Why the Gym’s Out-of-Business and the Porn Store’s Thriving

Written on August 5, 2011 at 6:23 pm, by Eric Cressey

I’m up in central Maine visiting my wife’s family for the weekend, and on our way in to town, I couldn’t help but notice that the local gym in the center of town had gone out of business since I was here about eight months ago.  When I commented on it, my wife’s response was: “No surprise; there have been three gyms there before it, and they’ve all gone under, too.”

It’s not all that surprising, given how many health clubs, gyms, and fitness facilities go belly-up each day in America.  What was a bit surprising, though, was that while you’d think the other businesses in the area would be struggling in light of the recession, that really wasn’t the case at all.

About 1/2 mile up the road, the parking lot at an “Adult Film” store was completely full.  I would have snapped a picture of that, too, but it probably wouldn’t have made the patrons in the parking lot too happy.

Instead, I got this one of a doughnut shop not too far away.  Yes, the place was hopping at 3:30PM on a Friday afternoon – not exactly what I’d call pristine “doughnut consumption time.”

Recession, huh?  Would you consider porn flicks and doughnuts necessities?  Surely, if people have the disposable income to splurge on fornication and chocolate glazed awesomeness, they can front the $20/month to get rid of the spare tire that’s hiding their unmentionables from view.

Taking it a step further, this doughnut shop has over 3,000 locations, and apparently, the porn store dude has several locations in the area and has done quite well for himself.  So, why can’t the gym catch a break, in spite of their noble intentions?

Very simple: they likely made some big mistakes that their more successful counterparts avoided.  Right off the top of my head, here are three:

1. They likely went too big. - This gym opened at over 6,000 square-feet, while the porn store started as a small location with lower overhead and (presumably) grew into more locations over time.

Cressey Performance started at 3,300 square-feet, expanded to 6,600, and then went to 7,600 just recently.  We bit off what we could chew, and nothing more.

2. They likely overpaid for commercial space on the main road. – Location is important for a business, no doubt, but too many people think they need to pay for crazy expensive commercial property just to get as many drop-ins as possible.  This isn’t exactly in line with the “niche” name, either, as it implies that they’re pushing to be a specific location that people seek out because they serve baby boomers better than anyone else.  The porn store was on a side street.  Why?  People seek it out; they don’t just drop in to pick some up on a whim.

Cressey Performance is in an industrial park in what seems like the middle of nowhere – but it works because we are in a niche and clients will travel to train with us.

3. They likely wasted money silly equipment instead of investing in their greatest assets: their people and their relationships. – This is quite possibly the biggest mistake I see upstart gyms make; they spend thousands on cardio equipment and fixed-motion resistance training equipment rather than spending conservatively in this regard, and instead investing those financial resources on their true assets: people.

For the $30,000 it costs to purchase a treadmill, elliptical, recumbent bike, and 4-5 apparatus fixed-motion resistance training circuit, those folks could have purchased more effective equipment for 1/3 the price and instead spent the remaining $20,000 on staff education and referral bonus gifts for existing clients.  They probably blew a ton of money on direct mail and newspaper advertising, too, when they should have been out hustling to network in the community and tap into their existing clientele for referrals and help spreading the good word.

In short, they probably devoted money to depreciable assets when they should have been using them to add value to existing investments.

You know what porn videos are?  Investments.  They pay themselves off over time.  Seated triceps extensions doohickeys don’t.

Several gyms had already gone out of business there previously, and it seems readily apparent that these folks tried to improve on a flawed business model instead of just scrapping it altogether.  They changed the oil on a car with no wheels.

Unfortunately, this kind of failure is pretty rampant in the fitness industry – and there were surely a lot of other factors that contributed to the business not making it.  While I don’t claim to be a true expert, I can say that we’ve had a thriving business for almost five years now – and I’ve been fortunate to communicate on a regular basis with not only fitness industry business experts, but other guys in the field who run successful businesses.

Pat Rigsby, co-founder of the Fitness Consulting Group, is among the former. Mike Robertson, co-founder of Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training, is among the latter.   And, the three of us have teamed up to create a product called The Fitness Business Blueprint, which is a great resource I’d encourage you to check out for more fitness business strategies like the ones I discussed in this post.  

