7 Steps To Opening A Fitness Business

the first step to opening and managing

multiple locations is you need to know

your why you need to understand why you

want to do it just like when a client

comes in looking to get results if their

only reason is they just want to lose

some weight or feel better it's not

going to be enough motivation it's not

going to be enough to push them through

when they're struggling right you need

to uncover your compelling reason why

the reason I continue to open more

locations is because I have uncovered

mine and I know and I believe and I'm

convinced that if I can help enough

people get in the best shape of their

life I can make the world a better place

if you have one location you're helping

a hundred people or 150 or 200 step up

and grow your business so you can help

more people but understand your wife

first so step number two build a

community in a culture that your clients

want to be a part of have a look at this

photograph you guys see Diane here tell

me she does not look excited she is

getting appreciated she is getting

recognized she is getting the love and

that is what we do in our facility we

have a milestone t-shirt recognition

program simple we recognize people when

they hurt when they reach certain

milestones but look look at the look

look at her face and tell me she's not

gonna leave right she's sticking around

for a long time and she's gonna tell her

friends and her co-workers and her

family and everybody she meets Wow look

what happens to me when I go to the

studio and you need to develop the same

thing in your facility so that your

clients will stick around and that

they'll bring other people into your gym

as well step number three build and

develop a rockstar team and then stay

the hell out of the way so you need to

build a team around you that supports

your vision that supports your core

values and that will help you live your

dream and your passion you need a

manager that can help you reach your

goals that can help manage your facility

somebody that's in a line with your

mission statement knows your course

about core values lives and breathes

your vision and then of course you need

a coach somebody to run sessions with

and passion and energy that can get your

clients the results you're promising

from your marketing right you need that

coach and then you need an

accountability coach somebody can reach

out to the clients that aren't getting

the results and help them out and

recognize the clients that are getting

results and encourage them and continue

to feed them right and then of course

you need to step back and let them do

their work it's no good having a great

team and a bunch of rock stars under

yeah if you're micromanaging the whole

time because I promise it's hard it is

to be two places at once it's even

harder to be nine all right

so imagine me trying to be everywhere at

once you've got to let your team do

their work and when you're able to step

out of the way and allow them to do that

you can focus on number four which is

your marketing and your systems now it

becomes time to really develop how

you're getting your clients where are

they coming from our two best methods

will suck leads from Facebook on to our

email list I'll and dr8 them about what

we do how we do it and we'll offer them

a short-term opportunity to experience

our program then we'll deliver on our

promise and bam we've got new clients

right so figure out your marketing

that's the time you'll spend now that

you're out of your studio and you're

also working on your systems what our

systems so the systems are what run your

business because you can't be in

multiple locations at once if you come

into one of my facilities at 5:00 in the

morning or 5:00 p.m. you're gonna get

the same experience you should be

greeted by the same greeting you're

gonna fill out the paperwork the same

way you're gonna go through the same

consultation process it doesn't matter

which location you're at it should be

the same every time and those are the

systems that are going to run your

business again because you can't be in

multiple locations it wants so you've

stepped out of your facility and you're

working on your marketing and you're

working on your systems once you've

developed those once that's in place it

becomes time to really clarify your

employee roles and then implement the

vacation test it's the fun part

so clarify your employer

what the hell is everybody doing in your

business what exactly are they doing so

as you can see here from my structure at

the very top you have the owner which is

me I spend my time delegation I need to

put people in roles that's gonna allow

them to be successful right

if somebody's great at selling and

they've got no passion and energy to run

training sessions they're gonna do the

selling if somebody can't sell but

they're amazing trainer hey they're

running training sessions right you

don't put your kicker in the quarterback

position and you don't have your

quarterback kicking field goals unless

maybe you're run in a trick play every

once in a while but and then of course

underneath me we have my regional

manager he's actually here today Chris

is over here somewhere put your hand up

Chris there he is

don't give him a round applause he

doesn't know just so in addition to

Chris happening to deal with me all the

time right it's full-time job in itself

the regional manager his role is to

manage each manager at the location so

if you know one of our locations maybe

they're not hitting their numbers maybe

this show ratio isn't as high as the

other locations that's an issue we had

recently so we'll dive in Chris will

dive in and meet with them how can we

improve their show ratio what's going on

and then under the regional manager each

location has their own manager they're

managing the sessions making sure the

place looks the way it's supposed to go

making sure we're getting enough sales

and enough appointments and what you

don't see here as well as we also have a

full sheet for the admin side right we

have the billing specialist and we have

the follow-up specialist and all the

admin people need to be clarified so you

know what everybody's doing and now

you've got everybody where they need to

be you've been focusing on your

marketing your systems are in place and

now you get out of town and I know what

you're thinking like well you know

you've got nine locations you've been

doing this all the time what if

something goes wrong while I'm out of

town and I'll say perfect because you

know what you don't know you have a leak

until it rains and once it rains you can

then fix that leak and you can readjust

it but if you're there all the time

never putting anything to the test

you're never going to know what to fix

and you can never continue to grow and

scale so you come back from the

ocation maybe the first time maybe the

second maybe the third and everything is

running smooth you're going strong you

can move on to the sixth step find your

location find your next location so for

me like I said we've implemented the

breadcrumb strategy I want to be close

enough so that people know who we are

but they maybe not have come to see us

yet but they've heard of us they saw us

on TV they know somebody that came and

visited us but make sure your cloak

ation is in a place that you have

parking right if you're gonna do the

things that everybody tells you this

weekend you're gonna have 25 30 people

at individual sessions make sure you

have more than two parking spaces who

are your neighbors we made a mistake one

of our neighbors is a mattress sales

place you know how people try out

mattresses they pretend to sleep on them

and you've got your location identified

and you can move on to your last step to

get your next location or your third or

your fourth you're gonna plan your grand

opening as soon as you sign that lease

you're in grand-opening mode because you

want to hit the ground running because

I'll tell you what nobody wants to eat

at an empty restaurant right you peek

your head and you open your door there's

nobody in there red flag goes off

something's wrong with the food same

goes in the gym somebody opens your door

to come in doesn't look like anybody's

in there been in there for a month or

two concerning but imagine they open the

door and there's people doing burpees

and they're doing the ropes and TRX and

high fives are happening in burpees

they're like holy this place is

awesome I only heard it was been open

for a week but there's already people

here that's what's gonna get people

excited because they're gonna sense that

energy that's happening in the room so

plan your grand opening our strategy

which I learned from Matt Wilber which I

believe is here he's here this weekend

speaking as well build a really big

email list from Facebook from some

guerilla marketing tactics in the

neighborhood I'll build a brick building

mail list I'll send them emails about

who we are what we do client case

studies how we do it videos I'll show

these people enough about me so that

they'll begin to know me they'll begin

to like me and they'll begin to trust me

and ultimately I'm gonna invite them to

our grand opening

and our grand opening is where we share

with them an opportunity to pick up a

charter membership and when we sell 25

50 75 charter memberships at our grand

opening on our Monday the following

official day that we're open there's

tons of people in our studio the energy

is through the roof we're already

getting people results so those are your

seven steps and I have one last slide

I'd like to leave you with and this is

my favorite quote the only thing

standing between you and your goal is

the story you keep telling

yourself as to why you can't accomplish

it you may have convinced yourself that

you can't open a second location or a

third or fourth or maybe even your first

but that's just a story you've told

yourself you can walk away with that

belief so that you can open your next

location and you can stop telling

yourself that story that's holding you

back thank you very much

[Applause]