Chris Cooper's Blog, page 55

How Top Gyms Get Clients: 4 Funnels for the Win

Reading our 2023 “State of the Industry Guide” will tell you how gyms get more clients.

For example, turn to Page 15 and you’ll see that 49.1 percent of gyms were running ads in August 2023, 83.1 percent were using social media to attract clients and 73 percent were using Affinity Marketing (referrals). Interestingly, 7 percent were using only ads.

The best gyms in the world use all of these things. And they do it nonstop.

The biggest flaw in the marketing plan of most gyms that aren’t growing: The owner doesn’t have a plan. They try something once and then let it drop.

They meet 10 clients, ask for referrals and then never do it again—even if they successfully obtained referrals.

They spend $100 on Facebook ads, and if the first attempt doesn’t land, they say “Facebook ads don’t work for me” and give up forever.

They post on Instagram every day for a week but don’t interact with their followers and never build momentum.

They try ChatGPT to generate a blog post or two but don’t build an email list, and they stop publishing after two weeks.

Now compare this to the gyms with the most clients.

None of them are perfect marketing machines, but all of them:

Have a clearly defined funnel they can draw for you on a napkin. Or two funnels, or three, or four.They feed the funnel every single day, even if it’s just for 30 minutes.They track how well their funnel is working every week (or at least every month) and fix the leaks. Some work with an ad agency short term, but all of them work a mentor long term.

How do we know? Because we track their numbers with them. We watch to see what they do.

Every month, we publish leaderboards that rank the top gyms in various critical categories. Then we ask the best gym owners, “What are you doing differently?”

We publish those interviews on our podcast sometimes, and we update our materials for Two-Brain gyms all the time.

Four Essential Funnels

We build four funnels with Two-Brain clients now: first a referral funnel, then a simple social-media funnel, then a paid-ads funnel, and then a content funnel.

We build them one at a time: We make sure the referral funnel is working before we start building the next one. One solid funnel is better than two funnels that are just kinda working.

We keep each funnel going all the time. We don’t take a one-and-done approach with any of them.

We track how well each funnel is working every month.

This might sound like it’s the full-time job of a professional marketer. But really, funnel management takes about two hours per week once they’re set up.

The top gyms in the world aren’t owned by marketing experts anymore. They’re owned by coaches like you and me, who understand that virtuosity—consistent execution of the basics with skill—is the secret to progress.

It’s not about the newest or the most secret marketing strategy. It’s about paying attention to marketing, having a plan and having someone else look at your metrics with you.

To book a call with my team, click here.

The post How Top Gyms Get Clients: 4 Funnels for the Win appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Maximizing Your Fitness Business in Just 6 Steps

We’ve just published our annual “State of the Industry” guide. It’s a massive data set, with metrics from over 13,400 gyms worldwide.

But it’s more than a book of numbers: It can be a roadmap.

To help your business reach its full potential, follow these steps:

1. Track your own metrics—average revenue per member (ARM), length of engagement (LEG), clients, effective hourly rate (EHR), net owner benefit (NOB) and return on investment (ROI). (If you don’t know what these metrics are, I break them down for you on Page 4 of the report: get it here.)

2. Improve the metrics that are below average. For example, if you have an ARM over $205 but only 100 clients, grow your client base to 150 next. If your client base is 160 but your expenses eat up more than 50 percent of revenue, fix that problem next.

3. Bring all your metrics up to average before you focus on just getting more clients. Getting more clients doesn’t solve all the other problems. A big client headcount with low ARM is like trying to build your bench press without training your lats: You won’t have a foundation for growth.

4. Next, shoot for these targets: 150 clients, $205 ARM, 13-month LEG, recurring expenses that total less than 30 percent of revenue, EHR over $70, and NOB over $100,000 per year.

5. Then think about scaling up to 200 clients or adding a second location.

6. Finally, look at Two-Brain’s monthly leaderboards, where we publish the Top 10 scores for selected metrics (we track all of them). Aim to get on those leaderboards after you’ve achieved consistency in steps 1-5 above.

To make it easy, we’ve put the numbers on a chart. Measure yourself on this scale:

Maximizing your gym doesn’t mean having the largest footprint or the most clients or even the most revenue. Those are all indicators of success but not guarantees.

However, if a gym can get—and keep—150 clients for over 13 months while earning more than $205 per client on average, keeping fixed expenses under 30 percent of revenue, and holding staff costs under 44 percent, I know that gym will be successful.

Keep it simple, count your metrics and improve one at a time. This is the way.

To speed up the process, work with a mentor.

The post Maximizing Your Fitness Business in Just 6 Steps appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

The Big-Money Play for Gym Owners: Retain Clients Longer

We published a mountain of numbers in our 2023 “State of the Industry” report.

Here’s what will happen if you push some of your metrics beyond the average.

First, our annual report is free for gym owners. You can get it here.

In that report, we collected data from 13,444 gyms, we ran it through an independent statistician, and then we organized and analyzed the data for you. If you run a fitness business, our guide will help you make all the right decisions in 2024.

Here’s one of the first decisions I’d make after reading the report: I’d take steps to improve retention.

The industry average length of engagement is 7.8 months. That’s not good. For comparison, Two-Brain clients hold members for 20 or more months, on average, by using tried-and-tested retention tactics.

According to PushPress, the average gym gains 7.3 new clients per month, and it loses 5.3 per month, for a net gain of two clients.

If you found a way to hold onto just one more client per month, the effects on your business would be significant.

The Financial Effects of Retention

Let’s say you started using quarterly goal reviews—which have been proven to improve length of engagement (LEG) and average revenue per member (ARM)—and held onto one extra member each month. We’ll just assume the client who stays is paying the average group training price of $165. That’s $165 more revenue you get to keep.

But what if you went further?

Let’s say that member mentions frustration with double-unders in the goal review session, so you sell one personal-training session at $75. That client is now worth $240 for the month.

Maybe you follow Chris Cooper’s advice and schedule a retail presale for the end of the year. If the client buys a T-shirt for $30—and clients generally buy T-shirts—that client is now worth $270.

What if you are able to retain the client for three months, with this breakdown:

3 months of group membership at $165 a month.3 PT sessions (1 per month) at $75 each.1 December T-shirt sale at $30.1 January nutrition kickstart at $120.  

The total value there is $870.

Let’s say that client makes progress on double-unders and is thrilled at your next goal review session, so you put the same plan in place but focus on snatches in the PT sessions. The client stays for another three months and enrolls in an Olympic-lifting specialty program for $250, too.

3 months of group membership at $165 a month.3 PT sessions (1 per month) at $75 each.Specialty program registration: $250.

That’s $970 for the quarter, or $1,840 over six months.

I’ll go one step further. What if you ask the happy client for a referral at the second goal review session? The client gives you the name of a co-worker who can use help, and you book a No Sweat Intro. The co-worker signs up.

Intro package: $450.2 months of group membership at $165 a month.1 T-shirt at $30.

That’s $810 in new revenue. Add it to the first client’s six-month total and you have $2,650 over a six-month period—all because you prevented one client from leaving.

Positive Momentum

I won’t go further. You can already see how the value of a retained client can spiral if you set your business up properly.

You can do the math yourself to figure out what would happen if you saved two or three clients a month, held them for six or nine additional months each, increased the average revenue for each client, and earned a referral or two from each one.

I’ll just give you this stat: The average gym owner who filled out the Two-Brain Gym Checkup could have earned an extra $45,000 in 2018 just by increasing average retention by two months.

That’s just one example of how you can use numbers to improve your business and create the life you deserve.

Our “State of the Industry” report is packed with similar insight and analysis from Chris Cooper. The report is yours for free, and I hope you take the time to download it, read it and use it to build a world-class gym.

Here’s the link one more time: “State of the Industry 2023.”  

The post The Big-Money Play for Gym Owners: Retain Clients Longer appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

How Mentors Use Data to Guide Gym Owners

Our annual “State of the Industry” report gives you real knowledge you can use to make decisions.

In fact, all the numbers you need are in the guide. It’s is a source of truth, and it’s regarded by many experts and organizations as the best report in the entire industry.

You can have it for free: click here.

But what do you do with the numbers once you have them? Our Certified Two-Brain Mentors receive training on how to use data to help gym owners—and I’m going to help you acquire some of the same skills so you can use our annual report to improve your business.

1. Use the Numbers as Your Private Report Card.

The data in our report is presented in relation to the six key metrics you need to track: client headcount, average revenue per member per month (ARM), length of engagement (LEG), effective hourly rate (EHR), return on investment (ROI) and net owner benefit (NOB). (You can find the exact definition of each metric on Page 4 of the guide.)

First, compare your numbers against the averages. Are you doing better than average or worse with regard to a specific metric?

