First, I don’t believe in corporate looking websites that only try to make a brand look good, but doesn’t give the gym prospect any actual info about your gym like prices, equipment, contact info, childcare, programs, actual video tour ( My biggest pet peeve is a gym website having a so called “virtual tour”, but is actually nothing but someone with a digital camera set to video while their turning in a circle making you sick to even watch and makes a treadmill look like a boxing bag). If your doing this, STOP IT!!! your killing your website business.

Next, If you have Flash buttons, a shoddy virtual tour, no email sign up form, content that doesn’t tell the prospect what they want to know, diet info, no pictures of the actual equipment, and one of the most important things is if you don’t have specific keywords on your website pages and web post for SEO keyword optimization, STOP IT TOO!!

Below is a snapshot of my Fitness Center Website, Some people act like my fitness center website is as ugly as a butt rash, but it works and I’ll compare the stats of visits, calls, and email sign ups just from my website to their very corporate looking website.

Notice how simple the gym website is to navigate. I have tweaked it for over 4 years now with all the marketing knowledge and website simplification things I’ve learned from thousands of hours of studying marketing and website design and SEO 

Now look at this snap fitness website. It has no email sign up form for them to keep prospects thinking about them, no video, no compelling content except one offer for a week free. I’m sure since they have a big brand name it does ok, but my gym is in a town where snap fitness is also, but i have double the membership they have, they also don’t do any marketing to speak of.

You think being a big name like snap fitness they would have a staff of Internet marketers, NOT JUST WEBSITE DESIGNERS, because most designers are just that, not marketers, I am a fitness marketer first, then web designer. Snap fitness is a great gym and the owners have done a great job, but it cost them about 1 to 1.5 million to open a snap fitness. I have less than $100,000 in mine from start to finish. Which would you rather do, own your own, or a franchise that tells you where to pee and how to do it. I’ve got an ex wife, it’s not for me but may be for you. HIRE SOMEONE TO WRITE YOUR FITNESS MARKETING MATERIALS, don’t follow what all the other gyms are doing.

Now, I haven’t wanted to learn how to build websites from scratch though, I have learned to read web code, but not enough to build a site from scratch because you don’t need to these days for most businesses. I use templates now to build my customers websites, that way i can concentrate on the content that gets customers to even find the website to start with. You do however need to know some coding to install stuff like email forms and install videos and put headline tags in the right places for SEO optimization.

Below is an example of some website statistics from a website I built to replace a website that got from 0 to 3 hits a day before i built this one with specific content. notice the increase from 1 the first few days to over 150 hits a day within a month after i got the content added in several post and pages and optimized for search engines

I build website just like mine for many industries and people. want to see some more websites like mine? here are a few. www.thebamabelle.com and www.herringfitness.com and www.templegym.tv 

Notice how Herring Fitness website is identical to mine at Temple Gym except colors. The owner of herring fitness is NFL New Orleans Saints Player Will Herring #54 from Auburn Alabama and formerly played for the Seattle Sea hawks for 4 years. Will hired me to be a consultant to open his gym and set it up as a 24 hour fitness center since he is away most of the year in New Orleans. I built his website and he gets between 40 and 120 hits a day on an average week, which is about what i get at my gym.

Other gyms may get a lot of visits but they probably only get a phone # or address without getting convincing evidence that sells them on that gym

If you try to get a website built from scratch you’ll spend from $2,500 to $5,000. But I can build a website like mine for under $1000 including editing a video tour that you shoot and send me, also all the specific copy writing SEO which is most important to drive prospects to your website when they search for a gym in your town. You’ll also get a video of me showing you how to go to your admin control panel and change or add stuff so you can do it yourself from then on.

By the way, my gym website video tour pre sells my gym memberships to roughly 90% of my new gym members. They come in to sign up instead of just look around now. I start to show everyone around and they say “I already know how everything works, i watched your video tour”. I basically took the idea of showing one person around and made that a video. so its like they are the camera following me around just like their there in person. except now, i don’t have to take 10 to 15 min showing them around the gym.

