When you sign up for this app, clients that have been in your facility in the past two weeks will be sent an email invitation to connect with your business on Facebook.

If they accept (it’s opt-in) each time they are checked into a class in MBO we will automatically check them in to your business’ Facebook page.

The number of check-ins on Facebook is a form of social validation letting people know that there is a lot of activity at your facility.  A business that has had thousands of check-ins appears more popular, established and viable than a business with only a few check-ins.

Second, each of these check-ins shows up in your clients’ activity feed on Facebook and can be seen by their friends – kind of like an ad impression but even better because they are in your client’s feed.

Since our clients (like most people on Facebook) have about 100 friends each these were potentially seen over 43,000 times on Facebook.

Over 15% of our clients at NorCal have opted to use the app on FB, and each month we get hundreds Facebook check-ins.  Our clients who have signed up like that they have an easy way to let their friends know they are going to work out, and we are happy because it is driving traffic to our Facebook page, increasing the social exposure of our brand to our clients’ friends, many of whom are our best prospects.

A friend of mine looked into running an advertisement for his gym and Facebook would have charged him a $2 CPM (cost per thousand impressions) to target the same set of people.  To get these same 43,000 impressions via a Facebook add would have cost us $86…instead we got those same impressions free with this app!

To top it all off it’s EASY!  You sign up once and Skilled Athlete will automatically invite all clients who have been in your facility in the last 2 weeks.  Anyone who comes in after that initial invite (old clients or new) will also be automatically sent an invite.  There is no further action required on your part.  Also, if they so desire, your clients can opt out at any time by simply uninstalling the app from their personal FB profile.

A couple of things:

Just like the FB schedule app, your business needs to have a FB page (not a personal profile) to utilize this.  You can read more about the importance of having a page for your business here.

If you already have the Skilled Athlete Facebook Schedule app installed just send an email to support@skilledathlete.com , and we can turn on the FB check-in feature for you.  If you don’t yet have the FB schedule app installed you can do that here.

And stay tuned…in late January Skilled Athlete will be releasing an iPhone app that will allow you and your trainers to check clients into classes directly from your phone.

Tracking attendance is important and this app is going to be a super helpful if your gym or studio doesn’t utilize key tags or self-sign in.  But, if like NorCal Strength & Conditioning, you DO use key tags the app is still going to be helpful since your trainers can check to make sure their roster is accurate at the start of each class and don’t have to double check that all clients signed in at the end of class or the end of the day.

The app will also allow you to take client photos with your iPhone and push to their MBO profile (read this article if you aren’t yet in the habit of storing client photos in their profiles), email and phone clients directly from the app and much more!

Again, wishing you all a very happy and safe holiday!

If you missed my post about the awesomely free app that Skilled Athlete just launched that will post your MBO schedule to your FB page you can catch that here.

First things first!

We’ve had some of you try to install the app without first logging into MBO to get your API credentials.  We need those in order to pull your class schedule from MBO and post to Facebook.  Directions for how to find your API credentials can be found here…and btw you must use the “owner” login to get these.

Here also is a screen shot of those directions

Once you get your SourceName, API Password, and Studio ID from your MBO account write them down….you will then be ready to click “install now” on the Skilled Athlete site.  After entering your credentials and selecting your Business Page on FB you will find a link to the Skilled Athlete App on FB where you will click “add to my page”.  Then you are done!

A few folks have had difficulty for the following reasons:

1) didn’t get proper MBO API credentials before attempting install

2) didn’t have a FB page.  Read this and convert it to a page and you’ll be good.

3) tried installing the Skilled Athlete App on FB without first going through the install process from SkilledAthlete.com (and entering in MBO API credentials).

If you have any other trouble please don’t hesitate to contact support@skilledathlete.com.

Cheers!

If you answered yes to all three questions you are in for a special treat!  (If you answered yes to the first two, but not the third then read this post I wrote last week and get your gym’s FB profile converted to a Page and you’ll be good to go).

I am a founding team member in a company called Skilled Athlete, which includes several former Expedia developers.  Over the past few months we have been working on a suite of social media and CRM (customer relationship management) tools for gyms, most of which can plug right into your existing MindBody account.  We have several very cool tools in the works and we will be releasing them as they get developed.  Some of them will be free, like this one, and some won’t.  (Skilled Athlete will only be charging for tools that will have a direct positive influence on your bottom line!).

This first one is a Class Schedule App for your Facebook page.  Now your clients can find your class schedule simply by navigating to your Facebook page and clicking the “class schedule” link below your business’ page photo.

