Clubs & Studios
5 Traits of the Best Fitness Instructor
As a group fitness manager, you may already know who your best fitness instructors are. However, you’re lucky if you see your instructors once a week, especially these days, and there’s probably no way to monitor every…
Creating a Fitness Class Family
As group exercise instructors, we can get wrapped up in creating
choreography, choosing music, cuing effectively and teaching proper
technique. While all these aspects are important, we sometimes lose
sight of the overall picture and miss the opportunity to connect with
participants.
Fitness Classes for Everyone
Fitness classes abound and it has never been easier for movement-hungry people to find a workout experience that appeals to them.
Hiring Checklist: Find the Best Talent
There’s a checklist for every task, it seems, even if it’s purely mental. However, when it comes to hiring the best group fitness talent, it’s important to formalize a checklist so that you cover all…
Transform Your Fitness Facility
The traditional fitness facility has typically been viewed as a place to work out and play sports in order to change one’s physical appearance. However, this has shifted. Wellness—which includes physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellness—has become the buzzword of the decade, and today’s fitness facilities have begun offering a myriad of services, hoping that people will view these locations as the local wellness center. To cover the full wellness spectrum, however, you need to combine forces with other health modalities.
With Gyms Open, Are Clients Ready?
With many gyms open again—some after long closures—IDEA put three questions to five fitness pros from around the country: Are you now operating at full capacity? How are clients adapting as they return to the gym?…
How To Create a Workout Community
As we return to the group exercise studio, it’s good to remember how a workout community not only brings us together, but helps us thrive.
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 Make First-Time Gym Clients Feel Welcome
Your gym should be a welcoming space.
First-timers should feel comfortable—and wanted—walking in and working out or taking classes.
Not only is being welcoming an important part of the human contract, but it’s doubly important for your business. First-time customers, of course, can become repeat customers and even members. Making sure their first experience at your gym or studio is positive is important for your bottom line.
How to Prepare for Shopping’s “Busy Season”
As the holidays approach, so does the three-day Super Bowl of Shopping.
Black Friday (Nov. 29), Small Business Saturday (Nov. 30), and Cyber Monday (Dec. 2) are all circled on any good bargain-hunter’s calendar.
Enticing them can mean a chance to bolster your retail sales. AND, if you present the right deal, you can earn a customer who will return again and again.
Get Out of the Red!
Is your fitness business not performing as well as you’d like? Maybe your fitness facility is experiencing too much turnover, so you’re constantly training new staff instead of taking time to grow your business. Or perhaps your clients are leaving, and you’re losing money because of it. Challenges like these are tough for a business owner. The good news is that you can turn things around. The first step is to determine exactly what your problem is. The second step is to create a plan for change.
Get Your Fitness Business Ready for the Holidays
Whether you’re getting your first frost warnings or temps have dropped from 100 degrees to a balmy 95 where you live, summer is just about over.
That means it’s time to plan for the holidays at your fitness business and the ensuing new year’s rush.
2019 IDEA® World Convention: Igniting Passion With Purpose!
Purpose, passion and people! The fitness industry is all about forging relationships that lift others up. Fitness professionals have energy to spare, and they are dedicated to mentoring new generations of pros, networking with peers, and motivating clients and participants every day.
Transforming Your Fitness Facility Into a Wellness Center
People originally viewed fitness facilities simply as places to work out and play sports in order to change their physical appearance. However, this has shifted. Wellness—embracing physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health—has become the buzzword of the decade, and today’s fitness facilities have begun offering a myriad of services. To cover the full wellness spectrum, however, you need to combine forces with other health modalities.
Career Advancement for Everyone
Thousands of fitness professionals consider the IDEA World Convention to be the best investment they can make to further their careers. That’s largely because the event delivers robust, multilevel education covering all facets of the industry. But there’s more to it than that, according to fitness industry veteran and this year’s IDEA Jack LaLanne Award recipient, Jay Blahnik.
3 Tips to Create Rapid Change in Your Business and Get Out of the Red
If your fitness business is struggling right now, then this is for you. I am going to share with you my three tips to create rapid change in your business and get out of the red. First things first, let’s agree on the three ways to make money in your business. The first is to cut an expense. The second is sign up a new member. And the third is to sell a current member something new.
The Instructor-or-Influencer Challenge: Social Media and Fitness Instructors
Exceptional group fitness instructors are influential. But is their influence an outcome of great instruction or its origin? When group fitness pros apply for a job, practical teaching skills and knowledge of exercise and movement top the list of “must-haves,” so what about social media influence? Is it relevant? It’s becoming more commonplace to judge group fitness candidates on their social media presence, but should this be the case?
Ignite Your Passion and Watch Your Career Thrive at the 2019 IDEA® World Convention
You’re a forward-thinking, highly skilled professional who works tirelessly to Inspire the World to Fitness®. After hustling for clients, teaching countless classes and paying bills, the question is, what do you do for yourself to make sure the passion that drove you to become a fitness leader continues to burn bright?
Build a Better Club or Studio
Whether you’re the owner of a large gym, a small-studio entrepreneur, a mobile personal trainer, or a yoga or Pilates specialist, a basic tenet of keeping your edge sharp with clients is to shake things up frequently enough that they (and you!) don’t get bored. Certainly, that means changing your programming regularly, but it also means looking at your equipment with fresh eyes and considering some new tools for experimentation—all while being judicious about your budget.