Yesterday, I wrote that the best time to start a gym is NOW.
But what if you already own a gym? What if you’ve made mistakes–with your pricing, with your location, with discounts…?
The best time to fix them is now.

NOW is the best time to grow your gym. Here’s why:

1. Mistakes Are Less Fatal Now

Five years ago, one or two mistakes could have killed you. Now we have antidotes.
If you priced your service too low in 2012, you were probably dead. You’d fall into the trap of more members paying less money. You would work crazy hours yourself. You’d coach new clients every single week because of a high churn rate. Then you’d stop getting new clients, and that would be it.
Now, if you’ve made a horrible mistakes with pricing, we know the way back. We’ve done it hundreds of times with gym owners around the world. We can walk you through the process step by step, and support you all the way.
Discounts? PIFs? Lifetime memberships? All poison, but now all treatable, thanks to experience and data. We’ve got the cure for the mumps, and now we’re working to vaccinate fitness entrepreneurs to avoid these problems.
 

2. The Marketing Problem Has Been Solved

The top question fitness entrepreneurs asked in the 1970s was still the top question they asked 40 years later:
“How do I get more clients?”
Now, we’ve solved that problem. We teach the step-by-step process in the Incubator. It goes like this:
Fix your retention problems first
Sell a valuable service, at the right price, really well
Help your current people more
Help the people closest to them by getting referrals (in an un-slimy way)
Help the people surrounding your best clients by knowing their problems and solving them
Find the people who need you on digital platforms, and market to them effectively
Track every step along the way, and double down on your strengths.
That means a different solution for almost every gym…but not THAT different. We can tell you exactly what to do now. This has never existed until now.
 

3. The Staffing Problem Has Been Solved

It’s hard to make accounting and payroll sexy, but some authors have actually done it.
If you’ve read “Profit First” or “Simple Numbers,” you get it: your staff costs should be 44% or less of your gross revenue.
And if you’ve read “Two-Brain Business 2.0” or been through any of our content over the last decade, you know our directive process for making that 44% target.
(If you haven’t, read “The Salary Cap” as a starting point.)
But hiring is far more than knowing how to pay coaches.
We know how to identify great fits.
We know how to train them to replace you.
We know how to make sure they do it the right way (and what to do if they don’t.)
We know how to help them advance their careers without becoming your competition.
We know how to make them great, even if they want to stay part time.
And we know how to keep them happy for decades.
You’ll lay the foundations in the Incubator, and grow your opportunities in Growth Phase.
 

5. You Have Real Models of Success

No one thought a human could deadlift 600lbs and run a six-minute mile in the same day…until someone did it.
The CrossFit Games and other fitness competitions help microgyms because they provide real-world models for fitness success. Ten years ago, the “models of fitness success” were steroided, starved and kinda slimy. Now we have happy, positive role models for fitness.
And we finally have the same for entrepreneurs.
We know who’s actually successful. We can ask them questions. We can track their actions and copy their success. We can be like them. We have data and proof.
Sure, there are a lot of pretenders in Facebook groups. There are bankrupt gym owners who won’t hesitate to give others advice; there are failing MMA guys who will tell you how to run a jiu-jitsu school; and there are yogapreneurs who lie.
But data doesn’t lie. Data is painful to collect and expensive to curate. But we have it now. And it grows every day.
Data shines a spotlight on success. That allows us to put real models of success on our stage.
 

5. You Have a Clear Path Forward

I think the biggest problem facing entrepreneurs is too much information.
I think most of our paralysis; most of our stress; and most of our fear is caused by overwhelm. There are simply too many options out there now, and too few filters to tell us:
a) what’s true;
b) what’s best;
c) what’s best for US;
d) what’s best for us right NOW.
It’s the reason I wrote “Founder, Farmer, Tinker, Thief“: to give fitness entrepreneurs a way to sort this information into actionable steps.
The book describes a gym owner’s path to success. It tells you what should be done, in which order.
But our Incubator and Growth programs are directive: we mentor you through that path with clarity and objectivity. We help you fix your problems and move on. That’s what mentorship is.
You can get the first clear step for free. Just book a Free Help Call here. No sales pitch, just help–the way it’s been since 2009.