Chris Cooper's Blog, page 12

The Greatest Sin of Staffing

Chris Cooper laid out the Seven Deadly Sins of Staffing earlier this week—and you can get his guide by sending him a DM.

Here, I’ll dig into what I consider to be the greatest staffing sin of them all.

The Sinful Plan: Seeking Salvation Through Abdication

Coop’s list of deadly sins:

Creating vague rolesBeing unclearGiving too muchOver-promotingHiring in desperationKeeping people too longAbdication

For me, the last one is the worst—but it’s also incredibly common. Coop’s committed this one, and so have I. I bet you have, too.

Here’s the scenario:

A busy, overworked entrepreneur finally accepts that he must offload work to make time to build the business, so he hires someone. He lays out clear roles and responsibilities and shows the new person the path to advancement.

The owner onboards the new person and—with relief—steps back.

Everything is holy and pure at this point.

The overworked, grateful owner gets home for dinner with the family and has time and energy to start working on the business instead of in it.

The staff member has a job and clear expectations.

The sin: The owner then moves on to other tasks and completely abdicates responsibility for the staff member’s continued success and development. He assumes little additional contact is needed after the onboarding period and doesn’t think to check in, provide feedback or offer mentorship.

Sins of abdication produce two common results:

1. With a dedicated staff member, things go well for a while, but inevitably a problem crops up. When the abdicating owner finally notices the issue—usually on a bad day—he pulls the thread and then finds about five more. Then he gets angry, puts on his “no one can do it like I can” pants and wades in to fix everything at once. The staff person—who is trying very hard—feels frustrated because the laundry list of mistakes becomes the focus, and a much longer list of wins is ignored. She gets back to work with reduced motivation or starts planning an exit.

2. With a less-than-dedicated staff person, the abdicating owner might return to find a complete bills-not-paid, clients-leaving, plugged-toilet disaster. The owner is furious, and, in some cases, frightened because the business is wobbling. All trust has been washed away, and the owner and staff person are at odds, often permanently. The staff member will start making excuses to cover up for a lack of attention, and the owner will start micromanaging or stripping away responsibilities. The resolution comes when the staff member is fired or quits.

In both cases, the owner is pulled back into the role to some degree and no longer has as much time to build the business. In the worst-case scenario, work hours skyrocket and he’s missing dinner again.

The Solution

To avoid all the trouble, an owner only has to build in a little time to mentor a new staff person.

If given regular opportunities to ask questions and receive feedback, a dedicated staff member can quickly learn how to avoid errors and do things the way the owner wants. If an owner checks in on a mediocre staff member, the entrepreneur has a chance to bring the person in line before disaster strikes—or the owner will learn that the person must be reassigned or fired.

It’s not micromanagement. It’s mentorship.

If you abdicate all responsibility for their performance, staff members won’t succeed. It’s impossible.

But with regular check-ins, you can provide the feedback and guidance that will allow great people to thrive, and you can shape good staff people into great ones. You can also identify and correct hiring mistakes if needed.

So here’s a question for you:

When was the last time you mentored a staff member?

If you don’t have an answer, check in with someone today and set up a meeting. If you don’t, you’re abdicating, and it will cost you dearly at some point.

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Staffing Nightmares: What One Gym Owner Did to Fix the Chaos

To watch this episode on YouTube, click here.

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How I Saved My Gym: Part 2

In the first post in this series, I shared the story of how I nearly lost my gym in 2008—and the 12 steps I took to fix it.

You can read that blog here.

But fixing a business once doesn’t mean it stays fixed.

After a decade of growth, I made the mistake of thinking the puzzle had been solved. And then, in 2023, I found myself in the same spot again—except this time, I didn’t want to fix it.

I’m glad I did. Here’s how I repaired the business.

The 10 Steps I Took to Fix My Gym (Again)

1. I cleaned up. I stripped the office and repainted. I tore out old lockers. I hauled truckloads of stuff to the dump. I needed to get rid of that distraction so I could focus on cleaning up the business. I went hard for a full weekend.

