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Apr 25
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Handling late cancellations for your fitness business

By Fitness business management archives and news, Gym and studios

In the fitness industry, last-minute cancellations are an unfortunate fact of life.  Therefore, it’s important that you not only factor cancellations into your budgeting and planning, but actively take steps to minimise the likelihood of last-minute no-shows.

However, the issue of cancellations delves beyond mere revenue loss. It involves proper communication with your members or clients, making it one of the most crucial yet sensitive aspects to address. At its core, this isn’t just about accounting; it’s also rooted in customer service, reflecting your business culture, values, and operational effectiveness.

We’ve all encountered scenarios like this: Rise at 5 AM, hastily dress, and arrive just in time for a 6 AM client session. As you check your emails a few minutes ahead, you discover an email from your 6 AM client, announcing their cancellation at 5:40 AM. A frustrating start to the day, right?

That’s why safeguarding yourself and your business through a well-defined policy is imperative. Now, depending on your business type—be it classes, semi-private training, or one-on-one sessions—variations in cancellation policies can be substantial. For personal training clients, a 24-hour cancellation notice, transmitted in writing from the client to the studio owner or trainer, often proves effective. Failure to provide a notice within 24 hours results in a charge—simple and direct.

In class settings, the spectrum widens. Some businesses allow cancellations within a window of 4 to 10 hours before the class without penalties. Exceeding this time frame could incur a minor fee ($5-$20), depending on industry norms. If cancellations extend beyond the permissible limit, several fitness enterprises impose a stringent “no-show” policy, billing participants $15-$30, or even more.

Though policies vary, establishing a cancellation policy is vital. Resist the temptation to be overly accommodating, especially when clients attempt to evade charges.

Handling late cancellations for your fitness business

Josh Leve, the founder & CEO of the Fitness Business Association (FBA) and SUCCEED! conducted research within the Fitness Business Association (FBA) member base and engaged with diverse fitness businesses to outline four strategies for discussing cancellations with clients or class participants.

The research concluded that fitness business owners should promptly integrate the below strategies when it comes to cancellation policies:

  • Set clear expectations: Clearly communicate your policy in every email communication, ensuring no ambiguity. By eliminating confusion about the policy, you preempt potential questions or challenges.
  • Emphasize professional integrity: Convey that the cancellation policy protects not only your time but also that of instructors. Stress that subjective judgment on cancellations would compromise professional integrity, promoting consistency.
  • Be transparent in communication: Provide clients with a concise explanation, framed in a courteous tone. Explain that the 24-hour cancellation policy safeguards your time, clarifying that uniform application ensures fairness and professionalism.
  • Provide flexible rescheduling: Display understanding and flexibility by allowing clients to reschedule canceled sessions within the week. This approach showcases client-centricity while maintaining business integrity.These examples reveal the sensitive nature of the topic. The goal is to avoid embarrassing clients and ensure private resolution of cancellation matters. Conversations of this nature should always remain confidential.

Remember, whether you operate from your home, a studio, or a gym, as a business owner, protecting your enterprise is vital. It’s never too late to implement a cancellation policy. If last-minute cancellations plague your business, it’s time to adopt a cancellation policy and safeguard your earnings. 

Cancellation strategies for your fitness business with automation

The truth is, last-minute cancellations and no-shows are the true challenges. These not only impact your revenue but also hinder the opportunity to fill vacant slots with new attendees.

Cancellations and no-shows may be beyond your control, but their effect on your business and morale is undeniable. Two core strategies can help:

  1. Encourage responsible behavior: Guide your clients to adhere to responsible scheduling and timely cancellations, reducing no-shows and cancellations.
  2. Mitigate financial risk: Protect your business from cancellations through upfront payment at booking and a well-structured cancellation policy.

Research demonstrates that businesses adopting upfront payment experience 40% fewer cancellations. Human psychology dictates that once payment is made, commitment increases. Despite potential concerns about card fees or admin tasks, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks.

Consider automating tasks through booking software to enhance efficiency and reduce no-shows. Embrace proactive measures to diminish no-shows effectively.

