Think you’re ready to expand? Starting and running a single business takes a lot of effort, and the thought of opening a second (or third!) location might raise your resting heart rate. There are many things gym & fitness club owners must think about with expansion. But if growth is your goal and you’ve dreamed of one day licensing your fitness brand or turning it into a franchise, then read on.
How do you do it? The main goal is to apply the same formula that worked so well at your current gym, effectively replicating all your business operations and client experience. You’re halfway there with the business plan you already created and fitness business management software in place to help you manage all your locations, right? Let’s go over some of the challenges of owning multiple locations, how to best manage them, and how the Vagaro software can help you run multiple fitness businesses seamlessly.
Why Open Multiple Locations?
Opening multiple gyms or fitness clubs brings financial challenges, as you’ll be spending more money on things like rent, utilities, insurance & equipment, in addition to bringing on an entirely new staff.
But opening multiple locations also raises your brand’s profile significantly, exposing it to a swell of new customers, demographics & locations. Before you make any big plans, let’s go over a few things.
Your Multi-Location Checklist
Before we dive into running your next gym or fitness center, there are a few things to consider. Does your current gym:
- Have a steady cashflow? Have you been selling enough of those renewable memberships, class packages, gift cards and products to bring in the consistent revenue you need?
- Show sustained profitability? Review the sales & revenue reports over the last three years to track your growth & scalability.
- Have adequate financial reserves? This answer depends, in part, on how you answered the two questions above. Upon opening, it’s going to take a while to make your new gym or fitness studio profitable. You will likely be supplementing this, at least in part, with the revenue from your original location.
- Run smoothly when you aren’t there? You’re going to be preoccupied with your new location. Do you have a reliable team at your current business that knows all your processes and understands the functions of your booking & scheduling software? They’re going to be running the show in your absence. Make sure you can count on them.
Create an Operational Roadmap
In preparation for expansion, you should organize and document everything you do at your current fitness business. No procedure should be considered trivial here. From how to greet new clients & sanitize equipment to protocol for covering shifts, everyone must be in alignment on operating procedures. This will prevent miscommunication and confusion between your businesses.
Standardize Booking & Check-in
The process of onboarding and check-in should be uniform across all locations.
Requiring that all new clients fill out forms upon signing up for a class, training session or general admission is a great first step. These forms protect your locations from liability, but also gather important client information before they step through the door. You can learn what their health and fitness levels are, as well as their specific goals & fitness interests. This information can be stored and shared between locations, and it becomes vital for retention, upselling and targeted marketing. Your multi-location business software should definitely provide a Forms feature, as Vagaro does, to streamline client info & make paperwork a thing of the past.
Investing in a branded business app for your gym or fitness studio enables clients to view all your available locations and choose the one they want to book a class with. In addition to helping streamline online booking and providing easy multi-location access & check-in, a branded app keeps your clients interacting with your business’ brand. In fact, it places it securely in every client’s pocket.
Now seems like the perfect time to mention the importance of a unified brand presence for each gym location.
Maintain Brand Consistency Across Each Location
You may offer different classes or services at your other location(s) per the client demographic it serves. Mid-afternoon yoga classes for working moms may be popular at your current gym, but HIIT Bootcamp for younger working professionals might be the better offering at the new one. Whatever it is you offer, every location must share consistent branding. This goes beyond your logo and color palette to include all marketing materials you send out, such as marketing emails & texts, newsletters, promotions and gift cards.
It may seem obvious to you, but lack of consistency with marketing materials can confuse current and potential clients. In other words, they may not connect that these different materials represent the same business. Automated marketing tools like the ones Vagaro customers use enable them to standardize their branding and send emails & texts to clients across locations. Users can customize the feature so that the right promotions, events or Daily Deals are sent to all members, or a targeted group, at either location.
Maintain Social Media Consistency
In an earlier article, we covered the importance of social media for your gym’s marketing efforts, client engagement & brand exposure. You may need to now double your efforts, but remember that brand consistency applies to all social media channels as well.
It may seem logical to combine all gym locations under one unified account. This may be true if you have multiple locations in the same town or city. However, combining multiple businesses, organizations or brands on the same social media accounts can cause confusion. If you’re wondering whether to have location-specific accounts for your multi-location business, consider the following:
- What is unique about each location?
