At the time of writing this article, I’ve conducted 3,612 one-on-one business mentoring consultations with fitness business owners, over six years. And after a while, you start to see patterns. As part of planning the 2024 Perth Fitness Business Summit, I wanted to seek out the common themes of the most successful fitness business owners. I identified 12 areas that operate the ordinary from the extraordinary. And these because the 12 key modules for the Fitness Business Summit. In this episode, I want to describe these 12 areas, and describe the actions of the top performers for each. This al ..read more

This article contains some of the key ideas from a webinar presented by Ash Williams, and published on The Business of Fitness Podcast. Always seek independent legal advice as this information is general in nature and may not apply to your specific situation. For gym owners and personal trainers, addressing performance issues and navigating the termination process are amongst the most challenging aspects of business management. Ensuring that these processes adhere to procedural fairness is not only a legal necessity but also crucial for maintaining a respectful and equitable work environment ..read more

This article contains some of the key ideas from a webinar presented by Ash Williams, and published on The Business of Fitness Podcast. Always seek independent legal advice as this information is general in nature and may not apply to your specific situation. Deciding whether to engage workers as employees or contractors is a common question in the fitness industry, influenced by complex laws. This choice affects how businesses operate and their obligations. Employee Engagement Hiring someone as an employee means entering into a formal employment contract that outlines work conditions, hours ..read more

This article contains some of the key ideas from a webinar presented by Ash Williams, and published on The Business of Fitness Podcast. Always seek independent legal advice as this information is general in nature and may not apply to your specific situation. For gym owners and personal trainers, the importance of clear, written contracts cannot be overstated. These documents play a crucial role in defining the relationship between businesses and their employees or contractors, providing a solid foundation in case of disputes. Importance of Written Contracts Although verbal agreements are lega ..read more

TL;DR Combining fitness models creates unique, competitive advantages. Hybrid models offer maximal upside with minimal downside. Eight novel fitness business combinations identified. Divergent thinking can spark unique, successful business ideas.   What if we could combine fitness business models to get all the upside, with none of the downside. Let’s talk about what that would look like. There’s one approach to business that works every time. Be the best at something. Be so good they can’t ignore you. But it’s very hard to be the best in the world at something. There’s only one room fo ..read more

Summary: I rated five fitness business models across 12 categories. Personal Training excels in client progression and retention, but struggles with scaleability. Gym Memberships offer high scaleability and time freedom, but face challenges in client retention and start-up costs. Semi-Private Training balances personalisation with community, achieving solid scores in client progression and retention. Group Fitness classes are popular for their community aspect, yet they have lower personalisation and profit margin. Online Training leads in financial efficiency and time freedom but lacks in c ..read more

Summary: Musk solves humanity’s big problems; gym owners should solve clients’ big problems. Musk embraces failure for learning; gyms should innovate through failures. Musk innovates systems for efficiency; gyms should streamline and optimise operations. Musk thinks long term; gyms should plan for future impacts and potential. Actionable Take-Away: As you’re thinking about your gym’s future, experiment (and fail) with multiple ideas that solve big, long term problems, then systemise the solutions. Love him or hate him, there’s no denying Elon Musk is a rock star in business. A real life T ..read more

Introduction to KPIs: The most important six hours I spend in my business every year, are the 30 minutes a month where I do a deep dive into my KPIs. KPIs, or ‘Key Performance Indicators’ are the numbers that tell you how well your business is going. And I’d like to tell you about the most important 12 numbers that a fitness professional should be tracking. And KPIs aren’t just for fitness professionals. Let’s look at the story of Amazon. Lessons from Amazon: When Jeff Bezos founded Amazon, he faced a big challenge. The company had a massive inventory, making it hard for customers to find what ..read more

US grocery giant, Trader Joe’s faced a challenge. Many competitors were investing in digital marketing and e-commerce, trying to stay ahead. Trader Joe’s needed to find a way to stay relevant and compete without losing focus on what customers really needed. A massive company than generated over $13 billion in revenue last year might not be the most obvious company for boutique fitness businesses to learn from. But there is an important lesson in how they dealt with a rapidly changing grocery industry. In the grocery industry, where other companies were quickly adopting new technologies and fo ..read more

There are few marketing strategies as powerful for a Personal Trainer, Gym, or Fitness Professional as social proof. Social proof is quite simply about sharing the experience and successes of your current and previous clients. When potential new Personal Training clients or gym members visit your social media or website, they should be able to see that your methods work, and the best way to do this is through testimonials. Testimonials can take multiple forms, from short written testimonials, to feature videos that tell the stories of your clients. Regardless of the medium you choose to use ..read more