Five Easy Steps to Create and Execute the Roadmap for Your Fitness Business

Do you know where you’re taking your business? At Zen Planner, you’ll often hear us talk about “The Roadmap” – both for the evolution of our software and for our business. It’s our plan for the future and how we keep ourselves focused on our goals. As we start each quarter, we reflect on where we’ve been and where we want to go, adjust course as needed, and then determine our plan for what we’re going to achieve in the next three months. Every successful business has a plan for the future, and you can, too, by following a few easy steps.

1). Start Big

First, start with the big picture. Where do you want your business to be in three or five years? Are you looking to add new locations? Double in size? Move to a new, bigger, facility? Think big here – the sky is the limit! Next, put it down on paper. Get creative and find a way to express your goal that fits what you’re trying to achieve. It can be a phrase or sentence on a sticky note you place on the wall over your desk, an inspiring photo, or a framed napkin. The aim here is to find something to keep you inspired by your big goal!

2). Create Your Roadmap

Next, break down your goal into smaller, achievable chunks. For example, if your goal is to open a second location, you might break that into hitting a certain customer threshold to justify a second location, raising a certain amount of capital to pay for the new space, finding the real estate, building out the space to meet your needs, hiring staff, etc. Think about it in terms of the phases you’ll need to complete in order to achieve your goals, when you want to have each completed, and how you’ll know when each one is done. Next, put this down on paper, too. This becomes your “roadmap” for the coming months or years, and enables you to keep coming back to assess your progress.

3). Make a Plan

Now pick the first phase that you identified for achieving your goal. In the above example, that’s hitting a certain customer count to justify a second location. Here’s where you get down to the tactical details. Repeat the last step, but at a more practical level. You might start with identifying the target number of customers you’ll need to have, then break that out in a month-by-month growth path between now and your target date. Then put together a plan for how you’ll achieve your goal – are you increasing your marketing spend, putting together a referral program or implementing a program to reduce the number of customers who leave your business each month? Repeat this process until you have a task list for what you need to focus on this month to achieve your goals.

4). Get Started

Sometimes, the hardest part about achieving your dreams can be taking the first step. Take your task list and start assigning due dates and allocating time. Make it easy for yourself where you can. In our example, you could color-code your dashboard in Zen Planner with this month’s customer count target so you know when you’ve hit your goal. Maybe in your first month you add a new custom field to your person profile in Zen Planner to track how your customer heard about you. Then build a report to track prospects/customers by lead source to see where your new customers are coming from. Then in the next month, focus on your highest volume lead source and take action to increase its impact. Keep going back to your metrics to stay on track. In no time, you’ll be humming right along.

5). Periodically Reset

Every so often (once a month or so), review the results of each of these steps. Is this still the goal you want to achieve? Is this still how you want to achieve it? What course corrections do you need to make, based on the results of the actions you’ve taken, changes in your business environment and feedback from your advisors? Resetting and adjusting course is a natural part of the process, so give yourself permission to change your plan and even your goals.

What’s your big plan for your fitness business? Whether it’s to grow, open a new facility or expand your offerings, following these steps can help ensure your goals are within reach.

Interested in building out a roadmap for your fitness business? Make sure you have a solid business plan in place first. Having a business plan will force you to think about your business in a comprehensive and strategic manner, and will serve as an action plan moving forward. Download your copy of our Business Plan Template to get step-by-step directions on how to create a strategic plan for your fitness business.