Fitness Business School – What to Expect in 2022

Full Transcript

Hey, Pat Rigsby here in this episode. I wanna talk with you about my predictions or perhaps what to expect in 2022. Let’s get to it.

Welcome to The Fitness Business School podcast – the show for fitness business owners who want to grow their income, increase their impact and improve their lifestyle. Be sure to listen til the end of this episode, because we have a brand new special offer exclusive for listeners. So stay tuned.

Well, as I record this 2022 is almost upon us and we have been through probably the, the strangest couple year period that, that I’ve encountered in the fitness industry where, you know, we’ve navigated everything from lockdowns and restrictions to the accelerated evolution of the industry with the integration of more online training and the, the expansion of training based franchises. So what can we expect going into the next year?

Well, I’ve got some, some pretty strong thoughts on this. And so I I’ll be the first to admit that like, anybody else can’t predict the future, but I feel pretty confident that many of the things that I’m going to share with you are things that we can look forward to on the horizon. So the first is I don’t expect large group training to continue to grow at the pace that it was grow in 2019. I think that you know, it, it, it, it’s definitely going to get closer to where it was in 2019 or you know, may, you know, have a slight upward trajectory. But you know, I think that there are enough other options available to people. There are people that kind of ha have enjoyed a little bit more of the, the forced spacing that we’ve had and want to keep a little bit of distance between themselves and others. And, you know, I, I think that we were riding the wave of group training before the pandemic started. And so it, it, it’s starting to plateau a little bit. And, and I think that matters a lot. If you are a large group training business, because it’s gonna be harder to set yourself apart, it’s going to be more of a commodity. And, and that kind of segues into the next kind of prediction, if you will, that I have is that the group training based franchise model will continue to expand and push into pretty much every viable market over the next couple years.

Now, if you think back, I’m gonna give you a couple examples if you’re old enough to remember when curves was, was really growing like crazy and they had over 13,000 location, well, there were a bunch of kind of knockoff curves that were, women’s only gyms that all had kind of a different theme, a a, a slight variation off the curves model. And they tried to piggyback that, that popularity, that, that curves had, had really unlocked. And . So the next time this came around was with anytime fitness. Anytime fitness started snap fitness followed soon after, and then before you knew it, there were a dozen different 24 hour gyms. And what happened a lot of times where that I, if somebody was gonna go into a market that maybe wasn’t gonna be in any time fitness market, like a secondary market or, or a less promising location, a lot of times they’d go grab one of these kind of quote, unquote, second tier franchises and use that franchise model, because those guys weren’t nearly as picky about the, the markets they were going into.

So what, what we see is, you know, this is kind of happening in the, the group training world right now, not only with the orange theories and F 40 fives, but, you know, all the, the, the, the kind of model or training specific stuff like cycle bar, or club P plots, or you know, all the bar franchises and, you know, the various other group models that just have some sort of slight variation with the training. And if you weren’t aware F 45 is even coming out with several additional brands under their umbrella to kind of piggyback their own you know, kind of group training infrastructure. So, you know, there’s going to be more and more in this kind of impersonal group training model expand. So, so understand that if you’re gonna be focused on large group training, you’re gonna have to find a different way to compete, or you’re gonna have to be better at competing on price. And that means reducing overhead, going for volume, all that stuff. All right. So the, the, the follow up to that is I think that low engagement types of businesses in general are going to suffer unless they are the planet fit the, of the world where, you know, if, if you are just renting access to workouts, if you were just renting access to equipment, then you know, you’re competing with people who are charging anywhere from nine to $50 a month, you know, it, and it it’s a volume game.

So the, the businesses that have been able to rely on essentially hosting workouts in, in any format, whether it’s large group or small group and, and not really delivering anything else they’re gonna suffer. So all of those are kind of woven together to say that if your model has been that kind of, Hey, I’m gonna pluck body pump or a bootcamp out of a health club environment, or out of the park and put it in a warehouse and charge people 129 to $199 a month, it’s gonna be harder and harder to do that because the, the, the market it’s getting more crowded, the market is demanding more. And the competitors that you’re gonna be up against are going to be marketing aggressively. And in many cases have a minimum advertising budget each and every month they have to meet, which means they’re going to create a lot of awareness. And a lot of they’re gonna have better real estate than a lot of independent businesses. So they’re gonna have more of that intrusive awareness or intrusive visibility. So that’s kind of my take on the large group side of things. Now, the flip side of this is I think that the more personal stuff, small group, semi private one on one, I think all of that is gonna continue to grow. I think that you know, the, the, the market, it, it, it’s not that it’s gonna grow due to restrictions it’s going to grow because I, I think that people like to feel important, but wanna be, you know, be, be known and have a personal touch and not just be a face in the crowd or a number.

