Group X
Fit to Excel
Gold’s Gym owner Lori Lowell shares tips for excelling in the following Group X areas.
Tip 42: Indoor Cycling
Indoor cycling is a great example of a market that’s grown quickly, with studios and franchises popping up left and right. To compete, Lowell had a piece of advice: “Cycle programs really need to be assessed and instructors need to make a huge shift in content and quality,” she said. “It is time to bring this up to speed because there are too many fantastic stand-alone cycle studios out there. Our facilities need to catch up and compete, due to the fact that we have so much more to offer than a stand alone-studio.” Lowell believes if you can up your game in indoor cycling programming, you can beat the competition. “Directors should not be blind to this and should examine all their options,” she said. “We spend too much money on our cycle studio for them to sit empty most of the day and have mediocre programming. It’s not about the bike, it is about the instructor and the program content.”
Tip 43: Dance
Lowell believes it may be time to expand beyond Zumba when it comes to your dance offerings. “Zumba has grown in content and variety over the years, so classes like CIZE, Les Mills SH’BAM and BODYJAM are not so alien as they may have been in the past.”
Tip 44: Pilates
Tip 44:According to Lowell, in order to compete against stand-alone Pilates studios, clubs have to get creative. “Do some Pilates circuit classes,” she advised. “Circuits and HIIT training are in, so why not try a Pilates circuit?” To do so, make use of fitness accessories like balls and bands.
Tip 45: Kickboxing
To excel, “Again, get creative,” said Lowell. “Go further than the traditional kickboxing class by incorporating punching bag classes and boxing circuits.”
Tip 46: HIIT
In order to compete against HIIT programs at other clubs and CrossFit, Lowell advised looking for unique pieces of equipment or tech to bring into the mix. “Think about products like The DISQ, which is a super addition to any club,” she said. “Things like this are fun and add a ton of differentiation.”
Tip 47: Yoga
“Yoga directors need to get more creative and use their real estate better and keep it full of action — hammock silks for air classes, barre classes,” said Lowell. “A full-on yoga program should have a good variety, including special senior yoga classes, in addition to a handful of stretch classes. Make sure your studio smells delicious and has a beautiful feel and equipment to use, including straps, blocks and mats.”
Growth
Idea 48: When is it Time to Grow?
What to do next when you’re bursting at the seams.
With six different successful fitness brands, including Snap Fitness and 9Round, Lift Brands has experienced extreme growth over the past year. Not only has the company continuously expanded domestically, but recently it has seen significant international growth as well.
“Somewhere in the world, in one of our six different brands, there are nearly 3,000 locations either built or in development in 24 countries,” said Steele Smiley, the chief development officer. “We are certainly on a high-growth trajectory and it has been a really fun ride for us over the last 12 months.”
According to Smiley, growth needs to be driven by consumer demand. “Honestly, when the phone starts ringing off the hook, you know it is time to go.” However, while growth is great, Smiley explained, having a strong infrastructure in place to support expansion is critical.
“Controlled growth where your quality stays high is most important,” he added. “Everyone wants to grow and that is a wonderful thing, but you need to make sure that the quality of your product is never sacrificed during that growth period.”
Idea 49: Challenges with Growing Rapidly
Growth in your business is ideal — it is what you strive for. However, expanding rapidly does come with its challenges. Eric Casaburi, the founder and CEO of Retro Fitness, highlighted the company’s biggest impediment with growing quickly. “Our biggest challenge is finding geography for a new franchise, finding the right location,” said Casaburi. “As part of our service, we help identify qualified Retro Fitness sites. In certain markets it is tight right now because there is not a lot of real estate left. The retail markets are changing, so the inventory three or four years ago is no longer available. After the recession we were able to put a box almost anywhere, and that is changing a little bit now. So our biggest challenge has been getting our franchises into their appropriate real estate.” To help in this endeavor, Retro Fitness hired Rebecca Foth, as vice president of real estate and development, who brings multiple years of real estate negotiating experience from companies like Payless ShoeSource and McDonald’s.
Leadership
Sound Advice
Leadership Advice from David Patchell ‘Patch’ Evans – CEO and Founder of GoodLife Fitness.
Idea 50: What Type of Leader are You?
“Decide what type of leader you want to be,” said Patch. “Inspirational? Motivational? Empathetic? I decided that I wanted to be a caring one. Growing up, I was an athlete and very tall, so I can be a little intimidating. My goal was to be a caring leader.”
Idea 51: Challenge yourself.
“Challenging yourself gets you more places than standing still,” said Patch. “Think about the limitations you put on yourself and instead pretend that you can do everything. Never say you can’t do something.”
Challenge yourself to take risks and re-invent yourself. As Patch explained, it doesn’t matter how you do it, just that you persevere.
Idea 52: Develop a clear mission.
“Have a purpose,” Patch continued. “Our purpose is to provide every Canadian with the opportunity to live a good and healthy life. The purpose of my company was my purpose.”
Then develop core values and culture that supports your purpose. What kind of club do you want to be? Who is it for?
“A leader has values,” he said. “Make sure everyone knows what you stand for because then the right people will come to work for you and they will work hard, and they will buy into the mission of the company.”
Idea 53: Put yourself in your member’s shoes.
When Patch was diagnosed with instant onset arthritis, he got an idea of what it was like to be an unfit or new member.
“Getting arthritis was one of my greatest learning lessons,” he recalled. “I got a glimpse into what it was like to be unfit. You need to live in other people’s shoes and understand how they feel. It also taught me the importance of delegation. Once I discovered that everyone else was smarter than me, I didn’t need to work as hard.”
According to Patch, learning to trust your employees is essential. He explained the greatest gift a leader can give is trust.
Locker Rooms
Tip 54: Reducing Locker Room Theft
Tip 54:Locker rooms are one of the most vulnerable areas of theft in your facility, for a variety of reasons. For one, there is no camera surveillance, and two, they aren’t a place for social interaction — meaning people mind their own business, instead of paying attention to what others are doing. In addition, many health club members either forget to bring their own lock or don’t wish to carry a key around. To reduce the risk of locker room theft, consider keyless locker solutions such as Digilock. Solutions like this allow members to pick a four-digit code, versus carrying around a manual key and lock. In addition, members losing their key or forgetting a code is no longer an issue — with a digital locking solution, managers can access any locker when needed.
Trick 55: Renovation Survival
How Greenwood dealt with a long locker room reno.
Members hate to be disrupted. Typically, even when improvements are being made, there will be one or two members who have something negative to say about the inconvenience.
Paula Neubert, the general manager of Greenwood Athletic and Tennis Club, witnessed this when the club was renovating its men’s locker rooms. Although members didn’t tell her their disappointment personally, they did share their thoughts via Medallia, the survey tool Greenwood uses to keep track of its members’ satisfaction in a variety of areas.
“I saved every single survey and every single email and every single comment that I got from every gentlemen during that time frame, and I put it into a special box in my Outlook,” explained Neubert. “I had 107 different people that I had spoken to during that time frame that were either displeased or disgruntled, or at least reached out to me.”
When the locker room re-opened, Neubert personally called each of those 107 people to let them know the locker room would be open the next day. “I still have some of those gentlemen come up to me and say, ‘You have no idea what that phone call meant. The fact that you called me the night before to make sure I knew it was going to be open, that did wonders,’’’ she said. “All I did was make a phone call.”
