Tag: Business Strategies

How To Make 2013 Your BEST YEAR EVER and Build a Business That Supports Your Dreams

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As we begin 2013 we’re pleased to announce exciting NEW content and guest blog posts we’re adding to better support all our customers in growing their businesses this year.

The following guest post is by Sean Greeley, President of NPE, an organization dedicated to supporting coaches and fitness business owners in mastering the “business” of fitness. We are excited to have one of our most supportive partners share some amazing business tips and strategies.

I LOVE the New Year.

It’s the best time to review and assess the previous year while planning for the year ahead. You get the opportunity to list out and remember all the things you did that worked out well. And take another look back at the things that didn’t work out so you can learn from your experiences and get better for challenges you’ll face again in the future.
One of the MOST important things I recommend to all our clients is to take some time to reconnect with the reason why you started your business in the first place.

When you’re caught up in all the “hustle” of day-to-day operations that go on in every company, it’s easy to get bogged down and forget why you went into business.

Why Did You Start Your Business?

At some point in time you got the crazy idea to begin working for yourself and thought it was a good idea to start your own business. You thought you could do what you do better than others in the marketplace. And you were passionate about making a difference, having fun, and enjoying the freedom and the success that come from being your own boss. Well…sometimes come from being your own boss.
In the early days, or when you’re in a fast growth mode, or when staff leaves, it sure doesn’t feel like freedom; when you’re running around wearing multiple hats in your company! It can sometimes feel more like you’re in prison!

Remember Your Dream

That’s why it’s so important to reconnect with your dream. Running a business is hard. And you need a LOT of fuel to persevere, overcome, and grow bigger than the obstacles and challenges in front of you. Because without that fuel… it’s easy to become overwhelmed, tired and fatigued, and want to give up on things when the going gets tough! THAT’S WHEN YOUR DREAM MATTERS MOST! Your DREAM holds the power to catapult you through anything that stands in your way. It must be STRONG and you must hold on tight in order to steer your company through the storms that everyone faces on their entrepreneurial journey.

Know Why You’re Here and What’s Important

Have you defined your core values? Core values are the guiding principles that define what you stand for. I like to refer to them as your “stars in the sky.” When the great explorers sailed out across the ocean in search of new lands, they had no idea where they were going. There weren’t any maps. And they certainly didn’t have any GPS systems! All they had to navigate their journey was a compass and the stars. By looking up at their position in relation to the stars, they could adjust course, plot their way, and eventually return home. Being an entrepreneur or business owner is very similar to being a great explorer. When you decided to start your own business you embarked on a big journey, full of risk. And if you’re like most folks, you didn’t leave with a clear map of where you were going! That’s why you have to have something to look up to when you’re feeling lost.

Core values serve that purpose in your company. They also become the guiding principles by which you can evaluate who is a good fit for your organization and who isn’t. Core values are first and foremost in creating alignment with yourself and your team. In addition to core values, you must also know your purpose. Why do you do what you do? What gets you out of bed in the morning to go to work? Why do you love your customers?
And I hope you love your customers, because if you don’t then you’re going to continuously struggle. Sure you can make money, but building a great company that lasts for generations and transcends YOU only comes out of a real love, passion, and guiding principles that become larger than life.

Get Clear On Your Vision and Targets

Once you’ve reconnected with your dream (your fuel), you’ve defined what’s important and why you’re here (core values and purpose) it’s time to get clear on your mission, vision, and targets. Without a destination, you’ve just got a ship drifting at sea. In working with the clients we coach and mentor, we help business owners get clear on a vision for the next 1, 3, 5 years. Once that’s accomplished, we can effectively develop a strategic plan that gets you where you want to go. The big problem here is most business owners have no plan and have no vision at all! They’ve simply worked themselves into a job. They don’t have an exit strategy. They have no plans to hit a target or a certain capacity in their business. They are only looking out a few months at a time.

As the leader in your company, it’s your responsibility to look out farther down the road. You must continuously work on and develop the vision for your company and team. Only YOU can do this work. No one else can do it for you.

Define Your Priorities and Get After It!

When you’ve completed all the groundwork to this point, you can now clearly define priorities for your work. Most business owners spend their days and weeks in what I call, “random acts of business development.” Doing a little bit of this one day, a little bit of that the next, then running to put out another fire next week. This is not only unproductive… it’s exhausting! For 2013, make a pledge to do things differently. Define 3 priorities for the next 90 days in context of your core values, purpose, mission, and vision… and then ONLY focus on those priorities. First things first… second things never.

Summary

As we begin the New Year, find some quiet time to review and assess 2012. Then engage in strategic planning to make 2013 your BEST year EVER in business. As a good friend of mine often says, “The strategist always wins!”
 