Related Posts

Four Years of Cressey Performance: Time Flies When You’re Having Fun
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Robertson, Rigsby, and Cressey: A Free Fitness Business Interview You Don’t Want to Miss

Written on August 4, 2011 at 11:21 am, by Eric Cressey

Earlier this week, along with Mike Robertson and Pat Rigsby, I recorded an audio interview all about opening and growing a successful fitness business.  It’s now available at absolutely no charge at the link below:

–> The Truth About Building a Great Training Business <–

We cover mistakes we made along the way, things we’d do differently, and decisions we made that proved to be really “clutch.”  In short, you don’t want to miss it.

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The Little Black Book of Fitness Business Success

Written on July 21, 2011 at 2:13 pm, by Eric Cressey

Today, I’m going to be short and to the point on a blog to which I could legitimately devote 10,000 words.

If you own a fitness business, you owe it to your self to purchase this book from Pat Rigsby.

Pat sent me an advanced copy last week, and I read the entire thing cover to cover without stopping.  I view this as a resource that could improve our fitness business in so many different capacities that I immediately made it mandatory reading for our entire staff in preparation for our next meeting.  We’re going to go through it page-by-page and discuss how we can improve the way that Cressey Performance is run.

I don’t make a penny for recommending this book.  In fact, Pat doesn’t earn a dime on the sale, either; all the proceeds go to the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

And, while Pat is a great friend and this is a fantastic cause, I still wouldn’t recommend The Little Black Book of Fitness Business Success unless it was top-notch reading.  Frankly, though, it’s the most kick-ass book I’ve read on the topic.

You see, success in training clients is all about finding windows of adaptation and addressing them.  As an example, some people need more mobility work, while others need to get strong above all else.  As I’ve learned, fitness business success is similar; you have to find the windows of opportunity.  Pat outlines dozens of these opportunities in his book.

At $19.95, you can’t lose – especially when you consider that it’s tax deductible as a continuing education expense investment for those in the fitness industry, and there are some cool video bonuses for those who order today.

Check it out HERE.

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Four Years of Cressey Performance: Time Flies When You’re Having Fun

Written on July 13, 2011 at 11:14 am, by Eric Cressey

When I woke up this morning, it seemed just like any other Wednesday morning.

I didn’t even realize that it had been four years since July 13, 2007: the day we opened the doors at Cressey Performance.  I would have blown right through today if my business partner, Pete, hadn’t reminded me of July 13′s significance when I came in to the office today.

On our first anniversary in 2008, I was absolutely swamped, as we’d just moved into a larger facility.  I was 100% aware of the significance of the day, but literally didn’t have time to enjoy it.

On the second anniversary, things had settled down a bit, and I wrote up a blog to celebrate the day: The Two Year Mark.

Last year, on the third anniversary, I went “all in” and wrote up this bad boy: Three Years of Cressey Performance: The Right Reasons and the Right Way.

This year, I celebrating by simply forgetting.

Is this my first “over 30″ moment, or is there something to be said for the fact that I forgot?

This has been, unarguably, our best year on a variety of fronts.  Some highlights:

Tim Collins – one of our first pro guys and longest tenured clients – went to the big leagues this year.  The same goes for guys like Cory Gearrin, Steve Cishek, and Trystan Magnuson.  We also saw more professional athletes (and clients overall) than any other year before.

Tyler Beede – also a long-time Cressey Performer – was drafted in the first round of the 2011 MLB Draft…and we celebrated in my living room.

Tyler was one of 12 players with CP ties taken in this year’s draft.

Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School won the Division 1 State Championship, and they epitomize everything that effective strength and conditioning can do to help keep a high school team healthy and performing at high levels.

Over 30 CP athletes in the Class of 2011 signed letters of intent to play Division 1 baseball.

We expanded our staff to include some great people who complemented our existing skill sets and program offerings nicely.

We added about 1,000 square feet more office space and polished up our look with some new paint and more framed/autographed jerseys on the walls.  I even got my own office – which is shared with our new mascot, Tank, of course:

Most importantly, though, we continued to have an absolute blast each and every day we came to “work” – and that, to me, is what it’s all about.  We made new friends and further developed already-existing friendships.  The CP family grew, and we offered a service to people that helped them get to where they wanted to be.