Automating waitlists and refunds streamlines the process and promotes responsible behavior. While cancellations can’t be eradicated, clients adhering to a straightforward cancellation process enhance the odds of minimizing financial loss.

A comprehensive cancellation policy is a necessity for any business. Tailor your policy to your business’s nature and location. Ensure clients comprehend your cancellation and refund policies by incorporating them into the sign-up process, fostering understanding and commitment.

In the dynamic landscape of fitness, cancellations are a challenge, but not an insurmountable one. By embracing strategies to incentivize responsible behavior and adopting a robust cancellation policy, you pave the way for a smoother business journey. Don’t be apprehensive about setting firm terms—stringent policies underscore the value of your offerings, making clients appreciate the privilege of participation.

Integrating a cancellation policy is never too late. Streamline your operations and safeguard your business with Gymcatch’s online booking software and management system, customizing cancellation policies to match your business needs. Embrace these strategies, stay proactive, and keep cancellations from dimming your business’s shine.

Apr 25
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How to thrive as a personal trainer: What’s your niche?

By Fitness business management archives and news, Gym and studios

How do you ensure your job as a personal trainer is benefitting your clients and is highly rewarding for you, too? Here, FitPro, the largest organisation in the UK for fitness professionals, dives deep into how you can thrive – and not just survive – as a personal trainer.

Personal training is a career of early starts and late finishes. Let’s face it: it’s not just a job, it’s a lifestyle. It’s not unheard of for 50 hours spent at the gym to translate into 25 hours of actual personal training – there are often gaps between clients, even if you’re a whizz with the scheduling.

However, a savvy personal trainer will use this time well, getting the admin and client programming done and performing their own workouts. After all, personal training is a strenuous business. PTs must be robust and comfortable being on their feet all day, providing demonstrations of technique, which requires a lot of practice. Not to mention being sociable and energetic all day!

To be a successful personal trainer, you need to gain the right qualifications. Most courses begin with a Gym Instructor (Level 2) qualification, which gives you the basics, before moving on to the Personal Trainer (Level 3) qualification to upgrade your knowledge and coaching skills so you can work with people on a one-to-one basis. There are also specialist qualifications, some of which we will mention here. You also need to be insured, which is a legal requirement for a personal trainer.

So, let’s discover which type of personal trainer you are and how you can thrive in your chosen specialism.

There are many niches to explore as a personal trainer. If you can discern early on what type of coach you’d like to be – for example, working with special populations, athletes or aspiring beach bodies – you can concentrate on building a strong business model with specific skillsets gained through qualifications, plus a solid understanding of the area you’d like to work in. Let’s take a look at a few of those areas here and how you can thrive in them:

1. Special populations

Special populations are diverse. You may choose to work with pre- or postnatal women to facilitate a healthy birth, pregnancy and start to motherhood, or you may work with children to encourage a lifelong love of exercise. Perhaps providing disabled people with training opportunities that support a healthy life is what moves you, or you may choose to work with the ageing population, helping elderly people to enjoy activity in their later years and reap the benefits it brings. Alternatively, you may wish to support those who have been ill or injured, working on a referral basis with other professionals to help clients return to doing things they enjoy. Each avenue offers unique challenges for you.

To thrive as a special population’s personal trainer, you should:

  • meet your client where they are – at their current level of ability – while planning progressive, smart training programmes to aid their development
  • build trust – being patient, a great communicator and having the ability to inspire will help you to build trust with your client
  • know your onions when it comes to your client’s specialist area. Do your homework – but don’t overstep the mark. Refer back to other professionals if you need to
  • build a support network around yourself – having other health professionals you trust and can refer out to gives your client a wider scope of treatments and solutions.

Useful qualifications for a personal trainer working with special populations include Level 3 Exercise Referral; FAI; ViPR Active Ageing; ViPR Kids; and Pre- and Postnatal.

2. Sports specific

Whether you work with elite, semi-professional or recreational athletes, as a sports-specific PT you will be tasked with finding the margins that help make the difference between winning and losing. You’ll need to work well with other team members, such as coaches, managers and physios, to collectively create the ultimate grounding for success.

