The Farmer Phase of gym ownership is the growth phase: You’re managing people and growing your audience. You’re serving more people than you could alone, and you’re serving many at once. You have larger costs, more risk and (hopefully) higher revenues.
There are a million things you could do in Farmer Phase. What should your focus be?
Net owner benefit (NOB).
NOB is what your business pays you. It includes a wage, profit distributions and all the little “extras” that your business covers for you, like your cell phone bill or car payment.
Your NOB target in Farmer Phase should be $100,000 per year—or you can adjust up or down if you live outside North America.
Every action you take should provide a positive answer to this question:
“Does this improve my net owner benefit?”
For example:
- Raising your rates improves your NOB.
- Selling nutrition coaching or personal training improves your NOB.
- Getting more clients improves your NOB.
- Adopting a “pay yourself first” strategy like Profit First improves NOB.
Things that don’t improve NOB:
- Buying more equipment.
- “Reinvesting” in your business.
- Paying for coaches’ advanced credentials.
- Hiring a GM.
Of course, there’s a balance to consider: Buying more equipment might someday improve NOB by allowing you to train more clients.
Hiring a cleaner will improve your NOB—but only if you reinvest the time you save into a higher-value role, like marketing.
In Farmer Phase, though, you don’t need to hire a GM or set up staff health benefits or expand your facility until you’re earning more than $100,000 per year yourself.
Of course, there are exceptions, and that’s why we’re a mentorship practice.
Click here to book a call with my team, determine your largest roadblock to earning $100,000 and find out how to remove it.
Other Media in This Series
“Clarity in Founder Phase: One Point of Focus”
“Clarity in Tinker Phase: $1 Million Net Worth”