Sean Greeley is President of NPE, an organization dedicated to supporting coaches and fitness business owners in mastering the “business” of fitness. Check out NPE’s new 3x Telly award-winning documentary The American Dream: Freedom, Prosperity, and Success in the Fitness Industry, featuring 17 industry leaders who share their STEP-BY-STEP strategies, systems, and secrets for building highly profitable fitness businesses and show you how you can do the same at: www.AmericanDreamMovie.com

Helping Your Customers Adapt to Change

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One of the most challenging aspects of managing your relationship with customers is when you have to help them adapt to change.  Change can come in many forms.  Sometimes it’s positive, such as when you open a new sports facility location, add a new class to your gym schedule, or hire new staff for your personal training studio.  And sometimes…it’s not. Regardless of the “why”, there are a few things you can do to make the transition a positive one.

The Boy Scouts motto says it best: Be prepared.  A well thought-out plan of action is the best tool you can have.  Spend the time now to brainstorm about what changes you may encounter, both good and bad, and how you will need to deal with each.  Remember that adapting to change is a team effort, so make sure that everyone on your team knows their part in the plan.  Being prepared will give you and your team the confidence to guide your customers through the process.

Once you have a plan, open the lines of communication with your customers.  Don’t wait until the last minute to let them in on the news!  Dealing with change can be stressful, so the more time they have to prepare, the better their experience will be.  This is your chance to set and manage their expectations, so be proactive and follow up with reminders often.  It’s also important to remember that when speaking with customers about change, you want to stay positive but be realistic and prepare for some pushback.  Even if it’s a positive change, a customer’s first reaction might be to fight against it.  Be prepared to help them accept the change as necessary and how it will ultimately benefit them in the long run.  Here, a little empathy goes a long way.

Finally, fight the urge to turn back time.  Once there is an established routine, any change to that routine requires effort.  Adapting to change is your opportunity to improve your gym or sports facility, so just trying to go back to “the way it was” for the sake of avoiding change wastes both that effort and the opportunity.  Moving forward with confidence will send the message to your customers that you have the situation under control and will ease their uncertainty.

Because every sports or fitness business will eventually encounter the need to deal with change, it’s important to tackle those challenges head on.  If you prepare early, communicate effectively, and stay committed to your goals, you can lead customers to success no matter what comes your way.

Are You Prepared For Growth?

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One of the greatest qualities of a successful business owner is realizing that your business is growing and having the foresight to address this growth properly to ensure your business operates smoothly. As a health club or fitness facility owner, it’s important to make sure that your club management software is growing with you every step of the way.

For example, maybe you started off three years ago with a software provider that had just the right amount of features for your business. Have you checked in recently to see what they’ve added? The release of new features and functionality that may not have been applicable to you a few years ago, could wind-up being extremely important to your business today. Take the time to protect your investment and check out any new tools and perks your software provider has recently implemented in order to make the management of your facility easier.

On that note, it may be time to check in with your account manager and see what new features you could add to your software suite. Don’t have any software yet? Make sure you find something that can grow with the speed of your business, as you don’t want to have to switch to a new provider right in the middle of a growth spurt. After all, your goals should always be to move forward, grow, and evolve in order to keep members happy and maintain a strong, profitable business.

Check back often for best practices and tips!

Benefits of Using Software to Manage Your Facility

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Our next post is dedicated to those still on the fence about investing in software for your club or facility. We’re going to outline the numerous benefits of having software and how it can prove to be fruitful.

  • Time Saver – Having software for your day-to-day club or facility needs will free up time for you to spend with your customers. It will make remaining organized simple and allow you to gain more productivity and efficiency. In the end, the additional time will allow you to dedicate more resources and people-power to servicing your customer and signing up more members.
  • Ease of Use – When choosing to implement a club management software tool for your business,  making sure that it is easy to use is absolutely vital. Features that are user friendly and designed to support multiple scheduling scenarios will make managing your club or facility a breeze. Furthermore, selecting a service where training is thorough and provided by industry professionals is important to the future success of your business.
  • Increase Profits – Utilize your facility better by improving scheduling of venues, trainers, and classes with software; eventually this will lead to higher revenues and earnings. Additionally, choosing software that has a low-monthly fee with no hidden fees is most likely to be affordable and allow you to increase profits easily.

Outsourcing billing and collections is also helpful in saving both time and money; finding it all provided by one company is even better. There are numerous benefits of using full service billing in and of itself. By having a third-party bill collect membership dues, you can significantly lower your expenses and free up time better spent elsewhere. Outsourcing will also allow you to reduce the amount of delinquent accounts and boost membership retention and renewals.

EZFacility has a proven track-record of clients who have improved their business using our software. An example of a client significantly increasing membership since they began using software for their club is a small Virginia-based fitness center that increased membership by 88%. Another includes a Community Association utilizing the software for multiple venues and nearly doubling membership in half a year due to our flexibility and in-depth functionality.
Also, even though you may not need all the features software can offer you right from the start, keep in mind that your business is growing, and you may one day need some of this advanced functionality.

We hope this has been helpful in making a decision about choosing software to help run your business. Thanks for reading and come back soon for more tips!