Then voila! Your class schedule appears!

Clients can click on the class times to show the instructor for the class as well as “reserve” a spot in that class if your gym has that feature enabled in MBO.

If you’d like to check out the Schedule App in action you can see it live on our NorCal Facebook page here.

When you’re ready to deploy your own Mindbody schedule on your FB page just head over to Skilled Athlete.  The set up process is pretty simple and again it’s free!

Oh, and one more thing.  If you aren’t yet using a business management solution like Mindbody Online, then you might want to head there first!

Uploading your client’s photo or headshot into their profile might seem superfluous if you’re just getting going with your studio or microgym.  If you have fewer than 50 clients you obviously know everyone’s name and can easily locate them in MBO when you need to.

However, there will come a day when you aren’t the only one selling memberships in the retail screen and signing folks into class who forgot their keytags.  You will at some point have a few or several trainers.  And you will at some point have 30 people with the first name “John” or “Katie” in your system.  This is when it becomes important to have the profile pic stored.

We were lazy with this when we first started using MBO in 2007…but have since become quite fastidious about it.  With several trainers and several folks with duplicate names it’s important to make sure we’re signing the right “Katie” into a class and selling the right “Katie” a private training package.  Sell it to the “wrong” Katie and Katie1 essentially buys Katie2 a $600 PT package.  It can be messy to clean up after these types of mistakes. Not to mention it looks quite unprofessional.

So this is just my friendly reminder to start taking client photos and uploading them to their profiles if you aren’t already doing so!  Cheers!

First, the concept for the On Ramp came about after a rocky initial start with our business.  In 2004 when we opened, the group training model was held up in CF land as THE way to run a business and we adopted it without hesitation.

The challenge in 2004 was that no one had ever heard the word CrossFit.  In fact the brand equity that CrossFit now has is due in large part to the growth of the affiliates.  Small affiliate gyms with passionate owners, opening up all over the country and ultimately the world, spreading the brand.

However, in rural Chico circa 2004 there was no brand.  And there certainly was no box in people’s heads for the type of training we were providing.  Folks were comparing our rates with globo gym rates despite the fact that we clearly were not a globo gym, we were providing quality coaching and instruction.  But still the distinction was not obvious and we were too new in town and didn’t have a network to pull from yet.  And when folks heard our prices and learned we did not have a swimming pool or showers…well, needless to say it was challenging.

First you stumble, then you find your way

We stumbled quite a bit early on.  We undervalued our services, we didn’t provide entry points or a client path, we lacked of a solid pricing structure and we lacked a way to run our back end (like MBO). By the end of 2005 we had grown our client base to around 70 clients but had only an average client billing of $65 per person.  We were easily covering overhead, but as coaches weren’t paying ourselves anything. And it wasn’t obvious how we were going to make this model work and pay our three owners anything that resembled a fair wage based on the number of hours that were being put in (Greg Everett of Catalyst Athletics was an early partner).

With some quick math it became obvious that by moving to a private training only model we could quickly be grossing what we were then grossing, and there was an easy path to actually paying ourselves! So beginning in January 2006 we moved to a private training only model. Quickly we were making more money than we had in the previous two years!

I am a big advocate for microgyms with group class based models to also offer private training.  I’ve talked about this before.  It can make a huge difference in a new gym’s profitability and it is a great way to develop trainers (you’ve got to be able to successfully coach 1 person at a time before you can coach 15 people at a time). That said a PT only model has its drawbacks, namely huge fluctuation and variability in revenue.  During the summer of 2007 we had several of our PT clients go on vacation, and one injured himself when he crashed his golf cart.  When your PT clients don’t show, you don’t get paid.  This is where the stability of the group class revenue is such a beautiful compliment in a microgym setting.

We decided to bring back group classes in October of 2007, but we did it very differently this time.  The first thing we did was sign up with MindBodyOnline.  I wanted an easy way to track member payments as well as track frequency of training/client visits. I think we were one of the first CF style gyms to use MBO.  I contacted them in September 2007 and we were up and running by the time we re-opened group classes in October.

Instead of opening up 5 classes per day I converted a group of 3 guys that I was training 1-on-3 into our first “class”.  It ran MWF at 6am.    These guys were stoked to be paying a group rate of $150 instead of their 1-on-3 rate of $360/each.  We slowly grew small groups like this and only added classes as made sense.