You’ll notice I didn’t mention financial gain – and the reason is pretty simple; I view it as secondary.  It’s the destination, and I’m a lot more concerned about the process.  Cultivate relationships, deliver a quality service, and genuinely care, and the money will take care of itself.  Before the business gurus out there start crapping on me, I’ll add that our business has grown by more than 30% over the past year in spite of the fact that I usually forget that I’m supposed to receive a paycheck at month’s end.  Pete just surprises me with it.

Don’t get me wrong; you need effective business systems to make things work.  If you’re an organizational disaster and can’t make your rent, it’s going to be pretty hard to put on a happy face and make someone’s day with your smile.  However, the overwhelming majority of “savvy business decisions” are actually a combination of common sense, courtesy, and a genuine desire to help someone.

Most of the people that ask us business questions want to know how much we charge, how much our rent is, how we schedule, what our hours are, who painted Tony’s t-shirt on him, what our start-up costs were, and why we don’t use electronic funds transfer (EFT).  What they should be asking us:

1. How do you remember so many people’s names?

2. How can you possibly know everyone’s health history who walks through your door?

3. How do you write individual strength and conditioning programs for everyone?

4. What do you do to build relationships?

5. How do you find time to get to so many baseball games?

6. How do you do to educate and retain staff?

7. How is it that all of your clients seem to be friends with each other? (As a little aside to this point, Tim Collins was at the facility the past two days while home for the all-star break, and he greeted every person who walked through the office door.  He even answered the phone for us twice.  That’s big-league customer service.)

There are some brilliant business consultants out there.  Pat Rigsby and Alwyn Cosgrove, for instance, are super bright guys and great friends who have helped loads of fitness professionals increase their incomes and improve their quality of life.  They are also the first guys to tell you that if you don’t know how to cultivate relationships and treat people right, then you’re studying for the wrong test by looking for the perfect business plan.

Spend more time focusing on the process, and worry less about the destination.  Four years from now, you’ll probably enjoy your “job” a lot more – both psychologically and monetarily – and have a lot more friends and experiences that make you smile each time you think of them.  You’ll probably even forget it’s your business’ anniversary!

Thank you, as always, to everyone for all your support.

As a mini-celebration of this day, I’ll do a little promo: if you purchase a CP hat HERE before Friday (July 15) at midnight, I’ll send along a video of a 37-minute staff in-service I did on shoulder assessment that’s uploaded to the ‘web.

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Strength and Conditioning Stuff You Should Read: 7/11/11

Written on July 11, 2011 at 6:30 am, by Eric Cressey

Here’s a list of recommended strength and conditioning reads to kick off your week:

The Deadlift – This is an insanely thorough post from my buddy, Mike Robertson.

The State of the Fitness Industry – I really enjoyed this post from Pat Rigsby, who really has a great handle on what’s up with our industry.  While a lot of people think that the fitness industry as a whole is headed in the wrong direction, Pat does a great job here of highlighting the good things that are happening.  Call it a bit of Monday morning optimism!

On a semi-related note, I should give you a heads-up that I’m actually collaborating with Mike and Pat on two projects that should be released within the next month.  I think you’ll all really enjoy what we have in store for you!

EricCressey.com Baseball Specific Newsletter – A lot of people don’t realize that I actually have two newsletters here at EricCressey.com.  There’s my main one, which most people know about (but if you don’t, you can subscribe to it on the right hand side of this page).  Additionally, there is a free baseball-specific newsletter that you won’t get unless you subscribe to it separately from the main one; you can do so here (and you’ll receive a free copy of the post-throwing stretches our baseball guys utilize):

Stuff You Should Read: 6/13/11

Written on June 13, 2011 at 5:11 am, by Eric Cressey

Here’s some recommended reading to kick off your week:

How to Use Less Plastic - While he was working with us at Cressey Performance, Brian St. Pierre really did a good job of bringing to light the problems with using a lot of plastic in packing and storing one’s healthy food options.  In this post, he talks about how to reduce the amount of plastic you use.

The Difference Between the Location of Symptoms and the Source of Dysfunction – This Mike Reinold blog highlights how the site of the pain isn’t always the origin of that pain.

Value: The Key Ingredient to Fitness Business Success – Pat Rigsby really “gets it” when it comes to building fitness business up the right way, and posts like this show exactly why. I know a lot of fitness professionals read this blog, and this is must-read material for all of you.

