A gym that’s doing well pays you well—that is the number one sign a gym is strong and will be around for a long time.
We track a host of key metrics carefully, and net owner benefit (NOB) is one of the most important because it answers this question:
Are you taking home enough money to support your family and live the life you want?
Nobody gets into this business because they’re greedy or they want to leverage a gym to buy a fleet of Corvettes. The reality is that most of us consider it a huge reward to help people live longer, healthier, happier lives.
But here’s what happens when passionate gym owners don’t earn enough: They leave the industry because of money problems.
They don’t lose their passion. They don’t get bored with helping other people. They don’t burn out on changing lives. They don’t rekindle a passion for selling real estate.
It always comes back to money.
Money doesn’t solve every problem, but it sure solves the money problems. And when that happens, passionate gym owners keep changing lives.
I’m going to show you 10 gym owners who have really solved the money problem, and I’ll give you their top tips so you can learn from the best.
Check out this leaderboard, which shows rolling three-month averages:
Let’s start with what these gyms have in common.
The main thing: They’re all using very simple but incredibly effective tactics. Nobody talks about huge ad campaigns or complicated strategies for client acquisition. They’re just doing the simple but effective stuff repeatedly and by the book.
For example, they’re regularly running bring-a-friend events on a schedule, and they’re using our playbook to get people to come in with a friend, do a free consultation and sign up for membership. They’re not just using a “free community workout on Saturdays” or running a haphazard bring-a-friend day once every three years.
Here are some other simple but deadly effective tactics top gyms are using:
- Raising rates annually. Inflation is a thing, right? If you don’t account for it, your profit margin will suffer.
- Focusing on service delivery and retention. You must have an excellent product and systems that ensure people stick around long enough to benefit from it.
- Moving beyond group classes to high-value services such as PT, semi-private training and corporate programs. Group coaching should be your discount option. That doesn’t mean it’s bad. It means that you have premium options that give clients more attention if they want it.
Now, here are quotes from the leaders:
Retention and Service Delivery
“We are building better connections with the members. Retention has improved and churn is better. (This NOB number) is 12 months in the making.”
“Attendance tracking: We reach out each week if they don’t attend, and we reach out to every client every month. I am responsible for 160 CrossFit class members. Each, month I’ll come up with a prompt I’ll use to text or call about 40 people a week.”
“We simplified our areas of focus, sticking to making our class experience better.”
Referral Funnel
“We ran our fourth or fifth bring-a-friend week. It gives us more qualified leads.”
“We ran our first bring-a-friend Friday. Weather put a damper on the event, but we still had half turn out and got some No Sweat Intros scheduled.”
“Eighty percent of our growth comes from referrals.”
Reviews and Content Funnel
“A local gym closed down, and that helped us. But the boost came because we have a great reputation and social-media presence. We’re the only gym in town with 150 reviews and five stars. We got them tactically. I knew that was very important. We ask our members, ‘Would you leave us a five-star review?’ It’s usually after we’ve given them something or they’ve reached a PR. ‘We’re so excited that we’ve been able to help you! Would you be able to help us by leaving a review?’”
“We pay a social-media manager to highlight the members, showcase the diversity of the members, celebrate milestones, make the clients famous and post videos of coaches.”
Beyond Group Classes
“We run a fundamentals program with about 60 people.”
“The three owners have all done PT loads, but we now give that to our coaches. We have two full-time coaches: One of them does some nutrition and another does some specific seminars.”
“Corporate training is $600,000 every year. It started with just one client, then 10-20 people per corporate client, with five corporate clients—about 60-70 people. We go to them, and three coaches deliver. It’s very easy: no attendance checking or check-ins on these people, and the programming is all the same. We have had many of them come to the gym. We’re expanding that to include habits and nutrition coaching.”
“We still do group classes (but are) planning to add semi-private training.”
“For Q2 we’re focused on our semi-private training.”
“We are getting smarter with special programs and getting strategic. In November, we did a healthy nutrition kickstart.”
“We are 50-50 PT and group.”
Annual Rate Increases
“We raise rates every year: ‘Thank you for the year! This is what we’ve done this year. This is what we’re doing next year.’”
Pay Yourself First
“In 2022, we started paying ourselves first, and now I know how much money I’ll be bringing home first. I think this is very important. It’s a lot of work to run a gym, and you should be compensated or you’ll start to dislike it. There is cash, but the NOB number also includes the car and other owner benefits.”
“In another quarter, a lot of extra cash was left over from a nearby special event, so we pulled it out.”
Basics and Mentorship
“The plan in Q1 is focused on increasing average revenue per member and length of engagement.”
“We focused on the basics—everything that Two-Brain’s taught us. We’ve doubled in size since last year. We didn’t do any paid ads; this is all organic.”
You Deserve to Earn!
Here’s a reminder: You deserve to earn a great living from your gym.
I know you’re sacrificing time from your family, you’re sacrificing a stable career, you’re taking risks, you’re serving other people, and you’re giving them all your energy no matter what’s happening in your own life.
No matter how bad a day you’re having, you’re forcing a smile and giving people the best coaching.
You’re changing their lives, even when they falter. You’re calling them when they’re not showing up. You’re taking charge of their health on their behalf. You’re telling them you believe in them even when they doubt themselves.
Because of all that, you deserve to be successful. And my selfish reason is that if you’re successful, you’ll stay in the business and help more people longer.
But the reality is that nobody deserves to be more successful than gym owners who work hard to make clients healthier.
If you’re not earning what you want from your business, we have a plan to get you to $100,000 fast. Then we can decide where to go from there.
To hear more about that, book a call here.
