I own a small gym that has been failing the last year due to a slow economy post hurricanes. I have little money to market although I do advertise, flyers,etc. I feel I have exhausted those methods (although I continue them). I am also present at every sporting event, fun runs, etc and offer coupons, etc. I have cut operating expenses, reduced staff hours, stopped my fax line and generally trimmed everywhere that did not affect the members' actual gym experience. My newest idea is to post up a letter to the current members (who are very loyal, there are just too few of them) "Save your gym" and explaining the situation and asking them to bring in one new member each or bring back old members. Do you think this is a bad idea to let them know how bad it really is? I don't want them to jump ship and lose confidence in the gym's effectiveness. I would like advice from anyone who may have been in a similar situation. thank you!
2007-05-21 04:04:56 · 5 answers · asked by Leightermath 2 in Business & Finance ➔ Small Business
Dear friend, try joining your local chamber of commerce, also go and speak to your local SBA and explain your problem.You should find some sound advice and help there.
Also visit all the businesses in you area and offer a discount on membership, talk to people and network.
Ask yourself what as changed recently to cause your membership to drop? could it be a new gym in the area?
Hang on in there and fight,fight, fight your way back up.
best of luck.
2007-05-21 05:05:53 · answer #1 · answered by want2know 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
See if you qualify for some sort of hardship loan through the SBA because of the hurricanes. I would not tell your members about the problem. Offer referral fees to your members. They could bring a friend and if they sign up, give them a discount on next month's fee. You could post the referral program in the lobby. This just sounds more positive.
2007-05-21 06:30:10 · answer #2 · answered by tom m 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Quite correct in what you say.In tough recessionary times, cutting costs is the key to staying afloat.Your costs can be controlled to a large extent,it's the income that you have little control over and when the income is not there you must cut costs. A celebrity chef is in a very different world to a provincial publican or restaurateur in normal times but in a recession the reality of no bottoms on seats hits home hard to everyone.
2016-05-18 22:41:21 · answer #3 · answered by sebrina 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't think this is a bad idea. Another one is to try to get a profile of your existing members. Is there something else (other than membership) that many of them have in common? Maybe there are others in the community that also have this in common ... a group to promote to.
2007-05-21 04:30:06 · answer #4 · answered by jdkilp 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What immediately came to mind was that you ask the current clients to bring in another person. For every new person they bring in (WHO SIGNS UP FOR 3* MONTHS and pays in advance), they will get 1 month FREE!
* you decide the month amount, but make it affordable.
What do you think of that?
2007-05-21 07:18:47 · answer #5 · answered by Chewy1129 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