Jarod Cogswell, the co-creator and senior director of DEKA by Spartan Race, shares the importance of SWOT analysis.
As the negative impact of COVID-19 continues to affect our industry, it’s paramount that we take a look at our businesses through a different lens to maximize financial performance and our working environments. And there’s no better tactic than a SWOT analysis to obtain an objective snapshot to identify our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The fact is, an objective assessment of our businesses is essential to effectively strategize for short and long-term decisions.
Why a SWOT Analysis for your Fitness Business?
Maximize Strengths
In terms of a club, gym or studio, your strengths are your selling points of your business. They are the glue of what you do and provide a solution for your current members and the community you serve. These strengths also positively impact the member experience for better engagement, connectivity and ultimately, retention.
The key questions to ask are the following:
- What makes your services uniquely different?
- What do you better than anyone in your market?
Once you can objectively answer these questions, you can develop the proper brand messaging to consistently push out to your potential consumers, as well as, provide enhanced value for your current membership base. Ultimately, if you optimize your strengths strategically, your sales, revenue and profitability will grow.
Improve and/or Eliminate Weaknesses
If we’re completely honest with ourselves, this list can be a long one. However, don’t get discouraged. Identifying our weaknesses helps us innovate, improve processes, enhance our offerings, create new, exciting changes and overall, boost our businesses.
Common fitness business weaknesses:
- Facilities/Equipment
- Employee Talent/Morale
- Brand Image
- Technology
- Cash Flow
Once you complete your list of weaknesses, it’s crucial to develop a realistic plan of attack and priorities to escalate your competitive edge.
Enhance Team Buy-In/Morale
Yes, this was also listed above and it’s more critical than ever to ensure that your employees are beyond happy and loyal to your business. Your team is your first priority. They are the most valuable asset for attracting, retaining and servicing your members. If they feel empowered and appreciated only then can you obtain a business ethos of positivity and high performance. Therefore, they should be involved in the SWOT analysis. Their voices should be heard and ideas implemented. And if they feel valued and appreciated for their input, this exercise to take our businesses to the next level will come to fruition.
Let’s face it, the “game of fitness” is tough, so let’s agree as leaders to frequently recalibrate our perspective on our fitness businesses and work closely with our teams to ensure focus in the right areas, be productive, as well as, remain relevant to the communities we serve.
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Jarod Cogswell is the co-creator and senior director for Spartan DEKA, the decathlon of functional fitness. He can be reached at jarod.cogswell@spartan.com or, for more information, log on to deka.fit.