We also created an entry point to help ensure a base level of movement proficiency.  At that point our singular entry point was a requirement of 12 sessions of PT prior to entering a group.  This worked quite well, but with a requirement of 12 pt sessions we had a very slow entry into our groups and because of the higher pricing for 12 sessions of PT we had a high barrier to entry.  It was a consultation with Beverly Murphy at MBU in March of 2008 that made all the difference.  She said our PT requirement posed too high a barrier to entry…and had we thought about a beginner class as an alternate option? Can you say light bulb moment!

We took that feedback to heart and went back to NorCal and created the On Ramp program!  We now have 2 entry points: On Ramp or Private training.  Both are critical to our client path.  Many clients are seeking PT, and many are not appropriate for On Ramp without some PT first…both are revenue streams and both ensure our clients are well prepared prior to entering the group class environment.

Ok.  Enough of the history.  As many of you have asked “how do you set it up?”

Determine the days and times you will be holding the workshop (I like 3 days per week for 4 weeks) and start spreading the word in your gym.  Tell your existing members that you are starting a beginner workshop that will help prepare new members and encourage them to tell any friends, coworkers, family, etc who are interested in training.  You may even get some inexpensive postcards printed and hand those out to clients and ask them to pass out as well.

Decide on the max number of new clients you feel comfortable with, as well as the number of coaches that will be coaching.  At NorCal we cap our On Ramp classes at 10 clients and have 2 trainers coaching.  If your typical client is relatively young and healthy you might get a way with a single coach on 10 clients.  We tend to get a wide mix of both ages and aptitudes (mobility issues, etc) and find having two coaches makes for a more seamless running of the class.

Also, the On Ramp is a new client’s first exposure to our gym.  We look at the 12 sessions of the On Ramp as “our time to shine”. Whether or not a client chooses to sign up for ongoing classes beyond this first month rests largely on their experience in the On Ramp.  We feel that having two trainers coaching allows us to really put our best foot forward.  Here are a few key points:

1)   One coach can describe and explain what we are looking for with the movement while the other demos the movement.

2)   Getting equipment setup is easier with 2 coaches.  For example, one coach can be warming people up while the other is setting up racks and bars for the press or other skill introduction/review.

3)   2 coaches mean clients get more attention.  This is especially important when you have a few folks in the class with movement limitations.

4)   At the end of the workout one coach can run stopwatch and call out times while the other records times on the board

5)   Great dynamicism between coaches.  New clients get exposed to more than one of your coaches and are then more comfortable trying different class times.

6)   A second coach helps streamline the closing process at the end of the 12 sessions helping to get these 10 new folks signed up for ongoing classes.

4 sessions, 8 sessions or 12 sessions?

Many folks have modified the On Ramp and have either a 4 or 8 session intro class.  If you feel folks are adequately prepared to join your regular classes after 4 sessions then by all means.  For us 12 sessions allows us to accomplish several things:

1)   Introductory exposure to movements with multiple opportunities to review, especially the three key lifts: deadlift, press, and squat.  In my opinion one exposure to each of these lifts is not enough to have a new individual safely migrate into a larger group class.

2)   12 sessions spans a full month and with nutrition compliance folks will see body composition changes in addition to improving their baseline workout times.  These results are what sells your program and increases your conversion rate.

3)   12 sessions in a beginners group allows folks to bond with one another.  By the end they are asking each other what times they are planning on training in the Elements classes…they want to continue the relationship.

Success rate

Success rate is measured two ways.

First: How prepared are individuals exiting the On Ramp upon entering ongoing classes?  Do they feel well prepared and confident?

We constantly get feedback from new clients about how professional our coaches are and how pleased they were to not be thrown in the deep end.   Clients feel well taken care of and well prepared.  Their initial feelings of intimidation about starting a strength and conditioning program completely dissipate when they are in a safe environment of beginners with quality coaches.  If you can make a great impression and demonstrate the success of your program in 1 month you are far more likely to have folks who want to sign up for more!

Second: conversion rate.  How many folks sign up for ongoing classes at the conclusion of the On Ramp?

Occasionally you will get a 100% conversion rate, but if you average across 12 months of On Ramps most folks end up with somewhere around a 75% average conversion rate.  You should be tracking this.  After every On Ramp you run you should calculate your conversion rate.  Track this over time and always work to improve it.  This conversion rate, along with your attrition rate are the two largest factors (mathematically speaking) that control the growth of your gym and ultimately your profitability.

I know many of you are using the initial version of the NorCal On Ramp as a template in your business.  Please feel free to share your experiences and findings!

