Run a Profitable Gym

The CrossFit Games: You're there to watch the athletes and events. But what else would the clever affiliate owner do in Madison to grow a gym business?In today's episode of Two-Brain Radio, Chris Cooper gives you some last-minute advice on tackling the Games correctly as an affiliate owner. He discusses the booths you should visit, the people you should meet, and the ways you can enhance the experience for yourself, your team and your community back home.Enjoy the 2022 Games!00:27 - Why the Games are valuable to affiliates02:01 - Visiting the Affiliate Lounge03:54 - Vendor Village booths you can't miss10:41 - Working out during the Games11:13 - Making your own media during the Games

How do you build an A+ staff?It's a critical question. Hire the wrong people and you'll have headaches. Put the right people in the wrong chairs and you'll have headaches. But if you get the right people in the right roles, your business will grow quickly, and you'll be surrounded with happy, talented team members who make life better for you and your clients.In this episode, Chris Cooper explains how Two-Brain hires mentors—and he'll tell you exactly how you can apply a similar process in your gym to find perfect staff members. 1:21 - Two-Brain's hiring process4:29 - The evolution of Two-Brain6:00 - ROI on mentorship7:00 - Hiring for your business

How did gym owner Brian Bott reach $426 and earn a spot on this month's average revenue per member leaderboard? Semi-private training!Bott's impressive stats are primarily the result of personal training done in groups of no more than four. This isn't "small-group training" where each client does a variation of the same workout. Instead, a highly skilled coach delivers completely individualized programming to three or four clients at the same time. In this podcast, Bott spills the secrets and lays out what you need to keep in mind if you want to set up a similar model for your gym. Brian explains how prices his offerings, develops coaches and creates careers, ensures a high level of service, retains members, and attracts new clients without spending money on ads.LinksThe 4/9ths ModelAffinity Marketing Guide1:15 - Brian's business model7:18 - Membership structure and pricing15:56 - Finding and onboarding clients19:10 - Staff training systems27:04 - Solving the "icon problem"32:13 - Annual and month-to-month memberships44:36 - How Brian finds high-value clients

Gym owner and Two-Brain Business Mentor Lisa Palmer earned a spot on the leaderboard this month with a $341 per month average revenue per member score.In this video, she shares the three simple strategies she employed to get there: 1. Athlete check-ins.2. Transformation packages.3. Choice. By truly getting to know her members' needs, Lisa calibrated her program to include specialty offerings that help clients hit their goals faster. These high-touch, high-value add-ons helped boost her gym's ARM from $120 to $341. You can do it, too.Links"Help First" by Chris Cooper3:39 - Putting a different value on fitness5:45  - Expanding higher-priced offerings: transformation packages8:15 - Social proof: demonstrating results to get clients12:00 - Creating a program that will solve problems for your ideal clients, pricing binder, sales process14:40 - Creating hybrid options20:53 - Accountability and action plans28:30 - Athlete check-ins and client-centered solutions32:46 - Add-ons

Ashley Haun, Nyree Segui and Scott Romijn were recipients of this year's Two-Brain Awards in the Coach Education and Opportunity, Future Star and Owner Lifestyle categories. These intrepid leaders were laser focused on developing their teams, laying the groundwork for future success and enjoying the fruits of their labor. We chat with them to find out about the obstacles they met along the way, how they were able to work through them and what lies on the other side. Whether you're shifting your business model, working through a rough patch or growing opportunities for your staff, this episode is filled with key insights to help you move forward.1:05 - Seats on the bus: Ashley Haun on reorganizing team1:47 - Ramen noodle numbers vs. filet mignon numbers2:58 - Number tracking 6:00 - Nyree Segui on developing systems, laying the foundation, raising rates7:21 - Becoming fearless9:00 - Building momentum11:33 - Scott Romijn on taking more time off12:00 - Building a team that runs the gym without you15:04 - Build systems first, then teach the next person

