Virtuosity in business is the theme of our 2024 summit for gym owners because I know mastery of the basics will help you succeed in business.
I know this because we track data relentlessly, and we always dig into the practices behind our clients’ numbers.
When we publish our monthly leaderboards, we always interview the gym owners who earned a spot, and we seldom hear about exotic tactics. If we do, we start testing the tactic to see if it will work everywhere—and if the answer is “yes,” we tell gym owners about it.
But those instances are rare.
What’s more common in our leaderboard interviews is virtuosity—mastery of the basics. We regularly hear things like this: “I just stuck to the plan” or “I did what my mentor said” or “I focused on this one thing that really moved the needle.”
That’s virtuosity in practice—doing the common uncommonly well.
Here’s what virtuosity looks like with regard to average revenue per member per month:
And here’s what our leaders had to say about their ARM scores (note that these are all basic but extremely effective tactics):
We did it by “cleaning up systems, getting rid of holds and punchcards. … PT first for everyone!”
“We didn’t do a great job initially in pushing people into a private model (on-ramp). Once we doubled down on that, we improved. Now we have a reputation for PT. Level Method added tons of value. The focus now is to try and implement our nutrition service the same way!”
“We don’t do classes. Only 1:1 and only small group. Forty clients: 30 do 1:1 and 10 do small group—$300-$500 a month.”
“We always find good fits. We have a very clear red-flag process for clients; i.e., if they miss two sessions. We refer them out if their budget is less than $200.”
“We have peak and off-peak rates for popular times. My rates are higher than my trainers’ rates ($30-$50 more, up to double).”
“We have a lot of clients with kids in our town, so many of our clients were asking ‘what can you do to get our kids moving more?’ The goal was to install good movement patterns in their kids. Our gym name gives us a great local reputation that we are the best at helping people stay safe in the gym!”
“We do what you guys tell us to do.”
“We do small-group PT and sports performance training. That typically has a higher ticket price than the average group stuff.”
“Before Two-Brain, I was underpriced and really not confident. … I am in a unique setting in the sense that I personal-train out of a commercial gym.”
“We took very specific actions thanks to Joleen (our mentor). We focused on reaching out to local doctors and PTs to pitch ourselves as the perfect place for their clients to ascend to once their treatments were done. Having these types of partnerships means we have a steady flow of clients, allowing us to then double down on our staff to service the demand.”
“I’d take homemade food to businesses and practitioners in our area to introduce ourselves. Everyone in our area knows who we are because of this!”
Master the Fundamentals
I love sharing quotes from our top gym owners every month because it demystifies gym ownership.
It turns out you don’t need to experiment and come up with wild ideas to make your gym extremely profitable. You just need to learn how to do the simple things really, really well.
The best way to master the basics fast: Get help from a master.
When you’re ready to do that, we’re here.
