The children are not our future.

August 23, 2012
Categories: Member Acquisition

And the sky is red. Water is dry. And if you believe all that then have I got a bridge to sell to you. So why have I decided to make fun of our industry this week. Because I’m sick of making fun of myself. But mainly because nothing irritates me more than short sightedness. Want to know why no matter what we do, we still can’t get more than 17% of the population to join a gym? Let me tell you why…

Because you all are short-sighted (perhaps I already covered this in the first paragraph). I know insulting our customer-base, twice, isn’t the best way to make you consider using Motionsoft as your club management software but sitting up here on my high horse, it’s just painfully obvious. I don’t see any significant investment in children fitness.

After 10 years, here is what I have learned about kids and our industry:

1. No club makes money on child care. They all consider it a loss leader to get the parent (or a way for the owner to have some undeclared income!)
2. Because it’s a loss leader, it’s hard to justify making an investment of time, money, space or resources in child care.

And you wonder why as percentage of the population we can’t seem to get above the mid-teens? Call me crazy but kinda makes sense to me. Let me explain. (I warn you the next few paragraphs are going to be graphic so read at your own peril.)

Kids learn from their parents. Whether it’s religion, or politics or fitness. Our parents have a lot of influence on us. Which explains why we CAN’T grow the pie. We keep talking to the same group of people. Let me put it another way. It’s your damn fault.

The people who are members today likely had parents who exercised. It’s pretty friggin linear people. Don’t think that because exercise is good for you that they will join. If we only did stuff that was good for us then there would be no fast food, cigarettes, alcohol, or high heels (On that note, wedding invites should come with shoes optional since it seems every women I know takes off her shoes.)

I’m also a realist. You can’t make massive investments in children’s fitness. It has to make business sense. And if we want to grow the pie, we need to think about it both tactically and strategically. Next week we are going to make the business case. Or we will go down in flames trying. Either way it will either be informational or educational. A no-lose situation. Unlike fast food and high heels.