- How do your target audiences differ?
- What influences how you speak to your local markets?
Be sure to produce a mix of broad social content, which focuses on building the overall brand, and hyperlocal content, which is developed with the needs of local customers in mind. You’ll probably need to delegate this to an employee, so make sure they know your social media guidelines.
Effectively Manage Your Staff
The person you hire to run your next gym is a big decision. They will have to keep your class instructors and trainers on time and in tune with your values & mission statement. They must be committed to providing the same client experience that made your flagship gym or studio a success. Moreover, the staff, trainers and instructors at your original location must remain committed in your absence. You’ll be spending a lot of time at your new gym for a while, and it’s easy to let things fall through the cracks.
You can’t physically be in two places at once, but the right software and tools can give you the next best thing. Vagaro’s interactive calendar gives business owners a real-time view of their employees’ schedules. Double-booking features and automated notifications make it easy to reschedule and make other changes as needed. You can also always have important customer information at your disposal.
Business owners can also view client retention rates and how their instructors’ classes are faring. This type of information doesn’t just help you check in on your employees and monitor the day-to-day logistics at your gym; it provides a roadmap for what to do next.
Stay on Top of Sales Data & Reports
The decisions you make for all your locations should be based on real-time data. Which memberships are taking off at each location? What classes fill up the most? Which lean mass gainer, protein powder, pre-workout supplement in your inventory flies off the shelves? Did your Pre-Summer Shred promotion fare as well at your second or third location as it always does at your first?
Advanced reports give you a complete view of your inventory, memberships sales, the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns & more. In fact, Vagaro’s Multi-Location feature allows you to share a wide range of essential information, including client info, forms, pricing, memberships, packages & gift certificates, between locations.
Most importantly, these metrics are available via the Vagaro Pro App, so you can access it wherever you are, be it onsite, at home or out to lunch. Of course, be sure to take a break every now and then—Vagaro’s got everything well in hand. Even gym owners need to rest between sets.
Streamline Your Payroll
Employee payroll can be a juggling act at one location, let alone several. You’ll need a streamlined payroll system with integrations that…
- Allow you to run payroll numbers
- Set up direct deposits
- Seamlessly manage timecards
- Generate 1099K forms
- Share employee information
- Offer benefits to your teams
Can your current payroll system handle that? If not, we suggest an upgrade.
Depending on your business model, it’s possible that you rent your spaces—or parts of them—out to personal trainers. Chasing down rent checks is a cardio workout no one willingly signs up for, but many managers & business owners end up doing it every month anyway. Tools like Vagaro’s Rent & Fees feature can automatically deduct rent from employees’ accounts, removing paper checks or third-party software from the equation.
Provide Employee Support
You’ll need to provide your employees with the regular support and training they need to stay up to date on your gym’s technology and procedures. Try and find time in your schedule for in-person training sessions or host online webinars. If everyone is using the same tools with the same level of ability, then everyone is on the same page. Vagaro’s calendar makes it easy to block off time for training, sharing updates or scheduling simple morale check-ins. As its creator, you must be the steward of your gym’s culture.
Of course, finding the time for this or delegating it to an employee may not always be possible with your schedule. Vagaro’s software implementation & onboarding are completely free. They also provide in-depth training for your team at no cost. Employees with Vagaro accounts have access to the same training webinars and other events offered. You have a partner in training, as well as business, when you choose Vagaro.
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Turning your gym or health club into a multi-location business—and possibly a franchise—is a dream for many fitness industry professionals. Vagaro’s gym management system provides all the tools to help grow your gym into a multi-location brand, from shared appointment booking, payment processing, membership management & marketing tools, to the exclusive Vagaro Marketplace listings for all locations.
If you’re thinking of expanding, or if you just want to take your fitness business to the next level, sign up for a free 30-day trial and discover everything Vagaro can do for you! If you’re using another booking software and are ready to find a more effective partner in expansion, we’ll make your switch an easy one by transferring all your data from your former platform for free. Don’t wait on the next phase of your dream—taking the leap is less intimidating with the right digital assistant at your side.