2. I addressed my decaying staff playbook. I opened up the document I’d written in 2009 and last updated in 2015.

3. I broke down every job in the business anew. I updated our checklists for everything. I deleted outdated processes and added more videos and pictures.

4. I put those checklists into a master playbook. I shared a copy with everyone on my staff and told them to tell me when they’d read it.

My kids grew up but my staff playbook didn’t. I had to change that.

5. I called my staff together for breakfast and we walked through the playbook together. The staff members were actually relieved to have structure instead of trying to “figure it out” for themselves.

6. I updated contracts and evaluations—some team members were new and had never had either. They were all relieved to have a clear picture of how to do their job well; they no longer had to guess.

7. I started buying my way out of the managerial job again. We already had a cleaner this time, but I hired a coach to take over lead nurture. I signed up for GLM and got us a new website. I put her through the training to message leads and get them booked.

8. I reinvested the money from those new clients into training my staff to do the No Sweat Intros. When two of them were closing above 70 percent of their appointments, I gave one of them some other managerial duties.

9. I built an annual plan to make sure I had revenue coming and then hired a general manager to execute the plan and the playbooks. They didn’t have to invent anything; they just had to keep turning the crank on the machine I’d built.

10. I met with the GM every month to go over the financials and mentor them on growing the gym. They used the same Simple Six process we use to mentor thousands of gym owners worldwide. Catalyst became a successful client of Two-Brain.

Business Virtuosity and Mentorship

If you compare this process to the steps I followed the first time, you’ll notice that they’re almost identical. But the second time, I was better and faster.

And this led to a big lesson for me: The key to fixing a gym is doing the most important stuff better, not in chasing the new stuff. In other words, the key is pursuing business virtuosity.

The strategy to running a successful gym doesn’t change much. The tactics shift a little—Hyrox and TikTok and all that new stuff—but they sit atop solid systems that can last for decades with a little maintenance.

The other common thread through all of this was mentorship.

First, I needed a mentor to tell me what to do first (and, let’s be honest, to hold my hand through the hard parts and hold me accountable through the boring parts).

Then I needed a mentor to help me see what was possible.

Then I needed a mentor to keep me focused (“Keep building the gym instead of starting five other companies.”).

Then I needed a mentor to help me pivot out of the gym.

Then I had to start mentoring my staff—or get them a mentor through Two-Brain. (I love that last one—that’s what I do now.)

The first mentor I had was a teacher.

The second mentor I had was a guide.

Now the mentors I use at my gym are like business coaches: They keep me focused on improving the systems I have, and that’s what grows my gym.

Here’s the truth, though: No business is ever “set it and forget it.” You start turning the wheel with a lot of effort. You have to steer it in the right direction. And you have to keep the wheel in motion. You have to adjust course sometimes—and if you don’t, you have to pull it out of the ditch.

But it is possible. Though I’ve had plenty of “$13-days”—when I’d have sold the whole thing for 13 bucks—I’m glad I didn’t.

I’m glad I own a gym—even if it’s a different gym than I started with and even different gym than it was a year ago.

If you need a mentor to help you save your gym, book a call here.

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How I Saved My Gym: Part 1

My gym will be 20 years old in September.

We’ve helped thousands of citizens of my city, we’ve employed a couple of dozen people, and I’ve had a fantastic career.

But many times I thought about quitting entrepreneurship and getting a “real” job, selling and getting out, or even just giving up entirely.

Running a business is hard, and twice I’ve had to tear apart and rebuild the business to ensure its success.

Here, I want to give you a clear, numbered list with the exact steps I took to fix my gym the first time, back in 2008.

The 12 Steps I Took to Fix My Gym

1. I first had to accept that being the best trainer didn’t make me a good business owner. This is called “the entrepreneurial myth,” and one of the first books my new mentor had me read was called “The E-Myth.” This was a critical step because I had to fix myself as I fixed the business. You just can’t fix your business without fixing the owner—or it won’t stay fixed for long.

