Fitness club manager training. Who should manage a fitness club: a professional athlete or a professional manager? What Smart Fitness Academy will give you

The term “fitness” has already taken root in Russia. It took ten long years, but today there are five to ten working fitness centers in almost every city. Elena DARI, General Director of the Marcus Aurelius chain, talks about how to effectively manage a fitness club.

Organize your space correctly

Use the premises of the fitness club effectively, especially since already established rules apply when planning. For example, “passability” is calculated using a simple formula: one person - one square meter. Don’t order a design project from a regular office - contact experienced specialists who understand all the intricacies of fitness club planning.

A mistake at the design project stage threatens to result in permanent financial losses. Sometimes it surprises me how people manage to earn money if only half of their 700 meters is “working”, 90 meters are allocated for the corridor, another 50 for the wardrobe... Obviously, a third of the space will be idle.

Another example of uneconomical use of investments is duplication: when “for beauty”, instead of one bar, two are built. The thirst for symmetry results in doubling costs: after all, you will need two counters, two utility rooms, two kitchens, and, finally, two cash registers. For what? A typical mistake is also ill-conceived placement of halls. Let's say, in order to get to the cardio equipment room, you need to go through the aerobics room, where classes are going on all the time.

Equipment: be careful!

You should never skimp on equipment! The level of a fitness club and starting conditions can vary greatly, and the initial price of equipment varies widely. However, the main thing is that these are professional sports equipment, and not household exercise equipment. You won’t believe it, but suppliers manage to persuade budding entrepreneurs to buy home “devices.” The rule “the miser pays twice” is true here, more than anywhere else.

Firstly, equipment that is not designed for intensive loads and operation begins to crumble before our eyes. And secondly, low-quality equipment simply threatens the safety of your clients, and you can simply lose your reputation and go broke on compensation if some unpleasant incident occurs. How do you choose suppliers in a crowded market? Contact several experts, compare their opinions, study the specialized press, focus on well-known brands - then you can’t go wrong.

Divide and rule

So, you have purchased the equipment. But it is equally important to arrange it correctly. It seems to me optimal to divide the fitness club hall into certain zones: the aerobics room, of course, separate from the gym. Within one gym, the cardio zone should be separated from the “strength” zone. Some people separate zones for beginners and “advanced” because they believe that the loads and techniques are very different. Place equipment aimed at training one muscle group nearby, do not scatter it throughout the room. One simulator requires at least 5 square meters. m. area, complex devices - 6-8 sq. m. m. “Pancakes” should not lie to the side of the barbell; select a dumbbell row.

Build a “strong” team

Service is, first and foremost, people. Your success directly depends on how well your staff can sell services and communicate well with clients. A fitness club may have amazing equipment, but if it has incompetent trainers, it will be lost. And vice versa - a team “with an open soul, a pure heart and a clear head” will attract clientele to you, even if your competitors have slightly better equipment. You can travel to good people from afar.

The fitness club staff consists of very diverse specialists - from psychologists - whose responsibilities vary. Each department develops its own “subculture” that must be taken into account and respected. Any organization is strong in traditions. The more good traditions a company has (not just clearly defined job descriptions, but traditions), the stronger the team. If there are no traditions yet, create them as history, as a legend of your company!

By summer - winter!

Fitness is a seasonal business. Clients who have been joyfully and enthusiastically involved in sports all year long prefer to relax “in nature” in the summer. In seasonal businesses, recessions and declines are quite predictable; the main thing is that sales figures do not fall below forecasts. It's important to prepare for a downturn.

Your salvation lies in three hot months if you have additional opportunities for seasonal sports: outdoor tennis courts, a football field, and basketball courts. In this case, sales during a difficult period have a chance to “stand.”

If you do not have competitive advantages in the form of open spaces, then by summer you will have to “tighten your belts”, come up with special programs and discounts. Every summer ends happily if you have a couple of suitable discount programs. The most famous and traditional move is “summer as a gift”, when when purchasing an annual card, two or three summer months are allocated to the client for free. Offering discounts for a card with a shorter validity period is unprofitable.

Another suitable option: a special card for the summer - because not everyone leaves the cities. Moreover, against the backdrop of the general summer relaxation (unless, of course, you sell air conditioners and ice cream), office workers have more free time. This is where it pays to offer them a summer program.

