“It has been an exciting summer for Motionsoft. We were picked by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest growing private companies, and we have recently closed on a $5.5million round of funding by Edison Ventures,” said Mr. Noshirvani. “Being picked as a member of the 40 under 40 is icing on the cake.”

Read more: 40 Under 40 – Washington Business Journal

#1 searched athelte on Google…wonder why??!!

So what is Google Analytics (you know aside from the most awesomest thing in the world)? It is a free tool provided by Google that allows me to quantify and understand everything associated with our website. (Again, this is free! You should use it!) How many hits we had, how many were new visitors, which pages people visited most frequently, etc. The list goes on and on and on! And I have read, examined, and dissected every report. All in the hopes of being able to better understand what’s important to our customers and what we do! And I can tell you, I have. Easy to use, actionable reporting is incredible. (And FYI, our software features reporting too! Just not web analytics.)

Within this deep dark world is a section on keywords. In essence, which words do people use to describe what they are searching for, and do we fit that bill? There is an important correlation between what they search for on Google and whether our site is part of the results. And quite frankly it’s fascinating. But it’s causing me to have a series of existential moments. I thought I knew who I was until I started to realize that I have no idea!

Motionsoft has always been a software company. We excel at it. We pride ourselves on having the best club management software in the industry. Our website was plastered with the words, we were proud of who we were, and what we did. But it turns out, there are 50 different ways to search for “club management software.” Like “health club management software”, “gym management software” and “gym membership software”, “fitness club management software”, “fitness management software”, and “health club software”. No doubt we are all those things, and when people typed it, they always found us. But the way you ask for it tells me a lot about who YOU are and what YOUR business needs to do.

But then it starts to get interesting. People start searching for much more specific items. Things like “web based gym management”, “health club billing”, “eft billing”, “gym billing software” or “gym billing services”. In a similar vein a lot of you are looking for “check-in-software” (and “checkin software”, and “check-in software”). As a side note we had someone find us who was looking for “checkin checkout software”. (And for the record we do allow your members to leave after their workouts so check-out is applicable). No question about it, we are web based, we do billing and we can help you check-in (and checkout) members at the front desk. So this makes sense to me.

Then there are the people who combine items. Like “health club billing software”, “club membership billing”, “club check-in software”, and “gym scheduling management software.” Motionsoft does lots of these things, you guys are looking for things, so this makes sense too.

And don’t forget about the guys looking for free stuff. “Free club membership & facility management software”, “free online club management”, and “free gym membership software.” We like to think we have the right solution at the right price, but it ain’t free!

But here is why it can be really funny? We get odd search terms that led people to our site like “preteen elite”, “tweeners”, and “greg justice corporate office.” Greg, I don’t know you but someone is obviously looking for you and for some reason they think we are hanging out together!

It used to be that by being first in the Yellow Pages, you could increase your business (AAA Plumbers, AAA Mortgage, and AAA Dog Walker”) Today its all about search and search results and keywords. And whether its online or in the real world, if you want people who are looking for gyms to find you, make sure you know what they are looking for.

And FYI, my favorite search term that led someone to our site has to be “Hossein Noshirvani divorce”. I have to ask myself does Google know something I don’t know? Or did my wife know, with my new addiction, it was the only way to get my attention?

Motionsoft spans local, nationwide and worldwide fitness enterprises. Their core club management, payments services and marketing software automates membership retention and recruitment. Clients include health clubs, corporate and hospital based wellness centers, and universities such as Equinox, Gold’s Gym, Starbucks, Mayo Clinic and Duke Fitness Center.

Gary Golding, General Partner, led Edison’s investment process. Tom Vander Schaaff, VP Analysis, and David Nevas, Business Development Associate, conducted Edison’s due diligence. Gary Golding and Edison Director Network member, George Pappas, joined Motionsoft’s Board of Directors. Pappas is VP Sales and Marketing for Edison portfolio company, Presidium.

“Edison’s strategic counsel, growth experience and value-added resources will be instrumental to our success as we continue our expansion,” commented Al Noshirvani, CEO, Motionsoft.

“Motionsoft management team are respected domain experts,” stated Gary Golding. “Motionsoft achieved impressive growth and repeated customer renewals,” added Tom Vander Schaaff.

Edison invested in 17 healthcare information technology and 19 customer relationship management businesses. Active portfolio companies include Cadient, ClearPoint, DiagnosisONE, Fishbowl Marketing, Health Market Science, iContracts, Portico, and Verilogue. High return exits include CambridgeSoft, Contact Software (ACT!), Dendrite, Innaphase and International Telesystems.

Edison made 14 investments in Maryland including LogicTree, Notable Solutions and Regent. Successful exits include Axent, NFR, Skills Bank, Visual Networks and Vocus.

About Edison Venture Fund
Established in 1986, Edison partners with entrepreneurs, service providers and other financing sources to build successful companies. Edison provides capital and value-added services to late stage ($5 to 20 million revenue), information technology businesses. Initial investments range from $5 to 10 million. Edison typically serves as the sole or lead investor. In addition to providing expansion capital, Edison funds management buyouts, recapitalizations, spinouts and secondary stock purchases.

Edison’s investment professionals are based in Lawrenceville, NJ, New York, NY, Needham, MA and McLean, VA. Industry specialties include application software, communications, financial technology, interactive marketing, and healthcare IT. Edison’s successes include Best Software, Gain Capital, Liberty Tax, Marcam, MathSoft, POMS, Princeton Financial, Virtual Edge and many other information technology leaders, which have a combined market value exceeding $5 billion. Edison Venture currently manages over $600 million and actively making new investments. www.edisonventure.com

“Put it on the Underhills…”

Fast forward twenty years. I’m still not a member of a country club but I do belong to a gym (and yes they do use our software). And like most gyms they have a small pro shop (you know locks, socks, and batteries) and a juice bar. And nothing gives me more joy and happiness then walking up, ordering my blueberry smoothie with a protein shot and rather then paying cash, or check, or money order (which I save for ordering my Time Life Books), I simply give them my member ID and they charge it to my account.