To thrive as a sports-specific PT, you should:

  • support your client to fulfil their athletic potential, strengthening movement patterns and energy systems that are particular to the sport and athlete
  • be able to work in conjunction with other professionals to create a team around the athlete
  • perform a lot of research into the specific sport you will be coaching athletes for, along with its movement and energy requirements
  • remain up to date with the latest scientific research
  • learn the skill of planning training blocks to work with the sporting calendar and competition needs
  • build trust and rapport with your athlete to create a successful programme.

Useful qualifications for a sports-specific personal trainer include strength and conditioning courses; Olympic weightlifting courses; and SAQ courses.

3. Body transformation

The primary goal of a body transformation PT is to help their clients look better. However, achieving aesthetic goals also increases people’s confidence, self-esteem and self-worth, as well as improves fitness and health. Achieving a weight-loss goal may also help a client to feel mentally stronger and improve classic health markers, such as the risk of heart problems and diabetes.

Once clients achieve their targets, body transformation coaches can progress their clients’ achievements further, for example, building and sculpting muscle or reducing body fat.

To thrive as a body transformation PT, you should:

  • understand muscle anatomy, and how to isolate and train target groups in a variety of different ways
  • understand metabolism and how to provide clients with the best nutrition plans to achieve the transformation
  • help and support clients to change their behaviours so they can make long-term, sustainable changes
  • be brilliant at motivation, to enable clients to remain engaged with their programme
  • be able to market yourself in a visual way to demonstrate the outcomes your programmes can achieve.

Useful qualifications for a body transformation PT include nutrition courses; behaviour change courses; and weight management courses.

4. Health and performance

Working as a health and performance personal trainer is great for those who want to help improve their clients’ health and fitness, feel stronger and fitter, move better and enjoy a more active lifestyle (often without pain or discomfort) – from playing with the grandkids to getting outside for long hikes and everything in between. Health and performance PTs will also work with clients who are recovering from injury or illness and feel they need some extra help to get them to where they want to be.

To thrive as a health and performance PT, you should:

  • understand human movement and, therefore, be able to identify and address movements and systems that require improving
  • be able to progress and regress exercises in creative ways to suit the needs of each individual client – one size does not fit all – finding bespoke ways to help clients overcome their barriers with confidence
  • bring a fun element to your functional training
  • be able to communicate with clients honestly and clearly, explaining the complexities of the human body in a way a client can understand.

Useful qualifications for an HPC include Biomechanics Method; Pain-Free Movement Specialist; ViPR LMT1 and 2.

Whatever your choice of specialism as a PT, it’s important to keep moving forward, adding to your skillset and reviewing your knowledge. Read more about FitPro’s courses here.

 

 

 

 

Jun 22
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7 tips for streaming online fitness classes

By Fitness business management archives and news, Gym and studios

Fitness professionals have had to adapt their businesses to the surge in demand for online fitness classes. Live streaming, for example, has opened up new ways of conducting businesses, from product descriptions to tutorials and exercising. With the current pandemic, fitness studios around the world can reach out to their clientele and deliver useful fitness classes through live streams. However, they need to do several things right to ensure success. Here are a few tips for streaming online fitness classes.

1. Dressing code for live instructors

It is essential that you wear clothing that is branded with yours or your gym colours and logo. It helps with brand awareness, recognition and professionalism. Besides, avoid clothing that blends with the background as most users cannot tell your form, yet it is vital when exercising. Although you are excising, you should look presentable on camera. However, there’s no need to call a professional makeup team, as looks are not the primary focus of the show.

2. Video tips for streaming online fitness classes

Lighting

Lighting affects the quality of your live stream. You need your audience to see every action in HD quality. Otherwise, those good moves will be of no use to them. You can either have natural or artificial lighting. If you have windows, do your performances facing the source of light. Investing in artificial lighting is a must if you streaming a dimly lit room to avoid negative feedback from clients.

