Management
The New View
About 30 years ago, the first wave of
group fitness instructors (known then as aerobics teachers) got their start in
an industry yet to be defined. Many of those people are still teaching and
training, yet as the industry grows and changes, continuing to shape itself,
the need for a steady influx of teachers is evident. Since the world of fitness
is radically differ…
Hiring a Business Manager
At some point many personal training entrepreneurs decide they need assistance running their business. Are you trying to balance everything—training sessions, employee issues, business and financial matters, building and supplies, etc.? If so, it may be time to make a change. If you are at a juncture in your business life where you are feeling overwhelmed, stagnant, disorganized, fr…
Create a Positive Corporate Culture
Retention, membership, sales, customer service–these terms are used frequently when describing the various aspects of running a successful fitness facility. One term not heard as often, yet of equal importance, is corporate culture.
Guiding New Instructors
As vice president of GoodLife Fitness
clubs in Canada, Maureen “Mo” Hagan, PT, still teaches group fitness, inspiring
200 participants per week in her classes. She also travels to several new club
openings a year, introducing hundreds of members to group fitness programs. She
combines her passion for group exercise and her intere…
Leadership Through Service
As studio owners and managers, we understand that part of being a leader is knowing the system, following and enforcing the rules, and providing support and guidance for those we manage or supervise.
Cohesive Training Courts New Instructors
As the fitness industry grows and ages, many people have noticed a gap between “veteran” instructors, who have been teaching for 10 years and longer, and “newbies,” group fitness professionals who are just getting started. This has led many to voice concerns over the future of group exercise. To address this issue, IDEA Fitness Journal began running a new column in January, highl…
Contributing Early
As the fitness industry grows and ages, many people have noticed a gap between “veteran” instructors, who have been teaching for 10 years and longer, and “newbies,” group fitness professionals who are just getting started. This has led many to voice concerns over the future of group exercise. To address this issue, IDEA Fitness Journal is running a new column that will highlight un…
The Uniform Question
Both the IDEA Personal Trainer Code of Ethics and the IDEA Group Fitness Instructor Code of Ethics urge fitness professionals to “uphold a professional image through conduct and appearance.” However, what type of clothing helps fitness professionals project the right image? Some owners and managers believe that providing uniforms is key…
AEDs Required in California Fitness Facilities
It’s been 3 months since all
fitness facilities and studios in California were required to have an automated external defibrillator (AED) program in place (the implementation date was July 1). If this requirement applies to you, are you up to code? If you don’t live in California, visit www.ncsl.org/programs/health/
aed.htm to see if your state
requires …
Effective Ghost Managing
If you are like a lot of program directors, you manage people you rarely see—or who rarely see you. This makes you a “ghost manager.” The biggest challenge in being a ghost manager lies in connecting with and motivating your staff. Ghost managers can be responsible for 30 or more instructors who work about 1–3 hours per week, and for 50-plus time slots on the schedule. Most instructors teach pa…
Dealing With Divas
Regardless of their locale, schedule or
member profile, group exercise programs
share one thing in common: the diva factor.
The “diva” instructor is one of the
most difficult to manage. She presents
herself as “untouchable” and doesn’t see
the big picture. She refuses to uphold the
mission of the program or club and is far
from being a supportive team player. She
sees just one pi…
Meeting the Chain Challenge
When health club chains
announce they are coming to town, what happens to the business of local, independently owned facilities? How can any small business compete when its resources and staff are dwarfed by those of larger outfits? Is there any way to prepare or to level the playing field when dealing with such formidable competition?
Be Prepared
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Creating Members for Life
Ask the managers of any gym, personal training studio or other fitness-based business what their biggest challenge is and you are bound to hear “member retention.” Getting new members is easy—keeping them is more difficult.
Holding on to members for the long term is a special science, one that makes you think about how you approach every aspect of your business….
Professionalism in a Service Industry
In the first two articles of this five-part series, I discussed …
Building Corporate Culture
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Face-to-Face Time: Meetings With a Purpose
Why do most people dread attending meetings? It’s largely because meetings can be poorly organized and not thought out well. Many people perceive them to be tim…
A Measure of Success
When working with clients, we all understand the importance of setting goals, and most of us go through the process of examining and re-examining clients’ goals on a regular basis. However, when it comes to our own lives and businesses, it’s often a different story.
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Don’t Forget the Job Description
If you’ve ever asked an employee to do something pertinent to her job only to have her counter, “That’s not in my job description,” you know how important it is to outline the position in advance. According to the United States Small Business Administration, job descriptions provide the foundation for job training and future evaluations and should include the following b…
Risk Management: Is Your Club Compliant or Complacent?
As we usher in a new year, it is important to recognize the pressing need for all fitness facilities to remain compliant with established industry standards. Failure to achieve such compliance can expose you and/or your club to costly legal liability.
With so much on their plates each day, it is understandable that many fitness managers fall into a state of complacency, failing to ta…
Don’t Cancel That Class!
Recently I was faced with the biggest challenge of my professional management career. I had just posted an exciting, eclectic group exercise schedule boasting 75 classes a week. Many were specialty offerings, such as yoga, aqua arthritis, cycling and senior fitness. Then calls began to pour in from instructors telling me they’d be unavailable. Six of them were going to be away in th…