Workout Anytime

Early on I would differentiate my club on tours with unique machines people haven't seen before such as the Arc Trainer, Ab Solo, Ab Coaster and now Jacob's Ladder, Octane's Lateral X and X-ride. Put the prospect on the machines and I usually received a "wow" and actually after checking out other clubs, prospects came back and joined because they liked a machine that another gym did not have. I like unique stuff. Unique stuff sells. Doesn't have to be effective. It just sells. The ab solo was a big marketing tool for younger people coming in. I can't tell you how many "wows" I have gotten. This is what gives them that memorable experience when they come to check your gym out. Otherwise, you better be a very good salesman if you have nothing on the floor that looks different than the next gym.

The Snaps that have gone to lower rates have not all gone out of business. They got a whiff of reality. The demos are different for most everyone. Your area will dictate what you can charge. Location location location. I charge what I would pay for the membership. Not what Snap suggests a typical club should charge.

So if a new Snap club moves in and tries to undercut another existing snap club, shame on them. Just don't insult me or others that may have a struggling club and decides to lower their prices to survive. So if you insist on being the "brand that charges more and offers less" wait till a planet fitness moves near you and you'll know how the feeling is. Within 3.5 miles of one of my clubs there are 2 planet fitness clubs, a fit19 club, retro fit, meathead club, LA Fitness and 1 other no name club. All within 3.5 miles. I was established before all those clubs moved in. Do you think I left my prices at $35? I would be closed by now.

The corporate office owns a club a few cities over selling now for $750,000. Same size as mine. Why is it for sale? One planet opened a mile from them and they want to get out before everyone else does while trying to maintain that ridiculous $40/single/mo charge. Don't talk to me about clubs lowering their prices from the snap model. Before you judge another club's actions of lowering prices, you might want to think this could be you one day.

Snaplongtimer - You have assumed that I am not near any PF or other cheap gyms when in fact they are all around me within 2-4 miles. I also have a struggling club and I work without pay. I have been in this situation for several years. I am still at $35-40 for single rate and I have no plans to change this. I used to waive enrollment but then I realized people were joining for a reason which was to avoid the overcrowded gym. So now I charge joining fees, and incoming members are paying it. Every month this year, without compromising or lowering my price, I have more memberships this year than a year ago. And that is even after purging the non-using Silver Sneaker memberships on about a quarterly basis. If I lower my price now, I'd have to lower them for existing members and then I really wouldn't be able to pay my bills.


I am surprised that in your tours you are offering the value and differentiation, yet you still have lowered your price. What you didn't tell us, is did you see an increase in leads, referrals, and memberships when you lowered your price?


When you lower your price and try to get more people in, my guess is you need quite a bit more cardio or people will get frustrated and leave. Typical size for SF is not really enough to accommodate a lot of cardio. So move treads and arcs closer together, take on some extra space (more rent), and then you go from being the "boutique" fitness center to copying the PF model.

What you are doing by getting people on the equipment to demo it is what everyone should be doing. Ex. even the Cybex V3 ab machine is better than what Anytime has. We have everyone get on this to try it during a tour along with the Abcoaster and the pull up machine (because these vary also and Cybex has one of the best). As you mention, have them try it so they remember it when they go to tour another location. And variety is more important than ever.

The PF in our area has 10lb increments with their circuit training equipment and only lower body Arcs. Knowing your competition and what they have to offer factors into whether you really need to lower prices.

And did you know that Cybex no longer supplies PF? Why? According to our Cybex rep, PF asked them to make a cheaper treadmill for their gyms. Cybex said no. It's a story to tell anyone who would consider PF but it also relates to our business model. We have better quality treadmills by Cybex and the Cybex name keeps it's value because they would not cheapen it in order to get the big volume sale from PF.

I'm willing to rephrase my point from earlier since you took my comments as an insult and didn't realize I AM IN THE SAME competitive situation. The SF locations in OUR metro area that have offered cheaper memberships have closed. They are in a metro area with PF and other $10-20 gyms. People who wanted to join a SF were shopping these clubs and using our SF with their cheap prepays and cheap monthly rates. And I was really happy to see the cheap SF locations close! If it continues to be this way where I have to compete with cheap SF locations in my area, and let their members use my space and equipment, I will close because this is not what I signed up for, this competition from within.

I cant' finish my reply with out stating that misguidance from corporate was to have us buy such a limited cardio package at opening. But maybe they knew we would realize eventually that we needed more variety. I'm thankful for the options from Octane Fitness. I have Cybex, Matrix, and Octane cardio equipment because members want the variety. But even this is not a guarantee to bring in more memberships because first you need the leads and the quantity of leads are pathetic these days. Time to change things up from the current NASCAR, Country music singer, and 30 day trial.

I was replying to Snaplongtimer. This is what Snaplongtimer said, assuming that I have not experienced the PF effect:
"The Snaps that have gone to lower rates have not all gone out of business. They got a whiff of reality. The demos are different for most everyone. Your area will dictate what you can charge. Location location location. I charge what I would pay for the membership. Not what Snap suggests a typical club should charge.

So if a new Snap club moves in and tries to undercut another existing snap club, shame on them. Just don't insult me or others that may have a struggling club and decides to lower their prices to survive. So if you insist on being the "brand that charges more and offers less" wait till a planet fitness moves near you and you'll know how the feeling is. Within 3.5 miles of one of my clubs there are 2 planet fitness clubs, a fit19 club, retro fit, meathead club, LA Fitness and 1 other no name club. All within 3.5 miles. I was established before all those clubs moved in. Do you think I left my prices at $35? I would be closed by now."

Well, the 750k was for sale, but I cannot find it now. Last I seen it said 409K. Maybe it was sold. This is for the gym only no building. Quite a drop yes? Tough when you have a planet move in down the road. It was a high performing club and probably the best in the state with well over 1000 memberships at the higher rates. One thing I always wished corporate would do is insert a club near low cost competition and show us how to compete with it while holding prices at $35 and $39.95/mo for s single. Don't do this in a wealthy area either. Average middle class would do just fine. They are supposed to lead the way and show us how to compete and should especially do that in unique conditions. Not just tell us to buy their overpriced marketing materials and push their gimmicks. They won't put their money into a club like that. Who would? Honestly, if they did do that and then posted a webinar, I would imagine 90%+ of the Snap owners would listen in. They buy high performing clubs for I think it says in our contracts they have first right to buy your club. Then obviously bolt first sign of rising competition. Are we supposed to do that also?

Greenergrass...sorry I came off a bit strong. Had a bad day with a struggling club...

I think that's a great idea. I think it should be done with an existing club, otherwise the argument could be made that people are already at the dollar clubs and pulling them out is harder than keeping them. Let them deal with chipped cards and lost/stolen cards and no auto update. In focus should be
- tours
- the club itself
- advertising
- revenues
- expenses

Progress reports
- membership/member numbers
- avg $/member
- updates every 3 months