And so there’s going to be plenty of opportunity for small groups. Semi-Private one on one. And so even if you are running a bit business that has been group training, heavy, large group training heavy to this point you may consider integrating one of these types of models into your business, especially during off peak hours where it’s probably hard to fill up a, you know, a, a large group in the first place. So one-on-one training, in-home training boutique type studios, all of that sort of thing. You know, that, that sort of thing it’s going to continue to it, to grow and expand. Along those same lines, I am as convinced as I could possibly be that hybrid fitness or the hybrid approach to two business is the future. And frankly, it’s kind of the present already, but you know, there was just an article in club industry magazine that talked about, you know, hybrid is forecasted to get to $1.7 trillion in 20, 25 or some absurd number that I can’t even really fathom. But, you know, basically people operate in a hybrid way. Part of their life exists in this offline world and part of the way that they stay connected, consume information entertain themselves, everything it’s it’s in the online world. So if you are not blending the two to stay connected and better serve your clients, you’re gonna get left behind. And you know, that’s probably the path.

If you’re going to continue to offer anything in that large group kind of realm, you need to have a more hybrid approach. And that means being connected between sessions. That means providing accountability. That means having a, a little bit of an on demand option if somebody can’t make it in for a session. So it, it doesn’t mean that you’ve gotta be on zoom all the time training live sessions or anything like that. It means that you meet your were clients where they are, and in many cases they’re on their device. The, the other thing that I think in the online kind of world that’s gonna happen is online coaching is gonna grow, but classes are probably gonna be pretty flat. I mean, we’ve seen you know, some of the, some, some of the bigger brands take a step back once the, the, the restrictions started to subside and people started to reengage in more offline businesses. So the, the bigger brands, they obviously, they peak when they were the only real show in town, but the classes in that that realm are gonna be pretty flat, but that doesn’t mean that the coaching is gonna be flat people. I think at this point more than ever before, are, you know, they’re, they’re aware of the fact that they’re not limited to their local market when it comes to improving when it comes to finding solutions to their problems, to, to find service providers or specialists.

So the online coaching side of things will, can continue to grow. The, the other things that I’m sure are going to grow are nutrition, coaching, and wellness coaching, because I mean, let’s face it there, there was more publicity creating awareness around those things than ever before, during the last two years about STR rest relief and about how nutrition impacts our immune system, all things that are very common sense it for, for people who’ve worked in the fitness industry, but, you know, they’ve been pushed relentlessly on the consumer market for the past couple of years about the impact exercise has the impact that nutrition has on, on health, on stress relief, on recovery, all of it. So being somebody that integrates that into what you are doing, in fact, nutrition, coaching you know, I, I, I think that if you are not integrating nutrition with what you are doing in whatever way you can, within your scope of practice, then you probably shouldn’t be selling fat loss. You shouldn’t be selling body composition change because frankly, I think we all know that that’s the driver. Another thing that I think we’ll see kind of make a comeback is challenges. They, they may or may not go under that name, but these short term programs that promise a very specific benefit or, or result that, you know, I mean, they’re, they’re, they’re kind of the best of all worlds. You know, what you’re paying as a consumer, you know, it you’re trying to, to achieve or what the desired outcome is. So, so the expectations are clear, the length of commitment is clear.

And so we’re gonna see that make a comeback, this, this idea that people will subscribe to things indefinitely, sight unseen, never having experienced them. I don’t think that the market’s there right now. And so getting people in the door to experience what you do in, in some sort of reduced commitment. So anywhere from three weeks to three months a as a means of building a relationship and expressing how you can help a person that’s where things are going. And, and then finally, there, there are kind of the, these directions or ideas or underlying themes that I think are gonna thrive. I think personal or client centric businesses are gonna thrive in businesses that specialize in solving problems and helping specific people achieve specific goals are gonna thrive. I think, again, people want to feel connected. They want to feel, they wanna feel valued. They, they want to be seen and heard. They want to go in and have a sense of accomplishment every day. And, you know, the businesses that do a better job with that client-centricity, if you will, are going to, to do well, the businesses that are, are, are more specialized are going to do well also, because I mean, now people are aware they don’t have to settle for something just because it’s close by it. It it’s no different than how some of the retail market has, is dealt with the, the, the burden of competing with Amazon.

The local businesses have struggled a little bit if they were just generalists, because people can get on Amazon with a couple clicks and find about whatever they want. And in many cases at a lower price, but the businesses locally that have done unwell have been more boutique. They they’ve been more specialized. So I, I know I threw a lot at you, but that’s where I see the industry headed over the next year to 18 months. And what what’s great is I think most of the people who, who listen to this podcast with any degree of regularity already are kind of on this train, so to speak, they, they understand the personal side of this, the client centric side of this. They, you know, they, they understand hybrid. I mean, they’ve, they, in many cases, if you’re listening this you’ve prob they already read my, I booked the hybrid Jim handbook. So you you’re, you you’re kind of aligned with this, but make sure you’re doubling down on it, make sure that you are planning your upcoming year around the things that I just shared. If you do, you’re gonna be set up to succeed and thrive not only in 2022, but well beyond.

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