"Love the service, wish we could stay, but we're shutting down on January 1st. Thank you for everything."
I'm going to be blunt. It FUCKING kills me every time I read this.As a company we've decided we're not going to sit around and let this happen any longer. If you're struggling as a gym owner, please talk to us. Read on to see how you can get help - and what we're doing to stop gyms from failing.
The Life of the Average Gym Owner
You open your gym, and you're excited. You dive headfirst into building it out. You ecstatically sign up your initial members and you're off and rolling.You get certification after certification and become the best movement instructor in your area.As memberships grow, so do your expenses. You hire more coaches. You hire a front desk person. No matter where you are in the process, you're take home pay isn't enough to support you. You might take side jobs or never take the plunge in being a full time gym owner.Your social capital wanes over time, but your bank account has not built any cushion over the years. Then life happens. You have a baby. You have an accident. A child goes to college.You freak out. You hire a coach. You start buying into paid ad models. Everything works for a while, but then they don't.After all options have been explored, you tearfully and sadly close your gym down. You feel like you've let down your community, but you have to do it.
Do you know this gym owner?
If you relate to this story, don't feel ashamed. After over 10 years in this industry - this is the norm, not the exception.If you don't relate to this story and you've been around for a while, chances are you know a dozen other gym owners who fit it.
Why This is a Crisis
Our local boutique gym operators are out there doing GOOD work. Their communities and our world need these services more than ever.Every time a gym shuts down, 100's of people lose the access, accountability and guidance they rely on to avoid the obesity epidemic we're seeing.Gym owners need more help building thriving businesses.Gym owners need help transitioning from fitness professional to business professional.Gym owners need a path to building a profitable, sellable business that can support the owners and coaches involved at a professional level.
Not On Our Watch: Helping Gyms Thrive
We've decided we've had enough, and we are working on many things to help solve this big problem.A number of the things we are working on will be free for the community to consume, tweak and deploy for themselves, regardless if you're a PushPress client. We hope to help gyms of all sizes, from all niches, PushPress client or not.Some of the things we will be working on are specifically for PushPress clients, and available only to our clients. These things will either be very high value offerings we will hold back only for our clients, and some will require using features we offer to benefit from.
PushStart
One initial offering we're offering as a FREE resource to PushPress clients is PushStart.PushStart is a self-serviced mentoring program put together and led by Zach Forrest. It has been designed as a "Business-101" course to help gym owners get stood up on their feet.
PushStart is best for gyms billing less than $15,000 (or those billing more than $15,000 but doing so without knowing how). It's also best suited for gym owners who are willing to put in some work to develop themselves as a strong business person.PushStart is by invitation only for our PushPress clients. For more information login to your PushPress Dashboard and speak to a customer service representative.
The PushPress Business Podcast
Coming in 2020 will be our business podcast (sweet name, TBD). We will be diving deep into the business of fitness and working to bring easily digestible tidbits of knowledge to you weekly.Season one of the podcast is being designed now, and we will begin recording soon! Keep an eye out for that!
More Education to Come!
We're going to make 2020 the year of education! Keep an eye peeled on this blog for more information on things we will be doing to help gym owners grow their businesses!We can't release all the things we're looking to do just yet - but we will as they materialize!
