Any Gym Owners/GM's around?

[epoxy]

I have an interview for a GM position in a local chain gym. I am coming from a heavy sales and project management background with lots of experience in forecasting, sales pipelining, all that good stuff, as well as scheduling and all of the things that go along with project management. I was hoping someone who has worked or still does work as a GM or owner of a gym could give me some tips on important areas to hit on or things that will be valuable to know when going into this sort of environment. I have not worked in a gym environment prior, coming from almost 10 years working B2B and a couple of years of retail prior to that. Any help would be appreciated!

 

[epoxy]

anyone?

 

[lennoxchi]

I have not, but it sounds like your a businessman, or at least business minded as you said you worked in sales.

What do gyms sell? no, not memberships, although that is one thing you need to get what they sell.

They sell hope, dreams and better health. if your going to manage that, how do you intend to do that? you have to have a motivated staff, that is challenged, and is on board with what you sell, and they have to believe in what you sell.

Entire books have been written on how to motivate people, maybe mention that you've been doing more research on how to do that.

Motivate
Encourage
Challenge
Discipline (when needed)
Treat fairly

those are important topics in management

 

[Akamai]

As Gm it will be more about management style and sales strategy.

ak

 

[para]

I've been a gym owner/operator for 20+ years.

Sales, promotion, service, administration (back office), expense control and attrition control is what I would focus on to impress them.

Sales and team building: Driving new members into the club. Getting your existing members to refer people to the club. This is a refer and duplication business. Build a strong sales team that believes in fitness.

Promotion: Print or other advertising, gorilla marketing, community outreach.

Administration: Making sure the back office is properly handling members accounts, setting up the correct billing and collecting past due members.

Expense Control: Running lean payroll, but not sacrificing quality service. Keep supply ordering in check, lights, HVAC etc. Anything that you can do to keep expenses under control. Budgets are a must!

Attrition Control: This is the key! You need to understand how many members you are losing each month. If you losing more than you are bringing in, you are going backwards on you monthly dues EFT. To many operators do not pay enough attention to this. If you can get a handle on this, making the business grow or maintain will be much easier. 3-5% total attrition a month is desirable.

Keys to keeping attrition under control:
High service and a great staff
Proper EFT billing
Back office collection of past due members
Cancel saving members who come into cancel

Study this and I bet you will get the job.

 

[epoxy]

I've been a gym owner/operator for 20+ years.

Sales, promotion, service, administration (back office), expense control and attrition control is what I would focus on to impress them.

Sales and team building: Driving new members into the club. Getting your existing members to refer people to the club. This is a refer and duplication business. Build a strong sales team that believes in fitness.

Promotion: Print or other advertising, gorilla marketing, community outreach.

Administration: Making sure the back office is properly handling members accounts, setting up the correct billing and collecting past due members.

Expense Control: Running lean payroll, but not sacrificing quality service. Keep supply ordering in check, lights, HVAC etc. Anything that you can do to keep expenses under control. Budgets are a must!

Attrition Control: This is the key! You need to understand how many members you are losing each month. If you losing more than you are bringing in, you are going backwards on you monthly dues EFT. To many operators do not pay enough attention to this. If you can get a handle on this, making the business grow or maintain will be much easier. 3-5% total attrition a month is desirable.

Keys to keeping attrition under control:
High service and a great staff
Proper EFT billing
Back office collection of past due members
Cancel saving members who come into cancel

Study this and I bet you will get the job.

Wow thank you sir. Greatly appreciated

 

[parabellum]

I've been a gym owner/operator for 20+ years.

Sales, promotion, service, administration (back office), expense control and attrition control is what I would focus on to impress them.

Sales and team building: Driving new members into the club. Getting your existing members to refer people to the club. This is a refer and duplication business. Build a strong sales team that believes in fitness.

Promotion: Print or other advertising, gorilla marketing, community outreach.

Administration: Making sure the back office is properly handling members accounts, setting up the correct billing and collecting past due members.

Expense Control: Running lean payroll, but not sacrificing quality service. Keep supply ordering in check, lights, HVAC etc. Anything that you can do to keep expenses under control. Budgets are a must!

Attrition Control: This is the key! You need to understand how many members you are losing each month. If you losing more than you are bringing in, you are going backwards on you monthly dues EFT. To many operators do not pay enough attention to this. If you can get a handle on this, making the business grow or maintain will be much easier. 3-5% total attrition a month is desirable.

Keys to keeping attrition under control:
High service and a great staff
Proper EFT billing
Back office collection of past due members
Cancel saving members who come into cancel

Study this and I bet you will get the job.

And that is why you have been in the business 20 years.... great advice

Si Vis Pacem