Newsflash: The days of “we just sell group fitness” are over.
That doesn’t mean you can’t sell—and love—group fitness.
But the best gyms in the world all have diverse revenue streams, with some very high-value services on the menu.
This plan pulls up average revenue per member (ARM), revenue per square foot and gross revenue.
And when you combine amazing gross revenue with an appropriate profit margin, you get very successful gyms and millionaire gym owners (we’ve minted about 60 and counting).
Whenever I say stuff like this, I often get accused of being “against group coaching,” but I’m not.
I am against gyms failing, and relying on group coaching alone is a recipe for failure, just like pouring all your cash into one tech stock is a sketchy choice.
We study what’s working in the best gyms in the world and then help our mentorship clients replicate the success of those elite gyms.
In top gyms, the standard revenue streams are generally group, personal training and small-group or semi-private training, but some of our leaders are using other combinations, including special programs and events as part of carefully crafted annual plans. (That last part is key; these gyms aren’t running special events out of desperation.)
The point: You need a flexible model that allows you to give clients options and makes it easy to buy high-value services if they want more attention or special coaching.
With the right model, members have great choices, and you can earn more without trying to guess what everybody wants.
Here’s what the right model and help from a mentor can produce:
One of our leaders made this board without using semi-private training, and he’s going to be working with our semi-private specialist to create a new program. I can’t wait to see the gym’s next revenue total.
Other gyms posted these numbers with group training and personal training. Some gyms earned their spots with semi-private and group training. Some use all three. Some use very lucrative nutrition challenges or competitions.
Here’s what’s the same for all leaders: In every case, the owner has a great plan that was built with mentor, and the plan is being executing on a schedule, so big revenue dips and low months are rare.
These are incredible but consistent numbers supported by plans, not hopes and dreams.
To give you more insight into these numbers, here are quotes from the gym owners who posted them.
Revenue Streams
“Our revenue comes from traditional, predictable personal training and membership fees. We also run a nutrition challenge and a competition. The competition generates $13,000 twice a year. We’ve been running that for over a decade with 140-150 athletes.”
“Our revenue is 70 percent group, 20 percent small group, 5 percent PT, 5 percent on-ramp.”
“We are a PT studio. Five years ago, we had three part-time coaches. Now we have 11—eight full-time coaches, two part time and one physio. Our revenue comes from one on one, some two on one and some small group (this is the lowest level of revenue).”
“We are looking now to go to the semi-private concept—we have a call with (Two-Brain specialist) Brian Bott booked.”
“We also offer boxing and Thai boxing, always one on one or two on one. People really love it and always have the feeling they can get better at it. It’s no contact, using pads.”
Gamification and Challenges
“We have gamified nutrition. Instead of weight-loss goals, we provide people with more ways to win. We use a points system in an app. We asked, ‘How do we get more engagement with the key drivers outside the gym?’ We track seven daily health points: sleep, water, protein, movement, alcohol, whole foods, timed eating, etc. This makes it more fun: We race to 200 health points, and we have a leaderboard!”
“We run a Mile-a-Day May simple consistency challenge and plan to run something similar once per quarter.”
“We had 140 members in the nutrition challenge for $8,000-$9,000 in April, and we run the challenge twice a year.”
“They get to feel like kids! We’ve gamified heart rate using the Myzone heart-rate monitor, with tracking on screens. We have a leaderboard of people who are most active in a week, and sometimes we do challenges—males vs. females, etc.—all around heart rate.”
Focus on Avatar
“We are privileged to be in an affluent and busy neighborhood. We relentlessly focus on the beginner and the average athlete, delivering ‘shame-free fitness.’ We do not ‘program for the best and scale for the rest.’”
“I stay away from nutrition. I don’t think touching that topic creates a safe space, and I stay in my lane. My revenue does not involve any nutrition or supplements.”
“I keep the groups small: The general capacity limit is 14, with a specialty-class max of eight and a small-group max of six. In the busy hours, there are wait lists on the prime classes, and this creates incentive/scarcity. For the busy times, there is a late-cancel fee that’s used as an accountability tool. I donate all these late-cancel fees, and I’ve gotten lots of compliments on this.”
“We offer great vibes, and we do a lot of team building. I serve lots of business owners, and they like the positive, professional vibes (no males walking around in tank tops).”
Maximizing Revenue Per Square Foot
“We have 208 clients in 400 square meters (4,300 square feet), and we are at the edge of capacity.”
Moving in the Right Direction
We publish these leaderboards and quotes to help you. Even if your gym is doing less than $10,000 a month, you could one day be on these leaderboards. Believe it.
But you might not be able to get there on your own. Mistakes are costly and time is finite. I don’t want you to get frustrated or give up before you get to the right answer.
Good news: You can skip to the good part.
All our leaders used mentorship to post industry-leading stats. They got an outside perspective that helped them get really clear about where they wanted to go and how to get there, step by step.
Our mentors defined the path, and the owners are moving in the right direction with purposeful, consistent effort. They’re not trying something different every month. They’re getting better and better at doing the right things for their businesses. And that work is taking them to the top of our revenue leaderboard.
To get on the same path and move fast, book a call here. If you aren’t ready for that, check into our Gym Owners United group every day for tips and tactics.
