From fee to free: transitioning our group exercise structure?
I own a small (400 member) 24 hour health club and we have charged for classes since the day we opened 5 years ago. In celebration of 5 years we are considering switching to free classes. Our reasoning is to increase the number of paying members, increase the size of our classes (currrently we have about 4-6 averaging in every class) and broaden our market base. Our current class goers love the classes and feel they are a great value, but we are competing with the free classes at our local Y and the fee based boutique classes at the smaller gyms in town. Doing so will result in a 15k per year drop in revenue for us which is super scary! (That 15k could be recovered by signing up 26 new full price members.) Has anyone ever had experience with this? Are we crazy? Any advice on how to implement this successfully?
Hello Caryn Moxey,
You have worked very hard to be in a good place; do not undermine your worth/value. You may be able to decrease prices somewhere but increase elsewhere to have balance so you do not lose revenue on the bottom line.
Competition may not be necessary if you offer a different environment which sets you apart. Try to be the solution to something that is missing at “your competition.” Free may not be the best choice.
A business manager may be the best person to contact right now.
Take care,
Natalie aka NAPS 2 B Fit.