A good opportunity to “stand” in the heat is to attract a new contingent of customers, for example students: instead of summer restlessness, offer them a special price. As a last resort, try the favorite tactic of the marketing war of cellular operators - “fog in the price list”. The essence of the methodology is simple: tariffs and discounts are calculated according to such a complex scheme that it is almost impossible to understand them. However, you should not get carried away with this not entirely correct method, because clients in our segment prefer a clear and precise pricing policy.

If you're not ready for summer, there's a chance you'll get really hurt. Mini-recessions in fitness also happen in December-January, but they are not as painful as the “stagnant” summer, when sun-starved people are eager to go “out into nature” and do not want to exercise in good, air-conditioned – but still indoors.

Take the client warmly

Advertising, ideally, should occupy about 7-10% of turnover. It is reasonable to spend 60% of these funds on external media, about 20% on the Internet, and another 20% on various promotions. Of all the possible advertising channels for a fitness club, the most effective are outdoor advertising (signs, signs, banners), the Internet (operates in large cities) and direct mailing. When using the last channel, trust an experienced company. With all the obvious advantages of direct mailing, a narrow and targeted sample gives more impact: in combination with PR, it is much more effective.

It is worth emphasizing that the main mistake that small and beginning fitness clubs make is saving on an advertising specialist. Most often, it is done by a non-professional person, and as a result, bumps are piled up, which result in quite tangible money. So, for example, you can fill the newspaper “Miners of the Urals” with advertising modules about the opening of a new club in one of the districts of Moscow, spend a lot of money so necessary for development - and get no results.

In the summer, it is quite possible to use advertising in the press and transfer funds to other channels, such as the Internet. Even on vacation, clients read mail and news; banner advertising will work here. Seeing tanned, fit bodies next to him, a person makes a vow to himself that he will start doing fitness, and one can hope to “catch” him, as they say, at his word.

Keep your nose to the wind

When planning the introduction of additional services (children's room), proceed from the market situation and take a closer look at your competitors, if there are any. The experience of our fitness club suggests that it is better to experiment with programs, but not with redevelopment and construction of new premises. Fashion for certain services is a very changeable thing, and in order not to get involved in costly redevelopment, you should take this into account. If I had opened a SPA salon five years ago, it would certainly have stood empty for a long time; and today it is impossible to get to us - this service has become so relevant.

It is important here to have what I call a “sense of the market.” It is also useful to involve marketing companies if working capital allows you to order from the market. In the end, study the market using your own methods and conduct surveys among club members. Clients are often the source of new ideas. However, you should be aware that experimenting with a room costs a lot; building the same beauty salon inside an existing club is inconvenient, difficult and expensive.

Be flexible

But experiments in programs are encouraged. Once a season we need to introduce something new. A powerful source of fresh ideas and fitness programs are international conferences, rallies and master classes. I consider the World Class fitness convention to be the most famous and effective, which I attend myself and to which I also send my trainers to improve their skills.

It must be admitted that Russia in the fitness movement, unfortunately, is not yet a source of innovative ideas and most of the finds come to us from abroad. The flagship is the USA, where fitness as an industry has existed for half a century. Creative programs allow you to save on equipment. Thus, this year a “stitch catchers” program for kids was introduced, based on the Harry Potter novels, which is extremely popular and does not require additional investment.

To monitor the popularity of programs, we create ratings: after each lesson, the trainer enters into a table the number of participants and records any of their opinions. This allows us to be flexible.

Price policy

The price level for services is usually calculated by the financial department; The calculations are based on cost and profit margin. It’s good, of course, to offer prices for any budget, but it is important to very clearly segment different categories of clients (do not put all your eggs in one basket) and, if possible, not push all groups together in one room. For this, fitness clubs have a very effective mechanism: morning, afternoon, general membership and a weekend card. Morning is a blissful time for those who work; during the day - the kingdom of housewives, etc.

Take care of your customer base

The client base of the fitness club is sacred! Under no circumstances sell it to others and very carefully guard access to it, no matter what joint projects you are offered, no matter what fees you are lured into.

You should be very careful in selecting personnel with access to the corporate database; During the interview, pay attention to the person’s integrity and reliability. Our experience shows that it is not worth allowing aggressive excesses in relations with clients using contact information from the database. Never force services; It’s better to make a targeted mailing that will be perceived less aggressively than a call to a mobile phone. Practice only correct methods of sales promotion, otherwise the pressure will cause lasting disgust among some clients. This line is very thin, and it is important to feel it.

