If It’s Not Moving Your Gym Forward, Get Rid of It

One of the biggest problems I see with independent gym owners, boutique studio operators, gym entrepreneurs, and personal trainers is not necessarily a lack of effort.

In many cases, they are working extremely hard.

The problem is that a lot of that effort is being spent on things that are not actually moving the business closer to its goals.

And here is something every gym owner should understand:

If something is not getting you closer to your goal, there is a pretty good chance it is taking you further away from it.

Your time is limited.

Your staff’s time is limited.

Your money is limited.

Your attention is limited.

And every minute, dollar, and ounce of energy being spent on something that does not move the business forward is being taken away from something that potentially could.

That is why one of the most important things a gym owner can learn to do is eliminate distractions.

Know Exactly What the Goal Is

Before you can decide what needs to go, you first have to know where you are going.

What is the goal?

Is the goal to increase membership?

Improve profitability?

Reduce cancellations?

Generate more personal training revenue?

Improve member retention?

Open another location?

Build a gym that can operate without the owner being there every day?

Whatever the goal happens to be, it needs to be clear.

One of the things we talk about frequently when helping gym owners, managers, and staff put together a plan of action is this:

We don’t change the goal.

We might change the plan.

We might change the strategy.

We might change the offer.

We might change the advertising.

We might change the sales process.

We might even change the people responsible for executing it.

But the goal stays the goal.

Too many gym owners do the opposite.

The strategy doesn’t work immediately, so instead of adjusting the strategy, they start changing the goal.

Then they chase something else.

Then something else.

Six months later, they have started ten different initiatives and completed none of them.

Change the Plan, Not the Destination

There is an important distinction between being persistent and being stubborn.

Persistence means staying committed to the outcome.

Stubbornness means continuing to do something that clearly is not working simply because that was the original plan.

If your goal is to add 100 new members, stay focused on adding 100 members.

But if Facebook advertising is not producing results, you may need to change the advertising.

If your sales team is not closing prospects, you may need to change your sales training.

If your leads are not showing up, you may need to improve your appointment-setting process.

If members are leaving faster than you can replace them, you may need to attack retention before spending more money generating leads.

The goal doesn’t necessarily change.

The path to the goal can change constantly.

Great operators understand this.

They stay extremely committed to the destination while remaining flexible about how they get there.

Start Pushing Things Away

Growth is not always about adding more.

Sometimes growth comes from subtraction.

What meetings could disappear?

What reports does nobody actually use?

What marketing activities produce nothing?

What promotions create headaches without generating profit?

What staff responsibilities should be reassigned?

What products or services consume enormous amounts of time while producing very little revenue?

What habits are keeping the owner busy but not productive?

What problems keep getting tolerated that should have been corrected months ago?

These are the kinds of questions gym owners need to ask.

Because every business accumulates clutter.

Processes get added.

Meetings get added.

Offers get added.

Software gets added.

Responsibilities get added.

Before long, the organization becomes unnecessarily complicated.

Sometimes the next breakthrough in your gym will not come from asking:

“What else should we start doing?”

It will come from asking:

“What should we stop doing?”

Being Busy Is Not the Same as Making Progress

This is something I see constantly.

A gym owner can work twelve hours and still accomplish very little that actually improves the business.

They answer emails.

Fix equipment.

Talk with employees.

Move schedules around.

Check social media.

Handle small customer-service problems.

Look at advertising.

Sit in meetings.

Talk with vendors.

And at the end of the day, they feel exhausted.

But ask one question:

What happened today that moved the business closer to the goal?

Sometimes the answer is very little.

That is the danger of confusing activity with productivity.

Successful gym owners learn to identify the handful of activities that truly drive the business.

Usually, they are things such as:

• Generating qualified leads
• Following up with prospects
• Booking appointments
• Closing sales
• Delivering outstanding member results
• Improving retention
• Developing employees
• Increasing revenue per member
• Building stronger systems
• Recruiting better people

Everything else needs to be evaluated based on whether it supports those priorities.

Your Calendar Should Reflect Your Goals

One of the easiest ways to determine what someone’s real priorities are is to look at their calendar.

If you say sales growth is your number-one priority, how much time is being spent on sales?

If developing your staff is important, how much time is being spent training them?

If retention is important, how much time is being spent contacting members who are slipping away?

If generating referrals is important, where is that activity scheduled?

Your calendar will often tell the truth faster than your business plan.

What you repeatedly spend time on eventually becomes your result.

That means gym owners need to intentionally protect time for the activities most closely connected to their goals.

Everything else has to compete for what remains.

Teach Your Staff to Think the Same Way

This mindset should not stop with the owner.

Your managers and employees should understand the goal as well.

If everyone knows exactly what the organization is trying to accomplish, decision-making becomes much easier.

Instead of asking the owner about every little decision, employees can start asking themselves:

“Does this move us closer to the goal?”

That question can become a filter for the entire organization.

Should we run this promotion?

Does it move us closer?

Should we add this service?

Does it move us closer?

Should we spend money on this software?

Does it move us closer?

Should we keep doing this meeting every Tuesday?

Does it move us closer?

If the answer is no, it deserves serious scrutiny.

Focus Creates Momentum

Businesses become dangerous competitors when everyone begins pulling in the same direction.

The owner knows the goal.

Management knows the goal.

The sales staff knows the goal.

The trainers know the goal.

The front desk knows the goal.

Everyone understands what matters.

Now the business begins developing momentum.

Instead of ten different priorities competing for attention, there are a few important priorities being executed extremely well.

That is where meaningful growth starts to happen.

The Goal Stays. Everything Else Is Negotiable.

There are always going to be distractions.

There will always be another marketing idea.

Another piece of software.

Another promotion.

Another opportunity.

Another meeting.

Another person asking for your attention.

The discipline is being able to look at those things and determine whether they actually support where you are trying to go.

Remember:

We don’t change the goal just because the road gets difficult.

We change the plan.

We adjust.

We learn.

We improve.

We keep moving.

And along the way, we start pushing away everything that gets between us and the objective.

Because if something is consistently not helping you get closer to your goal, it may already be taking you further away from it.

For gym owners who want to grow, sometimes the smartest thing you can do isn’t add another strategy.

It’s eliminate everything that keeps distracting you from executing the strategies that matter most.

Need help building systems, improving your facility, or turning around your gym business? Contact Jim here.

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