It’s no secret 2020 was the hardest year in the history of the sports performance and fitness industry. It felt as if every potential setback lumped together and dropped a bomb on our industry.
As a result, you’ve been forced to adjust and quickly.
You’re coming up with new ways to help your business grow.
New strategies, new marketing tactics, and out of the box thinking are a must in helping your business stay alive and grow.
As we’ve been in the process of doing the same thing at Varsity House, we’ve found that these five systems have been battle tested and stood the test of time no matter what happens.
Vision, Traction and Organizational Accountability
This might sound like a lot of theoretical BS, but it’s so critical to the overall growth of your business.
A lot of “gym business marketers” will provide you with tactics that may provide an initial result but then what?
More money without foundational core principles will only add more problems to your business.
Creating a clear vision as to what the main goals of the business are extremely important.
Traction equals action.
We break traction down into quarterly action plans. Going off the main vision and goals we will then break that down into actionable steps.
Each quarter we try to complete 3-5 big items we call “rocks.” That could range from completing a company handbook to improving your on-boarding process.
If everyone is accountable no one is.
Organizational accountability is the division of labor within your business.
Who does what.
Someone must own each rock.
That person is solely responsible for finishing and delivering the goods.
If you have built out your company’s accountability chart correctly you should have every major process covered by someone.
If you’re a small company, it’s ok for one person to own more than one process, but it is NOT ok for any one process to be owned by multiple people.
Knowing Your Process and Create the Operational System to Support Them
By creating your accountability chart you will have inadvertently acknowledged the existence of all the major processes within your company.
Now it is time to break them down step by step into a repeatable process.
That means writing it down on paper and teaching it to others!
In the gym there are some consistent processes that you need to outline YOUR process and master.
- Lead Generation
- On-boarding new clients
- Training and assessment procedures
- Executing a marketing plan
- Referral & Upsell procedures
- Hiring & firing
- Client follow ups
- Gym Tours
and the list goes on and on.
Hire and Develop Great Employees
As the saying goes you are only as strong as the people you surround yourself with.
A great employee can really help grow your gym, while a bad one can seriously damage your reputation.
Spearhead any possible problems by creating a system for hiring and developing new employees. You must spend time teaching them YOUR way of doing business.
Don’t hire anyone you don’t have the time to teach.
Part of becoming a real business is having the ability to have others become an extension of you and take ownership of some of your gym processes.
Becoming a Better Seller
The gym business is a sales job.
You are selling a lifestyle that requires commitment and dedication.
Start by having a pitch, knowing your products inside and out, and have a clear message.
Then practice selling.
Most small gym owners think their training, or programming sells itself, but talk to them in a few years when a dozen or so new gyms have opened in the area and they are struggling to get clients.
If you can’t convey your message in such a way that it connects with people, prompts people to take action, and SPEND money, you will not be around long!
There are many online courses and or workshops on selling. Start there and improve your technique.
In our flagship free ebook, Selling Made Simple – Dan Goodman breaks down step by step how to improve your sales process.
You can find Selling Made Simple, in our Free Course, Turning Pro.
Focus on The Clients You Already Have
Leads do not pay the bills.
Paying clients pay the bills.
Many gym owners spend way too much time worrying about their marketing, social media, and Facebook ads and not enough time cultivating real relationships with the clients they already have.
In turn, your retention rates plummet because people do not identify with you personally.
If you have clients, that means you have people who buy into your products and services. These people are more likely to have friends, family and/or co-workers who are similarly aligned with them.
Give most of your energy to the people you already have.
Be present at the gym, talk to clients, email them, call them to check in, run some fun events, and show them that you really care about their success.
They will in turn send you the clients you really want.