Tips written down: Ekaterina Chinarova

1. Make a return of “sleeping clients”

2. Conduct an audit of the potential client base

3. Make “sales funnels” for each direction (new, renewals, additional services) and find the bottleneck

4. Introduce upselling of additional services immediately after the sale of the club card

5. Write a description for clients “how your first workout will go”

6. Cancel price promotions

7. Write down the sales chain

8. Post valuable content on social media. networks 3 times a week

11. Post in all directories

12. Make a landing page

13. Increase website conversion using AB testing

14. Install the Google Analytics and Yandex.Metrica code

15. Collect customer feedback

16. Personally listen to 20 incoming calls from clients

18. View 100 site visits via Webvisor

19. Make a responsive website design

20. Write scripts for each stage of the sales funnel

22. Make a sales analysis for each service

25. Create a comprehensive (package) service

26. Create a strong product to start training

27. Organize the sale of related products

29. Implement a CRM system

30. Start looking for new employees

31. Make a sales video

32. Make a new photo shoot of staff and club

34. Enlarge!!! marketing budget

35. Send employees about specialized training

36. Implement a service management system

37. Collect all the diplomas, certificates, medals of your coaches

38. Arrange competitions between clients

39. Arrange competitions between employees

41. Raise prices

42. Implement e-mail marketing

43. Redesign the client area

44. Plan a vacation

45. Conduct internal training

46. ​​Conduct employee certification

47. Select VIP clients and take them under personal control

48. Fire unnecessary employees

49. Write down all expenses and check them for relevance

50. Write down the next steps for each sales stage

Who should manage a fitness club: a professional athlete or a professional manager?

Is, for example, a highly qualified builder a suitable manager for a real estate firm? Being a construction worker, he was involved in the creation of a product, but without proper training and practice, he has no idea how to effectively sell that product. This applies to any other profession.
But if the builder knows the product that is to be sold, then the athlete, during his professional career, has never had to deal with a “fitness product”, since the goals of sports, especially professional ones, have nothing in common with the goals of fitness, and the effect on the human body is diametrically opposite . Compare: result - at any cost (at the cost of health), and health - the highest value. Therefore, automatically transferring experience from the field of sports to the field of fitness can be not only unproductive, but also dangerous for the health of clients.
There is also a psychological aspect that makes it difficult for most athletes to work successfully in a club: they usually find it difficult to “pick up the key” to people with low motivation to train hard and achieve results. About 80% of those who renew club membership do not achieve their goals, although when joining a club, improving physical fitness is cited as the main reason for joining. This means that there is something in the club, in addition to the training process and results, that allows you to attract and retain club members. If a club member is ready to train purposefully, then the coach provides him with highly qualified assistance, but such purposeful and strong-willed people are a minority, about 20%; for the vast majority, the club is a place of pleasant leisure time, an opportunity to relieve stress, get rid of back pain, and find a new circle of friends and so on.
If the management of the club does not take this specificity into account, the club will not be able to offer anything to the vast majority of its clients and will inevitably lose a significant part of its income.
The same obstacles can stand in the way of a professional athlete's success, both as a fitness director/manager and as a fitness trainer.
All of the above arguments are not intended to introduce a taboo on the work of professional athletes in the fitness industry, but only help to draw the attention of club owners and managers to the fact that sporting achievements cannot serve as a “passport” for working in a fitness club. In order to independently, you need to undergo professional training and have the necessary personal qualities, as, indeed, to work in hotels, restaurants, real estate, tourism and other areas of business related to the sale of services.

Specifics of the product "Fitness"

Let's understand the terminology. This is important, because even participants in fitness sales training cannot come to a common opinion about what kind of service it is that they need to learn how to sell.
What everyone says is different from what everyone else thinks! And all these are the opinions of people working in the same business, doing the same thing, some of them even work in the same club! How to sell something about which the sellers themselves cannot come to a consensus?

According to the seminar participants, fitness is
- weight gain, i.e. increase in muscle mass;
- weight loss;
- training muscles due to their tension or, conversely, due to relaxation;
- stress relief;
- Lifestyle;
- source of income;
- allows you to escape from all the problems in the world;
- a way to strengthen the body and spirit;
- the ability to maintain good health;
- preparation for the marathon;
- flexibility, endurance, strength;
- good appearance;
- making new friends and acquaintances
- etc. and so on.