2. I broke down every job in the business. I wrote a checklist for everything. This brought some consistency to how it ran. It didn’t make money, but it got me some brain space and freedom from chaos.

3. I put those checklists into a master playbook. This became a living document that ran the business, and I no longer ran it out of my head.

4. I called my staff together and said, “Here’s how Catalyst will run.” There was a bit of debate on fine points, but after a two-hour meeting, we were all aligned on how groups would run and how the bathrooms would be cleaned.

5. I added contracts and evaluations. This was uncomfortable, but it gave everyone an objective picture of how they were actually doing—and then they started doing better.

6. I bought myself some time back. I started with the least expensive role: the cleaner. While the first cleaner did his job, I sat at the desk and sent a marketing email to my clients. I made $400 in the first night.

7. I reinvested that money into hiring another coach for the morning classes. While she coached, I reinvested that time into setting up automated billing, refinancing my debt, writing a blog and other high-value work. This is when I came to understand “working on the business instead of in the business.”

8. I started planning out the year ahead to make sure I had revenue coming during the low periods. I remember saying “I am never going to live through an August like ’09 again” and building out hockey camps.

9. I learned how to read a basic financial document: a profit-and-loss statement. That made me feel like my hands were finally on the steering wheel of my business; it was no longer just “happening to me.”

An old pic from an early incarnation of my business. The gym had to evolve—and so did I.

10. I fixed my rates. That was painful. I’m grateful that no gym owner has to go through that alone, like I did. (Our mentors create airtight plans for clients and offer constant support; I would have killed for this back in the day.)

11. I dropped my lowest-value services (open gym) and fired my worst clients. I got rid of discounts. I focused on my best clients and started earning their referrals.

12. In 2012, I got on social media and began using it as an amplifier. With Facebook to get attention, an email list to keep attention, and a No Sweat Intro to convert people into members, I had a highly functioning funnel. And when I started asking for referrals, I had two good funnels.

Coming Up Next

My business was “fixed.”

My new mistake was thinking it would stay that way forever—that the puzzle had been solved.

Nope.

It’s not enough to put your gym on an upward trajectory. You must work to keep it there.

Tomorrow, I’ll tell you why I had to fix it a second time a decade later and lay out exactly how I did it.

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The “Saints of Staffing” Handle HR Like This

I’ve identified 7 Deadly Sins of Staffing in a gym, and I’ve laid them all out in a new guide to help you avoid HR issues.

To get it, send me a DM on Facebook—I’ll send it right over. It’s got some juicy stories and clear solutions so you don’t commit any of the 7 Deadly Sins.

Here, I’ll give you the other side: 7 Signs of a Virtuous Gym Owner.

1. You Get the Business out of Your Head

How many times have you said “he should know that” or “no one can do it like I can”?

This is a good way to pad your ego but a horrible way to deal with staff. If someone isn’t doing it the way you want and you haven’t laid out clear roles and responsibilities, the failure is all yours.

No one can read your mind or guess what you want.

To ensure staff members do what you want, tell them how to do it and show them what A+ performance looks like. This isn’t micromanagement; it’s providing freedom within a framework.

2. You Communicate Clearly on Time

I hate confrontation, and I bet you do, too.

That can cause you to avoid dealing with issues and use ineffective communication strategies, such as passive-aggressive comments. Another brutal plan: Calling an all-staff meeting to deal with something one person is doing (we’ve all done this).

Instead of bottling stuff up until you explode in a stream of criticism, deal with everything immediately.

Coach sucked in the noon class? Mention it a 1:01 p.m. Don’t wait for an evaluation in six months.

Cleaner skipping the rowing machines? Mention it when you notice.

Think of your gym like your hand: When you get a sliver, you try to get it out right away so you feel better. You don’t endure months of pain and start working on it well after the wound is infected.

Be direct and don’t delay when you must have a conversation.

3. You Don’t Keep Score

The “emotional bank account” is BS. Stop making deposits and checking the balance.

