As a gym owner, you can expect to run into some challenges with running your gym. In these challenges, you build experiences and, gradually, learn which mistakes are most common and how to avoid them.
Thing is, some of mistakes can have serious consequences and as such it’s better to avoid them.
For instance, one common mistake gym owners make is not employing an effective gym management strategy for profitablity and growth. Here are 4 common mistakes gym owners and how you can avoid them.
Not Focusing on Pre-Sales
There are several costs involved in maintaining a gym. From rent to employee pay to equipment repairs and insurance costs, the expenses are bound to increase without a solid plan.
Typically, in the first few months after you open your new gym, sales are going to be slow. Whatever money you do make will most likely go into settling these startup expenses.
The best method to deal with this problem is to develop a strong pre-sales plan by pre-selling memberships. That way you have enough income (as well as members) flowing in as soon as the gym opens.
Here’s a helpful article about how to develop a pre-sales strategy for your gym.
Trying to Mimic a Trainer’s Thought Process
A common desire of personal trainers is to one day operate their own gym. While this is great, running a gym and being a personal trainer have their differences. As a gym owner, you run a business and thus can’t afford to spend too much time coaching clinets. Training clients is the job of a personal trainer.
Abandoning your primary responsibilities – managing payroll, creating marketing plans, e.t.c. – can lead to poor gym management, causing sales to plummet. It can be disorienting, and even painful to leave clent training behind, but it’s necessary.
You need to be able to comfortably swap planning client HIIT workouts for creating a staff shift roster.
Not Having a Retention Strategy
Retaining gym members should be one of your priorities as a gym owner. The cost of getting a customer is always higher than retaining an existing one (Invespcro).
Therefore, it’s crucial you give more attention to your old and existing members as they contribute a higher percentage of revenue to your business.
You can increase your gym’s retention rates by:
- Establishing a reliable onboarding procedure
- Engaging your members through several ways (in person, email, social media, etc.)
- Ensuring your gym facility has all the equipment members need
- Rewarding loyal clients
Disregarding Marketing
When promoting your gym and attracting new members, a well-planned gym marketing strategy is important. Your strategy should include a variety of marketing tactics, from email marketing to conventional print ads.
Additionally, you can conduct comprehensive research on your competitors to learn more about their effective fitness marketing campaigns. With adequate research on your competitors, you can avoid wasting resources on strategies that are ineffective for your target market.
Final Thoughts
Although making mistakes as a new business owner is inevitable, you can save yourself a lot of stress by knowing which mistakes to avoid. Before opening a gym, it’s important that you do your homework, listen to podcasts and read blog posts by reputable gym owners.
The internet is replete with lots of resources that can help you successfully run your business. Also, with the tips shared in this article, you know which mistakes to avoid as a gym owner.