Need a website for your gym or fitness center? email Shannon Cook at fitnessmarketing@comcast.net  

www.fitnessmarketing.tv

The thing i find it hardest to get across to new business owners and alot of old business owners is the fact that they might survive a recession but how much better could their business have been if they would have actually tried marketing.

Most people are just like the restaurant owner i once heard of; the first thing he let go of money wise when money got tight was the bug killer man, and it was the most important of all his business. If you don’t believe me, just go into a restaurant and see a roach. You will consider going back if you get bad service one time, but if you see a bug your gone for good!

To learn every deatil of ”how to open a 24 hour gym from scratch”, click here www.how2ownagym.com

Here’s another amazing thing i have discovered because i have done this thing myself; I would tell anyone that called trying to get me to advertise with them that i didn’t have the money, but i would spend money on other less important things. PLEASE hear me! You need to spend the money on the right marketing PERIOD!!!

1. Start a website using WordPress:Its what you are reading now,its the easiest thing on the web to do and you can be up and going in minutes not days or months. here’s a great set of tutorials that will teach you how to get going with wordpress immediatley.Click Here!
2. Putting an e-mail opt-in form on your website: so you can notify your prospects of information and gym membership offerings.
3.  Start a referral program:that pays members money for refering others.
4. Offer a money back guarantee! :this should be first really. i have only had one person take me up on this, and they didn’t even want their money back, but i made sure to give it back to them anyway, and asked for a testimonial from her about her getting her money back so i can use it in my marketing.
5. Ask members what they want: It amazes me at the people in business that i say this to and they say it doesn’t matter what people say, they aren’t going to change that because they are stuck in thinking what they are doing is working better than giving the member what they want, and it might be working, but think about how much better it could be if you actually gave them what they want.

 To learn every deatil of ”how to open a 24 hour gym from scratch”, click here www.how2ownagym.com

One Bonus tip is to make sure to get testimonials and use them in all your marketing efforts.

Shannon Cook is avaliable for consulting and marketing your fitness center by contacting fitnessmarketing@comcast.net

If the answer is yes, read on!

To learn every deatil of ”how to open a 24 hour gym from scratch”, click here www.how2ownagym.com

I can honestly tell you that i have increased my gym business by 25% in the last month alone, and its not because i have updated, done expensive marketing, or pressured sales people to sell more memberships.

No, just the opposite, I have cut my marketing in 1/2 and just done a test to see what i could do by a small but concentrated marketing plan.

I quit radio ads, which were effective, but right now, too expensive. I started concentrating on the members i have now and offering them and their friends incentives to get them to tell their friends and family about our 24 hour automated gym. Then i have worked on my email subscribers list by doing the same incentive offerings. Then lastly, i am putting up banners that i know will catch passerby’s attention and get them to stop by, call, or visit my website and hopefully get them to sign up on my email subscription form for future weight loss and gym articles and notices.

I really can’t believe how much it has helped my gym business in the last month or two.

I have had a lot of calls lately from the radio station that i advertise with, and also the newspaper wanting me to advertise my gym with them, but i am not afraid to tell them NO for now. I am going to resume my  radio and newspaper advertising before too long, but i really wanted to try this experiment first.

One Fact I will share with you is that in the last depression and the recessions since, the businesses that kept advertising and not cutting back, came to be the biggest and best basically because all their competition quit advertising. Think about it, I know if you are a business owner then you already have, I know i almost quit until i really got to thinking about it and realized that all my competition quit all their ads and i now am alone and don’t have to spend as much because they aren’t doing any at all.   

So please don’t quit advertising all together, if you can, you need to increase your ads and do the other stuff i have said in this article. But if your strapped for cash, please try these things that cost almost nothing.

**NOTE** IF YOU DON’T HAVE A WEBSITE AND AN E-MAIL SUBSCRIPTION SIGN UP FORM, GET ONE!!!  ITS THE CHEAPEST MARKETING YOU CAN DO.