Nobody is running off your scoreboard. You might be tracking all the little favors, the exceptions, the times you helped someone out, but they are using a different scoreboard and saying things like, “They’re lucky to have me,” and, “This business would fall apart without me.”

Stop keeping score. Operate honestly and directly in every “transaction” instead of thinking about what’s “owed.”

This one is hard because every relationship has history. But if you focus on the past, you’ll probably screw up in the present.

4. You Don’t Buy Friends With Jobs

We create amazing opportunities for ourselves, and we’re thrilled to be successful, so we want to share that with people.

But our generosity and desire to help can set us up for emotional explosions down the line.

Don’t try to solve other people’s problems by creating issues for yourself.

We’ve all thought, “X could use a job, and I need a Y.” But is X really the best person for that role? If the answer is “yes!” then hire away. But if the answer is “maybe?” don’t try to force a friend to fit. You’ll lose the friend, the business will suffer, and you’ll lose sleep.

Hire the right people and promote the right people.

5. You Don’t Act out of Desperation

Overwhelm is real, and it’s common to hit a wall, scream “I need help!” and then hire the first semi-competent person you see.

But this any-port-in-a-storm mentality has consequences.

If you’re utterly drowning in work and can’t see your family, I won’t fault you for hiring desperately. But you might end up with an even bigger problem on your hands—like an angry staff member who’s tearing the business apart. 

Do me this favor: If you feel desperate, take an hour to have a chat with someone on my team. We can talk about a plan to buy back some of your time the right way. Then, after you have a little breathing room, we can talk about how to stay ahead with staff so you’re never desperate.

Gym owners who aren’t desperate make great hires who deliver incredible value to the business. In return, these sound hires have the opportunity to build great careers. Everyone wins when calm, calculated owners have hiring plans.

6. You Know When Time is Up

Staff members should be given every chance to succeed with your guidance—see below—but in some cases, you really have a people problem, not a process problem.

Getting rid of someone is hard, but you know what’s worse? Putting it off. It’s like doing the workout “Fran”: The longer you think about it, the worse you feel. It’s best to start the clock and just get it done.

Mentor your staff. Care for them. Correct them, guide them and lead them. But when all that fails, pull the pin on the relationship and move on for the good of the business and your clients.

7. You Mentor Staff

You are the leader in your business, and that means you have to lead your staff.

You can’t just hire and vanish.

You are responsible for your staff members’ continued success, and if you stay in contact with them, answer their questions, correct their mistakes, and help them develop and ascend, your business will thrive.

If you wash your hands of everything and only connect with staff when something is on fire, you will have a lot of stress and a fragile business.

Sins and Solutions

Staffing is the biggest and most important investment you’ll ever make because staffing is what gets you leverage in your business.

Once you’ve got a working, well-defined model, you hire staff to run that model, not to create their own ways of doing things. You’ve already solved the problems for them. The key is teaching them how to run your model, giving them feedback on how well they’re running your model, and then replacing them when they’re not running your model.

I’ve given you 7 Signs of a Virtuous Gym Owner to help you stay clear of chaos.

But if you’d like to see what the other side looks like, I have seven sinful scenarios in my new guide, plus seven solutions.

To get the “7 Deadly Sins of Staffing,” send me a DM!

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The 7 Deadly Sins of Staffing That Kill Gym Growth

To watch this episode on YouTube, click here.

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The Simple, Sure-Thing, 24-Hour Marketing Plan for Kids Programs

“If I gave you one day to sell all the spots in a six-week kids program, what is the first thing you would do?”

I asked Two-Brain’s top gym owners this question in advance of the summer revenue slump that affects too many gym owners.

Fitness entrepreneurs have a lot of ways to avoid revenue drops in June, July and August, and Chris Cooper rattled off a bunch of them in a recent video.

A kids program is, to me, the absolute best option.

Here’s how Two-Brain’s top gym owners would fill a program for young ones in just 24 hours.

