The Top Pain Points of Owning a Gym (And How ABC Can Help)

Owning a Gym Isn’t Easy

Have your own gym? Thinking about starting one? Well, we want to applaud you, because we know it’s not easy.  

In fact, we have been interviewing independent gyms owners to hear what they feel are the biggest pain points for them in the industry. Afterall, that’s why we started our journey in the fitness industry 40+ years ago: to help owners and operators overcome these challenges through technology.  

During our interviews, the following 4 pain points came up again and again, so we thought we’d write a blog to outline them and offer some perspective on how ABC can be your solution to them all. 

1. Building Processes  

A franchised club can bring in full corporate support and battleplans when it’s time to start putting the wheels of business into motion. But when you are an independent club, you are on your own. From staffing to locker rooms, class schedules to payroll, you are writing all your processes from a blank slate. 

Experience is the solution to this problem, and you need a partner who can bring decades of it to the table. In transferring your systems to ABC, you will be working with industry experts while you reexamine all your processes anew. As the largest fitness technology company in the world, ABC is prepared to give you best practices on membership, personal training, pricing, and all the things that will make your club a success with ABC IGNITE. ABC also brings certified partners, industry data, eBooks, and much more to help you build and strengthen your business.

2. Staffing 

Staffing is some of your biggest overhead, so it can often be your biggest headache. Despite your best efforts there is always turnover (this became especially true during the Great Resignation), which in turn leads to asking people to do more and wear a lot of different hats to fill the gaps that get created. Unfortunately, there are only so many hours in a day, and you only have so many hands.  

What if you could digitally automate tasks that take up valuable hours of your staff’s time? ABC can bring you software that helps automate tasks in such a way as to free people up for other jobs. Also, having intuitive, easy-to-use software is essential for training your staff fast. When turnover invariably happens, you can onboard new team members swiftly with our technology, thus freeing up even more hours.

3. Scaling 

Growing your business is difficult. How do you scale to reach your biggest ambitions as an independent operator? It’s a challenging problem, and thus it came up as a major pain point.  

Well, going from one gym to two is a HUGE step. Suddenly you can’t be everywhere at once! And even if you aren’t building a new gym, if you’re growing, you eventually reach capacity with your own because you have a limited number of coaches and staff. There are only so many classes you can schedule.

You need to go digital. The time is here such that members expect a hybrid experience both in and outside of your brick and mortar. With ABC, you get the best in Fit-tech. You’ll be powered by the same technology that powers the world’s biggest clubs. Technology can help add a layer to your facility so you can have hybrid memberships, and even digital ones.  This can create entirely new streams of revenue as you dive into the secondary sales capabilities that ABC offers.

4. The Buck Stops Here   

What did all the gym owners we interviewed bring up as a pain point? The fact that everything in their gyms was ultimately their responsibility. Not just in a major way, but the countless small ways that come when you must make decisions all day that affect your entire business. From the boiler not working to the internet being down, ultimately you must find a solution when you are an independent gym owner.

ABC Fitness Solutions is here to give you the best tools in the industry to help you with your responsibilities. We are the industry leader that can make sure that you are investing your resources in the best technology possible to help you achieve success by alleviating the many pain points that come with owning a gym.