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Helping High School Athletes: A Sweet Deal on the IYCA High School Strength Coach Certification

Written on January 24, 2011 at 11:30 pm, by Eric Cressey

A lot of people know me as the guy whose products and articles have helped strength training enthusiasts prevent and correct movement inefficiencies that ultimately lead to injuries.

Others know me because we train about four dozen professional baseball players each winter.

The truth, though, is that the majority of our clientele at Cressey Performance is high school athletes.  In the class of 2011 alone, we’ve had 17 athletes sign letters of intent to play Division 1 baseball.  Still, that doesn’t tell the most important story.

For every kid who gets drafted into professional baseball or commits to play a college sport, we have 3-4 young athletes who train with us simply to build confidence, stay healthy while they play their sports, and foster fitness habits that will hopefully carry over to the rest of their lives.  I take that job extremely seriously not only because I genuinely care about each teenage and enjoy my job, but because it is a huge deal for parents to trust me with part of their kids’ physical and mental well-being during a crucial developmental time in an adolescent’s life.

And, it’s also why I’m psyched about tonight’s announcement: the IYCA High School Strength Coach Certification is now available.

Along with Brian Grasso, Mike Robertson, Pat Rigsby, Wil Fleming, and Dr. Toby Brooks, I contributed to this new certification, which features both a textbook and accompanying DVD set.  Among the topics covered are:

Strength Training Technique, Functionality and Programming
Speed and Agility Mechanics or Sport Specificity
Mobility: Isolate and Integrate
Coaching the High School Athlete
Administration for the High School Strength Coach
Sample Programming for football, baseball, and basketball

The certification alone is something that, in our eyes, can not only dramatically help a high school strength coach’s career, but also help all the young athletes he/she encounters.  I’m going to sweeten the deal, though.

The early bird price runs now through Friday (1/28) at midnight.  If you purchase the product (HERE) before midnight on Friday and forward me your receipt, I’m going to send you an upper extremity assessment tutorial video that I am filming this week as an in-service for my staff and interns.  This feature will teach you how to assess and manage the upper body in athletes – with a particular focus on overhead athletes.

All you need to do is sign up for the certification and then forward your receipt to ec@ericcressey.com.  Then, next weekend, I’ll send out the video to everyone who contacts me.

There are a whole lot of high school kids out there learning some really bad habits in the weight room, and you’re in a position to change that – and the IYCA High School Strength Coach Certification can help you do it.  Whether you’re in a high school or the private sector, there is a tremendous amount to be gained by checking this out.

Cueing: Just One Piece of Semi-Private Training Success – Part 2

Written on July 25, 2010 at 8:04 am, by Eric Cressey

In Part 1, I talked about the importance of having an extensive set of effective cues to use with clients to get the ball rolling on a great training experience. However, cueing was just one piece of the coaching puzzle. It’s these other pieces that, in my eyes, make or break someone in the semi-private model. Here are a few of the factors you need to be successful as a semi-private coach:

1. Knowledge and Programming – As the adage goes, “failing to plan is planning to fail.” You need to have done your homework in order to not only write effective programming, but also know how to modify it based on individual needs. For this reason, I think that a lot of up-and-comers are actually smart to start off with some one-on-one training because it allows them to program specifically for a small number of clients and meticulously monitor the responses to those programs. And, it forces them to think through any modifications they need to make on those programs.

As a frame of reference, when we hire a new employee, it takes approximately 6-12 months of education before I’m truly comfortable with them writing programs without me reviewing every one of them before the client sees the program.

2. Friendship – Here’s a straightforward one: if you’re a dork, loser, pain-in-the-ass, arrogant prick, or you smell bad, people aren’t going to want to be your friend. If they don’t want to be your friend, they certainly aren’t going to want to become your client – regardless of how good your programs and cues are.

As an example, I’ve started a tradition of asking for reviews of interns at the six-week mark of their internship from some of our trusted clients. We just hand them a slip of paper with each intern’s name on it, and ask for the first two sentences that come to mind. One recent intern was not a popular one, as he received several negative responses, most notably “Kind of a douche. Not a good fit for CP.” Here was a kid who was enthusiastic, proactive, well-read, and had a strong resume – but none of it mattered because he sucked at making friends.