“Hit current members and your email list with the offer very clearly stated: ‘Here are the dates. Here’s the cost. Limited spots.’ Add a quick blurb on the benefits and then tell them to respond with ‘IN’ if they want a spot. I would then call them right away to lock everything down.” (On Facebook, four other gym owners left comments to say this plan is A+, and seven others tapped a like or love onto it.)

“Contact members directly and mention ‘early bird pricing’ to end at end of the day. Add $40 to the cost for the following days.”

“Reach out to current clients with kids who fall in the age range of the program. If you can get some from there, ask them to invite a friend or two. Current clients already know, like and trust you—hit your warmest leads first.”

“I would use a two-pronged approach. 1. highlight a list of current members with kids and send a DM to each one directly, ideally using each kid’s name. 2. Market on the local Facebook group for parents—that’s how we signed up 20 for our program in six weeks.”

“Text current members with kids before sending all members an email blast.”

“Contact current clients with kids.”

You’ll note a few things:

Each gym owner pointed to “current clients” as your starting point.No gym owners mentioned paid ads.All gym owners mentioned personal comms, such as call, text or DM.

So here’s your starting point:

Go through your member list and highlight every parent.Call, text or DM each one and quickly lay out the exact details of the program and the spots remaining.Mention their kid or kids by name and ask if the parent would like to sign them up.Consider using tiered pricing to encourage early birds to sign up “today,” but do not discount the program. Ensure early bird pricing reflects value, and increase the rate slightly after that period ends.

You’ll get a bunch of signups, and you might even sell out the program. If you don’t, or if you want to add and fill another session, here are your next steps:

Ask members who commit for referrals: “Does [KID’S NAME] have any friends who would want to join this program?”Ask members who expressed interest but couldn’t commit if they know other parents who would be interested in the program.Send the exact details of the program to everyone on your mailing list.Post about the program in local Facebook groups for parents.

That’s a very simple but very solid marketing plan, and if you use it today, you’re going to sell out your program without spending a dollar on ads.

The beauty of it is that you are fishing in your own well-stocked pond. Your members already know, like and trust you, and if they have kids, your summer program will help them solve a big problem: “How do we keep the kids busy when they’re not in school?”

The plan also gets you access to the “parents’ network.” Each parent you contact likely knows about 20 or 30 other parents with kids. If you ask for referrals—don’t hope for them; ask for them—you will get some. And then you can ask those parents for referrals as well.

Real-world results: One Two-Brain entrepreneur implemented this plan right after I asked gym owners for their tips on starting a program. He reported back: “7 spots sold. Starting next week. The whole program is clients’ kids, and then their siblings signed up when I asked.”

That’s seven spots at $170 each sold with zero marketing costs, for a total of $1,190—and counting.

Call Parents Today

If you have nothing on the calendar for summer right now, get a program for kids on the rails. Keep it very simple, and don’t overthink it. Just set up a basic four- or six-week block of training.

Then use the marketing plan listed above.

If you do, your program will be sold out in no time.

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No More Summer Slumps! How to Fill the Gap With a Kids Program

To watch this episode on YouTube, click here.

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Slump Busting: 6 Steps to a Stellar Summer

“Summer revenue was bad.”

I’ve heard this way too often.

If you don’t want to say it in 2025, the time to act is right now.

Not next week or next month.

Today.

To help, I’ll tell you exactly how to launch a program for kids at warp speed.

Step 1: Set Prices

If you’re not sure where to start, call the local gymnastics studio and the best local martial-arts school. You should be priced at least the same as gymnastics programs and much higher than martial-arts training.

Do not price your kids programs at the same rate as your adult programs. In a specialty program, the value of your time should always be higher than it is in a regular class. You are creating a special program with limited space. That costs more. Review what the average client pays per class in your adult program and charge more than that.

Step 2: Determine Age Groups

You do not have to offer a program for every age group—but you can. If you’re just starting out, target the age group that includes the greatest number of clients’ children and smash it. It would be better to have one packed program than three sparse programs.

But you can offer programs for three distinct groups, which makes programming easier. Remember, teens and tots define “fun” in different ways.

