If you are like many of us, your holiday break was not only a time for overeating, but also a time when you finally had a few free days to evaluate your strategy for 2013. Group fitness is one of the hottest trends in the industry and shows no signs of slowing down. Now is the right time to make sure your program is the best it can be.
When evaluating your group exercise program, ask yourself the following questions to ensure you’re successful in 2013.
1) How can I better utilize my studio space?
Your studio space can be a valuable resource if you are maximizing your opportunities. First, take a look at your current schedule, followed by evaluating your instructors to ensure you’re meeting demands effectively. Do you have too many classes scheduled, or do you need to add more to keep it engaging?
The first rule of thumb: Create your schedule first; then find instructors.
Next, evaluate your group fitness ROI by considering your monthly operating expenses. These include utilities, prorated rent, on-boarding expenses and salaries. It’s important to identify your baseline monthly operating expense, compared to the revenue group fitness adds to the bottom line. Consider this “baseline” cost as your sunken investment in group fitness. What return are you getting for that investment? What does it cost you to have your studio sitting empty? And when your studio is sitting empty, how many more members could you service during those times?
Decide whether or not there are other revenue streams that your studio could generate. Offering group training in your studio increases revenue and makes trainers more efficient, while providing a lower-cost alternative for members — which should increase your overall personal training penetration. Many clubs are also taking advantage of trendy fee-based small group training programs like TRX and boot camps.
2) Where can I reduce costs?
As it applies to your group fitness real estate, many facilities prefer to measure cost per square foot. If you need to reduce costs, there are a few easy changes you can make. First, is there another way to compensate your instructors? Consider realigning your instructors interests with your overall group fitness strategies. For example, paying instructors, based on head-count versus a flat rate, will ensure that instructors are focused on driving attendance. It goes without saying that every facility needs to understand their threshold of minimum capacity. Once that number is defined, don’t hesitate to remove under-performing classes from the calendar.
The second rule of thumb: When identifying your minimum capacity per class, make sure to consider the lifetime value of each member, and not their monthly dues amount. Minimum class capacity should be evaluated in the context of the long-term health of your facility, not by what it takes to pay the instructor.
3) How am I advertising my group fitness program?
Advertising is one of the most important things you can do to increase participation in your group fitness program, and it doesn’t need to be costly. Social media makes it easy for you to reach both members and non-members. Are you posting relevant schedule information online (website, Facebook, etc.)? Modern online scheduling platforms make it simple and cost-effective for you to make your members aware of all the offerings you have available, as well as help you forecast and gauge participation levels.
Of course, nothing is more powerful than promoting group fitness one on one, which is why your on-boarding process should include specific exposure to your group fitness program. Make sure to fully utilize your human resources. Incentivize your instructors by offering referral bonuses when they introduce new prospects to the facility. The more opportunities you can find to inform members of your group fitness programming — the more reasons you can give your instructors and staff to promote it, the better.
Use these simple steps to proactively optimize your group fitness program in 2013.
Garrett Marshall is the Business Development Director for Fitness On Demand. He can be contacted at 952-567-5828 or at gmarshall@fitnessondemand247.com.
Stay ahead in the fitness industry with exclusive updates!
Rachel Zabonick-Chonko is the editor-in-chief of Club Solutions Magazine. She can be reached at rachel@peakemedia.com.
