Checklist: Build a successful gym business

Building a successful gym business takes hard work and grit. You need to have the right partners and processes in place to support your success. Get ready to take your business to the next level with this checklist.

There are over 4,500 privately-owned gyms in the UK and endless other fitness options available too. So, to be successful in this competitive landscape, you need to stand out.

That means:

Every business is different. Yet the most successful gyms and fitness clubs have certain things in common. Here’s your checklist for long-term success.

Let’s get stuck in!

How does your business measure up?

Use the interactive checklist doc to see:

#1: Best-in-class tech

Choose fast, easy-to-use software

Your business needs to have the right tech in place to support you now and in the future. You need gym management software that’s fast, responsive and easy-to-use. It should give you everything you need to work more efficiently, engage members and grow your business.

Be ready for the future

Successful gym businesses can quickly adapt to new trends and challenges as they emerge. To do that they rely on software that’s built using an API-first approach. This gives the flexibility, scalability and ability to act fast.

Stand out with customisation, give your members what they want, and grow your business in new ways. Seamlessly integrate with market leading tech providers – including Technogym, EGYM, FitnessKPI, Classpass, CCTech, and others.

Rely on exceptional resilience and security

The most successful clubs of all sizes know that they can’t afford to compromise with tech that lacks resilience and risks the security of their business and member data. Rely on a cloud-native and ultramodern solution that delivers exceptional resilience and data security.

Avoid membership payment headaches

To grow and thrive, your fitness club needs to choose a gym management solution with fully embedded membership payments. Automate billing, offer a flexible payments calendar, and reduce admin for your team.

The most ambitious fitness clubs rely on a fully managed and personalised payments service. Make it easy for your members to catch up on payments online and via your app. Plus, give them access to a team of customer service specialists on hand to answer their payment queries.

#2: Attract & sign-up new members

Effectively manage prospects

Effective lead management is essential for any successful gym business. Your gym software should give you access to prospecting tools that make it simple for you and your sales team to convert more leads into members.

Track, assign, and schedule sales activities like calls, emails, and SMS messages. Identify ways to improve your sales approach by setting sales goals and quickly measuring performance via a handy dashboard.

Run engaging promotions

Successful gyms and fitness clubs know that the right promotions will boost revenue.

Use your fitness club management software to set up promo codes that prospects can apply during your joining process to redeem a special offer. Set limits on the number of times a code can be used and/or make the code available for a limited time only.

Plus, work with employers in your area to offer corporate discounts. Employee wellbeing perks are a popular benefit. Invoice businesses directly for employee memberships to grow your membership base.

Grow through word-of-mouth referrals

Word of mouth marketing is incredibly powerful. People trust recommendations from people they know. Encourage and reward your members when they tell their friends, family, and colleagues about your club.

Your software should let you create unique referral codes for every member that they can share. Track when these codes are used during your sign up process, so you can reward your members.

Simple sign-up process

Once you’ve attracted a prospective new member, they should be able to sign-up for a membership online, via your app, or in-person. No paperwork, completely digital.

A process with minimal steps should let you gather all the info you need to welcome your new member. Plus, let joiners enhance their membership with bolt-on subscriptions and add-on purchases.

Payment details should be verified. All information should be sent straight to your gym management software – with no delays.

Capture details of abandoned sign ups

Prospects drop out during the joining process for many reasons. Your software should automatically capture details of prospects who drop out. So, you can follow up and encourage these prospects to finish signing up.

#3: Effective onboarding

Personalised onboarding journeys

New members need more than a one-off gym induction. Successful fitness clubs know this and have effective onboarding processes built around key milestones in a new member’s journey.

Targeted, timely email & text messages

In-person experiences matter for new members. Go beyond with targeted, timely use of email and text messages during the member onboarding process. Your gym management software should let you set up triggers and send personalised email and SMS messages automatically.

#4: Empower members

Offer self-service membership management

Successful gym businesses empower their members to manage key aspects of their membership independently. This convenient approach puts your members in control and reduces admin work for your team.

Your members should be able to use your online member area and app to update their details, make catch up payments, and request freezes or cancellations.

Take one-off and recurring class bookings

Many thriving gyms and fitness clubs know the important role that group fitness can play in building member loyalty.

It should be easy for members to use your digital self-service tools to view timetables, find their favourites, quickly book, and manage class bookings. Plus, if spaces have run out for a popular class, members should be able to join a waitlist to be notified if another member cancels.

As well as one-off bookings, run series of recurring classes for specialist activities that fall outside of a regular membership. Think 6-week Pilates courses, 12-week powerlifting workshops, or HYROX training programmes. Let members sign-up to these and pay via a recurring Direct Debit for the period. Satisfy your members and create new revenue streams.

Easy access

Each visit matters. Every time a member makes use of their membership, they should be able to check-in and get through any gates/barriers/doors/etc. without hassle.

Successful fitness clubs rely on access control technologies that are integrated with their gym membership software for seamless access every visit.

Let members use your gym member app to enter using dynamic QR codes. Avoiding code sharing and fraudulent access.

Facilitate 24/7 and unmanned access. Automatically update access rights based on real-time membership data. Easily track visits to identify trends.

#5: Strong engagement

Automated, targeted communications

Meaningful interactions with your fitness team go a long way. Research shows that frequent interaction results in more visits and higher renewal rates.

The most successful gyms support their team with regular, relevant, personalised email and SMS communications. Your gym management software should make it simple to schedule and automatically send targeted, personalised messages at scale.

Run effective marketing campaigns

To be successful you need the ability to send campaigns built around key calendar events and to meet business objectives – like increasing class numbers or promoting new services.

Use your club management software to segment your members into target groups using demographic and interest-based information. Send personalised, targeted marketing messages to add value for members and grow your business.

Let members bring a friend

Thriving clubs know that letting members bring a friend, family member, or colleague who isn’t yet a member can be an attractive perk. Use your software to create guest passes for members – encouraging both to visit your club for a satisfying workout.

#6: Active retention

Regularly identify members at risk of cancelling

The right onboarding process and ongoing engagement strategy will reduce the number of high-risk members who may cancel soon. You still need to review all information available to you in your gym management software and elsewhere to identify high-risk members.

Successful clubs will be looking out for these signs: a member stops visiting, unsubscribes or stops opening emails, leaves negative reviews, or has a Direct Debit fail/bounce.

Have a robust re-engagement strategy

Once you’ve identified high-risk members, you need the right re-engagement strategy in place to recover and retain them. Use all channels available to you – email, SMS, telephone, and in-person. Take a personalised, targeted approach to appeal to the specific interests and needs of each member.

#7: Performance management

Get a real-time 360-degree member view

To deliver stand out member experiences, you need to know that you can rely on having access to up-to-date, reliable member information. Your gym management software should help you manage multiple sites with ease and drive member experience improvements using real-time info.

See the KPIs that matter instantly

The most ambitious gym owners and operators always know how their business is performing. That means tracking and seeing the key performance indicators (KPIs) that matter most for your business as soon as you login to your management software.

You should be greeted by a customisable homepage dashboard that shows your KPIs on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis immediately. No clicking around!

Make better informed decisions

Successful gym businesses understand that staying ahead and growing means making the right decisions fast. Rely on your club management solution to give you the insights you need at all levels of your business via helpful dashboards and reports.

Is your business set up for success? Use this handy checklist to identify where you can make improvements.

The wrap up…

Ready to take your business to the next level? Think bigger and go further faster when you join the most ambitious gyms and fitness clubs and make the switch to Xplor Gym.

We’d love to find out more about your business and see what we can do to help you succeed.

Book a demo to see Xplor Gym in action