Running a gym without a business plan is like trying to drive your car to a new destination without directions: it's sheer chaos, with lots of confusion and frustration. If you are a gym owner and have dreams of success, growth, and long-term stability, then creating a business plan is essential. While it may seem like a formality, it’s essential to take the time to create one that will act as your roadmap to your destination.
In this post, we will discuss 5 steps to creating an effective business plan for your gym!
Step 1: Create a Mission Statement and Company Vision
Having a mission statement will not only guide you in long-term gym growth but also help build a stronger gym community. After all, the goal is to fill your gym with people who align with the culture you’re trying to lead.
Your business vision should reflect your long-term goals, while your mission statement outlines your purpose.
For example, your vision might be to work with older adults looking to reduce common aches and pains. Your mission could then focus on providing one-on-one coaching aimed at improving fitness, nutrition, balance/ stability, stress, and sleep.
Or maybe your vision is to create an inclusive environment that makes fitness affordable for the masses. Then your mission could be to provide fun, supportive group exercise classes focused on community and team camaraderie.
Step 2: Services and Pricing Structure
Once you create your mission statement and overall vision, it’s then important to shift your focus onto your services and pricing structure.
Start by focusing on your main service, such as group classes or personal training. From there, explore additional revenue streams like nutrition coaching, massage therapy, or individual program design.
Keep in mind that when you’re first starting, sometimes less is more. Though having multiple revenue streams for gym growth is important, you don’t want to spread yourself too thin. Focus on one or two revenue streams and put your full effort into making them thrive.
The same is true when it comes to setting prices for memberships or other services. Most of the time, it’s best to keep it simple, rather than offering a wide variety of pricing options. You don’t want prospective members to be so overwhelmed that they walk away entirely.
Step 3: Marketing Plan
Your gym marketing strategy can be one of the most significant pieces of the gym growth puzzle, not only for generating leads but for improved sales conversion and retention.
Before you ever launch your marketing strategy, you must dial in your internal sales process first. After all, what good will it do to gain a bunch of leads if you aren’t ready or able to close them?
Similarly, you want to make sure you have an effective website that’s easy to read and follow. If you’re going to spend time and money getting people to your site, it should get them to action.
It’s also important to have a strategy for creating content for marketing. As you’re creating marketing content, always craft messaging toward leads, not members. Too many gym owners make the mistake of producing content for social media (or platforms) with their current community in mind.
Step 4: Create Systems, Policies and Procedures
Operational plans simply detail how your gym will run daily, and it starts with creating systems, policies, and procedures.
Having a laid-out operational plan will outline your systems for just about everything you may face as a gym owner. From managing finances to hiring staff, the goal is to decide how your business will operate.
Setting up formal policies and procedures can also lead to smoother operations. Planning everything out in advance gives you an outline to focus on when addressing potential stressors.
The goal is to improve efficiency and preparedness. When you can make these decisions in advance with a clear head, you’ll have a reference guide for if things ever go sideways.
Step 5: Review Often
Your business plan should never be considered “set in stone”. It’s not something that you’ll create once without ever needing to revise it. Through market changes, gym growth, and the ever-evolving fitness landscape, it’s important to regularly review and revise your business plan.
Conclusion:
Starting a business is hard and comes with its own set of challenges. A good business plan gives you a point of reference to help you navigate your business and covers all aspects of your gym so that you have every opportunity to succeed. While you may face some unforeseen issues, a well-structured business plan helps you to identify potential problems as much as possible and create effective ways to deal with them. Your business plan isn’t a static document set in stone, instead, it can serve as a guide to growth and your future success through changing times.