Here are splits that worked well at my gym:

A “tots” program for ages 5-8.A junior varsity program for ages 9-12.A varsity program for ages 13-16.
Step 3: Create a Schedule

The best times for kids classes during the year: around their school hours (late afternoon). When they are out of school, you have much more flexibility—but kids can’t get to the gym themselves. So talk to your top clients with kids and ask them what time slots would be ideal. Saturday slots were always a smash hit at my gym.

Remember this when planning: Younger kids need shorter classes. Older kids can handle a full hour if you include a break after each part of the session. Consider this plan:

8 and younger: 30-minute classes.9-12: 45-minute classes.13 and older: 60-minute classes.Step 4: Hire a Coach

Find a coach/program manager who:

Is hardworking and energetic.Is excited to build something on your platform.Sees the long-term value of coaching kids.Has been or can be mentored to develop a long-term vision for your program.Communicates well.Can pass a background check (this is not optional).Has an appropriate credential (we recommend The Brand X Method).

Pay the coach a maximum of 44 percent of program revenue (4/9ths). The coach is responsible for creating the programming and delivering the lessons. I won’t dive into that; you already know how to create great fitness programs.

Step 5: Fill the Program

You have a host of options here. I’ll lay out some sure-thing tactics to get you started:

Personally speak to every current member with children. Let them all know about the program and ask them if you can sign their kids up. You can often sell out a program just with this tactic alone. But use it now; parents plan months in advance. If you ask in June, they’ll already have Sam and Sarah enrolled in other programs.Ask members with kids to put you in contact with other parents they know, or ask them to post about the program in groups they are in. For example, hockey parents know about 20 sets of hockey parents, and they all need summer activities for kids.Announce the program through your content platforms: blogs, YouTube, podcasts, social media.Post about the program in your private Facebook group and in local groups for parents, events, products and services, etc.Send a newsletter announcing the program to your mailing list.Ask every person who registers a kid to connect you to other people who might be interested: “Thanks for registering Sam! I really want to surround your kid with the best children. Do you know anyone else with great kids, and can you put me in contact?”As spots fill up, post about it to encourage people to act: “Only five spots remaining in our summer program for kids! Sign your children up today!”

You can, of course, run ads to promote the program, but I want you to move very fast here and make money, not spend it.

If you have 150 clients, I bet at least 40 percent of them have kids. Of those 60 members, would 10 sign a kid up for your summer program? I’d bet money that they would. Hit the easy button: Talk to your current members today.

Step 6: Start Now

This high-speed plan will work. If you implement it, you will add summer revenue.

If you dither, overthink things, spend too much time on programming or scroll Instagram instead of acting, you will not generate any revenue, and you will be at risk of a summer slump.

Do this right now: Go into the gym and ask the first parent you see if they’d be interested in signing their kids up for a summer fitness program. Then say this:

“Great! I’ve got a new program on deck, and I’ll lock down your spots. I’ll get all the details to you tomorrow. In the meantime, do you have any friends who might be interested, too?”

Then follow the steps above to get your program on the rails.

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Summer Revenue Slumps Are Optional: 5 Surefire Tactics

“Summer revenue slumps are inevitable.”

Ever said that?

Many gym owners have because they know June, July and August are months in which:

Many clients take time off work—and the gym.Many clients travel for vacations.Weather is nice and people skip workouts in favor of beer on the deck.Kids are out of school.Routines get disrupted.

You can’t change any of that stuff, but you can create new opportunities instead of bracing for impact.

I’ll give you five ways to do that, plus a tip.

ProTip: Change Your Schedule Quarterly

Attendance patterns change throughout the year. So you’ll want to change your schedule to serve clients better and ensure you don’t have empty sessions.

If you always adjust your schedule quarterly, clients will come to expect it, and changes won’t be jarring.

Here’s how to do it: “Changing Your Schedule.”

Tactic 1: Pre-Sell a Fall Engagement (Now)

People don’t quit or hold memberships if they’re working toward a clear goal—so ensure they have something on the calendar, such as a September in-house competition, a fall specialty program or a nutrition challenge.