Sure enough there was a printed sign in sheet with room for about 40 names.  I was told to print my name and then told I could use the box next to my name to help me keep track of what class number I was on.  As I had purchased a month of unlimited classes this wouldn’t apply to me, but had I instead purchased a 10 class package this section was where I was to designate 3 of 10, etc…just to help me keep track. (I am hoping they have some other system on their back end to officially track this and that they aren’t solely relying on the accuracy of their members’ memory!)

This studio and the classes I have taken so far have been great.  It’s supremely clean, the instructors are knowledgeable, but I have to admit to thinking their operations are somewhat archaic.  With readily available and affordable software like Mindbody Online, Zenplanner and others, checking your clients into classes and tracking client visit histories is so easy it seems silly to not use them to simplify your operations.  Not to mention utilizing client visit history reports can mean the difference between keeping and losing several members each month!

Frequently I’ll have someone say to me, “I don’t need keytags or worry about checking clients in because all of my clients are unlimited and can come however often they want.  So I don’t need to track how many days a week they are coming.”

To this I say BOLLOCKS! You STILL need to track visit history.  Here are two simple reasons why check in data is imperative!

1)   If you aren’t tracking client visits you likely have no systematic way to run a last visit report to see who hasn’t been into your gym or studio in over a week.  If you’re a small operation you might just “know” this…you haven’t seen Bill in a week so you give him a call.  But as soon as you grow beyond yourself as the coach/trainer/instructor you will need a more foolproof way to check in with missing clients.  It’s much easier to keep an existing client than to gain a new one.  Reaching out to folks who’ve fallen off the wagon for whatever reason will keep your clients progressing, help minimize attrition and show them you actually care whether they are in your gym or not.

2)   Tracking client visits gives you important information that you can use to make decisions on pricing and program offerings.  Let’s say you are a gym that only offers Unlimited pricing.  And then let’s say you are mulling over your 5% attrition rate and notice that several of the folks who are leaving this month where only coming 2 days per week.  You could utilize this information to create a limited membership (2 days per week in this case) that might more closely match these individuals’ schedules and pocketbooks, with the end result being you RETAIN these clients. If you aren’t tracking check ins you have no way of accessing this information and adjusting to members needs.

Oh, and if you are tracking check ins, but not using them to generate last visit reports it’s time to start!  Make it a weekly task…you’ll notice an immediate effect on your attrition rate and your clients will thank you…literally thank you, for keeping them accountable and encouraging them to get their fanny back in the gym.

It’s a common desire in the beginning to have enough classes on the schedule to accommodate every time slot that a person might want.  You might think that the more classes you offer the more folks are likely to sign up. There are definitely plusses to having a large class offering, but there are also opportunity costs (and labor costs) that should be considered.

As a start up microgym your first priority is to cover overhead.  That typically means as the owner/trainer you are not paying yourself for the classes that you coach.  Every dollar of each client’s membership is going straight to rent, utilities, equipment, insurance, etc, etc.  You aren’t able to pay yourself yet, but you know that will come with time.  But here’s the thing: The fact that you aren’t yet paying labor on your classes makes it seem like a no brainer to offer several per day…. but you should look at your business as if you actually HAD to pay labor. You should know each month what it really costs to operate.

Let’s take a peek at some opportunity costs

What else could you be doing with some of those hours?

You as the owner/trainer are likely doing most or all of the coaching at this point.  You might have somewhere between 20-50 clients and you are spending between 20-25 hours coaching classes.  That leaves the remaining hours of your 40 hour workweek (although let’s face it as a new business owner you are working FAR MORE than 40 hours) to do things like clean the bathrooms, mop the floors, return client inquiry phone calls and emails, pay bills, update your blog, write programming, run to Costco for supplies, etc.

It quickly becomes important to be very protective of your time.  You have a lot of hats to wear in the beginning.  And depending on the amount of operating capital you have saved prior to opening your doors you have a very finite amount of time to get the business up and running and paying you.

This is where being smart about group class offerings can open up time slots for you to offer small group training.  A private training session with 1 or 2-3 folks will provide a greater dollar per hour for you as the coach as well as the gym for return on space, compared to a class with only 1 or 2 people in attendance. For many gyms offering private training in addition to group classes provides the income cushion to get them through the sticky financial points of building and growing a business.  You simply can’t afford to leave the PT money on the table.

