Ask an Expert: Josh Harwood

“What are some additional profit centers that clubs can capitalize on?”

JH: This starts with understanding our audience — what do they want, need and can afford? Unfortunately, we did not come with instructions on how to get in or stay in a healthy condition, so we all need, and most people that come to us want, help to get to this healthy condition. Being healthy largely comes down to understanding a simple equation: calories in plus calories out, divided by medical health, equals results. Therefore, focusing our core services around that equation, we believe to be appropriate; nutrition — be it consulting or supplementation; physical training — be it personal or in a group; and wellness — be it education or consulting, will continue to grow in importance and potential for the near future.

“How does Fitness Connection manage successful and non-successful profit centers?” 

JH: By empowering and teaching leaders to manage the profit center by its profit and return on investment; and holding those leaders accountable to this idea by compensating them. We plan ahead of time for budgets, goals and points at which we would scrap the project. Proper initial execution and ongoing evaluation against the plan help us steer in the right direction.

“What is the most successful profit center for Fitness Connection? How has it been implemented?” 

JH: Training, as an individual or in a group. While we have a long track record of success in this area we have constantly remade ourselves to better fit our customers’ needs. An example of this would be payment options. We started with paid-in-full packages, transitioned to monthly payments years ago and recently have added group training options. Group training has allowed us to help more people and increase profits.

“What will be this year’s best marketing strategy?” 

JH: Word-of-mouth marketing, via social media, with a focus on video presentation of content; a concentrated effort, by the leaders and sales team of the organization to find the talkers, choose compelling topics and the best tools to share the topics; meaning you work on developing it EVERY week. We are following “Word of Mouth Marketing” by Andy Sernovitz. There will be less focus on traditional external advertising. Also included is using social media to group together like-minded members to create great engagement and integration in your business — create the platform for them.

Experience

At Titan Fitness Josh Harwood oversees the daily operations of the business, including human resources, information technology, establishing best practices across the platform and managing select profit centers. Prior to working at Titan Fitness, Harwood was a franchisee and COO of a multi-store chain of clubs. He led his team to achieve a 100 percent increase in profitability in 18 months, raising it to a 33 percent margin.