Given that the average gym owner has an NOB of $3,967, you need to be better than average to make a good career. But that number gives you a good starting point.

What can you do to increase your NOB? Look at the other metrics and increase those first—or hire a mentor. Two-Brain clients, for example, make $800 per month more than the average gym owner. That’s take-home pay.

2. Use the Numbers as Inspiration.

If you’re way behind in any category, that’s OK: We’ve shown you what the gyms ahead of you are doing. Just do what they did to get there and worry about passing them later.

We also publish leaderboards every month so you can see what the best in the world are doing. We even interview the leaders on our podcast, “Run a Profitable Gym,” and have them tell you exactly how they’re posting their industry-leading numbers.

3. Use the Numbers to Determine Your Next Best Move.

Compare your numbers to the averages in all six categories. If you’re about average, that’s a C grade. If you’re below average in any category, that’s a D. If you’re above average in any category, that’s a B.

Work on your Ds first. For example, if the ARM at your gym is under $150, fix that first. Increase your rates, add specialty programs, add an on-ramp—you have several options. Pick one and take action.

If your LEG is over 13 months, you’re above average; you don’t have to chase the next retention-boosting idea. Focus on something else.

If you have over 150 clients but you’re not making enough money, don’t focus on getting more clients: Focus on increasing client value.

And so on.

4. Use Your Numbers to Help Others.

Every day in our Gym Owners United group, people around the world chip in with tips and tricks. Often, I like to ask them, “Is this your experience or is it an opinion?” While both are valid, real experience is priceless.

If you’re outscoring the average in any category, help others by sharing what you’re doing. The best gym owners in the world do this freely.

5. Use the Numbers to Start Building Momentum.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed or absolutely bursting with ideas, or if you’re burned out and can’t seem to find time in the day, or if you feel like you have no control over your business, use the numbers to find the way out.

Start tracking your metrics in each of the six categories. Find ways to improve one metric just a small amount to start—for example, give yourself a $20-per-week raise. Even a tiny win will give you a bit of momentum. Over time, those wins compound. That’s how mentorship works.

Go Further Faster

To book a call with our team, click here.

Our mentors are trained to look at your numbers, find your best next step and hold you accountable for doing the work. Every coach needs a coach; our mentors help you win.

The post How Mentors Use Data to Guide Gym Owners appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

The Microgym Microscope: Additional Revenue Streams

Not everyone wants personal training. Or group training. Or nutrition coaching.

But some people want each of these services. And a few clients want all of them.

If you don’t offer them, clients might not join—or they might go buy them elsewhere.

Your average revenue per member per month (ARM) is the total revenue you collect divided by the number of clients you have. Some clients want more than the average client does, and the best gyms in the world give high-value clients these options.

For example, some people might want to do CrossFit, but not in a group. Some parents might want their kids to work out with their whole team. And some people might prefer to buy their supplements from their coach instead of the teenager down at the Gear Garage.

ARM is a measure of value: The amount of value you provide to your clients is reflected by the value they provide to you (in money). Below, you’ll see what the top gyms in the world do to help clients more and boost ARM.

Personal Training

Top gyms give their clients a 1:1 option. When paying for 1:1 training, a client is buying scheduling flexibility, customized programming and a high level of accountability. They’re also buying a relationship with the trainer.

Many of these clients don’t want to sign up for CrossFit groups or boot camps, but they do want to do high-intensity workouts. Many clients also want to start 1:1 in any new program, from CrossFit to Brazilian jiu-jitsu to Pilates.

On Page 35 of our annual State of the Industry Report, you can see that personal training accounts for a large percentage of top gyms’ revenue, regardless of sector.

If you’re a CrossFit, HIIT or martial-arts gym, personal training represents your biggest opportunity—it’s at least 4x more important than any of the other options.

Group Coaching

Almost all gyms offer some kind of group-coaching option. When priced appropriately, group training can be a good way to scale personal training. As an add-on option to an access gym, group training can guide clients with some coaching or even some novelty.

Gyms offering group coaching alone, though, usually have a low ARM because of competitive pricing pressure. The best-case scenario seems to be semi-private training (three to six clients training at once, paying personal-training rates and doing their own programs) or small-group training (up to six clients paying a premium but doing the same program).

Group coaching’s contribution to total revenue has declined significantly in the last two years. That means the same number of gyms are offering group training, but they’re getting more of their revenue from other sources than they were before.

Hybrid Programs

Hybrid packages are a combination of group training, online training, 1:1 training and nutrition coaching—all elements or just some. These programs are sometimes called “high-ticket packages,” but for many clients, they’re just a tailored solution that provides exactly what they need to get results.

Using the Prescriptive Model to solve clients’ problems provides an easy way to boost ARM: You just tell the client exactly what they need to accomplish their goals and add services together to come up with the price. Like everything else on this list, hybrid programs are for anyone but not for everyone.

Nutrition Coaching

A guided nutrition plan, accountability plan or diet fits here. Depending on their location and staff credentials, gyms can add short-term nutrition challenges or recurring memberships to their offer. However, the percentage of total revenue derived from nutrition coaching is small compared to that provided by other options.

Access

This is “open gym” time for clients, including key-card entry. While access-only gyms have the lowest ARM, selling “guided access” as an add-on is a growing ARM booster for personal-training, group-coaching and other gyms. The key is to sell it as an add-on instead of as an alternative to coaching. Give your clients homework to do instead of allowing free-for-alls.

Kids Programs

As a percentage of total revenue, contributions from kids programs declined significantly from 2022 to 2023. The exception would be in sports-training gyms (or “strength and conditioning” gyms), and in martial-arts gyms, which are shifting their focus toward kids more and more. Interestingly, coaching gyms that focus on kids (cheer, gymnastics, etc.) often have higher ARM than coaching gyms that focus on adults.

Supplements

While the same number of gyms seem to be selling supplements, a reduced percentage of their total revenue comes from these products.

For me, the value of selling supplements is really in providing my clients with quality options instead of sending them to see the teenager at the supplement shop down the street.

Honorable Mention: Over-55 Groups

While we didn’t break this revenue stream out specifically this year, many Two-Brain gyms have been noticing their over-55 groups are growing quickly.

At my own gym, this is a great demographic that reminds me of the early days of CrossFit: They all recruit their friends, they all want T-shirts and hoodies, and they all pay more than our average group rate. They’re also very fun to coach.

The Breakdown

Here are the revenue streams presented as percentages of total revenue in various gyms (note: the percentages sometimes don’t add up to 100 due to small input errors made by respondents to our survey, but clear trends are still obvious):

These numbers come from our “State of the Industry” report. We have data from more than 13,400 gyms in that guide, and the trends are clear:

Keep your group-training rate high.Add personal training.Possibly add one other revenue stream after those two are running well.

To get the full guide click here.

The post The Microgym Microscope: Additional Revenue Streams appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

State of the Industry 2023 Report: Chris Cooper’s Highlights

Chris Cooper (00:02):
As we put the “State of the Industry” guide together this year, a few things stood out that are very important to gym owners. I’m going to share a few highlights today, and you can get the full guide by clicking below. I’m Chris Cooper. This is “Run a Profitable Gym,” and I’m the founder of Two-Brain Business, the largest mentorship practice in the fitness industry. Every year, we collect data from 12 to 15,000 gyms around the world. We compile it all into a very simple-to-understand guide, and we send that to you for free. Today, I’m going to be talking about a few of the things revealed in that guide, and I’m going to be highlighting some of the key takeaways that I found this year while I was going through the dataset. Now, we publish this guide every year to arm you with real information. I want you to have information to help you make decisions about your gym instead of just trusting what people online are claiming or telling you or trying to sell you.

Chris Cooper (00:56):
Data tells us what’s really happening out there. Without data, everybody is guessing. So, here are some cold, hard truths about the gym business in 2023. First, expenses are going up a lot, and revenues aren’t going up and keeping pace. So, check out page 39 of the guide for a comparison of gym expenses in 2023 versus 2022, and then jump to page 21 for a comparison of revenues year over year compared to last year. Now, don’t skip page 22 because that’s where we show you the average Two-Brain gym revenues for comparison. Gyms who work with a Two-Brain mentor do a lot more in revenue, but they don’t have a lot more expenses. In fact, many have less. The second big takeaway this year is that staff are being paid more, but owners really aren’t.

