My last post about 4 mistakes I made in business was a really popular post so I decided to add to the discussion with MORE mistakes. I’m not perfect. No one is and the best way to look at failure is that it’s a learning lesson.
It’s only a TRUE FAILURE if you didn’t learn anything from it.
In business, you either win or learn. There is no failure if you look at it from that perspective. Here’s 4 areas where I learned how to upgrade my skills and mindset as a Gym Owner.
Mistake #1 – Hiring From Desperation
It has NEVER worked out for me when I made a desperate hire. Maybe someone quit abruptly or we had massive growth and couldn’t keep up with it. Either way, hiring from desperacy has always came back to bite me in the butt.
Take your time and select wisely. Your team is the biggest representation of your business. Your clients interact with them and they have direct influence on client results, customer service, retention and so much more. I have a saying when it comes to hiring – if they are not gold then we hold.
Mistake #2 – Avoiding Sales
At first, I thought that we could grow our business 100% on people just loving the program and signing up. WRONG!! Fitness is not a “want” its a “need”.
You see, people want tickets to Disneyland, movie popcorn, new cars and vacations. But they need to invest in their health and fitness. That means a sales person needs to help them process the decision and remind them of the benefits of moving forward with your program.
Your leads will talk themselves out of it thinking they don’t have the time or money to do this but learning the skills of sales and hiring great sales people will have a huge impact on your business. Do not avoid sales, that was a huge mistake I made early on.
Mistake #3 – Thinking Equipment Will Magically Grow My Business
As fitness people, we all love new equipment. Rogue and Torque and other popular brands make some really cool stuff and we can convince ourselves that it will be the key to unlocking more clients.
The truth is that absolutely ZERO clients join your program for the equipment. You live in the fitness bubble and see all the cool things that exist. More equipment will not lead to more clients. My new way of looking at equipment is a delayed gratification. Once we hit a certain profit percentage, then our facilities are rewarded with new or more equipment.
It’s like that marshmallow test…do you want one now or 3 in a hour. Studies shows that people who wait and practice delayed gratification are more successful in life compared to people who operate from impulse.
Mistake #4 – Not Knowing My Numbers
For the longest time I didn’t have a strong understanding of my numbers. I just put in HUGE EFFORT and I saw growth. That was enough for me to just keep doing what I was doing. But I really needed to stop and soak in my numbers.
Not only did it make me a better business owner but I was able to make better decisions when I saw where we needed resources. Now that I know my numbers like the back of my hand, I beg any Gym Owner who isn’t looking at their numbers weekly to get started ASAP.
It doesn’t seem like a big deal but it make a big difference. Start with some basic numbers like weekly leads, trials sold, memberships sold, drops, freezes, total EFT, total revenue and total member count. After you look at those numbers on a spreadsheet for weeks, you can begin to layer on other numbers like LTV, ROAS, CPL, CPC, lead to trial conversion, trial to member conversion, etc.
Don’t avoid your numbers for years (like I did) and start to become aware of what your average week looks like.
If you got value from seeing my mistakes and would like me to post about more, let me know in the comments below.