The Fitness Business School – What If You Have to Close Again?

Full Transcript

Hey, Pat Rigsby here. And in this episode, I want to talk with you about what you need to do if you were forced to re-close your gym. There are a lot of states that are asking gyms to re-close as well as many small businesses. So let’s get to it.

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So let’s talk about re-closing. Unfortunately I think a lot of people probably were a little bit too optimistic when they were permitted to reopen if they were permitted to reopen you know, within the past couple of months after our, you know, what, 12 to 20 weeks shut down, depending on where you’ve been. And, and I think that so many gym owners really kind of jumped into this thinking, well, okay, that was temporary. That’s water under the bridge. I can just kind of get back to some iteration of business as usual, and now obviously business as usual required distancing and different cleaning policies and other safety measures. But I mean, the reality was you know, there’s always been a fear of a spike coming later on us having to do this again for people who I think were maybe a little bit more realistic. So now that we’re faced with this, and we’re seeing gyms being forced to re-close again, in many markets with the probability of other States and other cities following suit, what do we need to do?

Well, the first thing that we need to do is shift back to that kind of online option. Or if you have a hybrid option that doesn’t force people to go into a gym, if you’re permitted to go outside, if you can do some in-home training, any of that sort of stuff, to just kind of break up the monotony for the people who may feel like, Hey, you know what? I was on house arrest for 18 weeks, I want to get out and do something different. Well, getting back to offering you know, maybe a more robust schedule of online training is a good plan. In fact, what we’ve told our clients all along is you need to think of yourself as a hybrid facility. From this point forward, you are going to have an online training component. If you’re smart, if you’re savvy, because for the foreseeable future, there are going to be a number of people who don’t feel comfortable coming back in a gym. And then even beyond that, if you’ve seen any of the articles that have been out, like the more recent one in time magazine saying that, you know, this has kind of been a wake up call that people recognize they don’t need a gym to be healthy. You know, some people, people may take that as a slap in the face or somebody, a downgrading, what we do in our industry. I see it as an opportunity. Those people still need direction. Those people need to have somebody to coach them to facilitate what they’re doing, to make it easier for them to get the outcome that they want, whether or not they’re coming into a facility. So getting more committed to doing online training, to make your business a true hybrid business. This is one of the things that you need to be focused on right now, make sure your clients are taken care of. They understand that this wasn’t your choice. So continue to serve them, continue to give them some sense of continuity in their life.

So that’s number one, number two, we’ve got to keep marketing. We’ve got to keep selling. Okay. So a lot, yeah, people the first time around kind of just spend all their time trying to put a fence around their clients, trying to retain the ones that they had. And it makes sense, right? Like it makes plenty of sense that we wanted to just have some stability and have some continuity for our own income and keep people around, but we know what to do when it comes to that, but we need to continue to market to basically backfill those, those people that haven’t come back. Those people who’ve been put on hold those people who canceled, we need to continue to market so that a we’re building an audience so that, you know, we have people to market to, even if they’re not ready to join, because we’re in the middle of summer. Once people get back into the fall, once people get back into the winter, the times that people tend to typically join gyms we need to already have that audience and you can still market more cost effectively than we’ve been able to market for a long time. If you’re going to do any sort of paid media like Facebook ads, we can still get out there and probably even get remnant space when it comes to print media or less expensive radio spots, any, any of that sort of thing as well. So there are opportunities. Plus there are gyms that have already kind of thrown in the towel gyms that have been forced to close. So there are people out there that are gym that that’s been part of their life for a while. So you can go market to those people. And some of them are going to be ready to jump on board with what you’re doing right now. Some of them you’re just going to need to follow up with, build a relationship with and make offers to, and then when they’re ready, you’re going to be the obvious choice. So that’s the second thing that we need to focus on.

The third is considering the possibility of using one of these EDI loans you know, so many businesses I think the first time around it was so rushed, it was so kind of you know, uncertain people didn’t get PPP loans, there’s money available. Now, in fact, the EDI alone is probably the most favorable business loan when it comes to terms, when it comes to whether it’s the, the length of repayment 30 years or the interest rate, the fact that there are no no payments immediately, so it can serve almost like a line of credit if you need it, it can certainly give you some breathing room. So you can make decisions without being forced to think of things from a position of desperation. So consider that now I’m not an accountant, I’m not a financial planner, talk to your accountant and make sure that it’s right for you, but I would explore it. I’ve had plenty of people that I’m close to that run very successful businesses. Tell me time and time again, that this is the best opportunity to borrow money that there’s been during the time that they’ve been a business owner. So at least keep that in mind, because if it gives you the opportunity to really kind of play from a position of offense, rather than defense, it’s certainly worth considering.

And then finally, accept the fact that we’ve been through this before, and we did it on the fly, we did it with no warning. We did it really you know, having to kind of build the plane as we flew it, right? Figuring out online training, figuring out how to keep clients engaged, figuring out what might be attractive to clients, what time slots, what marketing would bring people in. You’ve been all through the, all through this before you don’t need to panic. I mean, it’s frustrating. I understand, but we can go back and learn from what we did in the past. If there were some things that didn’t go as well, as you want, learn from them, improve on them, continue to market. And you’re going to be in, in good shape. Let’s face. It is as a small business owner. And for most of the people who would be listening to this is an independent business owner. You’ve got more flexibility or more adaptability, then almost all of your competitors franchises don’t have the ability to kind of turn on a dime big box health clubs don’t have that same ability as a small fitness business owner, whether it be a studio owner or one-on-one trainer or whatever else, you have the ability to adapt very quickly and pivot to a position that’s going to be attractive for the market you serve. It’s going to solve their problems and fill their needs to take advantage of that. It’s a competitive advantage that you have. And coupled with the other things that we talked about, it’s going to put you in the highest possible situation to succeed.

Thanks for listening. I’m giving away a bundle of my bestselling books, the ideal business formula, the fitness entrepreneur handbook in the path. All you have to do is go to patrigsby.com/podgift to get it. Also, make sure to subscribe to The Fitness Business School with Pat Rigsby so you don’t miss an episode and you get yourself on the fast track to creating your ideal business.