Chris Cooper (01:45):
So, check out page 45 for a breakdown of the average pay per class, how many staff the average gym has, and what the highest paid member of staff makes. Then flip to page 47 to see what owners are making compared to last year, which is about the same—except for in Two-Brain gyms in which owners are taking home about $800 more per month than they were last year. Gyms are less dependent on group coaching revenue than ever. This is the third big takeaway. So, check out page 35 to see where they are making more money. Gyms are also smarter about their group coaching offerings, so they have a few great group coaching options, but they don’t have a dozen different options anymore. They offer fewer classes, but they have more people in those classes, which is great. So, check out page 23 to see how many classes the average gym offers now compared to last year and the most popular times worldwide. Then you can turn to page 36 for a very deep analysis on group coaching and where we think that’s going. Next, gym owners are doing more personal training, but less nutrition coaching and kids coaching than they were last year. So, turn to page 35 of the “State of the Industry” guide to see the trends in selling supplements, kids’ classes, nutrition, online coaching, uncoached access, and everything else.

Chris Cooper (03:02):
You can see what everybody else out there is doing because I know it seems like everybody else is doing everything and killing it, and maybe you’re not. Here’s the truth. Next, the average gym still has around 159 members. So, build your business model around 150 members first because at 150 members, the owner should be able to pay themself a hundred thousand dollars per year and pay a full-time staff person. If you hit those targets, then you can think about scaling to 200, 250 members, and you can see that whole breakdown on page eight. Now, one little tidbit hidden in the back of the “State of the Industry,”—and this is one of my favorites, so you should read all the way to the end; this is on page 59—are some of the trends that we see in the data as we go through it.

Chris Cooper (03:46):
So for example, gyms in Eastern Europe and Spain are enjoying that early adopter wave for CrossFit and HIIT-style training that we had in the States and Canada back around 2015. In Western Europe, they saw it in 2019. So, you can see this trend of early adoption marching from west to east. On the other side of the world, though, commoditization is ringing some alarm bells in Australia, New Zealand, and you know, moving westward into the Western U.S. now with low price group training entering the market from trusted brands like Nike. So, you’ve got some tidbits here; I hope you download the guide. It’s yours for free. It costs us probably about a quarter million dollars every year to build this because I just want to arm you with this knowledge. What do you do with the knowledge? Well, it’s up to you; it’s your gym, but you should do something with it.

Chris Cooper (04:36):
As Jim Rohn used to say, “Don’t let your learning lead to knowledge. Let your learning lead to action.” Now, the mentors at Two-Brain Business will never force a specific business model on you or tell you there’s only one way to do things, and you have to follow this exact recipe to be successful. It’s your gym. We’re going to teach you how to read a P&L and help you make decisions that will grow your gym to be the way that you want it to be. Now later on, in a moment or two here, I’m going to tell you how mentors use data to make decisions so that that can help you use this data too to make better decisions for your gym. Okay? But first, go ahead and download the full guide. It’s free to you. We use this data to help you make real decisions and actually grow your gym instead of just guessing or believing what everybody says in Facebook groups.

Chris Cooper (05:23):
Alright, so let’s talk about additional revenue streams because that was one of the big standouts from the guide this year. Not everybody that comes into your gym wants personal training, but not everybody who comes into your gym wants group training or nutrition coaching, but some want each one of these and some want all three, right? Some clients want everything. If you don’t offer these options though, clients might not join, or they might go buy the option somewhere else. Your ARM, which is your average revenue per member per month, is the total of all revenue that you collect divided by the number of clients that you have. Some of your clients want more than the average, and the best gyms in the world have these options available to them. So, for example, some people might want to do CrossFit but not do it in a group setting.

Chris Cooper (06:14):
Some parents might want their kids to work out with their basketball team, and some people might prefer to buy their supplements from their coach who they trust instead of the teenage bro down the street at the gear garage. ARM is a measure of value; the amount of value that you provide to your clients reflects and is reflected by the value they provide to you in money. So, here’s what the top gyms in the world do to help clients more and boost their own ARM: personal training. Top gyms give their clients a one-on-one option. When they’re paying for one-on-one, a client is buying scheduling flexibility, they’re buying customized programming, and they’re buying a high level of accountability. They’re also buying a relationship with the trainer. Many of these clients don’t want to sign up for CrossFit groups or bootcamps, but they do want high intensity workouts. Many clients also want to start one-on-one in any new program from CrossFit to BJJ to Pilates.

Chris Cooper (07:13):
And on page 35 of the “State of the Industry” report, you can see that personal training accounts for a large percentage of top gym’s revenue regardless of sector—even CrossFit, even group training. People want one-on-one. So, if you’re a CrossFit gym or a HIIT gym or a martial arts gym, this is your biggest opportunity—at least four times more important than any of the other options that I’m going to talk about. Group coaching: Almost all gyms offer some kind of group coaching option. When priced appropriately, group training can be a good way to scale personal training. As an add-on option to an access gym, group training can guide clients with some coaching or even some novelty. Gyms offering group coaching alone, though, usually have a very low ARM because of competitive pricing pressure. Best case seems to be semi-private training, which is three to six clients paying personal training rates at once and doing their own programs or small group training, which is up to six people paying a premium, but they’re all doing the same program.

Chris Cooper (08:15):
Group coaching as a percentage of total revenue has declined 26.7% in the last two years. That means the same number of gyms are offering group training, but they’re making more of their revenue from other places than they were before because of decreasing price pressure as well as offering personal training options. Hybrid programs are a combination of group training, online training, one-on-one training, and/or nutrition coaching. These programs are sometimes called high ticket, but for most clients they’re just a tailored solution to what the client actually needs to be successful. Using a prescriptive model to solve client’s problems, make this an easy way to boost ARM.

Chris Cooper (08:54):
You just tell the client what they need; you add the services together to come up with the price. That’s it. And like everything else on this list, hybrid programs are for anyone, but they’re not necessarily for everyone. Nutrition coaching is another option—a guided nutrition plan, accountability plan, or a diet. Depending on their location and credentials, gyms can add short-term nutrition challenges or long-term recurring memberships to their offer. However, the revenue that they get from nutrition coaching is small compared to these other options, and declining. Access is another option. So, this is open gym time accessible to clients through key card entry basically. While access-only gyms—people who only sell access like Golds and the Globo Gyms—they have the lowest ARM. Selling guided access as an add-on in a coaching gym is a growing ARM booster for personal training studios, for group coaching gyms, and some other types of gyms too.

Chris Cooper (09:54):
But the key is to sell it as an add-on instead of as an alternative to coaching. That’s a big screw up that I made early on. Give your clients homework to do on their own instead of just allowing these open-gym free-for-alls. Kids’ programs are another way to boost ARM. This category was down significantly as a percentage of revenue from last year. The exception would be in sports-specific gyms or strength and conditioning gyms—and in martial arts gyms, which are shifting their focus towards kids more and more. What’s interesting is that coaching gyms that focus solely on kids—like cheer gyms, gymnastics gyms—they often have a higher ARM than coaching gyms that focus on adults and have a kids’ program on the side. Another way to boost ARM is supplements. So, while the same number of gyms seem to be selling supplements as last year, less of their revenue comes from supplements as a percentage.

Chris Cooper (10:46):
For me, the value of supplements in my gym is not a huge ARM booster; it’s just providing my clients with quality options instead of sending them to see the teenage bro at the supplement shop down the street. Another ARM honorable mention that wasn’t in the “State of the Industry” guide is over-55 groups. While we didn’t break this out specifically in the guide this year, many Two-Brain gyms have been noticing that their over-55 groups are growing really quickly. At my own gym, this is a great demographic that reminds me of the early days of CrossFit, really. They all want to recruit their friends, they all want all the T-shirts and all the hoodies, and they pay more than the average group rate. They’re also very, very fun to coach. So, here are the numbers as a percentage of total revenue, and you can see that on the screen.

Chris Cooper (11:35):
What this should guide you to do is say, like, “Here is my top priority to boost my ARM in my gym, and then here’s my second priority,” et cetera. Now, these numbers come from our “State of the Industry Report.” There are over 12,000 gyms in that guide, and the trends are clear. Number one: Keep your group training rate high. Number two: Add personal training. Number three: Possibly add one other revenue stream after those first two are working well. To get the full guide, you can just click below this video, again, or this podcast, and we will give it to you. I mean, we spend months and tens of thousands of dollars putting this all together, and we just give it to you for free because I want you to grow your gym. Now, I want to tell you how mentors use this data to make decisions in hopes of helping you make better decisions too.

Chris Cooper (12:23):
Now, obviously the guide gives you real knowledge that you can use to make decisions. In fact, all the numbers that you need to make decisions are in there. This guide is a source of truth. It’s regarded by many experts and organizations as the best in the entire industry. And you can have it for free by just clicking below. But what do you do with the numbers once you have them? Well, that’s part of the training our certified Two-Brain mentors go through. And today I’m going to give you some of those skills. So first, you can use the numbers as your private report card. This report is broken into the six key metrics that you need to track. There’s client headcount, ARM, LEG (length of engagement), EHR, ROI, and NOB (net owner benefit). You can find the definitions of those on page four of the guide. So first, compare your numbers against the average.