The list of opinions on what constitutes fitness is almost endless... Sometimes opinions conflict with each other, it seems that each person has their own opinion. It all depends on who you ask this question to. Let's try to define the terms.
Fitness is an English word that is used quite widely and has many meanings, and not just in the fitness industry. People use the word "fit" to mean a variety of things: not only to be physically fit, but also, for example, to be suitable for a certain job or, say, to be a good parent, or even sometimes means to deserve something. And it seems that people want to “deserve”, “be suitable” for completely different things. Despite such disagreements, there is a fairly easy way to define what “fitness” is. It all depends on whether “fitness” is your hobby or your profession.

If fitness is your hobby, then fitness for you is what YOU want, what you like, what is interesting to you personally. For example, if you want to lose five kilograms of weight, then fitness means exactly that for you.
And if fitness is your profession, then in this case fitness is what your CLIENT wants.
Another thing about fitness as a service: like any other service, it can’t be taken off the shelf and sold to a customer. We cannot sell a finished result to a person who wants to lose five kilograms. In this case, the subject of the transaction cannot change hands. In fact, we are selling the promise that with regular exercise our client will get the desired result. Since the concept of “fitness” cannot be defined precisely enough, it can only be measured in terms of the degree to which certain goals are achieved and expectations are met. Therefore, you need to sell fitness a little differently. Successfully selling a fitness service can only be done on the basis of trust. Imagine that you have known a client for a few minutes and offer him to pay a significant amount, assuring him that, most likely, he will get the desired result. Sounds like no easy task!
And to cope with it, you need to acquire some basic knowledge, master a certain technique, master the theory of sales, have a positive attitude and focus on the needs of the client.

Who should sell club memberships?

The answer to this question is absolutely obvious for large fitness chains and ambiguous for those who manage small clubs. Fitness industry experts agree that the club must have staff whose responsibilities include only attracting new clients. A separate employee for attracting new club members and expanding business is much more effective than distributing these functions to the entire line staff.
If we talk about the financial feasibility of such a solution, then just one or two new clients per month is usually enough to recoup the costs. Consequently, the club will lose absolutely nothing if special staff are exclusively engaged in consultations on club membership! And it doesn’t matter whether the club is small or networked, it always makes financial sense to hire staff whose sole task is to attract new club members. The club will only benefit from this!

Prospects and problems

According to experts, the fitness industry in our country is one of the first in terms of development dynamics. The boom in fitness development in Moscow has spread across the regions like a wave and continues to gain momentum. With a favorable economic situation, rapid growth in the fitness industry is inevitable, since every person can improve the quality of their life by doing fitness, and therefore can be considered a potential client.
Sounds like a very optimistic prospect for all the clubs opening.
Why, nevertheless, does it often happen that clubs fail?

Here are some common mistakes:

Wrong concept and positioning (trying to be "all things to all people")
- incorrect pricing policy
- incorrect marketing policy
- the sales system is not established
- the service system is not built
- failed to create team
- untrained personnel
- bad location
- not a serious attitude (more like something “for the soul”, a “toy”, a hobby, than a business)
- gross errors in planning, technical solutions, and selection of equipment

(Try using these points to check your strengths and weaknesses)

So how do you become successful in this huge fitness market worth hundreds of millions of dollars?
The answer is: you need to deeply study the fitness business or attract professionals to help. You can conquer the market in this segment by offering a first-class fitness product and selling it professionally.

Many fitness entrepreneurs constantly live under time pressure; for them, this has already become a habitual state. How to deal with this? How to build a workflow so that managing a fitness club doesn’t take up all your time?

Make a complete to-do list for a fitness club manager

You can start this process by making a list of short-term and long-term tasks. It should include everything from writing an article for your fitness club's blog to accounting issues and employee training.

I do this using Wunderlist.

Highlight the main tasks of the head of a fitness club

Once the list is ready, you can go through it again and determine if there is anything that can be removed. If yes, do it. Sometimes such lists include tasks that are not particularly valuable, or the complexity of which does not justify the result.

For example, you still run a fitness club group on Odnoklassniki, but your entire target audience has long moved to Facebook and Instagram. You can cross this task off with complete confidence.

If starting a new fitness program costs you more money than you can earn, stop it.

If a meeting with partners does not require personal presence, conduct it via Skype.

Automate your work as a fitness business manager

Some of your tasks can be automated. If you see that a task can be automated, do it right now. For example, in online banking you can set up recurring payments. Every month the system will write off a set amount and pay the necessary bills, for example, for telephone communications and the Internet.

Sometimes potential clients cannot get through to a fitness club just because someone forgot to pay for telephone service on time.

