Long-Term Planning Tips for Fitness Business Owners

In my first blog post about COVID-19 planning, we looked at what businesses can do immediately to help keep their business running and bringing money in while the doors are closed. In this blog, we will look at what we can do to ensure long-term success as fitness business owners.

So, you’ve loaned out your gym equipment, you’re running video classes, your members are joining in your healthy habits challenge. You’re all set, right?

While these initiatives are great for keeping your members engaged, they are likely short-term solutions to what could possibly be a long-term problem. After a few weeks you will likely notice the numbers attending your video classes will drop, and those engaged in your challenges will begin to dwindle. The novelty may fade.

Generally, those who join a CrossFit Gym, a martial arts school or a yoga Studio are looking for two things, coaching and community. The longer the lockdown continues the less of these two factors they are receiving.

As business owners we need to put on a new hat, the “what if my business was permanently 100% online” hat. How would you pivot your business plan, your services and your communication if this was the case? Here are some suggestions.

View the Boutique Fitness Rapid Recovery Toolkit 

Online Nutrition Programming

If you don’t have a nutrition program, now is the perfect time to start! Not only are people isolated at home (bad eating habits), but this can be done entirely online without the need for a physical gym location. You don’t have to build a program from scratch, and if nutrition isn’t your strong suit, don’t worry! There a number of great services out there that provide you the program, the resources and the coaching to run a nutrition program.

1-on-1 Coaching

A little trickier, but entirely possible to create, is an online 1-on-1 coaching program. Regular check-ins with a coach to aid with goal setting and accountability is step one. After that, you can begin to ask members to provide videos of movements they require help with. Your coaches can then review and send back cues, corrections, progressions or even programming to help them.

Specialist Courses

Being stuck at home is a great time to focus on some goals. Perhaps you have members that want to get their first handstand, their first single-leg squat or they want to learn how to pass the guard, etc. Create short online courses (4-6 weeks) or programming designed to help your members achieve their goals.

Thinking long term is moving past the “survive” mindset and into the “thrive” mindset. There are many opportunities for gym owners right now if we look for them.

View our COVID-19 planning webinar to learn more about thriving during these uncertain times.