Chris Cooper (13:13):
Are you doing better than average at a specific metric, or are you a little bit behind? Now, you know, given that the average gym owner has a net owner benefit of $3,967 per month, you need to be better than average to make a good career at this. But knowing that average gives you a good starting point. So, aim at the average first. Then ask, “What can I do to increase my net owner benefit?” Well, you look at the other metrics, and you increase those first, or you hire a mentor. Two-Brain clients, for example, make $800 per month more than the average, and that’s take-home pay. Then, you can use the numbers as an inspiration. So, if you’re way behind in any category, that’s okay. We’ve shown you what the gyms are doing who are ahead of you. Just do what they did to get there, and worry about passing them later on. And later, pass them.

Chris Cooper (14:05):
You know, we publish leaderboards every month, so you can see what the best gyms are doing in each category. We even interview the leaders on our podcast, “Run a Profitable Gym” and let them tell you exactly how to do it. So, use the numbers to determine what’s average. Beat that. Then, use the numbers to determine what your next goal should be, and then use the numbers to see what the best in the world are doing, and copy them. The next step is to use the numbers to determine your next best move. Compare your numbers in all six categories. Okay? If you’re about average, then that’s a C grade. If you’re below average in any category, then you’re getting AD. And if you’re above average in any category, then that’s a B. So first, work on your D’s. For example, if the ARM at your gym is under

Chris Cooper (14:50):
$150 per member per month, fix that first. You can increase your rates. You can add specialty programs, you can add an on-ramp—whatever. You have lots of options; just pick one and start. If your LEG (length of engagement) is over 13 months, then you’re above average, and you don’t have to chase the next retention-boosting idea. Focus on the places where you’re below average first. If you have 150 clients, but you’re not making enough money, then don’t focus on getting more clients. Focus on increasing ARM and profitability—and so on. Finally, you can use your numbers to help others. Every day in the Gym Owners United group at gymownersunited.com, people around the world are chipping in with tips and tactics. So often, I like to ask them, is this your experience, or is it an opinion? And while both are valid, real experience is priceless. If you’re outscoring the average in any category in this guide, help others by sharing what you’re doing.

Chris Cooper (15:45):
The best gyms in the world do this freely, and they do it all the time. So, if you’re feeling overwhelmed or just bursting with ideas, or you’re burned out and you can’t seem to find time in the day, or if you feel like you have no control over your business, use the numbers to show you the way out. Start tracking your metrics in each of the six categories. Find ways to improve one metric, just a tiny little amount to start. For example, give yourself a $20 a week raise. Even a tiny win will give you a little bit of momentum. And over time, that momentum builds and builds as the wins compound. And that’s really how mentorship works. So, to book a call with our team, just click the link below. Our mentors are trained to look at your numbers, find your best next step, build you a long-term plan, and hold you accountable for doing the work. Each coach—every coach—needs a coach. And our mentors are those coaches for your business. I’m Chris Cooper. This is “Run a Profitable Gym.” This is our “State of the Industry” guide. I hope you have it. I hope you use it. I hope you love it.

The post State of the Industry 2023 Report: Chris Cooper’s Highlights appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

7 Cold, Hard Truths About Gyms in 2023: Data Doesn’t Lie

As we put the “State of the Industry” report together this year, it became clear that a few things are very important to gym owners.

I’ll share those highlights below, with reference to the guide—which you can get here. Check out my key points but be sure to dig through all 66 pages yourself to find the info that will help you grow your gym.

We publish this guide every year to arm you with real information. I want you to have information to help you make decisions about your gym so you don’t have to act on questionable claims from online “experts.”

Data shows us what’s really happening in the gym world. Without data, everyone is guessing.

7 Data-Backed Truths About the Fitness Industry

1. Expenses are going up a lot—and revenues aren’t.

Check out Page 39 for a comparison of gym expenses in 2022 and 2023, and review Page 21 for revenue data. Don’t skip Page 22, where we show the average Two-Brain gym revenue for comparison.

2. Staff are being paid more—but owners aren’t.

Check out Page 45 for a breakdown of how many staff members the average gym has, what the average pay per class is and what the highest-paid staff member makes on average. Then flip to Page 47 to see what owners are making compared to last year (it’s about the same—except for Two-Brain gyms, where owners take home at least $800 more every month).

3. Gyms are less dependent on group coaching revenue than ever.

Check out page 35 to see where they’re making more money.

4. Gym owners are getting smarter when it comes to group coaching offerings.

In 2023, gyms are offering fewer classes with more people in them. Check out pages 23, 24 and 25 to see how many classes the average gym offers now, as well as how many clients are attending those classes on average. Then turn to Page 26 for a very deep analysis.

5. Gym owners are doing more personal training.

They’re also doing less nutrition coaching and kids coaching. Turn to Page 35 to see the revenue trends related to supplements, kids classes, nutrition coaching, online coaching, uncoached access and everything else.

6. The average gym still has around 159 members.

Build your business model around 150 people first; at 150 members, the owner should be able to earn $100,000 per year and pay a full-time staff person. Hit those targets, then think about scaling to 200, 250, etc. See Page 8 for the full breakdown.

7. Global trends are emerging.

On Page 59, I’ve laid out the trends in the data from a “lifeguard-chair view.” For example, gyms in Eastern Europe and Spain are enjoying the “early adopter” wave for CrossFit and HIIT that we saw in North America around 2015 and Western Europe around 2019. In other areas, commoditization is ringing alarm bells—gyms in Australia, New Zealand and the Western U.S. are seeing low-priced group training enter the market through trusted brands such as Nike. Luckily, the solutions to all the problems are in the data.

Take Action!

What do you do with this knowledge? That’s up to you. It’s your gym.

But you should do something with it.

As Jim Rohn wrote, “‘Don’t let your learning lead to knowledge. Let your learning lead to action.”

Two-Brain will never force a business model on you or tell you there’s only one way to do things and be successful. On Wednesday, I’ll share how mentors use data to make decisions, and then you’ll know how to do it, too.

Click here to get the full “State of the Industry” guide.

The post 7 Cold, Hard Truths About Gyms in 2023: Data Doesn’t Lie appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

F45’s Decline and the State of the Fitness Industry

“I’m proud to help you—to give you the tools of the big franchises without the polished chrome handcuffs that come with the franchise agreements.”

Chris Cooper wrote that in the introduction to our 2023 “State of the Industry” report, which will be published on Nov. 13.

It means independent microgym owners have more flexibility than franchise owners do, and Two-Brain is working hard to ensure that independents also have the data, support and resources franchise owners receive from parent companies.

And the part about chrome handcuffs?

Well, that hits home as news reports indicate that a host of F45 franchises—and the franchisor itself—are struggling mightily.

I take no joy in F45’s decline. More gyms give people more options when they make the decision to get fit, and I don’t like to see any fitness entrepreneurs losing their businesses. But F45 appears to be in trouble.

On Aug. 14, Yahoo Finance reported that F45 Training Holdings Inc., the franchisor, was taking steps to be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange as a cost-saving measure. At present, the stock (FXLV) is an over-the-counter security trading at about 4 or 5 cents a share (it traded above $17 in August 2021).

On Oct. 25, insider.fitt.co reported that F45 filed “restated” financials for 2021 and 2022, with net losses of $194 and $179 million, respectively.

On Oct. 31, news.com.au reported that a whack of F45 franchises in Australia had appointed restructuring partners. Two weeks earlier, the same outlet had reported that at least 16 gyms had gone under in the last year.

The Oct. 31 article also reported that entrepreneur Serkan Honeine is looking to buy struggling F45 franchises for pennies on the dollar to grow his C3 Training brand. New.com.au stated Honeine’s broker found 151 F45 franchises for sale.

It’s all bad news—except for Honeine, I guess.

Pivot—Unless You Can’t

We’re a long way from F45’s heady early days.

I recall watching a plane with a bold F45 banner flying constantly over the CrossFit Games in 2015, I believe, and the company publicly hounded Rich Froning and Ben Smith to get the Games champs to thrown down F45 style (they didn’t, but others did). And we all recall Mark Wahlberg’s attachment to the brand.

So what went wrong? Probably a lot. Honeine’s comments provide a little insight:

“F45 have done an amazing job of building the concept of group fitness,” Honeine told News.com.au. He added: “We think the market has evolved, and it’s clear that the F45 concept hasn’t evolved with it.”

Author Alex Turner-Cohen said Honeine is offering a different kind of fitness that’s less repetitive than F45 workouts: “He said his business model is to work on different types of fitness each week in a four week-rotation, including endurance, strength and power.”

