GRIT went from free outdoor workouts to 150 members in nine months

Before GRIT Strength & Functional Training had a building, it had a following.

‍

Rachael Small and Rachel Staples ran free outdoor workouts twice a week for six months in Virginia Beach, Virginia. They partnered with local businesses, raised money for area non-profits and, at one event, sold t-shirts with all the proceeds going to breast cancer research. None of it happened on social media.

‍

The brick and mortar gym opened in December 2022. By September 2023 GRIT had grown past 150 members with a team of three coaches, plus $1,600 from a single nutrition launch and $5,000 in personal training revenue that fall.

‍

The Problem

‍

A gym business running before there was a gym

‍

Twice-weekly outdoor sessions still need reservations, accounts and a way to keep track of who is coming. Small and Staples were doing all of that by hand while the facility was still ahead of them.

‍

No budget for software that had not earned it yet

‍

Pre-opening, there was almost no revenue to pay a monthly platform fee out of, and committing to one would have meant paying full price for a business that had not started.

‍

Marketing that had to come from somewhere other than a feed

‍

Small is blunt about where the gym's strengths are not. The plan was to be visible in person instead.

‍

"The goal was to build our name in the community. We were feet on the street."

‍

She added, joking, that they suck at social media.

‍

The Solution

‍

Starting on PushPress Free

‍

While the outdoor workouts were still running, Small and Staples picked up PushPress Free, the free version of PushPress Core. Free customers only pay based on how much they are billing, so there was no fixed cost to carry before the doors opened, and nothing to migrate off later.

‍

Reservations, check-ins and billing in one place

‍

Once the facility opened, the same system took over class reservations, member check-ins and billing. Small and Staples spent their first months dialling that in rather than rebuilding it.

‍

A nutrition program launched to the community first

‍

They built a back-to-school nutrition coaching program with a meal plan, recipes and a healthy grocery list, promoted it to members through the Social Feed and sold it through the PushPress Members App. It brought in $1,600 in September.

‍

Personal training sold through the same system

‍

With a fall push on personal training packages, members could sign up and pay without a back and forth. That added $5,000 in personal training revenue on top of memberships.

‍

Grow queued up for the growth phase

‍

With operations settled, PushPress Grow was the next step on the list at the time of writing: a gym CRM, lead nurture and a local search website to run campaigns from.

‍

Result

‍

More than 150 members in nine months

‍

From free outdoor sessions to a full gym with three coaches, in the nine months between opening in December 2022 and September 2023.

‍

$5,000 in personal training revenue that fall

‍

A single seasonal push, sold and booked through the software the gym already ran on.

‍

$1,600 from one nutrition launch

‍

The back-to-school program generated that in September alone, promoted to the existing community rather than to cold leads.

‍

Conclusion

‍

Ask Small what actually made the difference and she does not name a feature.

‍

"It's the support, honestly. Any idea we have had, we have found a way to execute within PushPress. And there is always someone on the other side who is willing to talk through it with you."

‍

She points to the PushPress community as much as the company.

‍

"There's always someone there to mentor us. And they have experience because they are gym owners too. They're always listening. If we're successful, they're successful. That goes really far."

‍

Ready to start small and grow into it? Book a demo and see what PushPress Core and Grow can do for your gym.