The secret to running a profitable club is…

May 21, 2010

You think I’m gonna tell you in the first paragraph!!?? Ohh heck no, I’m gonna make you read the whole blog and this isn’t one of those 140 character, twitter, what’s your status, and what’s on your mind entries!! This one is almost four whole paragraphs long! My 7th grade English teacher would be proud!

That said, there is no magic elixir for making a club successful. Sure they will tell you it’s the real estate, or the lack of competition but the real secret is…good club management software with complete billing solutions. Ok maybe it helps but that’s not the secret either! I’ve actually managed to boil it down to four items, feel free to post comments on additional rules!

Without further ado here is how you make money in the gym business:

1. General cleanliness – If I need to explain this one, you would be better off changing professions.
1. The corollary to this rule is love thy gym members and carry a big…lock cutter!
2. Longevity of staff – Good operators invest in good staff. Good staff invest in your members, good members stay members and refer more members and so goes the circle of life…
1. The corollary to this rule is for every two hundred and fourteen thousand six hundred and twelve eighteen year olds you hire for two dollars and fourteen cents an hour you will lose six members.
1. Put in numerical terms: 214,612 * 18 * $2.14 = -6 (this corollary is also knows as gym math aka I did 6 reps @525 pounds).

3. Working equipment – It’s not as much about abundance (though that helps) but rather making sure what you have is maintained and well-kept. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is for a member to walk in only to see their favorite piece of equipment unusable.
1. The corollary to this rule is the member is no happier regardless of how witty the sign on the machine is!
4. Parking – It sounds weird but someone who is about to come into your club to run 20 miles on a treadmill really doesn’t want to walk an additional 50 yards!
   1. The corollary to this rule is that the same people who just ran 20 miles will then walk out the door, get into their cars, go to the drive-through window order a double super sized biggie hamburger with cheese AND A DIET COKE! I’m not here to make sense of it, simply to report it!
   1. This one also has the extremely rare sub-corollary rule which states if you are following all the rules above, parking will be difficult AND you (and your staff) might actually be doing a good job!

Follow these simple rules, and get a second job as a barista in Starbucks (by the way a client of Motionsoft’s) and within 40 years you should have just enough money to retire!

As I have always maintained good gym operators are 50% maids, 50% accountants, 50% HR, and 50% police officers and for good measure 62.756% mechanics!

Now can you please spot me while I break my personal record for chest press! 526 pounds!