And remember Honeine seems to be able to offer his brand of training in the same spaces and with much of the same equipment F45 franchises used.

So in this scenario, the chrome handcuffs appear to be the F45 training system.

Help for Independent Gyms

Honeine and other gym owners are free to pivot quickly as they see fit to retain and acquire clients. Independents do not have to kiss the corporate ring, and that’s a huge advantage.

But as an independent, you don’t get Marky Mark, branding, websites, playbooks, advertising and all the other stuff franchises use to get ahead fast.

Think about buying a Subway franchise: You’re going to get a lot of plug-and-play resources, including the recipe for signature sandwiches and cookies. It’s the same deal in the fitness world: franchisees trade a measure of freedom for a bucket of done-for you resources.

That’s where Two-Brain can help. You maintain your freedom, flexibility and independence as a gym owner while we give you the best data in the fitness industry for free. (Two-Brain can help franchise businesses, too, by the way.)

On Nov. 13, you can get our “State of the Industry” report (we’ll tell you how). Use the report to improve your gym business. And be sure to watch the live launch with Chris Cooper on The Sevan Podcast at 10 a.m. EST on Nov. 13.

The report costs us a ton of money to produce, and it contains data from 13,444 gyms. It’s valuable, but it’s yours for a few clicks because we’re all about helping gym owners thrive.

And if you want to go even further at higher speed, a Two-Brain mentor can tell you exactly what to do to improve your business, whether you’re an independent gym owner or a franchise owner (we help both).

To find out more about working with a mentor, click here to book a call.

The post F45’s Decline and the State of the Fitness Industry appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Superhero-Sized Revenue: Secrets From Wolverine’s Trainer

Mike Warkentin (00:02):
Hugh Jackman said this to my guest: “Thank you for all you did over the years to help me on this journey. You are the best.” That’s a true story. Steve Ramsbottom of the Performance Institute in Burnaby, B.C. has worked with Jackman, Zac Efron, Amanda Peet, Jessica Alba, and many more. Now, he’s also a celebrity himself because he’s one of Two-Brain’s revenue leaders. I’m putting on my X-Men uniform today to rip into the story with adamantium claws in this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym.” I’m your host, Mike Warkentin. If you want the cheat codes to gym ownership, hit “Subscribe” wherever you’re watching or listening because I have the top gym owners in the world on this show every month, and they shed their secrets. If you want that, hit “Subscribe.” Now, Steve from Burnaby, welcome. How are you doing today?

Steve Ramsbottom (00:43):
I’m great. Thanks so much for having me.

Mike Warkentin (00:45):
I am pumped about this. And before we get into revenue, I have to ask you about it because there’s no way around it: How did you end up training some of the biggest stars in Hollywood?

Steve Ramsbottom (00:52):
So, kind of a fun story. Our facility initially started as what’s called an acceleration program, which is no more. So, it was kind of famous for having a high-speed running treadmill that went up to about 30 miles an hour. And I got a call one day from a trainer, and my friend now, Ramona Braganza, who is working with Jessica Alba. And, uh, she was having some knee issues, and she said, “Hey, can you look at her running mechanics? I think there’s something wrong with her running mechanics.” So, I got to work with Jess for a few sessions, which was cool. And from there, we heard that X-Men was coming into Vancouver and basically applied for the job, did an interview. All of a sudden, I got a call one day from Hugh saying, “Hey mate, can you train me?” And I got really lucky. We had a great, great relationship, and I got to work with him on three different films, and it kind of spun through there with some different actors and different opportunities down the road.

Mike Warkentin (01:48):
What a cool story. I don’t know if I’ve ever talked to anyone who’s got a phone call from Hugh Jackman. Is he—I’ve got to ask this. I’ve seen the Instagram videos. Is he really as strong as he looks in those videos?

Steve Ramsbottom (01:57):
He—you know what—he’s like all us gym geeks. You know, he worked in a gym going through university too.

Mike Warkentin (02:03):
Oh yeah?

Steve Ramsbottom (02:04):
He loves to stay fit, and he loves pushing it. And very early into us training together, I started working out with him, and we were pushing each other, and I got in the fittest shape in my life working out with him too, so it was fun. Yeah.

Mike Warkentin (02:18):
Yeah because I’ve seen those deadlift videos of him creeping up around four or 500 or something like that. And I was just like, “Wow, that looks legit.” So, you’ve got a hand in that. Well, my claimed to fame is I watched a March Madness basketball game beside Dennis Quaid on a recumbent bike one time.

Steve Ramsbottom (02:32):
Nice.

Mike Warkentin (02:32):
He asked me a question; I look over, “Oh, I liked your movies. Who’s winning?” Away we go. Not as cool as your story, but let’s get into the other parts of your story. Give me the 411 on Performance Institute. Like, what do you do? What’s your gym size? What do you sell? Who’s your ideal client besides Hugh Jackman? Basic overview.

Steve Ramsbottom (02:49):
So real quick, we’re coming up on our 25th anniversary in January, so we’ve been around a while. We started as an athlete focused facility. From there, we quickly learned we needed to expand because we weren’t pulling in the revenue that we needed to grow. So, over the years the core of our business has always been small group training. You know, our demographic is people who were athletic or maybe still are and maybe a little banged up, and they’re 35 to 65—somewhere in there is the majority of our clients. And then, we have quite a few personal training clients as well. And then we do active rehab, so with something in Vancouver—in B.C. called ICBC. So, post car accident, people come to rehab with us. Outside of there, we’ve got a corporate group. We work with a large number of figure skaters as we’re in a facility with eight hockey rinks. And then we’ve gone into doing soft tissue release sessions with a number of our trainers, and my wife does our nutrition coaching.

Mike Warkentin (03:49):
Wow. So that’s a ton of cool stuff. I’m going to blow your horn a little bit for a couple other things I pulled off your website. You are actually the author of the book “Wheelchair Training,” and you’ve been part of 11 Paralympic medals, or has that number gone up? Have I got it right at 11?

Steve Ramsbottom (04:01):
I’m not sure what the number is, but yeah, I’ve had the opportunity to work with several of our national Paralympic teams, and yeah so, we’ve been fortunate to work with many of them. They’re awesome people.

Mike Warkentin (04:13):
Yeah. And then over the course of your career, I also see that you worked with the Vancouver Ravens lacrosse team, and you were strength and conditioning coach for the Vancouver Whitecaps for six years.

Steve Ramsbottom (04:22):
Eight years I think it was. Yeah.

Mike Warkentin (04:23):
Eight years. Okay. So, I’ve got it wrong on the website. My apologies on that, but what a list of stuff in 25 years in business. I want to ask you one specific thing about what you just said: When you say small groups, what kind of size is that generally?

Steve Ramsbottom (04:33):
So small groups for us is—what we try to do is personal training within a small group setting. So, we have one coach per maximum of five people, generally.

Mike Warkentin (04:43):
Okay.

Steve Ramsbottom (04:44):
Yeah.

Mike Warkentin (04:45):
How long have you been doing that?

Steve Ramsbottom (04:46):
So I actually started at our facility as a student intern before eventually taking it over. And that kind of concept was there when I came. And we’ve run with it and really expanded it, and we never had personal training before. And that’s something that we’ve done for many years now. And that’s definitely one of the keystones to what we do.

Mike Warkentin (05:08):
Yeah, it’s very cool because Brian Bott out in New Jersey, he talked about semi-private training, which is the exact concept where you’re working with individual clients in a group setting. And it’s a great way for a trainer to serve a lot of clients like two to four usually is a good number with high touch service and personalized programming, but doing, you know, four clients at the same time. So, “Your warmup is this,” check-in, circle around to the next person. You’ve actually developed your own version of that on the West Coast, it sounds like.

Steve Ramsbottom (05:35):
Yeah. Oh, for sure. Yeah. We’ve done it, and it definitely—I think the negative to it is it takes time to get a coach ready to be able to handle that because it’s not doing a one-on-one session. So, it can take a few months to really get someone ready to take five people and do a great job with it. But when you do it, I think it’s more economical for the client. It provides that community, and they get a great result from it.

Mike Warkentin (06:02):
And then from a business perspective, if what Brian says is true—tell me—it’s got to generate great revenue because you’ve got a number of PT clients in that setting where they get a bit of a break because your attention is diluted, but at the same time, you’re making better revenue than just throwing people into a group class at a hundred bucks. Is that right?

Steve Ramsbottom (06:18):
Absolutely. And then, I mean, one of the things that we’ve been trying to do is—I think especially since Two-Brain has really, you know, poked me in the butt to do this—is to try to get some of those people needing extra attention, be it nutrition or soft tissue release work or personal training sessions, and get them really getting the full value out of what we can do.

