Gym Owners Cheat Sheet

What’s Up Strength Entrepreneurs?!

If you have been following my Instagram account (@coachjoestrong) you might have seen my 22 Pro-Tips for gym owners.  There I gave a quick synopsis on 22 key ideas toward running a better gym business.  We cover all of these topics in much greater detail during our live Business of Strength Mentorships.  Today I’m going to go over my top 5!  Here we go…

1.    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.  Creating a clear vision as to what the main goals of the business are from the number of clients to the gross income 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 3-7 big items we call “rocks.”  That could range from completing a company handbook to improving the client on-boarding process.  
Organizational accountability is the division of labor within your business.  Who does what and when is it to be completed.  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 is  NOT ok for any one process to be owned by multiple people.  

2.    Knowing Your Process and Creating 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 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.  

3.    Hire and Develop Great Employees – As the saying goes you are only as strong as the people your 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.  If you don’t have the time to teach you should not hire anyone to work for you.  Part of becoming a real business is having the ability to have others become an extension of you and take ownership of some of the gym processes.

4.    Becoming a Better Salesman – 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 having 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.  

5.    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.   If you already have clients that means you have people who buy into the products and service.  That means they 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 have, invest your time and effort into them!  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 tern send you the clients you really want, but don’t forget to ask for referrals.

If this got your brain spinning with “Man I need to get some of this stuff done!” Don’t worry I was there with you.  We can help.  Come to one of our live events and learn how to turn your passion into a real business that makes you money.  Time to become a true Strength Entrepreneur!  

Dedicated to Your Success,
 - Coach Joe