You need to invest time and money in learning how to market your gym like i have, and here’s a product that shortcuts the learning curve. I spent many thousands of dollars to learn what i know about marketing, and now know that there is info available to the fitness business industry that concentrates only on the getting and retaining members. here is one excellent product to learn from that helps tremendously without learning everything about marketing like i did, especially if you don’t have much time and only want to learn the gym business marketing part. here’s the product: Click Here!

Shannon Cook is available to build your website for your gym, health club, or fitness center, and copywriting your ads and web site material by contacting fitnessmarketing@comcast.net

To learn every deatil of ”how to open a 24 hour gym from scratch”, click here www.how2ownagym.com

Buying used gym equipment can save you alot of money if you know what to look for. There are alot of great places to buy used and refurbished gym equipment from, but make sure to do your own research of the companies your looking at.

To learn every deatil of ”how to open a 24 hour gym from scratch”, click here www.how2ownagym.com

You should look for these things:

• Is the gym equipment totally refurbished or just some parts, (for instance, some used gym equipment companies will say their treadmills are refurbished, but they really only put a new belt on them and clean them up. when actually they needed a new deck and waxer and maybe a roller also but they know it will last just long enough for the short warranty to run out)
• Do they have a warranty and how long. (also ask what all is covered and how they repair the piece if it does tear up. I bought one treadmill that tore up and they sent me the part and told me to fix it myself. LET ME TELL YOU THAT ITS NOT EASY TO WORK ON TREADMILLS, AND I DO MECHANICAL WORK ALL THE TIME, SO MAKE SURE YOU DONT HAVE TO DO THE REPAIRS)
• How much does the shipping cost?
• Look for reviews on the company from a website. (there are some websites that will have reviews on dealing with the used fitness equipment compaines, search the name of the company and you’ll probably find someone who has dealt with them that will have a blog like this one your reading now, but on that company. BUT DON’T DRAW A CONCLUSION FROM ONE OR TWO REVIEWS, i’m sure you know that noone can please everyone all the time)
• Never Ever buy anything without seeling it in detail either in person or pictures, a video showing it in action if possible. (it amazes me at the gym equipment dealers that don’t realize if they would show a video of the equipment in action, they would take away all reluctance of the customer to buy)

Their are brokers that you can contact that specialize in buying and selling used health club equipment, do a search for used gym equipment brokers on the internet and i’m sure you’ll find some good ones.

EBAY: should you try ebay? You will find everything for your gym on ebay, from one dumbbell to a turnkey gym ready to go. You will have to pay much more attention to things on ebay, but i have found that most ebay sellers do a better job of marketing their items. I mean by this that they do detailed photos and videos and have a detail of and warranties and all shipping charges so you won’t be trying to figure out what the charges are to ship. But you do have to worry about the warranty being upheld in some cases because if they are a single seller they could possibly go out of business tomorrow or just not return your calls and your stuck with a broken piece of fitness equipment.

So if you use ebay to buy used equipment, PLEASE CHECK THEIR RATINGS!

Some dealers that i have bought equipment from are:

WRIGHT WEIGHT EQUIPMENT in birmingham, alabama

BiG FiTNESS North Kingstown
190 Frenchtown Rd
North Kingstown, RI 02852       AND  

BiG FiTNESS Seekonk
5 Progress St
Seekonk, MA 02771

USED GYM EQUIPMENT.COM   

14201 S. Main Street
Los Angeles, CA 90061
Toll Free: 800-884-1446
310-323-2984

Shannon Cook is avaliable for hire to turn your gym into a 24 hour gym or open a gym from scratch and to market your fitness center by contacting FITNESSMARKETING@COMCAST.NET

Attention: here’s a product that specifically helps you how to market fitness centers, gyms, and health clubs cheaply

To learn every deatil of ”how to open a 24 hour gym from scratch”, click here www.how2ownagym.com

I spent many thousands of dollars to learn what i know about marketing, and now know that there is info available to the fitness business industry that concentrates only on the getting and retaining members. here is one excellent product to learn from that helps tremendously without learning everything about marketing like i did, especially if you don’t have much time and only want to learn the gym business marketing part. here’s the product: Click Here!

