When starting any business, it is essential to create and execute a business plan. Starting a gym can be quite a challenge given today’s circumstances, but it is still a very lucrative and highly attractive industry to enter. Whether you are looking to start a full-service fitness center or operate a local club, you will need to create a proper structure for success.
The Key to Success in Owning a Gym
Before focusing on the specifics of the gym industry, multiple business steps should be adhered to before launch. Only 18% of revenue is made by the top four players in America, with the rest being local and independent gyms. This is a good starting point, as there is always a huge need for these kinds of services, which is a good starting point for success. Here are the top three things to consider when starting your own gym business:
Develop a business plan
The first step to building a successful business is developing an effective business plan, and then taking action and implementing it. The United States Small Bureau Association outlines why it is critical to have a functioning business plan. This includes your sales and marketing, your brand, your projections, funding, and many other associated things. Many small businesses begin without a business plan, and these organizations are much more likely to fail at start-ups. You do not need to have a specific structure, but knowing your goals and how to get there is essential.
Build your dream team… Slowly
No one person can be an island, but expanding too quickly can be the death of many businesses. Choosing and delegating a trustworthy, professional, and cohesive team will ensure that the business runs well. The price of not having a great team is costly, as it can go to one extreme or the other. For example, poor team management causes frustration, turnover, and loss, and being too strict and not delegating causes competition, burnout, and envy. Listen to your team, lead by example and build from the ground up.
Organize a proper launch
Many small businesses have great services and products on offer, yet they struggle to find clients, significantly enough to keep the going concern principle within the first few months of opening. A proper launch not only announces your presence but makes a statement in your local area and overall niche that you are here to disrupt the industry. Your early adopters will be your most stalwart clients, and they will champion your services and upsells for possibly the entire length of your business.
Tools and Skills Needed for Successfully Owning a Gym
Now that we’ve talked about the top 3 secrets to running a successful business, we will go over industry-specific areas that will set apart a good gym owner with a great gym owner. Once you have your team in place and a few clients, it is time to learn out your business, automate, and scale.
Get Lean
Lean methodology is the leading business discipline and philosophy with a proven track record of maximizing results while minimizing effort. The key take-aways are
- Do more with less.
- Aim for great, not perfect, and
- Follow the 80/20 rule.
To summarize, we achieve marginal returns past a certain point, so once something is good enough to be launched, take it and improve upon it later. Look for the 20% of your business that is scalable, and it will also most likely create 80% of your income. Once this is identified and implemented, your business will run smoother and grow easier.
Form Partnerships
This is one of the few things that many business owners forget to do, and often, for a good reason. It is easy to categorize employees, contractors, and business relationships when talking to the owner. Forming meaningful partnerships with those you may deem “competitors.” Your competitors may be your best friends, as they can have potential clients that come to them for specific services that can be referred out to you. It never hurts to ask, but be prepared for a win-win situation. In the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Covey writes, “We must first seek to understand, and then to be understood.”
Have the Right Tools
Running a gym can be extremely daunting, especially if you are trying to analyze what is working and what isn’t. A business can not stay stagnant, and owners are extremely busy running their business, so looking for ways to improve can be difficult. Staff management, membership renewals, tracking your sales and marketing, analyzing meaningful data of profits, and accessing payment schedules and systems have a great learning curve associated with them. Spark Membership is the number 1 gym management software on the market. Try it out for just $1