Start selling registrations today. If you do, you’ll generate revenue that will buffer any summer declines, and members will be far less likely to skip workouts or cancel memberships.

Sample wording: “’Sign up now, train all summer and compete in September.

Prompt to help you get started: What’s one thing you could put on the calendar for September that would get your clients excited today?

Tactic 2: Add Seasonal Offers for New and Current Clients

It’s a mistake to think “summer is dead in here so I won’t do anything special.”

Summer might be dead because you don’t do anything special.

Here are three ideas for seasonal events:

Couch to 5k Program

Market to beginner runners and people outside your gym.Sell in-person group coaching and a remote option for members on the road.Build relationships with local run clubs or race organizers to connect with new audiences.

Summer Bingo

“Gamification” can create a fun retention play: “Complete these tasks over the summer and win a prize.”Example tiles: Attend class three times a week, bring a friend to a workout, try a new skill, post a sweaty selfie on Instagram, etc.

Summer League

Create team-based fitness games for July and August.Keep it light and social but include a competitive twist. Example: Tuesday Time Trial, in which members do a run, bike, ski or row piece and receive a ranking—and a prize.Charge a small fee for participation and offer team shirts or prizes.

Prompt to help you get started: What would make your gym the place to be over the summer, even when people are tempted to drift away?

Tactic 3: Capture Extra Revenue With Offseason Athletes

When sports teams are in their offseason, you have a golden opportunity to help members get fit and perform better next year. Strike when the iron is hot: Market strength and conditioning to youth teams or athletes whose seasons just ended.

Depending on the timing in your area, prime sports include baseball, soccer, hockey, volleyball, basketball, track and field, and cheer.

Pay special attention to “school sports” that have loyal participants who can’t compete in summer. For example, in some areas, basketball season ends in late spring, so summer programs for the hoops crowd can be a huge win. But you can also target older athletes, such as rec-league hockey players who’d like to be ready for fall.

A clever twist: Offer a remote training option including workouts, accountability check-ins and nutrition tips.

Here’s a big bonus: Summer sports programs allow you to build long-term relationships with parents and local sports clubs. You might be able to create a very strong revenue stream or referral network.

Prompt to help you get started: Who in your local community could use help this summer, and how can you reach them this month?

Tactic 4: Give Clients a Summer Prescription

Don’t just hope clients stay engaged—give them a plan.

I love this two-pronged approach:

If they’re staying home, focus on attendance goals and a progress plan.If they’re going away, shift to a remote option or a vacation workout plan.

Hang your plan on Goal Review Sessions. Make sure they have goals for the next months, then supply the plan to keep them on track. Frame this as helping them stay consistent, not trying to sell them more stuff.

Prompt to help you get started: Are you asking your clients what their plans are this summer—or are you just waiting to see who disappears?

Tactic 5: Vacation Plan—Don’t Lose Them While They Travel

Vacations are unavoidable—but they don’t have to cause a cancellation or hold.

If clients will be away, say this: “’Here’s how to stay on track while you’re away.” Then provide:

Body-weight workouts or workouts using minimal gear they have access to.A vacation workout checklist, which can also include non-exercise activities so they score wins when they hike, kayak, swim, etc.An optional text check-in or weekly accountability email.

Remember, remote coaching is better than zero engagement. A plan like this shows you care enough to go the extra mile and ensure your clients keep moving toward their goals, even if they’re enjoying some time away.

Prompt to help you get started: How did one of your clients stay engaged on vacation and avoid backsliding to come back to the gym with momentum?

The Summer Slump Is Optional

The summer slump is only inevitable if you do nothing.

I’ve given you five simple, high-reward tactics here. If you’re proactive, you can preserve revenue in summer and even increase it. Yes, I’ve seen focused gym owners create impressive revenue streams with summer programs.

Pick one of these strategies and put it into action this week.

Then look ahead to 2026 and take action so your summer slump becomes a summer surge.

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