For the main gym where all the equipment goes I used the bare concrete and i acid stained mine and sealed it so no matter what goes on it, it still looks good. I do recommend you putting at least 3 coats of clear sealer on it.

To learn every deatil of ”how to open a 24 hour gym from scratch”, click here www.how2ownagym.com

In the cardio area i like to use carpet, and i recommend using the squares that are about 2′ x 2′ and when anything happens to one piece you simply pull it up and replace it very easily. The best part is anyone can install full rooms by themselves with no knowledge of laying carpet.

In my gym i have a power lifting section and a dumbbell section that i have rubber pieces laid down in. I got the 1/2″ x 4′ x 6′ from a school gym that was getting different flooring for their new gym. The reason i use rubber flooring is that the people that use the heavy dumbbells usually drop them and that tore the carpet up really bad and it looked bad to the visitors coming in.

The flooring i recommend for aerobic rooms is a wood flooring that has rubber cushion attached to it. Its called Boflex flooring. I’m in the process of getting it put down in my wife’s personal training and pilaties and yoga room.

For bathrooms i use a wood floor that snaps together and has a cushion that lays down separate first. You can get this flooring at home depot, sams club, or lowes.

These are my reccomendations for flloring for gyms and health clubs and fitness centers.

Attention: here’s a product that specifically helps you how to market fitness centers, gyms, and health clubs cheaply

I spent many thousands of dollars to learn what i know about marketing, and now know that there is info available to the fitness business industry that concentrates only on the getting and retaining members. here is one excellent product to learn from that helps tremendously without learning everything about marketing like i did, especially if you don’t have much time and only want to learn the gym business marketing part. here’s the product: Click Here!

Shannon Cook is a consultant to the fitness and gym industry for all your marketing and copywriting needs, or if your opening a gym, i can consult you on how to open a gym.

To learn every deatil of ”how to open a 24 hour gym from scratch”, click here www.how2ownagym.com

Contact shannon at fitnessmarketing@comcast.net 

For some reason when most people start a business they figure everything into the cost except marketing. Just because you put a business in a building, doesn’t mean they will rush to your door and beg you to let them in. and I know a lot of businesses that think like that, and here’s an example:

My father owns a high traffic, corner building that a BBQ joint wanted to move into. The owner did everything to get the restaurant ready, but told me he wasn’t going to do any marketing because he didn’t need to, he said his father owned a BBQ place for 40 years and didn’t do any marketing, and he did great business.

To learn every deatil of ”how to open a 24 hour gym from scratch”, click here www.how2ownagym.com

Well he got opened up and did ok for a few weeks and then winter hit and he saw a drastic drop in business, so I told him to at least put some attention getting signs up and the high traffic road would draw in some business at least. Instead he decided to do nothing and it wasn’t long before he went under because he wouldn’t get off his lazy butt and try anything at all.

NOW HERE’S THE PROOF I HAD THAT I WAS RIGHT ABOUT MARKETING:::

After he left the building, a Mexican restaurant owner moved in, and I went to him and said to him that I wanted to help him get established and offered to help him market his business to prove my marketing would work, he said he wanted to just get opened up first and then he would see before he paid any money out on marketing.

After he was opened up for a month he asked me for some help, and since I was new to marketing I told him 3 things to do that would only cost him maybe $150 and my advice was free.

1.      Park all the cars of his employees in the parking lot everyday, so it would look crowded and people would think it must be good if its always packed. (even if they come in and see that there’s no one else in there they will stay and eat because they are already there)

2.      Put banners up on three sections of the road saying the specials like “kids eat free with two adults” or “1/2 price margaritas on certain nights”.

3.      Put a bowl by the cash register for people to drop their business cards or a piece of paper in with their e-mail addresses on them for a free dinner giveaway through email. (this allows them to email those people to send them offers and just keep the restaurant name in front of them at least once every 2 weeks)

Needless to say this worked great. He now has to have his workers park out back again and people are waiting in line for lunch and dinner to get a seat.