Mike Warkentin (06:37):
So you’re offering a total package. And before I ask you about your revenue streams, tell me: You’ve been in business for a long time. 25 years, almost, now. Why did you sign up for mentorship with Two-Brain? What, what brought you to us?

Steve Ramsbottom (06:47):
I did a few coaching programs before Two-Brain, and my wife, who’s my partner, found Two-Brain, and she said, “I think this place looks legit.” And I think it’s a blessing and a curse in that we’re always trying to improve what we do. And the longer I—you know, thinking about this podcast—the longer I’ve been in business, I think the one thing I can pass on is don’t expect your business to be perfect because it never will be. And I think what you have to do is look at where your biggest gaps are and try to find where you can improve the most. And I mean, we all have places that we can do better, and I think that’s what you want to do is, is kind of chip away at one thing at a time and slowly change your business. And if you’re moving forward well, a year later, you’ve made some huge changes.

Mike Warkentin (07:31):
I’m going to ask you about some of the gaps that you filled in to bring things up to an elite level now. But before I do, just give me an idea of—you mentioned a lot of different revenue streams. How do they break down loosely? Like is it, you know, 90% group in some gyms and 10% personal training in others? Mine was 100% percent group and no personal training. How do yours kind of shake out? So people have an idea of how you split up the time and the energy in your business.

Steve Ramsbottom (07:53):
We’re roughly doing about 15 personal training sessions a day. So, I would say we’re something like 60/40, 70/30 group to personal training. The small group is, like I said, the core of our business, but we do quite a few privates and semi-private as well.

Mike Warkentin (08:12):
Okay. And group training, what kind of stuff do you do in there? Is it like high intensity interval stuff, or is it other things?

Steve Ramsbottom (08:16):
We try to bring the right tool for the job. We have—

Mike Warkentin (08:19):
Ah, good.

Steve Ramsbottom (08:20):
All different sorts of people, right? Like our youngest client is like 11 years old, and we’ve got three 85-year-olds. So, it depends. And that’s maybe not the easiest answer, but it really depends. You know, some people, it—we try to give them what they need and what their goals are, and we always try to merge what the client wants with what they need and make it a happy union between those two things.

Mike Warkentin (08:45):
That might not be the easy answer, but I think that’s the best answer. And I think a lot of us back in the day got hooked on certain methods and realized that sometimes their client didn’t like that method or didn’t want to use it, and there was another way to get the same or better result by just switching things up and that client might have more fun. So, I think you’re onto something there. And if your clients are staying for a long time and love working with you, you’ve obviously done a good job. I want to ask you about—so gross revenue, how has that changed over the years? And you’ve got 25 years to look at, but how did things change, and what are some of the big reasons that that went up? Was it adding programs, or was it raising rates, or what did you do there?

Steve Ramsbottom (09:16):
I think it’s a number of factors. I mean, we’ve had times where we really haven’t been on top of increasing our rates regularly. And that’s the thing that we’re really trying to stay on top of now is every year we do a price increase. I think it’s much easier to be able to introduce that to our clients rather than having one big shot. And because we were not on top of it, we’ve had to do that a couple times where we’ve had to do large increases to really catch up and pay our staff properly and cover all our expenses. So, I think that’s certainly a part of it. The big thing that we did—man, looking back probably five years ago now—is we always sold sessions, and when we went to the membership model, that changed the game dramatically. So, you know, if you’re not, if you’re not doing memberships, I think you’re really missing out. And I had a friend of mine who’s got a gym in downtown Vancouver, and he kept trying to push me to do it, and I was always afraid because it was change. And I finally decided we have to do this, and when we did, it’s been nothing but positive.

Mike Warkentin (10:22):
Okay, so if I’m a PT member at your gym, I have a membership to that, and it just rolls over on a subscription basis. Have I got that right?

Steve Ramsbottom (10:28):
Well, we haven’t done it for our personal training clients. And I know the question I always get is: Are people being committed to the sessions? We don’t have a problem with commitment with our personal training sessions. So, it’s not that. And a lot of people do tend to travel and different things, so we’re giving them flexibility. However, the majority are very consistent with the small group, though; everything is on membership now.

Mike Warkentin (10:53):
And the best part about that is that you don’t have to sell things every single time. Because I do the same thing where it’s like punch cards and packages and things like that. And like if someone’s like, “I’m going to hold this punch card for a little bit,” you kind of—the revenue doesn’t go. So like regular revenue on that subscription model is great. And I know there are some people that would do it—that do do it with PT. So, it’s like you have eight PT sessions, and you’re booked every month, and you’re going to use them. They don’t roll over. You’ve got to get them done, and it renews every month, and away you go. So, there are—listeners, there are people out there that do that model as well. When you brought in different programs, were those big revenue bumps for you? Like when you said your wife started doing nutrition, things like that, did those things really start bumping revenue, or was that just like a little bit of gravy on the pie?

Steve Ramsbottom (11:32):
I would say it’s gravy. She’ll typically have around 10 clients on the go for nutrition. I think it’s far easier to get someone to start training than it is to change their diet.

Mike Warkentin (11:42):
It is.

Steve Ramsbottom (11:43):
Some people—I assessed a guy this week and he’s like, “I’m not going to start training until I change my diet.” And he—you know, that’s a rarity. Usually, you get people training for a while and then like, “You know, I’m doing great, but I really want to get leaner. I want to do this.” And nutrition is such an important component, so everyone’s on their own timeline a little bit, and that’s something we’re looking to improve on—how well we do with that structure. But yeah, that coaching is—it’s on top, but it provides such an important service. We really want to keep doing that.

Mike Warkentin (12:11):
Yeah. You know, and listeners, I can tell you that our State of the Industry Report—Two-Brain’s—is coming out. And one of the things we’ve noticed is that nutrition does not—still year to year—does not generate a huge portion of revenue in any gym. And that’s not—I won’t say any gym. In most gyms. There are a few out there that I know that’ll get like 20% of their revenue: Clark Hibbs at Yellow Rose Fitness in Texas does that—20% from nutrition—and his wife does it in their spare bedroom. However, that’s not common. I think the number this year—I think it’s under five for sure. So, that’s an interesting one to think about. And it is, as Steve said, very difficult sometimes to get people to change their diet. It’s not to say you shouldn’t do nutrition, but maybe it’s not the biggest target for you. You have to decide for your business. Steve, where do you get your clients from? You’ve got obviously high value clients besides Hugh Jackman calling you up. Who else is—how are you finding these people?

Steve Ramsbottom (12:57):
You know, the biggest source for us has always been referrals. And that’s something that we used to just take as they came. And we’re trying to get much more proactive with that. So, especially as clients start and we do the whole indoctrination of Performance Institute with them, we’re asking for friends and family to come join in. And that’s certainly something that certainly not everybody does, but I think you’ll always have those certain clients when you’re asking because I think a lot of people think, “Oh, you don’t want to take on any more clients.” And that’s usually not the answer the gym owner wants to hear. So, I think you have to be a little proactive with that. That’s been the biggest thing. We’ve certainly seen a difference with our blogging and social media posting.

Steve Ramsbottom (13:43):
When we do—especially videos—the old “get people to know, like, and trust you,” I think that’s a really important thing. And I think the more you get out there, we definitely see a lot more of that. So, I would say those are the two biggest ones. We haven’t done any paid marketing consistently, and that’s something that we’re actually looking to just get into around the corner here. So, we’re, like I said, we’ve been trying to improve all our different systems, and I didn’t feel like we were really ready for that yet. And, and I think now we’re going to try to turn the corner and go there and hopefully continue to grow our business.

Mike Warkentin (14:19):
Ah, that’s neat. You hit on two of the funnels that Chris Cooper has built for Two-Brain clients. The ones that are super important are: organic social media, which doesn’t cost you a lot other than your time. You crank the stuff out. And the other one is the referral funnel. If you have good clients, you want more people just like them. The best people to get are their friends and family, even their coworkers, and then you start working outward because if these people bring their friends in, they’re warm leads. They already have a connection to your business. As Steve said, they know, like, and trust you, and it’s kind of a huge win for everybody because they have a reason to stay with your business. They have a friend in the business, they’re going to get great results. Everything is pretty wonderful. So that referral funnel is huge. If I was going to give you some advice, listeners, ask your clients, and don’t just like expect it to happen. Ask them: Who in your group can I help? And they’ll give you someone and then crank out the media. Steve, how often do you publish stuff on social media, and where can people look at it? What’s your best account?

Steve Ramsbottom (15:09):
Honestly, that’s something we met with our coach Jolene this week on is trying—

Mike Warkentin (15:14):
Oh, she’s good at that.