What sets the best gyms apart from the rest?In this episode, we talk to the recipients of this year's Two-Brain Awards for Gyms of the Year (Culture and Metrics) and Comebacks (Resilience). Kyle Cato, David Allen, Charlie Banfield and Rich Borgatti have weathered the past year with grace and fortitude, and they've come out even stronger. Cato and Allen were recognized as the top Two-Brain gym owners when it comes to culture and key performance indicators, and Banfield and Borgatti faced down huge challenges to earn special recognition.We get into what worked for them, what didn't, and how you can use what they've learned in your own situation.Links"Epic Training: A Comprehensive Guide to Obstacle Course Racing" by Rich Borgatti1:48 - Kyle Cato on what gym culture is and how he developed it3:57 - Fun, Family, Fitness5:05 - Creating a safe haven7:45 - Raising funds to build wells in Africa10:08 - David Allen on getting over the $1 million revenue line11:49 - Reorganizing staff according to strengths15:14 - Paying attention to your metrics18:34 - Telling the story of your business21:03 - Charlie Banfield on changing his business model22:11 - Impostor syndrome and taking charge23:45 - Charlie's advice for other gym owners26:48 - Rich Borgatti on not giving up27:59 - Survival as the driving force29:12 - Profit First30:28 - The pressure test35:37 - Rich's advice for recession-proofing your gym

Developing your coaches won't grow your business. It can be hard to hear this, but simply investing in coach education might actually harm your gym instead.In this episode, Chris Cooper cites some examples of coach development gone wrong, but he also shows you the coach-development systems you can implement to benefit your coaches—and your gym and its members. When it comes to coach development, more knowledge is not the problem. If you want great career coaches, don't just send them away to get more training or upgrade their certifications. Instead, build a business with a large platform that will support coaches long enough that they can stick around for 10 years, make it a career and take the time to get really good at their craft. LinksCoach Evaluation FormBusiness Evaluation Form and Instructions1:00 - Technician's curse3:34 - Chris's story: hiring staff5:16 - Hire for personality, train for skill7:17 - An example of bad coaching11:16 - Coaching development13:47 - Lessons learned15:42 - What "coach development" really means16:49 - Building a better platform

If you want to have a successful service-based business, you have to build around the needs of your clients.In this episode of Two-Brain Radio, Chris Cooper gives you a framework to build a "client-centric business" using your mission, model and method. First you must clearly define your mission. Second, identify the strategy to achieve that mission—that's your model. Third, your method is your mechanism of delivery, which evolves over time to include new and more effective elements. Clearly mapping out your mission, model and method will get you closer to realizing that mission. You'll be happier, your clients will be healthier, and your business will grow faster, 1:00 - Chris's story - client-centric vs. coach-centric gyms2:19 - What's your mission?3:00 - Catalyst's mission.3:36 - Which model should you use?4:42 - What's your method? The method evolves.6:18 - How a method unfolds.7:39 - Catalyst's new method using the Prescriptive Model.

Thinking about buying a gym?While it's easy to get distracted by all the bells and whistles, you really need to ask three major questions first:1. Is the space the gym is in leased or owned? 2. What are the assets and debts of the current business?3. What contracts are currently in play and what exactly do they say?Gym Lawyers founder Matthew Becker takes you through these questions and explains how the answers can affect the sale of a business. Are there more legal issues that can have an impact on a big transaction in the fitness world? Absolutely. The best plan: Bring an attorney into the process in the early stages so you don't have to untangle a huge mess down the line when you're just about to shake hands on a deal.2:13 - Leasing vs. Owning6:41 - Pitfalls of not carefully reviewing lease terms11:17 - Establishing LLC, operating agreement and business account when buying14:32 - Asset purchase agreement vs. buying company outright19:30 - Legal fees for purchase21:12 - Contracts24:45 - Contractual red-flags29:34 - How to limit risk

Every business scales through four distinct stages.Chris Cooper talks a lot about the four phases of entrepreneurship: Founder, Farmer, Tinker and Thief. To move from one phase to the next, you need to do the following: systemize, optimize, grow and scale. If you do these things out of order, you can break your business or go bankrupt yourself. The best way to proceed is to seek guidance from someone who has done it before: a mentor.Links"Founder, Farmer, Tinker, Thief"0:55 - Stage 1: Systemize1:35 - Playbooks and SOPs2:47 - Checklists and contracts3:00 - Stage 2: Optimize3:29 - Marketing funnels and organic growth7:00 - Stage 3: Grow7:30 - Stage 4: Scale10:00 - Dangers of skipping stages11:15 - Why rapid growth can be the death knell for your business14:10 - Bullets before cannonballs, testing strategies15:24 - Mapping the client journey