There are risks for gym owners who allow members to charge items to their club account and then bill them at the end of the month. The biggest risk is that the member has no intention of paying for the things they buy and at the end of the month you are stuck holding the bill. So how do you overcome this?

Now, most club management software offers some variation of club accounts but since this is my blog and they have no sense of humor (Paul I kid ‘cuz I love) I’ll focus on some of things our software can offer our client to protect them.

First, it’s important to be picky about who and how much credit you extend. As with anything, start small. Pick members who have been with you a long time. Extend credit limits that are manageable. Start low, maybe $40 a month…and be wary of anybody charging things to the Underhill’s account (Fletch fans, anyone?).

Second, be picky what you allow to be put on a club account. I would suggest you stay away from service items (personal training, message, etc) and focus more on products initially.

Third, when you’ve reached a point where you have a good handle on the account process (i.e. you feel comfortable with everyone taking a chit) it would be time to extend larger amounts of credit, and to more people!

Finally, one item that we do offer in our software is the ability to finance high ticket items. Rather then selling a 4-pack of personal training, consider selling a 48-pack and make the member give you a down payment of maybe 20%. Again the goal is to get members to spend money AND remain members.

If you want to learn what NOT to do with credit, may I suggest a call with any bank that got caught up in the housing crunch?! In the meantime, you can find me at the snackbar eating my French bread pizza, happy as a pig with chit!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/20/AR2010082005109.html

http://bloggerschoiceawards.com/blogs/show/98716

To understand Apple’s phenomenal growth, you have to go back in time to the early 80’s. A time when men were men, and sheep were sheep! I’ve always said you can’t finish a marathon in the first mile. Apple realized early on that PC’s had the benefit of a head start. To have an opportunity to catch them would take time and effort. They made a strong and early push into the education market by giving discounts to teachers and students. They knew if they could get these young, early adopters they would grow up and be the buyers of their products down the road. Don’t get me wrong, there were plenty of missteps along the way but they stuck to their strategy and today the same 10 year olds who used Macs, are today buying up iPhone, iMacs, and subscribing to iTunes in record numbers.

The health and wellness industry should stand up and take notice. We need to invest time and energy in making sure the next generation of kids grow up knowing how to make healthy decisions, and the value of an active lifestyle. There are a number of ways we can do this

Carving out space for a kids club is a great start. Even though most owners acknowledge that operating a Kid’s Club is at best a break even endeavour, by providing a safe environment for parents to bring kids, we are making it possible for parents to workout and be healthy and hopefully pass on those traits to their kids.

But we need to take it to the next level (turn it up to 11 if you will!) Until recently most Kid’s Clubs that I visited were filled with video games (Wii is a good start but let’s get real its not a replacement for the real thing.). A rare double parenthesis: (That being said, I will take on anybody in Wii tennis!) This seems to me to be sending a mixed message! We should provide an opportunity where they can interact with equipment AND have fun. We should be providing classes where parents and kids can workout together. We should be investing in our future members!

From a technology standpoint, Motionsoft offers a fully-integrated Kids Club module.. It allows you to create safe environment where parents can feel comfortable dropping off children while they get-in their workouts. It is easy to use, fully-integrated, and allows you to keep medical and emergency information on file for each child.

Should. Should. Should! It’s easy for me to talk about what we should be doing to mold these young minds and bodies when you are trying to run a business. YMCA’s and JCC’s have historically done a great job in providing services to our young members. Tell us what you are doing in your club that targets kids…

Funding in Motion
“This morning, we headed out to Silver Spring to meet with a brother tandem, Al and Hossein Noshirvani. They tell us their 80-person ERP software company, MotionSoft, is days away from signing a term sheet with a venture capital firm. Not bad considering just two years ago the six-year-old company was just 12 people…” Continue reading the full story here:

http://www.bisnow.com/washington_dc_tech_news_story.php?p=9811

The way some people guard their weight you would think it’s a matter of national security. This holds true for men and women, young and old, thin and fat…as soon as they get an accurate weight (in some cases this process can take hours as they want to get it down to the ounce), they do a quick peek over each shoulder to make sure nobody saw, then quickly slide all the weights to the left, step off, take one more furtive glance to make sure there are no passerby’s who may have seen the results, and then calmly walk away…only to have the next person step up and do the same.

In my gym we have one shared scale, for the men and women, that is conveniently located just outside the locker room doors. Convenient for me, unbelievably inconvenient for all those worried about finding their weight plastered on the front page of Yahoo!. (That’s an odd way to end a sentence…yahoo! already has an exclamation point at the end of it but I just wanted to end that sentence with a period…).!.!.!

I think you all should consider building a special room just for the scales…I would call it “The Scale Room”. It would be conveniently located in each locker room and it would afford people the opportunity to weight themselves in complete and utter privacy! And if necessary, they can even strip so that they can get super accurate measurements.

If not The Scale Room, I would propose something like a truck weighing station where as people walk into the locker room, there would be a large digital readout with their weight…sure you would lose the privacy but can you think of anything funnier then people hopping, skipping and jumping over the scale to avoid weighing themselves!!

All kidding aside, there are a number of things you and your staff can do to help people reach their goals. Some of them will generate revenue (personal training) and some will JUST generate good will (like reminding them to weigh themselves!) As for me, you can find me stripping down and jumping scales at the old truck stop! (Wait…that doesn’t sound as good as I originally thought.)