This is a more crucial success factor in the semi-private model than one-on-one training, too. In personal training, you have time to cultivate very solid individual friendships with clients from the get-go because you have 2-4 hours of complete one-on-one time with them each week. You can ask about their kids, their vacation, their hemorrhoids, their stock portfolio, and their divorce settlement. When you have 3-6 other clients rolling at the same time, though, they chat with one another and not you – because you need to be busting your butt to keep things rolling on the training front.

Don’t get me wrong; you’ll learn a ton about your clients over time and cultivate awesome friendships. In semi-private training, though, they’ll make a lot more friends beside you, too – and get results more affordably while you enjoy your job more.

3. Continuity – Semi-private models give rise to larger clienteles. A personal trainer might only be able to keep 20-30 clients at most, while in the semi-private model, coaches see a lot more people than that. As such, in businesses with more than one employee, you can’t expect to be present for every single training session. To keep the right flow, you have to hire and educate great people who you know will keep the trains running on time in your absence – whether it is with respect to programming, coaching, answering the phones, or just maintaining an unconditionally positive and energetic training environment.

As a funny little example, I went on a quick trip to Orlando back in January after a speaking engagement in Tampa – so my business partners, Pete and Tony, were “manning the CP ship.” My fiancé and I were at Sea World, and I got a text message from CP client Kevin Youkilis of the Boston Red Sox:

“Tony is fantastic. He really got the most out of me today. And Pete’s vert is legit.”

I, of course, knew that Youk was screwing with me, and my business partners were laughing hysterically in the background because

a) I am a workaholic and worry too much when I’m out of the office

b) Pete’s vertical jump (37”) is slightly higher than mine (36”), and he doesn’t let me forget it.

Truth be told, I was happy to be the target of the joke, as it meant that my staff was executing the exact program I’d written to a “T,” and they were joking around in the office (a sign that the place wasn’t in chaos, and they were keeping things fun and entertaining with the clients).

At the same time, as much as you want continuity, it’s important to have employees with different abilities and unique traits that complement your own. For instance, Chris Howard, our newest employee, is a licensed massage therapist and has a master’s degree in nutrition. And, on a funnier note, the running joke among clients is that the second I leave, Tony puts techno music on the stereo. The clients get continuity with some variety, and Tony gets just a bit more feminine!

4. The Individual Touch – While it can be hard to completely make every client’s day when you might see 60-80 people over the course of a day, that doesn’t mean that you can’t go out of your way “after hours” to find ways to put smiles on their faces. One example: in our case (predominantly baseball players), we follow all our players – from middle school all the way to the pros – in the papers and email/text guys whenever they get some love in the press. I also make a ton of introductions between our high school players and college coaches from my extensive network on that front, or I make a phone call to find a place for our pro guys to train or get soft tissue work when they’re on the road in a city where I have a contact. Sometimes, it’s as simple as just going out there to watch a game and cheer for them.

Other examples include sending thank you notes for referrals or merely connecting a client with a practitioner (e.g., manual therapy, sport-specific coach) in a related field. You may only see them five hours a week, but that gives you another 163 hours each week to be a valuable resource and friend to them.

5. Organization – My general rule of thumb is that every hour of training requires at least one hour of planning. Here are Cressey Performance’s hours:

Mo: 12-7:30PM
Tu: 8-9:30AM, 12-7:30PM
We: 12-7:30PM
Th: 12-7:30PM
Fr: 8-9:30AM, 12-7:30PM
Sa: 9AM-2PM

That’s 45.5 hours (closer to 50 during busy seasons). My business partner, Pete, puts in about 40 hours a week on his own just handling billing, scheduling, phone duties, website maintenance, the CP blog, and other behind-the-scenes organizational tasks. I can tell you that both Tony and I spend about 6-8 hours per week on programming in addition to our coaching responsibilities, and I handle a lot of the phone calls and inquiries from agents and teams, plus the more complex questions that aren’t in Pete’s scope of expertise (exercise science). Chris Howard puts in a few hours a week on programming. There is always a staff in-service on Monday morning of at least 30 minutes.

