Turning Chaos Into Productive Activity in Your Fitness Business
Owning and managing a gym is a lot. There are so many things that have to be kept up with and done. Marketing, selling, making sure clients get serviced, making sure they’re happy, keeping staff on the same page, hiring more staff, creating your gym’s marketing plan, executing your marketing plan… the list goes on and on.
It can be chaotic.
And as the owner, you’ve got to find a way to turn that chaos into organized, productive activity.
You need everything and everyone rowing in the same direction – toward your vision.
For that to happen, it all has to be working from the same playbook and toward the same goals.
Going with a fitness franchise system might solve some of that – but you don’t want to sacrifice your uniqueness or have your vision taken away from you. And that’s understandable.
You’re thinking there’s got to be some way to achieve both.
And you know what? You’re right.
You’re looking for what we call a ‘business operating system’. A framework that provides a systematic – yet flexible – approach to growing your fitness business.
What is a Business Operating System?
First, let’s clear the air on what it’s NOT:
- It’s not software. It’s not even technology related.
- It’s not an extensive handbook designed for corporate giants. Actually, I would say the concept of a business operating system is better suited for small businesses.
A business operating system is essentially your full-business playbook, and all of the plays are configured to your strategic vision.
It’s a set of coherent processes, tools, and strategies that help you run your fitness business more efficiently, effectively, and profitably.
It’s a framework that keeps everything in check and ensures that all the moving parts of your gym work together seamlessly.
When we first adopted our own business operating system (almost 10 years ago), I described the effect as ‘putting the day-to-day on rails, right in line with our goals’.
A good business operating system will give you the right balance of guidance and structure with the freedom to innovate and build the brand and culture that you want.
You know how there are some tasks where everyone does it in a slightly different way and gets a different outcome?
A good business operating system solves that.
It also helps you get the right people in the right seats.
And implement a marketing structure and cadence that’s ideal for lead generation.
And make client care both cultural and systematic.
All so that you can focus on the visionary work that elevates your business to the next level.
What Can a Business Operating System Do for a Fitness Business?
A practical business operating system has to achieve three critical objectives:
1. Create Alignment: That means alignment from strategic vision down to the day-to-day. Without that alignment, your business is always going to be this whirlwind of guesswork, inconsistency, and disorganization. A business operating system aligns your people and processes with your bigger goals.
It’s not just about doing things right, but doing the right things.
For instance, nowhere is alignment or misalignment more obvious than in marketing.
Alignment means hitting the right audience with the right message at the right time.
Misalignment on the other hand, results in what you might call ‘random acts of marketing’.
Imagine you are offering a health and wellness program aimed at the seniors market. Alignment would include synchronizing the offerings, marketing, and goals to cater specifically to this demographic. So your aligned marketing plan should include platforms frequented by seniors (i.e. local newspapers or community centers), and your messaging should address concerns and interests specific to this age group (i.e. improving mobility and social engagement).
A misaligned marketing plan might include the right platforms, but maybe isn’t speaking to the concerns and interests of the target market.
Marketing is a system. A good business operating system treats it as such, ensuring that the marketing activities are in alignment with the strategy laid out.
2. Provide Flexible Guidance: Guidance is crucial, but it shouldn’t feel like a straitjacket. The framework should be a scaffolding that supports while allowing for autonomy and your brand’s unique identity.
It’s important to steer clear of the trap of ‘over-systemizing,’ which can stifle creativity and responsiveness. Finding the right equilibrium between structure and flexibility is key.
As an example of that balance, let’s say you have a structured hiring process that outlines the essentials, but within that process you have the latitude to experiment with different interview styles or look for unique qualities that represent your brand.
3. Repeatability: Building and then keeping forward momentum is vital. A business operating system establishes a regular cadence of touchpoints to ensure sustained alignment and agility.
A routine cycle of weekly staff meetings, monthly reviews, and quarterly strategy sessions is a great example. It keeps everyone on the same page and responsive to change. These touchpoints help keep the sense of momentum and perpetuate the success habits that you’re trying to build.
Meeting these three objectives will ensure that everything and everyone is working toward a common goal, is able to adapt as needed, and will continue to do that moving forward.
Enter the Fitness Business Alignment System™
Of course we have an operating system.
After the 10s of thousands of man-hours we invested in learning everything written above and how absolutely critical it is?
It would be pretty damn selfish of us if we didn’t find a solution!
And frankly, creating the operating system was the easy part compared to the years of learning about the problems that needed to be solved.
Let me explain though, we didn’t create the concept of a ‘business operating system’.
We created our own business operating system because we couldn’t find another one that worked for fitness businesses.
The best ones that we found (EOS, ScalingUp) were missing some key pieces needed for the fitness industry (marketing systems, operational systems).
As a long-time member of a Vistage Executive Peer Group, I’ve been able to see a lot of options in a lot of depth. But at the end of the day, they were all watered down versions of each other.
