The fundamentals of strength training are relevant to any endeavor
that aims to improve a measurable outcome in pursuit of a clearly
defined goal, including business performance. The framework is:
define a goal, establish a primary measurement for that goal,
identify the variables that influence the primary measurement, define
activities to manipulate those variables, organize the activities
into recurring habits, and execute consistently. For example:
1. Define a general
goal or aim. E.G. get stronger, make more money.
2. Establish a primary
metric to measure performance against that goal. In strength
training, it’s your working-set weight for each of the primary
lifts. In the gym business it’s “Monthly Recurring Revenue”
(MRR).
3. Identify the relevant variables and how to measure them. In the
context of strength training, the variables are:
- Number of training
sessions missed - Technique
- Weight added to the
bar - Protein intake
- Caloric intake
- Reps
- Sets
- Sleep quality and
quantity
In the context of gym
ownership, and in order of the biggest impact on revenue, the
variables are (per coach and gym-wide):
- Total members (at the
end of each month) - Monthly churn
(percentage of members that canceled last month and the current
month’s trend) - Weekly cancellations
- Weekly member
additions - Opportunities
(attended a free session but not converted yet, or hasn’t shown up
for a free 30-min session yet) - Member conversion rate
(percentage of trainees that signed up for membership after attending
a free session) - Free sessions
conducted - Free session “show
rate” (percentage of trainees that showed up) - Free sessions booked
- Free session booking
rate (percentage of website visitors that booked a free session) - Website visitors
- Lead sources (where
did free session bookings originate from before visiting the website)
4. Define activities
that are designed to improve those metrics. For example, in strength
training, you may need to reorganize your schedule to miss fewer
training sessions, improve your sleep quantity, or double the meat
portion on your lunch order to keep the weight on the bar going up.
As a gym owner, you may need to check in with your members more
regularly to reduce churn or train your coaching staff to become
better consultants so they can understand the goals, motivations,
fears, and preferences of your prospective members which will result
in an improved free session conversion rate.
5. Organize the
activities into recurring habits. For strength training that might
look something like this:
WEEKLY HABITS:
- Train Monday,
Wednesday, Friday. - Create a 90-minute
block in your calendar to train after work on those days.
DAILY HABITS:
- Sleep 8 hours.
- Eat 200g of protein.
Improving the
performance of a gym business is more involved. Here’s my
recommendation:
MONTHLY HABITS:
- Check in with every
member and every coach – discuss mutual expectations and progress
towards defined goals to improve motivation, performance, and
retention. - Review last month’s
churn, member additions, and lead sources – decide which metrics
need improvement. - Set an agenda for
weekly team meetings and one-on-one meetings with your coaches to
improve performance for those metrics.
WEEKLY HABITS:
- Generate 5* free
session bookings. - Conduct 4* free
sessions. - Gain 2* new members
- Meet with your team
and go through every member that canceled (or went on hold), every
free session that didn’t turn into a membership, and every free
session booking that no-showed. - Conduct training with
your staff to improve “technical excellence” and “concierge
service” to improve performance specific to these metrics.
(*these numbers will vary based on your conversion rates)
DAILY HABITS:
- Contact current,
former, and prospective members that are due for a check-in. - Return missed calls
and respond to emails from prospective members within 20 minutes. - Perform a minimum of
one “outreach” activity to increase local awareness and interest
in your gym, e.g. a chamber of commerce meeting, a video on social
media highlighting a grandpa adding the second plate to his deadlift,
a newsletter that improves your community’s understanding/belief, a
presentation to a local mom’s group for post-partum fitness advice,
etc.
6) Execute
consistently. Improvements accumulate from consistent behavior. Don’t
let your attention be distracted from the diligent implementation of
these fundamentals in your training and in your business.
Exercise can be easy –
enjoyable, even. Get a pump, cruise on the stationary bike, and sweat
in the sauna. Training on the other hand, needs to be done whether
you enjoy it or not, because in the words of Mark Rippetoe, it is the
guarantor of your [physical] independence. A Starting Strength Gym,
managed in line with the principles of strength training, can be the
guarantor of your psychological and financial independence. My
advice: put in the work, consistently and intentionally, to maximize
all three.
Business fundamentals
for Starting Strength Gyms can be summarized as: Hire outstanding
people. Create a positive training environment. Ensure technical
excellence in every aspect of your operation, especially
coaching. Ensure you and your coaches are delivering the
highest-level concierge service so that prospective members become
paying members and paying members stick around and refer their
friends. Review your key performance indicators (KPIs) weekly. Follow
our guides. Lean on support from your peers and the franchise team.
Remember that your adherence to these principles will get you closer
to the outcome that you desire, and just like in fitness, there is no
way to produce material results without consistently implementing a
process that’s underpinned by the correct fundamentals.
This is the approach I
am using as a franchise owner in Austin. The current goal: To make
Starting Strength Austin, Sunset Valley, the first $1M gross revenue
gym (annually) in the franchise by continuously improving our
execution on the fundamentals outlined in this article. I’ll post
an update when we get there.
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