A group class with only 1 or 2 people attending is essentially a private session where the gym will gross anywhere from $8-$20 (or less or more depending on what you are charging, how frequently the client is training and therefore the average per class rate for the client) whereas a private session, either 1-on-1 or 1-on-2 will gross the gym anywhere from $50-$120, again depending on your rates, with the trainer earning somewhere between 45-70% of that and the gym netting far more than it would gross with the 1 or 2 folks showing up for that class hour.

When you are starting out you want to offer a couple of key classes at the prime times.  For example, MWF at 6pm and maybe Tues/Thurs at 6am to start.  Have your On Ramps or beginner’s classes either precede or follow these times.  As you grow you can open up classes individually.  This is key!  You don’t need to open a MWF 5pm all at once.  You could open a Wednesday 5pm and run with that for awhile….then consider opening a Monday as well.  Each class opened has a labor cost associated with it (whether you are actually paying labor on it or not you should look at it as though you were!)

It’s also important to consistently review your class attendance history.  MBO makes this super easy. Look at non-performing classes (low attendance) and evaluate if it makes sense to keep it in the mix.  Maybe you remove it temporarily from the schedule until demand is sufficient to bring it back. Building your class schedule as your clientele grows will allow you to spend more time on the business as well as allow you to service the private clients who are instrumental in keeping a new business afloat until group class membership grows to a sufficient level to sustain itself.

Robb and I have been sorting through our closets, taking items to the Salvation Army and generally tackling all of the standard spring cleaning duties.   One of the items on my list of To Do’s was to go through several boxes of old business items to separate out items we still need to keep and determine what could be tossed, shredded or burned in our chiminea

Oh my goodness the things that I found! The thing that really struck me was the thought that there is no way we could operate the business we have today if we operated as we did back then, if we didn’t use MBO or some similar business management software.

Here are some of the items I unearthed from NorCal memory lane:

Sign in sheet for clients to manually sign into classes. I found stacks and stacks of these sign in sheets.  We had folks sign in, but there was no analysis of visit history without a laborious manual accounting process.  We use the visit history function of MBO constantly.  We can easily run a report to see who hasn’t been in the gym in the last week and then send out emails to check on folks.  This would be nearly impossible if we were still using paper and pen and a standard manual sign in list.

I found handwritten lists from our trainers that listed their clients and associated private training payments.  The trainers would submit this along with the dates of their sessions so that I could manually calculate payroll.  Fortunately at that point we only had 2 trainers.  There is NO way with 7 trainers we could operate with this system.  It makes my head hurt just thinking about it.  MBO makes calculating payroll as simple as running a report. I wouldn’t think about running a fitness business today without this ability.

I also found stacks of photocopies of client checks with associated bank deposit slips stapled to the top.  In the early days we had no real billing system…no method to handle recurring payments and no simple method to accurately track when clients had paid or were due to pay.  Everything was done manually and was therefore quite clunky and inefficient. Clients would pay by check or cash, I would check off the list that they paid for the month and then I kept these copies as a way to account for each bank deposit (probably completely unnecessary, but it seemed like the thing to do at the time).  With MBO all client payments are tracked in their account history and payment history.  I can see how many visits a client has remaining from their package of private training sessions, and I can see when their next monthly membership payment is scheduled.  I can see when the client came in for their very first visit, and I can see what classes and what days the client typically trains.  And I don’t need to save any paper to track any of this!

And I also dug up quite a few examples of our horrible attempts at guerilla marketing…some embarrassing flyers that amazingly actually did attract a client or two.  I highly recommend finding someone with some graphic design expertise to help you with your guerilla marketing efforts!

Post spring cleaning….Robb and I have spent the last two nights burning all of this old stuff in our chiminea!

Well, in a similar sentiment I can offer: Don’t rush into a business. Think. Plan. Save. Gather the appropriate funds. Think some more. Take time. Do it right.

Most businesses require significant amounts of capital expenditure and market research before you can open your doors.  And significant infrastructure. Computers, software, equipment, office equipment, capital for inventory or machinery, education, etc. Not necessarily so with a microgym or fitness studio. Most fitness-based businesses can be opened with minimal equipment and depending on your location, minimal overhead.

The fact that it is in fact so easy, and requires so little overhead, leaves folks who otherwise should be perfecting their craft and taking a year or two to prepare their business model, prepare their financial position and get a solid picture of the system they are wanting to create, jumping in with zero preparation for what lies ahead. It’s a bit like climbing a mountain in the winter with inadequate gear. Can it be done? Possibly. Is it going to be fun? Not at all. Just because it can be done that way doesn’t mean that it should be done that way.  In the case of our mountain climbing analogy, it most certainly will take longer to reach the top and there will be much more suffering in the process…all this providing you don’t die along the way.

