Last year, I published a short guide called “How to Make More Money Without Raising Rates.”
If you want it, just send me a DM and I’ll fire it over.
This week, we interviewed the No. 1 gym owner on our Top 10 revenue leaderboard, and some of the tactics in the guide showed up in the conversation.
I love seeing how solid tactics work in the real world. That’s proof from where the rubber meets the road.
Brandon Stratton runs Bell House Training Co. in Michigan. Here are some vital stats:
- Approximately $120,000 in monthly revenue.
- 10,000 square feet of space.
- About 580 members.
- Rebranded from Fit Body Boot Camp.
- Added small-group personal training after the pandemic ended.
- $39 weekly rate for large group training.
- $60-$80 weekly rate for small group training.
- Approx. 100 small-group members.
- $100,000 annual supplement sales at 35% margin.
- Average large-group class size: 35 (this is very rare in the industry).
- Shares a parking lot with a Planet Fitness gym.
When “Run a Profitable Gym” host Mike Warkentin asked Brandon about the greatest needle-moving tactics he used to boost revenue, Brandon listed four.
My commentary is below. Here’s the full interview in case you want to check it out:
Rate Adjustments
When Brandon rebranded to Bell House after COVID, he looked into his membership and realized some people had legacy prices going back to 2018. Others had couples’ discounts when half of the couple had long departed. And so on. He corrected all this, and his revenue increased.
👉 Takeaway: Eliminating discounts is essentially a rate increase, and all the money drops to the bottom line. If you’re scared to kill your existing discounts, first stop offering them to all new members. You can address current members with the help of a mentor.
Rate Increases
Brandon increased rates and increased value to justify it. That’s a big qualifier. I’ve often said “charge more and be worth it.”
Stratton literally looks across the parking lot at a gym that’s charging $39 a month for access. He’s charging $39 a week for coaching.
Scary, right? But check out Brandon’s value play:
“A lot of people come over from Planet Fitness. … I’m like, ‘Hey, tell me about your training history. Tell me about how long you’ve been working out. What do you like to do? Why do you go to Planet Fitness? OK, how long have you been doing that? And how has that been getting you closer to your goal of X, Y and Z—weight loss or getting ready for this wedding and so forth?’ And a lot of times people are like, ‘It’s getting me nowhere.’ I’m like, ‘OK, well, there you have it.’
“And then I tell them a little bit about our systems and how we approach getting them from Point A to Point B. … And it’s really an easy sell. They tee themselves up for the easy sale every time.”
👉 Takeaway: Charge more, be worth it and show your value to prospective clients. A mentor can show you exactly how to roll out a price increase.
Weekly Billing
- If you bill $100 monthly, that’s $1,200 a year.
- If you bill $50 every two weeks or $25 every week, that’s $1,300 a year (+$100).
- If you have 100 clients and bill weekly or biweekly, that’s an extra $10,000 in gross revenue in this scenario.
At Bell House, the numbers are much larger.
Brandon said: “We don’t do monthly because when you do the weekly, you collect that ‘13th month.’ … Having that revenue stream consistently week by week allows us to be a little more cash flexible.”
👉 Takeaway: Biweekly or weekly billing increases revenue. It also spreads payments out, which can be good for clients who struggle to accommodate a monthly bill that might not come when their paycheck arrives.
ACH Payments and Credit-Card Surcharges
ACH—Automated Clearing House—payments cost gym owners less. The tradeoff: Funds take slightly longer to arrive. But in Brandon’s case, giving up 2 or 3% of more than $1 million in revenue doesn’t make sense. (It probably doesn’t make sense for you, either.)
When Brandon switched to weekly billing, he encouraged people to switch to ACH payments. Most were happy to do so. The ones who preferred credit cards accepted a small surcharge—essentially a convenience fee. In the end, everyone was happy.
“That $1.2 million that comes in at the end of the year, even a couple percent—that’s a lot of money. So we’re avoiding that now, which is great,” Brandon said.
👉 Takeaway: If you don’t have to give as much to a payment processor, you’ll have more cash for upgrades, payroll or dividends/owner salary. A word of caution: Check your local laws. Some states prohibit credit-card surcharges. ACH payments are permitted in every state. Countries outside the U.S. have similar options.
Generate More Revenue
Simple tactics can be very effective. They will work in a small gym and help the owner move from $150,000 to $200,000-plus in annual revenue.
Brandon Stratton just showed that the same tactics will work in a very large gym with annual gross revenue way above $1 million.
My simple guide “How to Make More Money Without Raising Rates” will provide more tactics you can use—send me a DM through our Gym Owners United group to get it.
And if you’d like a mentor to tell you exactly which tactic is best for your gym right now, that help is available. Book a call here to talk about working with a business expert.
