How Gym Owners Can Use AI to Streamline Ops and Buy Back Time
Running a microgym means you’re often wearing too many hats.
You’re the cleaner, the bookkeeper, the marketer, the sales rep—and that’s before anyone even shows up to train.
If you don’t want to do it all yourself, you can hire staff.
But hiring staff turns you into a manager. None of us signed up to manage people, and the solution to getting the work done becomes a new, bigger problem that requires more work.
Now gym owners are seeing ads for AI solutions to solve these problems.
“If I just had a robot instead of a human, this would be a lot easier!” right?
Longtime gym owners might remember hearing the same thing about VAs three years ago.
“If I just had an offshore virtual assistant, I could pay them far less and get the work done faster!”
As we all learned, VAs can work, but they’re never a simple, set-it-and-forget-it, buy-your-way-out-of-the-problem solution. You still have to follow the steps required for business excellence:
Systemize, optimize, automate.
Optimize—Second, you must test various upgrades to see what works best. This is what makes a business great.
Automate—Only then can you hand off delivery to a staff person (or, sometimes, a robot or automation software like a CRM). This is what makes a business excellent: putting excellence on repeat.
But most gym owners screw this up by hiring a robot to do an undefined, untested, broken task.
Robots are not good at that.
To build a good gym, you must start with the foundation.
Here’s how you can use AI to improve the bottom level of the Business Pyramid: operations and systems.
1. Workout Programming
Tool: Garmin
Garmin’s new Clipboard app is underutilized and underappreciated. The app is for coaches, and it pulls in all the data from every athlete’s wearable. Coaches can access an incredible amount of data, and it’s crazy to me that this is free. It even includes an AI tool to build workouts for athletes based on their performance or their sleep the night before.
Tool: TrainHeroic AI Coach
TrainHeroic offers AI-assisted programming features that help coaches build smart progressions for individuals and groups while syncing with client data to improve outcomes.
2. Billing & Payroll
Tool: Gusto (With AI Features)
Gusto helps manage payroll, contractor payments, benefits and tax filing with automated reminders and error detection—it’s especially valuable if you don’t have a bookkeeper.
Tool: QuickBooks Smart Invoicing
QuickBooks now includes AI features that auto-categorize expenses, send smart payment reminders and flag inconsistencies, helping gym owners track cash flow without hiring full-time help.
3. Sell by Chat + FAQ Support
Tool: ManyChat + ChatGPT Integration
ManyChat allows you to build Facebook/Instagram DM flows that simulate real conversations. With a ChatGPT plugin, it can answer nuanced questions, book No Sweat Intros and qualify leads 24/7.
4. Lead Nurture
Tool: GLM (Gym Lead Machine)
Kilo GLM is a tool that helps you get more members without doing all the follow-up yourself. When someone signs up on your website or fills out a form, GLM automatically sends them texts and emails to keep them interested, remind them about appointments and help them get started.
It can even take phone calls using AI and answer common questions. If someone needs extra help, it can pass the conversation over to a real person on your team. Think of it like having an extra staff member who works around the clock to follow up with leads, handle messages and keep your gym growing.
GLM is great for gym owners who are operating on a shoestring budget.
5. Inventory Management & Supplies
Tool: Notion AI for Inventory Logs
You can create a custom inventory database with Notion AI to track cleaning supplies, supplements or apparel and set automated reorder triggers using integrations.
Tool: Zapier + GPT Automations
Using Zapier, you can connect spreadsheets or POS systems to ChatGPT to automatically send reminders or place supply orders when stock gets low.
Offload for Increased Efficiency and Joy
AI tools—robots—can take over low-value roles, reduce payroll and give you more time to grow your business.
But only if you take the time to systemize your business first.
AI isn’t about replacing great people—it’s about replacing repetitive, low-leverage tasks so you and your team can focus on what actually grows the business.
What does that leave you?
The high-value stuff (and the stuff you love doing).
For example, I wouldn’t let ChatGPT write this blog post for me because it’s super important, and I enjoy writing you love letters every day.
The post How Gym Owners Can Use AI to Streamline Ops and Buy Back Time appeared first on Two-Brain Business.