Steve Ramsbottom (15:15):
Yeah, we’re trying to get some more structure to what we do because we’re typically twice a week with emails and then we’re—social media posts a couple times a week. And you know, we’re probably far less than a lot of places. And that’s something that we’re looking to build. Like I said, every business, I think, has areas that they can improve, and that’s something that we’re looking to address right now.

Mike Warkentin (15:38):
Well, you know, maybe two times a week, organic social media, you could post more there. But I don’t know too many gyms that are sending emails twice a week. And I believe that your email contact list is more important than your social media. And that’s just a personal opinion, but I know that getting stuff into a person’s inbox is a lot easier than getting into their social media feed because you’re competing with so much stuff right now. So, I think like two emails a week is a huge, huge thing. If you add in some outside stuff, I think that’s just going to add fuel to the fire for you. So good work on sending email because most gym owners do not do that. If you have not sent an email to your client list or your contact list lately, do it tomorrow morning. I guarantee you’ll get a client out of it. Steve, what are you doing to generate revenue right now? Is there anything important that you’ve got like a main focus, either with Jolene or with someone else? What are you doing right now to start bump up that number? Or are you just looking at holding steady and retaining? What’s your focus?

Steve Ramsbottom (16:28):
All the above. I think.

Mike Warkentin (16:29):
Okay.

Steve Ramsbottom (16:30):
From when—you know, the early days—when I was manning our front desk and doing all the training and doing everything myself, and then we’d go through a slow period, and it’d be like, “Oh, I’ve got to start calling all these people who haven’t been in in a while.” It took me a few hundred rounds of doing that to figure, “Hey, if I do this regularly, maybe this won’t be an issue.” So that would be my biggest thing is work on retention. And that’s something that, since working with Two-Brain, we’ve really been proactive with is doing follow ups. So, we’re doing follow ups with our clients constantly within the session. And then also we’re getting external contacts without it. And sometimes this is email with certain people—as we get to know, they respond better. Sometimes it’s a phone call.

Steve Ramsbottom (17:11):
So, retention I think is honestly one of our biggest ones. Improving all our systems, finding the gaps on everything from our programming: How can we improve our programming? How can we service our clients better? Simple stuff like that. Improving social media presence, community events. I think if people are showing up for a workout every week, after a while it gets stale, and you need to throw in something fun. So, we’re doing—next weekend, we’re going to run a rowing challenge just for fun. And we’re doing a fundraiser for what’s called KidSport out here. And so, we’re going to raise a bit of money and have some fun with it. And I think doing some of those social events periodically—people remember that, and you want to make it, you know, the funnest part of their day, the funnest part of their week. If you’re doing that, you’re doing a good job.

Mike Warkentin (17:58):
I really like that. And iif it’s fun, they’re going to tell their friends. They might bring a friend. Two-Brain recommends running a bring-a-friend event quarterly and making it very easy for people to get in touch with your business, learn about you, try it out, get on your mailing list, and eventually become clients. And honestly, the show is about revenue, but there’s no way to have revenue without retention. Like Steve, you just said it, retention of great clients is an incredible multiplier in your business because if you have a high average revenue per member and you’re offering a premium service at your gym—Steve, so you do—if you retain those clients for a long time, that adds up so quickly as opposed to bleeding off members and then having to spend money on marketing and then having to reintegrate people, and they bleed out, and you’re just on this hamster wheel, and it’s just miserable. If you can retain your clients longer, even a month longer for each client, and increase your length of engagement—industry average: 7.8 months; Two-Brain average: over 20. Okay. So, those are things that we have specific tactics for, but if you can increase your length of engagement by even a month per person, think about the math. Do the math in your head, and it adds up very quickly. So, I love that you’re focusing on that, Steve. Do you do goal review sessions as a specific thing?

Steve Ramsbottom (19:05):
It depends on the client. I think we’ve got to know our clients. So, while certain people, I will sit down with, some people I will call. A lot of people, I’ll just email, and I just find it’s—I’m going to get more information out of them that way, and I can get through our client list. And like every month—I’m doing it right now as I go through our monthly lists on clients who I’ve got to reach out for who are coming up on membership renewal and that sort of thing. We kind of space it out that way. Yeah, we’ve done that, and I think the reality is some clients don’t really respond to it, and they’re like, “Yeah, it’s great.” And they don’t, and then other times, you pick up things that, “Hey, I want to do a bit more of this in my program,” or “I want to get my deadlift better,” or whatever it is. And then you communicate with your staff, and they know that they’re being taken care of. And again, that just leads to retention that you’re hoping for.

Mike Warkentin (19:55):
Yeah, and the reason doesn’t surprise me that you’re not formally doing a goal review system. I’ve talked to enough people that run gyms like yours that because they’re staff people, and their owners are so in touch with their clients, and you’ve got small group personal training, a lot of that, often in those settings, you don’t see people doing these formal goal review sessions because you’re talking about their goals every single day, every week. It’s such a high-touch, close relationship that it’s almost—you don’t need that session. In other gyms like mine, for example, when I ran a larger facility back in the day, it would’ve been great to have done goal review sessions because we didn’t ask clients their goals; we just assumed they wanted to deadlift more, and some of them wanted to lose body fat, could have used nutrition program, all these other things.

Mike Warkentin (20:34):
So if you’re out there and you aren’t talking to your clients, and you can’t literally list what Steve’s goal is or what Sean’s goal is, and you can’t rattle those off the top of your head, consider goal review sessions quarterly. Sit down with your clients, ask them how it’s going, ask them what they want to accomplish, put together a plan, tell them the price of that plan, and away you go. And you’re going to improve retention; you’re going to solve problems. It’s—and again, Steven, your thing: I’m guessing you are training your staff members and so forth, and you are going to be giving the highest touch service so that you’re talking to these people daily. Is that right?

Steve Ramsbottom (21:03):
Yeah, I mean, we really promote the “check-in” every session. Every session, you know, we try to do the “Cheers” thing, and everyone walks in, and everyone’s called by name: “Welcome”. And we do check-ins to see how everyone’s doing every single day. So that’s a huge part of what we do.

Mike Warkentin (21:19):
Yeah, in those types of environments—small group one-on-one—you get such a better chance to add retention because you’re building this incredible relationship. “People will quit a program; they won’t quit a relationship.” I think Greg Glassman from CrossFit said that, if I’m not mistaken, but it’s totally accurate. Tips specifically for strength and conditioning people: You said something interesting in the intro that I want to ask you about. You had focused originally at one point on athletes, which is an interesting market, and it’s great, but there’s not that many of them, right? So, it can be tough. What are your tips for strength and conditioning people, specifically those who might be thinking, “I want to train high-end athletes”?

Steve Ramsbottom (21:53):
You know, it’s still something that we do, and it’s still, I think, the foundation of how we treat all of our clients. Our saying is “You’re an athlete at your own level,” and be it rehab or high performance. So, we deal with quite a few athletes still. And some are adult athletes, some are hockey players in college, some are figure skaters or golfers or whatever. I think you have to look at what the yearly plan is for those athletes and find where are the off-seasons, and you can focus on different sports that way, but that’s just the reality of sport, especially the way it is now with academies and with so much going on. You’re not going to have them year-round. That’s just the reality of it, so you have to maybe get them six weeks or 12 weeks, and then fill in the gaps with other people if you really want to be athlete focused.

Mike Warkentin (22:47):
Yeah, it’s interesting. Back before I had my space, the only place where I could do Olympic lifting was a smaller gym in town where a lot of the local NHL guys would come and train in the off-season. So, we’d go in there, and we’d bring a barbell lift, whatever—like Jonathan Toews would literally be over there doing his programs and so forth. That facility was never—at least when I was there—was super full, but it eventually folded into what’s called the Iceplex out in Winnipeg, and I think the Winnipeg Jets train there now. So that was another option that those guys went. But you’ve had obviously some contact into like professional teams and so forth, but also treating all your athletes like professional athletes, even if they’re just, you know, with a soccer dad on the side. Is that right?

Steve Ramsbottom (23:22):
For sure. Absolutely.

Mike Warkentin (23:23):
That’s cool. I like that a lot. What if you were going to give someone a tip? So, I ask every gym owner this one, especially our leaders: If you were going to give a listener a tip at whatever level they’re at to start generating a little bit more revenue tomorrow, what would you tell them?

Steve Ramsbottom (23:36):
Well, I wrote down a few ideas, so I’ll try to—

Mike Warkentin (23:39):
Oh yeah. Give me all of them then; I’ll check them off.

