Residential Fitness-How to motivate residents
Hi, I wanted to ask if there are others out there that have a Residential Fitness gig? I signed a contract with an amazing Luxury Apartment home that has an unbelieveable fitness center and yoga room with an opportunity to provide bar classes. My contract also allows me to bring folks that do not live in the building. People just started to move in the middle of May. The building is now 85% occupied. I put a survey out to see what they would like offered in terms of fitness classes or other wellness services but I only had 11 people fill it out. Many residents I talked to seem excited for the classes but when it comes down to it I only get 2 or people making the classes. Most of these people are at a higher position in thier job and work long hours. I really want people to get excited about classes, one on one training, nutrition coaching etc? I was thinking to do a fitness fair but that requires money. WIll it be worth it. At this time the building pays me to do 2 fitness classes and 1 yoga class a week. How do I get folks to come to those classes and pay for other fitness class packages. Again I can open it up to the community. I don’t even pay for rent.
Does anybody have experience with this or creative thoughts to get this moving?
We offered a free Barr Class to the community and residents. We had 8 RSVp and everyone canceled. How does that many people cancel. We never offered a Barr class before.
Ariadne has some good points. A few things to keep in mind is that people tend to move from one apartment to another during the summer months so this could have an impact on the number of people learning about your services and committing to them. The other thing to think about is that just because you offer these services as a perk to the residents it doesn’t mean they will just jump aboard right away. It takes time, consistency and a lot of promoting and advertising for the classes and services you offer.
You can ask the apartment office to give you those times that the gym gets the most people in. There are certain times in the day where their gym attracts a larger number of residents. There must be a system in place where they can track how many and when they visit the fitness facility. This will help you to plan better for any classes you want to offer and spend more time at the gym to do some networking and promoting. The office of the apartment complex is your best ally here. You should ask them to keep sending out newsletters reminding the residents of the classes you have in place. Always include a small bio so the residents will become more familiar with you and feel more comfortable to come down and participate in one of your classes and/or use your 1-on-1 services. Another way to go about this, is to include your information as part of their welcome package to their new residents.
You could also offer some informational workshops about nutrition and other fitness related subjects open to the residents and to the rest of the community if you like (since you can bring people in there even if they are not residents). Use the apartment’s FB page (if they have one) to do some social media advertising and new connections. Of course you could start one on your own as well. You can also begin a boot camp for the residents either early in the morning or in the afternoon. Keep the hours consistent. The word will spread very fast in a small community like that. You have a great thing going on in there so just be patient. If you build it they will come ;-)!
Best,
Harris