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Who's The Boss?
You are the centre manager. You are
in charge of running the ship. You are what Graham Henry is to the
All Blacks, the John Bracewell of NZ Cricket, or even the Sam Morgan of
Trade Me. You run the show... or do you?
How effectively do you really run the operation at your fitness centre?
Do you pull together all of the parts of your centre like a carefully
constructed jigsaw puzzle or do you seem to have no control over the
individual components of your club?
Here are a few tips to ensure that at least the sales team of your gym are
operating effectively and to guarantee that you know exactly what is
happening every day, or every week of every month in your business.
1. Ensure the monthly sales plan is produced
by your sales team leader of each site by the 15th day of each month.
2. Ensure all sales staff are completing their daily stats sheets
and have the sales team leader consolidate these figures.
3. Receive a weekly sales update from your sales team leader with a
summary of the weeks activity.
4. Attend your team's weekly sales meeting with the sales team
leader and staff every Monday. Review last weeks activity and set
action plan for the upcoming week.
5. Make a daily check on the sales teams appointments and activity
levels, take a daily interest.
6. Check KPI (Key Performance Indicators) figures and reconcile with
sales summary sheets.
7. Mystery shop the site a minimum of once per month to review how
membership enquiries are being dealt with.
8. Ensure you present a promotions guide to all membership
promotions 15 days prior to promotion start date, all front line staff
should attend.
If your sales ship is running full steam ahead then you only have
to worry about one other thing... keeping those members once they have
joined!
Division of the sexes
Division of the sexes
is an article written for New Zealand Fitness magazine by Gyms.co.nz.
Check it out in the latest issue of NZ Fitness.
Kate Sheppard. A source of inspiration to suffragist and campaigners for
equality between the sexes, both in New Zealand and throughout the world. We applauded when the suffragette movement resulted in
achieving the vote for women. We beamed with the reflected glory bestowed
upon us as the first OECD country in the world to achieve such parity. We
supported the women’s liberation movement and their push for equal pay for
equal work. We have developed as a nation to the point where there has
been a succession of women leading our country, women regularly holding
high profile positions in some of our leading companies and it can
probably be stated that we are verging on true equality within our country
and in our lifetime.
But what cost do us males endure as a result of this? It seems that every
shopping mall, nay every corner now has a women’s only fitness club on
it! Sorry boys, no entry… find yourself another place to train. No
testosterone in here thanks!
Even before the boom that is women’s only clubs, we had women’s only areas
in established centres. Every effort it seemed was being undertaken to
avoid over zealous males scaring off our female counterparts.
Traditionally, women have enjoyed the privilege of single sex training,
away from the prying eyes of ogling males, away from the muscle building
weight lifters, avoiding the trendy lycra clad body beautiful. These
clubs are a place where every shape and size of female, as well as all
experience levels (from beginner to skilful fitness enthusiasts) can train
in a friendly atmosphere free from intimidation, without fear of damaging
their self respect or image.
We already have a raft of women’s chains well established in NZ.
Contours is
probably the most well established of the women’s gyms. Many Contours
clubs feature not only women’s fitness centres but a range of other
services such as beauty therapy, hair care, and more, and there is a
Contours chain in almost every large city throughout NZ.
However, in
the past 5 years a couple of new chains have arrived from overseas with a
view to challenging Contours’ market share and the apparent monopoly that
they had achieved. Configure Express comprises small women’s only clubs
with a focus on “fitness and lifestyle programmes that maximise the amount
of time you have to spend on your body in our busy lives”. Their aim is
to “work out your entire body, efficiently and effectively in just 30
minutes”.
A noted fitness professional once told me that a new Curves gym was
popping up worldwide every 4 minutes and that it was the fastest growing
fitness franchise. While I may agree with the latter, I find the former a
little difficult to digest! Despite this, Curves arrived in NZ in 2003
and has already established themselves throughout NZ with facilities from
Whangarei to Christchurch. While offering a similar service to Configure
Express, time conscious training, Curves is a smaller club again and is
subsequently ideal for less populated towns and perhaps has a greater
reach than its competitors.
Since the
advent of these gyms, there have been others scrambling to grab hold of
the lucrative women’s only market. Club Physical is one that springs to
mind, although I am sure that there will be many others in the future.
Kate, you
have done fabulous things for the female gender, although at the time I am
sure you had no idea that you would be responsible, in a round about way,
for depriving men of access to fitness facilities throughout the country!
Well fellas … it is time to take back some of what we have lost!
Men’s only
fitness has arrived on our shores.
Men of our
decade have been following women in their quest to be more fashionable and
more ‘beautiful’. Enter the metro sexual male. He who follows fashion
tips, worries about his hair and isn’t afraid of the odd bit of
moisturiser. Is the metro sexual also afraid of what others, including
women, think of him in the gym too? Surely not?
If the truth
be told, he probably always has been. There certainly is no written rule
that males cannot be self conscious about their weight, or worried about
self image. In fact beyond that confident outward appearance I am sure
many males, not necessarily even the metro sexual ones, are worried about
their condition and would prefer a men’s only environment to train in.
ActiveLifestyle is a new fitness facility on Carlton Gore Rd in
Newmarket. It offers a similar time conscious solution to many other
clubs. They believe “you don’t have to work out for an hour a day to get
the results you want”. The focus is on improving your fitness and health
“in just 30 minutes, three times a week”. What makes ActiveLifestyle
different? It offers a female only AND a male only environment. It’s
division of the sexes all over again … and what’s more it is popular! ActiveLifestyle
comprises Active Men and Active Women, two private and exclusive clubs
under the one roof, including separate men’s and women’s facilities, a
system that is effective and easy to follow, as well as a limited
membership to ensure that “you won’t be confused, intimidated or bored”.
There have
been attempts at a similar sort of environment in the past. Hillside
Fitness Centre on the North Shore had an arrangement where men and women
could both train in the same gym… however they were confined to different
training times for the differing sexes.
The trend
has been started, now will the big fitness industry players follow the
lead. Do we really want them to anyway? Why can’t we both get along? It
seems that this new development of dividing the sexes may be here to
stay. Women’s single sex centres continue to spring up rapidly and are
well frequented. The question on everyone’s lips however is … will the
stubborn old male follow suit?
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