As soon as you sign your lease you are on the hook.

There are indeed folks who do great under pressure and the pressure of the lease and the overhead properly motivates them to get out and hustle.  They have dynamic personalities and a decent to great coaching backgrounds and can keep and retain clients.  Great! But they end up putting in 8 hour coaching days with an additional 4-5 hours trying to figure out the backend of the business, trying to set up a business management system like MBO or trying to teach themselves Quickbooks or some other accounting software. They make it work, but they are exhausted and all-consumed by the business. They don’t have time for relationships.  They don’t have time for any other activities outside of the business. The get up the next day and do it all over again.  This is the successful picture.  But it could have been MUCH easier had there been more planning upfront.

Now I don’t want to say this can’t be done.  This was the route that we actually took.  But it was MUCH MUCH harder than it needed to be.  And fortunately there were two of us to share the load.  (3 actually, if you count our early partner Greg Everett).

Some observations

In general most new folks I talk to who are planning on opening a microgym are being FAR too optimistic about the number of clients they expect to attract in the first few months. And folks also seem to simultaneously UNDERESTIMATE the expenses they will have.  Good on y’all as it shows you’re of the optimistic ilk. However, in my opinion it is always best to be conservative when projecting these numbers.  I would rather plan for 10 new clients and be STOKED with 30 in my first month, than plan for 30 (and really be dependent on getting those 30 for my financial position) and only get 10 or 5. It’s the same with expenses. I would rather project on the high side and have resources to support that…for if they are in fact much lower it only makes my position stronger. Each time we’ve moved to a larger facility our expenses have been FAR more than I projected. There are always costs you don’t expect.  Build those into your expenses from the beginning and you’ll have a cushion for them.

Make a list of names

Make a list of everyone you plan on contacting to try to get them to come down the first month you open. Now circle the names of those who you KNOW without a doubt will absolutely come down.  How many do you have?  How many are in the “probably” category? What are you going to do to get those folks in the door.  And then how are you going to keep them?  Clients want a path to follow.  Where do they start? Where do they go next? And after that?  If you haven’t thought this through yet then take your time and think and plan. Again, creating and building a business is an involved project (much like a marriage:).  There is no need to rush.

Back to the title

Ok, now let’s talk a bit about my title…marrying someone for their name. I’ve been doing a fair amount of consulting with folks eager to open up CrossFit affiliates.  They want to “stake their claim” on a name or a territory…be the first to open in a given area.

Let’s face it, CrossFit is a sexy name.  And now, with thousands of affiliates who’ve forged the path and established the brand in cities all over the country, it lends significant brand recognition.

But here’s the deal.  If you are an inexperienced coach with no sense of the profession of coaching John Q Public other than following the main page WOD you may not have the background, knowledge and professionalism to retain the people that come through your door. Folks may initially seek you out because you have CF in your name, but if you fail to deliver the results they are seeking (not everyone cares about a fast FRAN time, not everyone will be wooed with increased work capacity, some folks do have significant orthopedic issues that need addressing, and not everyone likes a competitive environment) they will take their disposable income elsewhere.

And back to staking a claim or being the first in a given territory: If someone else can come in a drive a stake into the ground and claim the territory 2 doors down from you at any time it doesn’t much matter if you are the first or the second. What matters is that you are the BEST. If you take your time you will not only provide the better product, you will enjoy the process a whole lot more.

Businesses are usually opened by folks who are passionate about what the business provides, and in the case of a fitness business that means fitness.  As an owner you quickly find out there is much more required to keeping a ship afloat and building a thriving enterprise than knowing the ins and outs of providing a given service (although without a quality product/service we’ve got equal problems).  Things like accounting, payables, receivables, etc can make a person’s head spin if they aren’t your strong points.  Now I’m a big fan of outsourcing that which you can afford to outsource (accounting/payroll, etc) But as an owner you always need to be aware of the full picture of your business.  Where are you?  Where are you headed?  Are you on target?  All of these things can be monitored by the profit and loss projecting tool I’m going to share with you via video.

I’ve mentioned modeling and projections in other blog posts and now that I’ve finally learned some rudimentary skills in this screenflow software I’m going to do my best to get some of this information to you all via video.

Here is part 1 of my video tutorial series.  Hopefully you find it helpful.  Let me know what you think!