Steve Ramsbottom (23:40):
So, my first one I thought of was: Take great care of your clients. And I think—it sounds obvious, and it sounds simple, but for trainers, I think they have to be reminded sometimes that it’s not all about the workout. You know, sometimes people are going through relationship issues, or they’re exhausted, or they’re hurt. Taking care of the clients: That’s such an important part. Communication with your clients, with your staff. It’s critical. Most of the issues that I’ve ever run into in business have been communication problems. And you know, the better you are at communicating with your people, the better off you’re going to do.

Mike Warkentin (24:17):
I’m going to just jump in there because you’re so right, and you said that it may be obvious, but for a lot of gym owners, and we’re focused on stuff, it’s not obvious for us because we’re trying to acquire more clients, and we’re not focusing. We do that at the expense of our current clients. Acquiring new clients shouldn’t come first. It should be holding onto your current clients. So, acquiring the new ones, get to that, but if your retention sucks, why bother? Right. Fix the retention; make it great. So, I love that you said that because it sounds obvious, but it wasn’t obvious to me at one point.

Steve Ramsbottom (24:47):
Yeah. And then I just had: Listen. Listen to your clients; see the feedback. If they’re telling you it hurts somewhere, see if you can help them figure it out. Get them to a professional if you can’t do it. Don’t be afraid to spend some extra time with the session. You know, we really try to encourage our coaches, if the workout runs 12 to one and you need another 10 minutes with them, spend it. Try to do your best with those people. And they will thank you so much for that long term, and they’ll keep coming back because you’re doing extra care, and they don’t want to see that you are “clocking in, clocking out,” so to speak. You know, so if you need to spend, you know, an extra five minutes or whatever with that person to really finish the session off properly, do it.

Mike Warkentin (25:26):
And that’s all built into your business model, correct? Because I’ve seen other guys where it’s like “on the clock, I’m out.” You’ve obviously built this so-called “flex time” into your business model because you want to prioritize client care even if it takes an extra 10 minutes.

Steve Ramsbottom (25:38):
Yeah. You know, one of the things that—there weren’t, there weren’t many—but one of the positive things from COVID was we had a ruling where we had to have a 15-minute clean gap in between all the sessions. It worked so well because we used to have groups coming in, and then the next group of people would come in, and it was a gong show to get the next group started. And having the gap gives the coaches a bit of a brain break—lets them get set, lets them get organized—and again, if we do need some extra time, we’ve got that built in now. So that, and remote training would be the other one that I guess I didn’t mention at the start that we’ve been able to do since COVID. So, two good things. The rests not so positive.

Mike Warkentin (26:21):
I hear you.

Steve Ramsbottom (26:22):
What else? I think meet collectively as a group; make sure you’re doing staff meetings. Again, sounds obvious. It’s something I was always resistant to, and always in my head, I was always like, “Ah, I’m too busy for this. I’ve got to grow this business. I’ve got work to do.” But spending that bit of time with your staff and going through training and systems and different things that are going to help the business and help them individually pays huge dividends. And I think you will continue to keep your staff longer. You know, we’ve been really lucky to have—like our longest coach has been with us now 17 years, and we’ve been able to keep some of our coaches really long. And I think that’s in part—so meet with them collectively and individually. And then finally: Lead by example. If you’re not the guy willing to pick up some paper towel off the floor or clean off the bathroom yourself when it needs it, they’re not going to do it. So, you really have to have those expectations and lead by example.

Mike Warkentin (27:18):
So what I’m—sometimes when I talk to gym owners, and I talk about revenue, they talk about marketing, and they talk about outreach and average revenue per member and all that other stuff. It’s interesting to talk to you, and your focus is inside the business creating what I’ll call—I stole this from Chris—a culture of excellence where you are creating a really, really, really great business from top to bottom that’s designed to serve clients, retain clients—and yeah, we’ll add some, but the focus is first on building a great business, and that goes from staffing to picking up paper towel off the floor. It’s really interesting because that’s slightly different from what I hear sometimes, but it’s working for you, right?

Steve Ramsbottom (27:52):
We’re trying. We’re trying.

Mike Warkentin (27:53):
Yeah, I like it. Well, that’s—I’m going to let you get back to training your superstars. You’ve probably got, you know, Ryan Reynolds banging on your garage door there, so I’ll let you get back to it. But Steve, thanks so much for sharing your story and helping gym owners around the world improve their businesses.

Steve Ramsbottom (28:05):
Thanks a lot for having me. Appreciate it.

Mike Warkentin (28:07):
This is “Run a Profitable Gym.” That was revenue leader, Steve Ramsbottom, all the way from Vancouver, Canada. Thanks for listening. Please hit “Subscribe” wherever you’re watching or listening because I don’t want you to miss a single show. And now here’s Chris Cooper with a final message.

Chris Cooper (28:19):
Hey, it’s Two-Brain founder, Chris Cooper, with a quick note. We created the Gym Owners United Facebook group to help you run a profitable gym. Thousands of gym owners just like you have already joined in the group. We share sound advice about the business of fitness every day. I answer questions, I run free webinars, and I give away all kinds of great resources to help you grow your gym. I’d love to have you in that group. It’s Gym Owners United on Facebook, or go to gymownersunited.com to join. Do it today.

The post Superhero-Sized Revenue: Secrets From Wolverine’s Trainer appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Good Gym to Great: Momentum

Two-Brain Business has produced more than 40 certified millionaires and hundreds of gyms that earn their owners over $100,000 per year.

What do these owners have in common? Instead of focusing on implementing one secret strategy, running a Hail Mary marketing campaign or reading 50 books in a year, they focus on momentum.

I have two habits that have built my gym, my mentorship practice and all of my other companies:

1. Every day, I do one thing to grow my business before I do anything else.

2. Every night, I look back at my day and ask myself, “Did I do one thing to grow my business today?”

This is the advice I share with almost every gym owner in Two-Brain. We have dozens of courses. We have specialists for every topic imaginable. We have a team of over 60 successful mentors worldwide. We have the largest data set in the industry. And it’s all built to answer this question:

“What should I actually do?”

But here’s the secret: no one action will grow your gym.

There’s no single marketing campaign that will last forever, no book that will give you the leadership template you can use for the next 30 years, no retention plan that will keep every client forever.

The key is momentum.

8 Steps to Gain Momentum

Jim Collins wrote about the “flywheel of momentum” in his book “Good to Great.”

But I wanted to give gym owners something more tactical: a set of “do this now” instructions they could follow every morning. That’s why I wrote “The Simple Six.”

Here’s how to do it:

1. Get out six pieces of paper, six napkins or six sticky notes—whatever.

2. At the top of each page, write one of these metrics: ARM (average revenue per member), LEG (length of engagement), Head (client count), ROI (return on investment), EHR (effective hourly rate) and NOB (net owner benefit).

3. Do a two-minute “SixStorm” for each. For example, start a timer for two minutes, turn to the ARM page and write down every idea you have to increase how much the average client pays you each month. Then go to the next page: LEG. In two minutes, write down every idea you have to increase client retention. (Two-Brain gyms have a massive set of tools, templates and courses that can be used to improve each of these metrics.) Repeat for all six pages. Some will have long lists, and some will have short lists.

4. Go back to the first list: ARM. Circle the easiest, fastest tactic to boost ARM. Repeat this selection process for LEG, Head, ROI, EHR and NOB.

5. Tomorrow morning, do one thing to grow your business before you do anything else. Open your ARM list. Look at the item you circled. Start working on that idea. When you run out of time (for me, that’s about 45 minutes), put the work away and go on to the next part of your day.

6. Pick it up again. Work on the ARM idea until it’s done. Then start working on your LEG idea. Work on each task with single-minded focus until it’s done. Don’t try to work on everything at once.

7. After you’ve improved each of the six metrics a tiny bit, you’ve pushed your business forward a little. Collins calls this “pushing the flywheel” (performing all six actions equals one turn of the flywheel), but you can think of it as one “round” in a workout. One rep of ARM, one rep of LEG, one rep of Headcount, one rep of ROI, one rep of EHR and one little boost to NOB—that’s one one round.

8. Start the next round.

Look Backward to See Progress

Don’t forget: It’s just as important to reflect on the work as it is to do the work. Count backward: Look at your progress instead of comparing yourself to others or to your ideal outcome. Protect your momentum.

If you do one thing to improve your business every day, you will start to see little gains. Over time, these little gains stack up to create big gains. You’ll sometimes hear gurus call this “the law of incremental gains” or “the 1 percent rule.” But it all boils down to momentum.

The first time you ask yourself “did I do one thing today to grow my business?” you might be disappointed in the answer. Most of us stay busy all day in our gyms, but the gyms don’t grow. That means you’re treading water but not getting anywhere.

For me, the only way to ensure my business grows is to start my day with a growth activity before I’m distracted.

How about you?

The post Good Gym to Great: Momentum appeared first on Two-Brain Business.