It is no secret that people in the United States love going to the gym. The demographics are larger than for other kinds of businesses. It has been reported that the age range for people who go to a gym on a regular basis goes from 20 years old to 64 years old. At least 58 million Americans go to the gym every year. There are a number of factors that will determine if your gym succeeds or goes under. It is not enough to have the best health club management system around. These tips can help you succeed with this kind of business:
- Take a good look at your target audience. Whenever you open a brick and mortar type of business, be it a health club or a food market, you need to know who the people who live in your area are and what they want. For example, in most parts of Florida, putting in tanning booths and bring in a lot of customers to your place. By contrast, you may not have the same response in other states such as New York. Accordingly, think about how many parents will need childcare, how many older people may be interested in classes to improve flexibility and stability.
- Think about what your real needs are when you design your health club. A large number of fitness and health clubs are set around where the equipment is going to go without thinking about who will be coming to the business and what their needs will be. Give some serious thought to the way the people in your area will want to work out. This means you need to know more about what kind of workouts your members will want how your health club looks when they first walk in. If you have your weights up front, that can be a good thing if you have mostly body builder as members but if you mostly have people who just want to lose a few pounds, that can be intimidating.
- Make your locker rooms great. No this may not be as exciting a task as playing with the latest and greatest health club management systems or check in software for gyms but it is the single most important part of your gym. They can literally make or break your space. People feel the most vulnerable when they are changing, showering, or getting ready in the locker room area of a gym. That means you need to think about creating a space that provides privacy and makes people feel safe. Adding amenities such as hair dryers, shampoo, and conditioner also make your place more user-friendly as your members often will want to go out or to work after they spend time at your facility.
- Get to know your members. It is much, much easier to keep a customer than to get a new one. That means you should look into ways to interact with them. When you have people feeling like they are part of a community that you have created at your health club, they will be more likely to hang around. You can use your health club management system to keep an eye on who is using what equipment or taking what classes. That will give you the data you need to interact with them on a more personal level. Take an interest in how successful they are at reaching their goals and they will appreciate you for it.
- Make more space about overall health, not just weight loss or fitness. When people focus on the former and not the latter, they have a better chance of achieving the other two. When you make your health club more of a health club than a place where people can just use fitness equipment, you will have more than just a gym but a health club that has a community attached to it. That is the best way to make your new business a success.
As important as it is to get the right health club management system, running a successful gym is more a product of great customer service and a commitment to creating a space that people consider to be an important part of their lives and community.