He proved by doing these things that marketing works. Even after the BBQ guy seeing all the cars there day and night, he still says it just wasn’t a good place for a BBQ place. Some people will never listen, especially when there cheap people to start with.

Marketing is absolutely essential to any business. Marketing is in everything you do, from greeting your customers to saying bye and when they get the food they eat, because if it’s good, then they’ll come back, and that’s what marketing is all about, getting them to come in, and back.

 If someone goes into your business bathroom and there are no toilet paper and no soap or hand towels, they will know that other parts of your business could be just as bad, and that stays in their mind, thereby costing you customers. Market with every aspect of your business, not just outside.

To learn every deatil of ”how to open a 24 hour gym from scratch”, click here www.how2ownagym.com

Shannon Cook is available for hire to market your business by emailing fitnessmarketing@comcast.net

I used to be the poor gym owner. I made all the mistakes possible, but I decided to change that right before I almost went under, and here’s how

To learn every deatil of ”how to open a 24 hour gym from scratch”, click here www.how2ownagym.com

POOR GYM OWNER:

·         Did very little research on owning a gym or health club or fitness business

·         I went into a bad location

·         Hired the wrong employees

·         Allowed the wrong personal trainers to train there

·         Didn’t do any advertising or marketing

·         Had poor cardio equipment

·         Had wrong hours of operation

·         Allowed a few of the wrong members to join

·         Went month to month on contracts

·         Offered childcare

RICH GYM OWNER:

·         Research all aspects of owning a fitness business

·         Research location for traffic, rates, utilities, and insurance

·         Hire the right employees by doing checks with former employers

·         Research the personal trainers  just like the employees before hiring

·         Get good cardio equipment

·         Open the gym as 24 hours automated even if you have employees there full time

·         Have a great marketing plan ready to go into effect 1 month before I opened

·         Have a security system I can monitor myself

·         Don’t have childcare in a 24 hour gym

·         Have strict rules for members

·         Have certain contract lengths, of no shorter than 3 months

When I changed all these things, I cut my budget in ½ and raised my income by 150%

Now everything is automated.

I know you may be asking some questions like “why have an automated system for my door if I have employees working 24/7”? , we’ll if employees are like all other employees in the around the world, then you know they get sick,  forget they were suppose to work, or just quit without telling you. In that case you don’t have to have anyone there, if they don’t show up, the members already know how to get in and you wont have go cover there shift at midnight.

For the record, i’m not rich yet, but these things saved my gym business from failing, mostly from the marketing i learned along the way.

To learn every deatil of ”how to open a 24 hour gym from scratch”, click here www.how2ownagym.com

please feel free to comment on my post or contact Shannon for marketing consulting or to turn your gym into a 24 hour automated fitness center or even complete gym builds from scratch. contact shannon at fitnessmarketing@comcast.net

In my case i don’t.

I have a DVR (digital video recorder) that has a battery backup on it. You can get battery backups from 5 minutes for cheap ,or a few days that are expensive. But always have a battery backup no matter what. The bigger you can afford the better.

To learn every deatil of ”how to open a 24 hour gym from scratch”, click here www.how2ownagym.com

You don’t want the power going out for a few days because of a hurricane and people being able to come in and rob your gym or someone get hurt and you not have any proof they didn’t. 

I have battery backups on everything from my door access system to my computers, a backup not only helps when there’s a power outage, but also protects in the case of power brown outs, which are not the same as a blackout, a brown out simply allows the power to go off for a second and the surge of power coming back on messes a lot of electronics up.

I monitor my own camera system and door access because i don’t have to pay that fee and if something does go missing or someone takes something, all i have to do is look back to see. my DVR records up to 40 days before it starts recording over the first day again.

So, to recap:

• Have a battery backup on your system
• Have a big enough dvr to record a long time so you wont have anyworries about looking up something that happened 3 weeks back.