Employee tasks can also be automated. An automatic publishing tool on social networks will come to the aid of the SMM manager. Using services like NovaPress, you can plan a publication schedule, duplicate posts on different social networks, and automatically send materials from the site to groups on VKontakte, Facebook, Twitter, Odnoklassniki and Google+.

Effective management of a fitness club also requires that you maintain a work schedule in Google Calendar, and staff (administrators, sales managers) have access to it. This way, employees will see when they can present you with a sales report, or at what time to schedule an interview with a new trainer.

Delegate tasks to the heads of departments of your fitness club

Once you figure out what you can eliminate and automate, it's time to delegate.

Perhaps the person to whom you delegate this or that task will not do it as well as you. This is important to understand. But if the quality of its implementation can be assessed at least 70%, this is normal.

By delegating four tasks that typically take about one hour per week, you will free up 16 hours per month to focus on important strategic tasks.

If you prepare tax reports yourself, develop leaflet designs and redesign a website, you are unlikely to have time to think through a strategic plan for the development of a fitness club, find new partners or go to study.

Outsource everything you can. This will save you time and ultimately money.

Everything about managing a fitness club. What the owner and manager need to know to achieve high financial results.

Monitor your health and be in excellent athletic shape is trend 21st century. Human health in the modern world affects many areas of human activity: both in career and personal development, and in personal life. Therefore, the fitness industry is gaining rapid momentum. And then it arises question: what is a fitness club and fitness club management?

Fitness club management. Where to begin?

Among a growing number of competitors and increasing customer demands for successful fitness clubs and studios are allocated professionalism And quality V work organization all departments and specialists. It’s not enough just to open a club/studio with high-quality renovation and fill it with new equipment or offer new training programs - you also need to be able to present it correctly so that the client becomes interested and buys.

Effective management of a fitness club will bring leadership on the market and success entrepreneur.

There are few educational institutions or centers in Ukraine that provide knowledge of successful leadership fitness industry, so the seminar “Skills for effective management of a fitness club” CURRENT.

Fitness club can be compared to a living organism that It has certain structures, each doing their own functions And interaction between whom gives RESULT.

Key points of management effectiveness

Correct building a business plan strategy, organizations and distribution responsibilities, financial planning and accounting documentation, market studies of the fitness industry will give positive results and increasing work efficiency.

Successful team. What is she like?

Very important for success running a fitness club TEAM. Trust and interaction between the team allows for the rapid development of the club. When each structure does its own thing, this makes it possible to solve assigned daily tasks and quickly respond to situations at critical moments.

Plays a significant role TOP MANAGER(MANAGER) fitness club and DIVISION MANAGERS(MIDDLE MANAGERS).

Knows what difference between them? Many people are confused and cannot clearly distribute and delimit responsibilities between them. This is the main problem of many clubs and leads to incompetent and ineffective running of a fitness club or sports studio.

Differences: top manager and department heads

TOP MANAGER (Manager) is an ideological leader. Depends on him many things, in particular assessment of the effectiveness of fitness club management based on financial indicators. He must be able to understand how his enterprise will develop. This is influenced by the ability to master planning skills (strategic, tactical, operational). This makes it possible set goals correctly And tasks, which are decided by all departments of the fitness club.

DIVISION LEADERS (Middle Level Managers). These are managers provide operational management associated with daily monitoring of the implementation of assigned tasks and regulates the work of the team. Fast reaction on the progress of implementation of the assigned tasks and finding solutions, task distribution, further analysis of results works are art supported knowledge of management tools, which should own every manager.

Elements of competent management

Of no small importance is working structure of the fitness club. Areas of distribution of responsibility and authority, ranging from managers to specialists of all departments. Work of all employees fitness club, their qualification And desire to help improve people's health, introduce to a healthy lifestyle and influence changes their quality of life for the better and there is the main one target all well-coordinated team work.

Helps with this competent management and towards effective communication with the client fitness clubs and organizations effective personnel management. And it is an indicator that determines the effective operation of the fitness club/studio as a whole.

Internal organization

Is there some more important points: financial planning, SWOT analysis, accounting documentation, formation of cost of services, marketing and advertising promotion, service management. Daily maintenance of financial and accounting records will help you analyze your work and the dynamics of the enterprise.

What will Smart Fitness Academy give you?

In order to make your work easier And give management tools for managers of fitness clubs/studios and was a practical course “Fitness Club Management” has been developed at Svetlana Biryuchinskaya's Smart Fitness Academy. His uniqueness is that You receive working tools successfully proven in practice and adapted to realities And economic situation today.