It’s the 28th of the month. You don’t have enough for the rent. You just remembered your insurance is due. And this is a three-pay month … . Anxiety is your cardio now. You live in constant fear of “what’s going to happen next?” because you’re stuck in a meteor shower, and you know that any little hit could be your last. You’re overwhelmed, overworked, and just kinda over it. That’s panic. And data is the vaccine. What Data Does Data tells you, “Here’s how other gym owners got through this same situation.” Data tells you, “Next month will be better.” Data tells you, “Here’s how to stop this from ever happening again.” Data is the laser beam that blasts the falling rocks out of the sky before they get close to you. Data is clarity. Data is a look into the future. Data is absolutely critical to the success of your business. So why isn’t there any data in the fitness business? Because, until now, no one would collect it, analyze it and report on it. Data and Duty Big chain gyms collect tons of data about their customers’ spending habits. They know when they’re busy. They create budgets around peak seasons. They know when to boost their ad spend, when to hire and when a client is about to leave. But they don’t share. Franchisors collect data on their franchisees but don’t give that data back for analysis because it’s their intellectual property. Gathering data is very hard and very expensive, and they want to keep it in the mothership. And licensors, like CrossFit, don’t collect data at all because they charge too little to pay for that level of business support. When I visited CrossFit HQ last year, I asked the question over breakfast: “What if you tracked data for all of your gyms and just released it for anyone to analyze?” The ...
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