I Learned This After 8 Years Of Owning A Gym

I have owned an Anytime Fitness gym for over eight years.

The revenue is up about 50% since I purchased the club for $550K.

Someone offered me $1M to buy it last week.

Here are some of the things I have learned. They apply to any business.

1.) Recurring revenue is king. For this reason, I care a lot about anything that affects churn. Our average member stays for about 2.5-3 years.

2.) Consumer behavior changes at a gradual pace. When Covid-19 hit, everyone thought gyms would go away. We got shut down for months. Workouts from home and Peloton became the threat. We have come back stronger than ever after Covid. Don't think that one event will change customer behavior instantly.

3.) That said, embrace technology. Regularly test and improve your IT infrastructure. Anytime Fitness spends millions on a key fob access and security system. It enables 24/7 access to 500+ gyms worldwide for millions of members.

4.) Add-ons, freebies, and upsells are king. We offer personal training and supplements at an extra cost. This increases the lifetime value of customers. We use freebies (heart rate monitors and body composition scans) to incentivize these upsells.

5.) Go premium. We cost 2X more than the other gym in town. Anyone who enters the door sees the difference at once. Do the basics. Clean gym. Friendly staff. New equipment.

6.) Sell online. Instant prices and online sign-up. Make it easy for people to give you money!

7.) The Franchise Advisory Board helped improve the Anytime Fitness system after Covid. The Franchise Advisory Board is a group of elected franchisees. They give advice to the franchisor and vote on new initiatives. This inspired me to start a Franchise Advisory Board at Augusta Lawn Care. We started a Customer Advisory Board at Copilot CRM. Get feedback from your customers. Listen. It will hurt, but it will pay big dividends if you can swallow your pride.

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