is spending.
With all the above and much more than this we can help. Reach out and contact us to have a conversation on how to help you to have your business successful. Also, check our YouTube channel, subscribe for all the cool tips in Fitness Business segment:
