How to Create Stability and Growth for Your Club Business
Five Things Every Club Operator Should Know
Like every profit-minded business operator, you’re faced with the continuous challenge of how to increase your club revenues while controlling costs. In the health and fitness business there is a wealth of information on which to draw and we present the following considerations based on our experience working with hundreds of successful clubs over the last twenty years.
1. Lead by example: make a commitment to every employee and member.
Your staff looks to you for leadership so it’s important you are personally involved in their training and day-to-day business operations. Your commitment to on-going staff education and living the fitness lifestyle earns respect and translates directly to how your staff treats your members. If you want your staff and membership to keep investing in your business, you have to invest in your people, equipment and maintain a well run club.
2. Get personal: increase referrals with service and incentives.
Create a fun, service-minded and interactive club environment where members are eager to bring you more business. Focus on the first critical 90-days of each membership to be sure they are on track, embrace the fitness lifestyle and achieve success. Your enthusiastic motivation and support is the ultimate incentive and builds active relationships that generate multiple quality referrals. At all cost, avoid the impersonal trap of operating an “equipment rental space” that kills your referral base.
3. Enemy at the gate: control your losses and boost renewals.
Automate your front counter check in with a computerized system that allows your staff to control entry, monitor attendance and provide appropriate renewal incentives. This process allows you to stop past due or expired members (or non-member attempts to “beat the system” typical with manual sign-in sheets). Computerized check-in provides an interactive service opportunity and the ability to track attendance so you may follow up with members whose attendance has fallen off and encourage them to get back on track. Members who stop attending typically stop paying as well.
4. Follow up and through: account management keeps cash flowing.
When signing new members, be sure all their personal and payment information is accurate. Double check spelling, addresses, bank account info and/or credit card numbers and expiration dates. Carefully managing this information is critical to your cash flow just as knowing which members are paying and which are not. In order to allow your staff to focus on your core business, consider outsourcing your time-consuming payment processing, billing and collections. A third-party company works as an extension of your business, reducing your overhead while providing the most cost-effective receivable management service. Your staff can spend this time saved enrolling more members.
5. Keep informed: putting the power of technology to work for you.
Club management software programs provide the power and organization necessary to control and manage your club database. Review management and membership reports on a regular basis so you understand your membership base, analyze trends and make adjustments. Organize your pro shop and merchandise sales with point-of-sale and inventory programs while preventing loss and theft with POS software and cash drawer control. Maintain a database for guests and prospects so your staff can follow up and convert them into new members. The right combination of information technology, backed by experienced professional support, provides the tools you need to manage, grow and prosper.
John Chalk is president and founder of eFit Financial. For more information, call 877-772-3348 or visit www.efitfinancial.com.