Solution on Management

The fierce competition in the health club industry has grown more intense. Many clubs are being forced to lower their dues, or increase services to stay competitive. How do you differentiate your fitness center from the rapidly expanding $10-per-month chains? Let’s start with some of the obvious basics that have been around for years. Clubs [...]

Would you eat Jell-O with a fork, or hammer a nail with measuring tape? In some cases, you might be doing this in your club. You’re actually attempting to solve problems, but you don’t have the solutions. Maybe it boils down to just not having the right tools for the particular solutions. Take a look [...]

As I speak with owners and managers of clubs, quite often the discussion leads to the subject of revenue tracking and receivables. It’s amazing how infrequently a club is aware of its outstanding balances, deferred revenue, held deposits or even gross and net billing per month. More often than not, this is due to poor [...]

One resolution I had for 2013 was to systematize hiring at Fitness Together. After reviewing many options, I decided to use the “Everything DiSC Workplace Profile” to help lower turnover and improve my hiring process. The DiSC profiling system has been around for over 30 years and has been used to improve teamwork and communication. [...]

Richard Feynman, an American theoretical physicist, explained it best — “You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you’re finished, you’ll know absolutely nothing whatsoever about the bird. So let’s look at the bird and see what it’s doing — that’s what counts. I learned very [...]

Scientifically, the myth that human beings only use 20 percent of their brainpower has been proven to be false. However, the reality that most health clubs only use 25 percent of their software’s capabilities is a long-standing fact in the health and fitness industry. This can result in a variety of problems, as clubs continually [...]

Faulty electronic fund transfer (EFT) — the four words no club owner wants to hear. Unfortunately, they happen and health club industry surveys say to expect 4-7 percent returns on all EFT billing accounts. Why the variance? Demographics of course, such as average income of clientele, ease of access, distance to/from the gym and satisfaction [...]

In the past few months I have read multiple articles that discussed the importance of creating a tribe-like, cult-like or fraternity-like community within your health club. Many of the articles explained the importance of the relationships between members and your staff, and the necessity to foster those relationships. There is no doubt that a successful [...]

Being a small club owner can be a lonely place when big decisions need to be made. There are a million different choices, but it is neither financially, or logistically feasible, to employ all the experts needed to run your business perfectly. When I look back at my 23 years as a club owner, I [...]

By: Carole Oat One of the main factors in a profitable fitness center is building and maintaining a strong dues line. Industry surveys tell gym owners to expect 2-5 percent returns on EFT billing accounts. What can a club owner do to keep those numbers down? Many find that as their volume of members increases [...]