They weren’t better solutions, not to mention gym owners don’t need to be paying $40k a year for them.
It’s not necessary or practical.
When we realized that none of the existing options hit the mark for the fitness industry, we decided we’d just fix the problem ourselves.
And the rest, as they say, is the Fitness Business Alignment System (FBAS).
Tailored specifically for fitness businesses, FBAS has been turning chaos into success for thousands of owners for almost a decade.
It’s designed around a set of ‘Core Systems’. These are the systems that every business has to have in order to meet the three critical objectives mentioned above: Creating Alignment, Provide Flexible Guidance, and Repeatability.
And it solves all of the problems that continually plague businesses and hold gym owners back:
- Lots of activity, but not a lot of progress toward goals
- Staff not knowing the bigger picture or how they contributed to it
- Not knowing priorities or being equipped to make good decisions
- Leadership not having a system to oversee the day to day and make sure it aligns with the big picture
- No way to tell what was working or what wasn’t
- No plan that says: here’s what we do every day, week, month, quarter to reach our goals
(That’s a pretty chaotic picture, isn’t it? It gives me anxiety just writing it.)
That’s why we created FBAS – because solving those problems is what turns that chaos into productive activity.
Simply creating checklists and calling them a system is not enough.
And if that’s what you’ve been trying, then you already know that.
And just focusing on marketing and selling isn’t enough either. You probably know that too.
It takes a holistic, dynamic gameplan, with a full suite of plays.
Complex? Hardly. Get this: the magic actually lies in its simplicity.
Mark Greenwood: Physical Therapist & Gym Owner: Ultimate Wellness in Havertown, PA
Q: What has FBAS done for you?
A: “FBAS really helped me do the basic things that need to be done in terms of running a business. Whereas before, I was probably doing 10 or 20 or 30 different things, that really didn’t make sense. Now I’m just doing a few things that completely streamline my day to day, week to week, month to month operations and make it much simpler to run a business.”
Q: What did it look like before FBAS:
A; “Yeah, I mean, I certainly had goals. But the ‘how to get there’, ‘how to accomplish them’ was probably a lot more random than it should have been. So that’s probably why I felt like I was spinning my wheels for a long period of time before I really got to use the FBAS and the tools in it. And once I did that, in combination with the consistency really helped things take off.”
You Don’t Have to Let Chaos Win
If you’re trying to run a fitness business, it’s going to be hard enough. Going independently and trying to figure it all out on your own will make it even more challenging. You’re trying to organize and coordinate a lot of moving parts to try and make the thing work. That complexity creates a lot of variables.
That doesn’t mean you have to let chaos reign.
You need an approach that balances structure and flexibility, where systems and innovation aren’t at odds, but rather complement each other. An approach that delivers consistency and allows for adaptability.
You need a framework to grow your business that allows you to remain authentic and committed to your vision.
The result is tremendous clarity, with less time spent on repetitive tasks and more time focusing on what really matters: growing your gym and providing an exceptional experience for your members.
A business operating system gets everyone rowing in the same direction. The right direction – toward your goals.
Mike Michalowicz: Bestselling Author of Profit First and Keynote Speaker
“Nick and the Team at Fitness Revolution have their customers on the leading edge of business ownership in the fitness industry. Their Fitness Business Alignment System methodology is the perfect operating system for fitness businesses, and really for any small business. If you’re not using it, you need to hope that your competition isn’t either.”
Joe Rouse: From part-time trainer to multi-unit owner of Breakaway Fitness & Performance in Hampstead & Sneads Ferry, NC
Q: What has FBAS done for you?
A: “It turned my business into an actual business. It’s not just like a hobby or something that I do. It gives me the foundation that I think every business needs to operate from.”
Q: Where were you going before FBAS?
A: “Nowhere… I wouldn’t have made any money and my employees wouldn’t have stayed as long as they have because they wouldn’t have a clue where we were going or what we were doing as we were growing. And I think FBAS gives me the structure to operate from, it’s taught me to be able to cast a vision for my employees. It’s given me that foundation to lean on and to filter things through. For me, for my employees, and for my business overall.”
Madison Mullen: Fitness Revolution Success Coach
“I think a lot of times business owners think they just have to experience something multiple times and troubleshoot every time until they get it right.
But this gives you a shortcut. Because your first round, if you follow the criteria, and you build it out, then you can do it right without so many attempts.
You don’t have to mess up so many times.”
An Overview of Fitness Revolution’s Fitness Business Alignment System
If you’re the kind of fitness business owner who likes to uncover hidden potential in your business AND smoke out problems before they bite you, take our GrowthCatalyst 2.0. Think of the GrowthCatalyst 2.0 as a GPS for your business. You put in the coordinates and it will show you how to get from where you’re at to where you’re going. It’s perfect for gym owners who want to get a more expert perspective on what they need to be doing next – without having to guess.
