Joff Clarke made sure everything was ready for the new health club, Bayou View Fitness, going into his strip mall in Gulfport, Mississippi. He added on a 5,000-square-foot expansion to the mall and ensured it was stocked with only the best. But there was just one thing missing: an operator.
“We spent all the money to build this expansion for a girl who was going to put a fitness club in here,” said Clarke. “We built the office, built the restrooms, laid down the carpet, bought all the TVs. We built the whole thing and we did an absolutely gorgeous job of it, and then she jumped ship on us.”
Left with no one to run the brand-new club they had just built, Clarke and his wife, Michele, decided to try and run it themselves, even though neither of them had any experience in the fitness industry other than their own personal fitness.
“I used to workout all the time and I thought, ‘Well it can’t be that difficult to run a club,’ so away we went,” said Clarke. “And to be honest, it turned out to be the greatest little business we’ve ever had. We just love it.”
This is usually the part of the story where you would expect to hear about how Clarke took his successful business and grew it from one club into many. But Clarke isn’t your typical club owner, and he doesn’t pretend to be one either.
“Because I own the strip mall and have several other tenants in here I have to be very aware that if I have a super successful gym, and nobody can get any parking in my strip mall, then I’m basically cutting off my nose to spite my face,” said Clarke.
So Clarke has turned Bayou View Fitness into more of a boutique club. He limits the amount of highly-priced memberships they offer and maintains an unusually high-level of quality by doing things like steam cleaning the gym and detailing the equipment once a month.
“We’re the most expensive in town and we don’t apologize for that,” said Clarke. “We offer the best service, the equipment we put in is as good as money can buy and we really cater to our upscale crowd.”
Clarke said because his club doesn’t try to be everything to everybody, they have been able to really focus on serving their niche crowd of business professionals.
“There isn’t a lot of people sitting around on the machines chit-chatting, it’s not a meat market type of gym and it’s not a super intense gym either,” said Clarke. “Our customers want to come in, get a light little workout in and not get too sweaty. That’s exactly what we cater too, and it works.”
By Ethan Smith