None of this includes the reading/continuing education we all do on our own, or the work Tony and I put in with our personal blogs, which are undoubtedly very influential in driving clients to Cressey Performance. And, it doesn’t cover any of the “after-hours tech support” from phone calls/text messages and Facebook/email messages that I think really separates us as a business. We are here to set the clients up for success, not just punch the clock and unlock/lock the doors.

Wrap-up

These are only five factors that quickly came to mind, and there are certainly many more that could have made this post much longer. Many of them will be influenced by your niche, business model, client-to-coach ratio, facility size and “flow,” hours of operation, amenities, and a host of other factors. Just make sure you’re looking past just the cues; there is much more to being a successful coach in a semi-private model.

Cueing: Just One Piece of Semi-Private Training Success – Part 1

Written on July 22, 2010 at 5:00 am, by Eric Cressey

With the boom of semi-private training in recent years, there has also been a boom of questions from fitness professionals on how on Earth it is logistically possible to train several people when they may all come from different backgrounds and have different needs. Back in 2006, I was one of those people – so I can certainly speak from perspective.

I did almost all one-on-one personal training for about a year from the summer of ’05 to the summer of ’06, when I moved to Boston and went out on my own as an independent contractor. When I arrived in Boston, all these questions on how to make it work in the semi-private model were rattling around my head. Admittedly, I entered this model cautiously, doing 50/50 private and semi-private training as I got my feet wet with it.

By July of 2007, when I opened my own facility, every client was involved in the semi-private model and loving it for the affordability, camaraderie, and increased training frequency it afforded. It took time, but I’d learned the ropes. Now, three years in, I’ve taught it to an entire staff, plus the 22 interns we’ve had since we opened our doors.

Looking back, I had been an idiot. I’d spent the overwhelming majority of 2003-2005 in college strength and conditioning settings – watching 18-22 year-old athletes thrive in a semi-private model (in the weight rooms, on the field/court, in the athletic training room, and in their courses and study halls). During my undergraduate years, I’d done an internship in cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation, where I watched people rehabilitate from near-death experiences – in a semi-private model. Physical therapy? Semi-private model. And, as Alwyn Cosgrove reminded me, his cancer treatments were done in a semi-private format – and he’d beaten Stage 4 cancer twice. There must be something to that.

What was I missing, then?

Very simply, I thought that “cueing” and “coaching” were synonymous.

Basically, “cueing” amounts to knowing what to say, when to say it, and to whom to say it in order to elicit a desired change from a client. Ask anyone who has been successful in this industry, and they’ll tell you that your cues get better as you become more experienced as a coach. It’s why my staff and I can teach a new exercise to a client much faster than an intern can; we’ve built our “cueing thesaurus” to know what to say – and what to say as a modification if the first cue doesn’t get the job done.

No doubt, having a good “cue” arsenal is huge. It’s essential for us in the first 8-12 weeks when we’re intensively teaching new clients technique and getting them ingrained in our system. If done correctly from the get-go, good cueing sets a client up for tremendous future success. If they know what “chest up” means on a deadlift, they’ll get it on a lunge, split-stance cable lift, or medicine ball drill.

And, for me, this speaks volumes for why client retention of those who have been with us for 2-3 months or more is so imperative; they become “students of the game” and are actually easier to coach because they have more experience and a bigger exercise pool from which to draw because a) they’ve learned compound exercises (or derivatives of those exercises) and b) we’ve ironed out a lot of their imbalances. As a cool little story, since the summer of 2007, I’ve been training a kid who is has just finished his freshman year on a scholarship to pitch for a PAC-10 powerhouse. I know his college strength coach now – and he told me that this pitcher is like having an additional strength coach in the weight room. You want clients like that – because it means that you just have to write good programs, crank up the music, and continue to develop the friendships you’ve built with them.

In reality, though, it isn’t always that easy. Cueing is just one piece of the coaching puzzle – and those other factors will be my focus in Part 2.

- Eric Cressey

Cressey/Robertson/Hartman Roundtable with Pat Rigsby

Written on February 24, 2010 at 3:50 am, by Eric Cressey

Mike Robertson, Bill Hartman, and I recently participated on a roundtable with Pat Rigsby at his blog.  The discussion is all about assessment and its role in the training process.

You definitely ought to check it out – not only for the content itself, but also the special offer in place for Assess & Correct.  Here it is:

Are You Making Your Clients Better or Just Making Them Tired?