Take Care of Acoustic Noise

Ensure that your voice is clear and audible. You can use wireless lapel microphones strapped to your clothing and connecting to your camera or capture device. Ensure that the room doesn’t have too much echo or noise from other areas. If broadcasting from a home environment, it is essential to warn other occupants that you’ll be live streaming so that there is no disturbance. You may also want to mute all participants in the steam so that they’re not interrupting for others.

Keep Your Set Simple

Only keep the items and props that you will require for your exercises in the live stream. This will avoid you having to run out of shot to pick up a piece of equipment which will make you look unorganised and unprofessional. Also you don’t want anything that might distract the attention of your viewers like cars going past the window.

3. What fitness equipment should you use in your live shows?

Where possible, stick to items that your viewers can find at home. Minimal equipment makes your online fitness classes relevant as your viewers can replicate the same at home. However you can add fitness equipment that can be bought with ease but remember to tell them your clients beforehand what they will need for each home workout. Bare in mind fitness equipment is pretty scarce at the moment due to the current climate so it’s good to be flexible with the requirements.

4. What equipment do you need for live shooting?

Fortunately, live streaming doesn’t require expensive equipment to stream high-quality videos. This can be done by the use of the phone or a USB webcam from your living room. There are also cheap handycam brands that you can purchase for live streaming. When using the phone, ensure that it is fully charged. It should also shoot horizontally so that you can have a wide-angle camera. The camera should be placed on a stable location and at an appropriate height to your type of workout without adjustments.

Gymcatch offers various tools that you can use to schedule multiple sessions and deliver virtual classes through platforms such as Zoom. It enables you to share the link to your online fitness classes with ease and interact with the audience that will be following you online. You can also request payments and manage bookings for online classes with ease.

5. Test everything

Do a test run of your live stream before you go official. Running a free trial or a reduced price while informing your customers there could be technical issues. You could also invite friends and family for test class if you don’t want to push your sessions live until everything is running perfectly, bear in mind they can be biased towards you.

6. Ensure that internet connection is stable

It is vital that your videos are smooth and of high quality throughout the entire session. If several devices are sharing the narrow bandwidth, turn off access for any other device that is not directly used in the workout. This is vital to avoid audio cut-outs and video lags.

7. Deliver the live session professionally

At the start of the session, welcome your clients as you would in an in-premise workout session. Tell them how they can contact you and ask whether anyone would be comfortable being called out in the video. Be careful about the music you play in your videos so that you do not use copyrighted material. There are sync licences to help you use a song in your session. However, you can also get royalty-free music on platforms such as Premium Beat and Artlist.io.

Don’t forget to have fun and enjoy the workout experience. If there are glitches (they do happen even with meticulous preparation), do not stress about them; apologise and continue with your workouts. However, be sure to correct them for subsequent online workouts.

Want to find out more how Gymcatch can help you stream your fitness classes online. Feel free to get in contact with us or sign up for a free demo and we’ll get in contact with you.

Apr 21
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Gym name ideas: The inspiration you need

By Fitness marketing and social archives and news, Gym and studios

The fitness industry is rapidly growing. Therefore, several fitness shops are opening around the country and competing for a similar audience to your gym. You need to differentiate your service from the rest to attract a substantial market base. One of the ways you can do this is by selecting the right name for your gym. Your prospective customers must have heard the name of the gym before they even know what you are offering.

The name also gives the personality and the identity of your brand. This way, you can give your audience a preview of who are and what you do. Unfortunately, coming up with gym names can be challenging. In this article, you are going to learn the importance of a good business name and steps to follow when coming up with creative gym names.

Why should you select the right business name?

The name embodies everything about your gym business. It gives your brand the voice, personality, core values and the vision of your gym. The audience is able to tell what you do and how you do it. You can also tell a story of your life with the name.

Grabs attention and enhances recall

A good name captures the attention of your users. Then, it becomes the word that comes to mind when your target audience is looking for quality fitness training.

Influences user perception

You can use your name to influence how the users view your brand. Perception plays a role in the effectiveness of your marketing methods and shapes your branding strategy.

Steps to use when coming up with a name for your gym

As discussed above, the gym name is a vital component of the business as a whole. Below are a few steps on how to generate name ideas for your fitness business.

