You became an entrepreneur because you wanted the freedom to determine your own path, to do things your way, right?
That means you wanted the freedom to be creative.
👉 But here’s the problem: Almost every entrepreneur tries to be too creative.
You’re constantly changing things, tweaking, inventing. You create exceptions for every client, design your own T-shirts, write your own programming and so on.
That means every part of the business is in its first iteration—forever. It’s like starting over again every single day!
This creates a ton of stress because your business exists only in your head.
To you, it feels like thinking fast and being smart. To your clients and staff, it looks like absolute chaos. What they’re told today might change tomorrow. This has a grinding effect on people because everything feels unpredictable and unsafe.
After years of inconsistent delivery, staff performance and policies, your gym feels like it’s still in Year 1—Founder Phase.
Then you start to get decision fatigue. You get frustrated. You wonder why your staff can’t “just do their jobs”—but only you know what that job is, and it keeps changing.
Eventually, you get burned out. Along the way, the “burn it to the ground” fantasy starts showing up more often.
The answer isn’t to open a franchise and follow another company’s system. That’s sometimes tempting, but you didn’t sign up to be a cog in someone else’s machine.
The Solution
The “two brains” of your business are:
- Consistency (the left side)
- Creativity (the right side)
When they work together, you have a beautiful business that makes you money, creates careers for staff and makes a difference for clients.
To unite the two, you must create “freedom within a framework.”
It’s a matter of learning:
- Where you should set things in stone.
- Where you can be creative without hurting your business.
Here’s how to do that, system by system.
Marketing
- Systemize your ads and be creative in your conversations.
- Systemize your branding and be creative in your content.
- Example: Do not try to “dream up” the perfect ad and then be surprised when it doesn’t work. Test three ads at once and continually reinvest in the best-performing ads.
Sales
- Systemize your pricing and be creative in your prescriptions.
- Example: Make a sales binder with clear pricing and no discounts so you don’t have to make decisions about price with every client.
- Example 2: Follow an exact No Sweat Intro process but make creative recommendations depending on each client’s needs. Then write different programs that are perfect for each client.
Retention
- Systemize your Goal Review Sessions and be creative in your gifting and gratitude.
- Example: Follow the exact script every time when doing a goal review but get Tim a Pittsburgh Penguins jersey with his name and number because that’s his favorite team.
Operations
- Use simple, clear instructions to make the experience the same for everyone. Audit your systems and plan the client journey in advance.
- Be creative with your cues, programming, messaging and celebrations.
- Example: Class always starts on time but trainers can use different styles to get results.
Leadership
- Every day, do one thing to grow your business—but alter that “one thing” over time.
- Eliminate decision fatigue with a staff playbook and teach your staff the unbreakable rules. Learn to delegate effectively with task lists, checklists and SOPs.
- Example: Follow the Career Roadmap strategy with every staff person but be creative in how they reach their goals in your business.
A Framework for Every Entrepreneur
Getting too creative and doing everything is going to lead to bankruptcy or burnout.
But if you don’t get to feel creative control, what’s the point in owning a business?
At Two-Brain, we don’t force a franchise model on you. We teach you frameworks.
Want to just run group classes? Here’s how to make it work on your P&L. Want to never run group classes? Here’s how to make that work on your P&L.
Our mentors can give you specific tasks to do—not just advice or opinion—because they, too, have freedom to work within a mentorship framework. They’ve all been through our program, and we know they’re world-class business experts.
You don’t need a franchise to fix your chaotic gym. You just need a framework.
If you’re solid where you need to be and creative where you can be, you’ll have a gym that is stable, profitable and fun to run—and you’ll free yourself from having to make every decision again every day.
Want to talk about a framework that will help you run a better business? Book a call here.
