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In early 2013, I was standing in the parking garage of the Four Seasons Hotel in Seattle. It was raining, and I was late for my flight. But I was talking to Greg Glassman, and he was offering me a contract to write for CrossFit HQ, and we were almost there. But I had two conditions: 1. I wanted to be “chris@crossfit.com” (I still am), and 2. I didn’t want to sell my gym. Greg said, “Chris, you don’t have to sell your gym. Lots of people at HQ still own their gyms.” He pointed to Jimi Letchford, with whom I’d just had coffee at the original Starbucks. “How do I run my gym and work full-time for HQ?” I asked. “You’re supposed to be the expert,” he said. “Figure it out.” I did. The rest of that story is written down somewhere, including my vision of “retirement” and “wealth”. But I’m writing this piece to answer the question, “Should I sell?” It’s not your standard pros-and-cons article. First I give a reason NOT to sell that many miss. Second, I give one solid reason TO sell your gym to someone else. 1. No. Don’t sell. Your gym is too valuable to sell. “Building a salable asset” is becoming popular rhetoric. But a service business usually isn’t a retirement-grade asset because of the volatile nature of the clients. As Jason Ackerman explained in this podcast, even a prominent gym won’t sell for retirement-level money. MOST gyms are worth far less than their owners believe. To find out for sure, download our free Gym Valuation tool. Ackerman sold his gym for “between half and a million”. I know the real number, but won’t share it. Your gym can be a cash flow asset. It can run without you. In fact, some would argue THIS is the true measure of business success: building an asset that’s worth more when running than when ...

Originally posted on DontBuyAds.com on 8/9/11. Note: CrossFit affiliate agreements specifically prohibit using a noncompete clause. But you can still use a Non-Solicit agreement, and you should have a confidentiality agreement anyway. The NonCompete A topic that’s been getting a lot of attention on the Affiliate discussion boards lately is the NonCompete Contract. With some centers now supporting 6 or more CrossFit boxes, it’s no surprise that Affiliates are considering the possibility of Coaches moving around from Box to Box. A bit of diffusion with Coaches, just as with athletes, is to be expected: no one is a perfect match for everyone. The big fear, though, seems to be that the cost of developing a Coach – which takes years and a TON of money – can be tossed aside when the Coach leaves to start her OWN Affiliate, usually taking clients with her. How can we know the correct way to write a NonCompete contract, preventing a staff member from going out on their own and drawing staff members, without a lot of trial and error? We can put a contract on the firing line and try to defend it. In our case, we’re currently defending AGAINST a NonCompete contract from another business. We’re going to win. More importantly, we’re going to learn where the law works to uphold a NonCompete contract…and where it won’t. When a court is considering the validity of a NonCompete contract, it has to answer three questions: 1.  Does the company have a proprietary interest that’s entitled to protection? Have you developed specific knowledge that can’t be gained easily, or without much effort, by the common person? Are others doing similar things in your area already? 2. Are the temporal or spatial restrictions too broad? After all, while you have the right to protect your business, you can’t stop another person from making a living forever, or remove them from the industry…. 3. Is a ...