Know your potential market

You always have the target customers in mind when coming up with a business name. This enables you to get a name that presents the right message about your business. To determine your target market, start your research using demographics such as income, location, gender and level of education. Create a wholesome gym persona of your potential clients.

Check how the competition is doing it

The local competitors are looking at a similar audience as you. Therefore. Some of the ideas that they are implementing can work in your case. Look at their choice of the brand name and ways they engage their audience. Use this to gain insight into your naming. However, do not use a name that is similar to any of the competitors so that you do not end up losing clients to rivals due to the name confusion.

Select your archetype

The archetypes are those characteristics that determine your brand. They are also the models of thinking and long-lasting truths that form part of the brand perception. Popular archetypes include the hero, magician, caregiver, lover and the outlaw. Create a name around any that you pick to bring pout the personality defined by the archetype. Brands like Nike and Gymshark have created names around such models as heroism and magician.

Generate name ideas using online tools

You will find various business name generators on the internet. These free tools will ask for the type of business and come up with tons of names. While these names may not be the most inspirational ones out there, the ideas can give you insights for your brainstorming. The good thing is that these tools are free. You can always play about with various elements to see what names you can get. Then, pick a few names and improve them to create excellent results.

Keep your name simple

Create a simple, straightforward name for your gym. Remember, when it comes to business names, simple ones are the most memorable. You also want a name that your customers can share out with ease. However, being simple does not mean that it should be boring. Always pick a catchy name that shows what your fitness business is all about.

Here are a few examples of simple but effective business names, SoulCycle, Cobody and Bam Bam Boogie. In the above examples, SoulCycle’s main fitness activity is cycling, while Cobody main business is getting fit in a small space. If you are running a business with various services, you do not need to be specific on a particular activity. Instead, you can go for gym name suggestions such as Fit Train, FitPro, Cheetah Gym and Ribbed Lift.

Get a different perspective

You may find it hard to come up with names on your own. In such a case, ask for help from other people. They can inspire you and help you find insights out of the box. On the other hand, if you have gym name ideas and are not sure if they are good, shortlist the best ones and ask for other people’s views on the same. Professionals in the fitness industry are a good point to start.

However, if you would like to try various gym name ideas on a circle that is larger than your immediate one, you may use social testing tools such as SurveyMonkey. With such online tools, you can send your ideas to a small focus group and get detailed feedback. Since the focus group does not know you, they are more likely to give honest feedback.

You can also get prospects from your target audience and ask them a few quests on gym names. Here are examples:

• Is there a memorable gym that you know?
• What does the name remind you?
• What would you expect from gyms with similar names?

Check if you can use the name and domain

It is essential that you check if the name is free or similar businesses are using it. This saves you from unnecessary lawsuits from the use of a registered business name.

On the other hand, you need your domain to look similar to your name. Given that over 65% of your target market are likely to search for a business online, you would want the name that comes to their mind to point to your domain. After securing your domain name, go ahead and create an excellent gym website. Also, consider having a gym management system to meet your customer service expectations.

Examples of excellent gym names

ConBody

ConBody fitness group showcases it offers as activities as prison-style fitness. CossMarte created the company while he was incarcerated. These classes are designed based on workouts that he could complete in his 9″ by 6″ cell. In essence, this business name tells a story of the owner’s life and the kind of fitness styles you would expect from its classes.

Girls Just Wanna Box

A boxer called Kristina Ejem started this company. During her physical training on boxing, she had first-hand experience of how women boxers are disadvantaged in their training. Since there were very few opportunities for women to join boxing, she started a niche in this area. This is when Girls Just Wanna Box was established. From the business name, it offers courses that are specifically designed for women who would like to join boxing. This name provides an excellent example of how one can communicate the product directly to the audience using a name.

Conclusion

The choice of creative gym names affects customer perception, brand marketing strategy, and product positioning. Use the examples and ideas generated in this article to clear a perfect name for your fitness business. A good name is several steps ahead into marketing your gym.

Once you’ve got your gym brand name sorted out you’re going to need gym management software. That’s where Gymcatch can help, book a demo and see what we can do for you.

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