Customer Interview: Forte Fitness

Meet Alicia Streger, owner of Forte Fitness located in Central Florida.

ZP: Joining us today is Alicia Streger, owner of Forte Fitness located in Central Florida. Thanks for joining us Alicia. Please tell us about your business. We are excited to learn more.

Alicia: Hi, thanks for having me. We are a company that specializes in boot camp fitness training. Our mission is to empower others to live up to their full potential through fitness and healthier living.

ZP: When you did you start your business?

Alicia: We opened for business about six years ago, and I was the only employee. I worked hard to let people know about my business and, thankfully, it has grown substantially.

ZP: How big is the company now?

Alicia: Now we have 150 active clients, and we are growing each month.

ZP: Wow, that’s great. How did you go about growing your fitness business?

Alicia: Well, one thing I realized early is that I had to focus more time on marketing the business and less time on administrative data entry. As the business grew, it became more important that I didn’t consume my time with something that good fitness software could do.

ZP: How much time were you spending on data entry before you started using fitness software?

Alicia: I spent about 10 to 15 hours per week entering client data. I had to track billing, payments, payroll, training sessions, birthdays and more. Plus I had to create my own reports, and that would take a lot of time.

ZP: Is this when you decided to get fitness management software?

Alicia: Yes. I wanted fitness software that had a lot of functionality and could support our growth. I needed software that would save me time and energy as well as keep my administrative costs to a minimum.

ZP: Why did you decide to go with Zen Planner as your software provider, and how has that decision affected your business so far?

Alicia: Zen Planner’s software met all my needs. It has helped me keep track of my clients’ information and gives me the reports and tools I need to keep my retention rates soaring. Because Zen Planner keeps track of everything, I can spend my time on actively growing my company. With the addition of Zen Planner, we now have a trustworthy and efficient system in place to support our growth and maintain our level of service to our clients.

ZP: How much growth are you planning for in the next few years?

Alicia: We plan to double our membership base within the next year. Without Zen Planner I don’t think we could have such an aggressive growth plan.

ZP: So that’s over 300 clients by mid 2015?

Alicia: Yes, we believe we can get there with the current plan and growth in place.

ZP: Well it’s good to hear that you found a solution for your business growth plans, and we’re so happy we are a part of it. Thanks for joining us today and we really appreciate your time.

Alicia: Anytime, thank you.

Check out our latest eBook, Fitness Business Management Time Traps to Avoid. This guide will help you identify which tasks are taking up too much of your time, how to avoid these traps in the future and, most importantly, how creating efficiencies can help you better build relationships with your members.