P.S. when selecting a company to install your system, make sure they understand what you need and want your system to do. Write out everything you want it to do and when you both agree on a particular system, Make them sign it. They will say they don’t remember you saying that or they misunderstood you, and that mistake cost me over $4000.

No one is too smart to learn from others experiences.

To learn every deatil of ”how to open a 24 hour gym from scratch”, click here www.how2ownagym.com

Shannon Cook is avaliable for hire to market fitness centers or to turn your club into a 24 hour automated club by contacting fitnessmarketing@comcast.net

OFFER A 30 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE!!!

Besides me turning my gym into a 24 hour fully automated facility, this one thing has gotten me more members than anything else i can do.

To learn every deatil of ”how to open a 24 hour gym from scratch”, click here www.how2ownagym.com

I discussed this with other people and they thought just like everyone else, that people would take advantage of my offer. I have signed up over 200 people in the last 8 months and have had only one person get their money back, and that lady didn’t even want her money back, she just wanted to cancel before her contract took effect. However i did give her the money back because i said i would and i also asked her to write a short testimonial for the gym saying how easy it was to get her money back and I use it in my advertising to show people that we really do have a guarantee.

Most gyms are so afraid to lose a member that they make alot of them mad because they hold them to their contracts like concrete and even though they have the right to, they get talked about badly to everyone that person knows and lose alot of potential members in the process.

I took a survey from my members on my website and asked them several questions, but one was “did the 30 day guarantee have anything to do with you signing up”, to my surprise, 85% said yes. 

For some reason no gym in town has tried to copy me on this. To their loss.

I do hold people to their contracts, but if i can tell that person is gonna do harm by talking bad about me and my gym, then i gladly let them out of their contract.

One other thing I reccomend is getting the Book by Dale Carnegie “how to win friends and influence people”. in it he said something that i think has also helped me retain members that really don’t use the gym, they just keep their membership because i get to know them while signing them up. He said, Tell the person your dealing with that you can tell by looking at them and the way they act that they will follow through with their contract because they look and act honorable. You might think that’s flatery, but i mean it when i say it and they can tell i mean it, and it makes them feel honorable. Everyone wants to feel important.

I’m in the process right now of offering a 30 day double your money back guarantee to see how it works. My wife doesn’t like it, but she didn’t think the 30 day regular guarantee was a good idea either, until she saw and heard it in action.

Attention: here’s a product that specifically helps you how to market fitness centers, gyms, and health clubs cheaply

To learn every deatil of ”how to open a 24 hour gym from scratch”, click here www.how2ownagym.com

Feel free to post comments. thanks, shannon

Shannon Cook can be contacted at  fitnessmarketing@comcast.net for questions about hiring for marketing or turning your gym into a 24 hour gym.

This is the best and cheapest thing I have ever done to market my gym.

my website is uglier than pootin in church, but i get more quality leads from this one thing than almost all of my website copy combined. If you dont believe me on the ugliness, go to  www.templegym.tv  and look at it.

To learn every deatil of ”how to open a 24 hour gym from scratch”, click here www.how2ownagym.com

When i say quality leads I mean that people see this on my site and decide that want to join if they come in instead of coming in to look around and then seeing that its not for them, simply because they can come in and look around from the comfort of their computer or mobile phone if they have the Internet on their phone.

Here it is:

BUT, don’t use a digital camera, use must use a camera that will allow you to walk around and see what they will see when you take them on a tour of your gym. The worst thing you can do is to stand in the middle of your gym and go around in a circle. It makes people dizzy. I know the gyms in my area that have the virtual tour on their sites always do the dizzy type tour and you cant tell what they have in there gyms. They say my video looks cheap, and it might, but every new prospect comments on how they love it and how it made them decide to come in and join.

Attention: here’s a product that specifically helps you how to market fitness centers, gyms, and health clubs cheaply

To learn every deatil of ”how to open a 24 hour gym from scratch”, click here www.how2ownagym.com

Shannon Cook is avaliable for hire in marketing consulting or turning your gym into a 24 hour gym or starting a gym from scratch. Contact Shannon at  fitnessmarketing@comcast.net