Management
Inspired Business, Part Five: Staff Buy-In
At an inspired fitness facility, people are encouraged and motivated to generate a “positive vibration.” This business model makes members feel special, and it motivates people not only to join your facility but also to thrive in your fitness community. What happens when your employees are treated as well as your members?
How to Cope With Change
Change is inevitable. Organizations restructure, fitness facility ownership turns over and managers come and go. Although change can be positive, for many people the mere thought of it breeds anxiety and fear. During times of job stress, productivity declines; in addition, the rumor mill ramps up, morale may deteriorate and valued employees may look for other opportunities. As a manager, you are responsible for guiding employees through these potentially difficult times.
Transparency: The New Standard for Business Success
Many top business executives have shucked common practice and opened their books and boardroom doors to create greater company transparency. Can this emerging business standard really lead to greater financial success?
How to Take the Stress Out of Performance Reviews
It’s annual review time again, and you feel the tension in the group fitness studio. Regardless of experience level, instructors tend to become anxious around “judgment day.” It’s a nerve-racking experience to have a supervisor watching your every move and jotting down notes.
5 Steps for Inspired Customer Service
Implement proven guidelines that boost positive attitudes and sales.
Mobilize Your Personal Training Staff
The fiscal year is coming to a close, and you have a chance not only for a successful final push but also to connect with your personal trainers in a way that inspires them. Use the following tips to build a cohesive team, empower your trainers and, ultimately, sell sessions.
Direct Mail: Now Fitter Than Ever
During my decade of experience in marketing, I’ve seen a lot of failures—and many more successes. With the Internet, the art of fitness marketing is more complex than it once was. However, many of the basic principles still apply.
Increasing Professionalism: Building Relationships
As a fitness professional, you are in the relationship business. Just as the food you eat fuels your body for exercise, relationships are the fuel that feeds your business. But growing your business requires more than having strong interpersonal skills with your clients. Your business success is also influenced by your relationships with your colleagues and competitors. For example, cooperative marketing efforts and co-promotion can help your business grow. Also, solid business relationships can help you work through personal and professional challenges.
[subhead] Prioritize
Inspiring Your Part-Time Staff
One of the most challenging aspects of fitness management is inspiring part-time staff to remain focused and invested. Many part-time fitness jobs are mundane, and even the most motivated staff member can feel unappreciated after folding endless stacks of towels or repeating the facility rules time yet again.
Fitness Facilities Get Creative
Fitness industry revenue may be up (see “Fitness Industry Booms”), but that shouldn’t stop facility owners and managers from finding creative ways to draw new business and keep current members inspired. Here are some unique ideas for driving traffic, courtesy of HealthyWages.com:
The Anatomy of an Effective Outsourcing Plan
When you decided to become an independent exercise entrepreneur, you had a core focus and a vision of how you would help your clients. But overnight you also became the accountant, janitor, customer service department, blog writer, fitness manager and CEO—all rolled into one.
Team Development: Keeping Your Team Positive and Engaged
When your dream team is happy, their attitudes are positive and they are friendly, open and welcoming. The team members get along and they take time to engage with participants and members.
Team Development: Refining Your Dream Team
Your team is on a winning streak. Then your alarm clock goes off and reality hits you. Your team might not be so dreamy after all.
But your dreams can become reality if you find ways to draft the right people onto your team and then retain them.
Team Development: Re-Inspire Your Staff
When employees feel uninspired, they don’t think about how to improve the systems at their facility. They aren’t interested in sharing their great ideas, and they don’t care about really engaging their clients.
Empowered Employees Perform Better
Want to improve productivity among your employees? Empower them, says research published in the Journal of Applied Psychology (2011; 96 [3], 485–500). The study’s purpose was to study “antecedents and behavioral outcomes of employees’ perceptions of organizational support for development.” Analyzing data gathered from 264 exempt-level employees and their supervisors, the study authors found that participation in training courses, interaction between supervisors and employees, and mentoring were associated with improved perception of employee support.
Developing Exceptional Teams
It struck me in the coffee shop. I was having my weekly mastermind meeting with a fellow business owner. I was sharing a book that I highly recommended, and I told him that I had given a copy to each of my managers. After my friend skimmed it, he asked why I would gift it to my staff. He explained that he didn’t want to encourage his staff to dream bigger. They might get inflated egos. They might demand more. They might leave.
Don’t Be That Manager: High-Pressure
Many personal trainers are promoted to manager or director solely on the basis of their success as a trainer and not necessarily because of their management skills. Now it’s your turn: You are the new personal training manager. You’re finding out how different being the manager is from working with clients on the floor.
Staffing for Success
The high turnover rate among fitness industry staff is not news. In many cases, staff seem to be coming and going through a revolving door! Having a high-end fitness center with fancy amenities, décor and equipment is ideal, but if your staff is unable to meet client expectations, you will struggle to maintain memberships and meet your revenue goals. The good news is that your facility doesn’t need to operate like this.
Group Fitness Attendance Survey Results
Have you ever wondered how much foot traffic your group exercise programming brings into your facility? Global fitness company Les Mills has released survey data from the world’s top fitness facilities, centered on measuring accurate group fitness attendance:
Of the clubs that participated in the survey, the average club had 676 group fitness attendances per week. The top 20 clubs had an average of 3,880 attendances. The top 10 attracted on average 4,656 weekly attendances.
Serving Your Base & Looking for Opportunity in Special Populations
The 16th annual IDEA Fitness Programs & Equipment Trends survey was distributed to member club owners, fitness directors, managers and program directors in order to gather information on current programming and equipment offerings and to gauge industry trends. As club owners and directors have continued to hurdle the challenge of a down economy, they have been forced to get creative with staffing, space, equipment and programming so as to meet the needs of a diverse clientele demanding more economical fitness solutions.