Leadership/Management
The Ongoing Dilemma: Specialize or Diversify?
How do you determine which products and services will attract your ideal clientele? Determine your optimal path by addressing five fundamental guidelines.
5 Financial Gaffes Fitness Professionals Make
As a CPA, I’ve noticed patterns in how people manage money and taxes, and I’ve developed a list of the top five mistakes fitness pros make.
Pushing Remote to Keep Momentum
Business during the current restrictions might seem impossible, but here are ways you can continue to engage your members and help them achieve their goals!
Reopening Playbook for the Fitness Industry
Bill McBride, co-founder, president and CEO of Active Wellness, advises fitness professionals on safety as they reopen their businesses.
Managing Your Studio’s Reopening in a Pandemic
As studio owners begin resuming business and welcoming clients back, they’re faced with a new fitness landscape that’s not the one they left months ago.
Career Questions? Enter the Mentor
A mentor, a wise pro who has gained experience from real-life lessons, can share secrets for future success in the fitness industry.
Top Entrepreneurial Skills for Success, Part 2
If you’re considering becoming your own boss, you owe it to yourself to do the groundwork that will ultimately be the foundation for your success.
Introducing IDEA® World Club & Studio Summit Virtual: Innovation, Education, Connection
Innovation is the key to success in an ever-evolving world, and at no point in recent history has this been more important than now. For the first time ever, the IDEA World Club & Studio Summit will be available in a virtual format so that you can access all the top strategies and best practices you need to secure a lucrative and lasting future for your business—all from the comfort of your club, studio or living room. Over the course of 2 days, the best in the business will be on-hand live to share their strategies for success and to help you overcome the challenges you face now and develop the resilience to face them in the future.
5 Steps to Cleaning Your Fitness Business in the Wake of COVID-19
Now, more than ever, your clients will expect the most thorough cleaning strategies to help them feel at ease when they finally start to return to your studio or gym.
Managing Capacity for COVID-19 at Your Fitness Business (While Protecting Revenue)
Many fitness facilities are leading the way as they reopen. Here’s how they’re managing the capacity challenge post COVID-19.
How to Achieve Greatness
About 6 years ago, San Diego–based personal trainer Kevin Root opted not to attend the IDEA World Convention. As a newly certified professional, he felt the event could overwhelm him with information. It’s a choice he regrets.
“Looking back, I robbed myself of valuable hands-on experience and knowledge,” he admits.
Root, who splits his time between boutique studio Bird Rock Fit and a big-box gym, the La Jolla Sports Club, eventually decided that IDEA World was a necessary investment to progress his career. He attended for the first time in 2015.
How to Breed Staff Loyalty
Has your business experienced faster staff turnover than you’d like? Are you about to hire new staff? Do you want your fitness pros to remain loyal to your facility? You can beat the high-turnover odds in the fitness industry. The key is to find qualified pros who fit your business and then set them up for success, giving them specific training for their positions and clearly communicating your expectations. Consider the hiring and onboarding system I’ve developed over the past 8 years of running my own business.
What’s Your 2020 Vision?
Do you have a 2020 vision?
Do you have a clear view of what you’re going to do in the new year to grow your business even more?
As 2019 closes, it’s important to take stock. What can you improve to ensure a higher-quality customer experience and more revenue in 2020?
Let’s take a look at four areas that impact your business going ahead so you set yourself up to succeed.
Increasing Employee Diversity and Inclusion
As the health and fitness industry continues to evolve and grow, staff diversity and inclusion efforts are becoming increasingly important. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission mandates that job applicants and employees cannot be discriminated against “because of their race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity and sexual orientation), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information” (EEOC n.d.). However, making a conscious effort to diversify goes above and beyond following the law.
Discover what diversity means and what you should consider as you put together a diverse staff.
Three Ways to Keep Your Clients
You know the work it takes to get a new customer in the door. You’re spending money on marketing, time making sure your website listings are right, and energy on promotions and intro offers to get the word out. It’s not easy. But remember—it costs less to keep an existing client than it does to acquire a new one. Getting them to return again and again will help you keep your lights on and your business bustling! With that in mind, let’s look at three actions you can take to retain your clients.
How to be a Great Mentor
When considering how to be a great mentor, we should start with the knowledge that internships are a fact of life in the fitness industry.ll major degree programs related to fitness or exercise science require that students complete an internship prior to earning a degree. Colleges and universities want their students to have real-life work experience when they graduate. Internships help students discover their likes and dislikes; the work also helps them to form professional relationships and to differentiate themselves from the hundreds of other recent graduates vying for the same jobs.
Is a Franchise the Right Fit for You?
A number of tried-and-proven options to attract new members and clients can help you grow your business without reinventing the wheel. You can join a franchise system, license the rights to an established brand or invest in instructor training to build a specialty business. Each option has an opportunity cost (what you might lose if you don’t choose the particular option), as well as benefits that you might gain. Among these choices, franchise systems offer many advantages.
Sexual Harassment and the Fitness Industry
One day, while stretching my client Jim, I was taken aback when I realized he wasn’t wearing underwear. His shorts were swim trunks with interior netting. I quickly looked away and continued to stretch him. This happened with Jim on several other occasions, but I never mentioned it because I wasn’t sure how to broach the matter. I also didn’t feel as if he was doing this intentionally, nor did I believe he meant harm.
Are You Ready to Sell Your Fitness Business?
Are you thinking about selling your personal training studio or fitness business? Your business is probably your primary source of income, and selling it will mean you’ll lose that annual income but achieve a one-time capital gain. Are you prepared for that? IDEA member Toby Davis, senior adviser at Sun Acquisitions, Chicago, shares the following tips for anyone preparing to turn over the keys:
9 Simple Ways to Keep Your Clients
The success of your business relies solely on your ability to attract and keep clients. Use these tips to enhance the client-trainer relationship so that you can focus more on providing quality service to your current clients and less on finding new ones.