Category Archives: Gym memberships

Fitness For The People By The People: Is this the Future of Fitness Clubs?

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I caught an episode of a documentary last week on ABC about the People’s Supermarket.  This is a London based food cooperative that aims to provide fresh seasonal food, at good prices and with minimal food waste.

Today I was reading Springwise.com and saw an overview of the concept.  Only members can shop at the People’s Supermarket, but they all get a 10 percent discount on prices as well as a say in how the store is run. In exchange, members pay an annual membership fee of GBP 25, and they also pledge to volunteer four hours of their time per month working as store staff. Because the supermarket’s workforce is nearly all volunteers, staff costs are kept low this way — an advantage that can be passed on in lower prices. Any profits that are earned, meanwhile, get put back into the store to bring down prices even further.

Why not a cooperative fitness club?  Same concept but fitness club not supermarket.  You would still need to sell memberships but each member would be an owner.  Each member would need to donate some time to working in the club for x hours per month.

“Fitness For the People By the People” – a fitness club owned and managed by its members.  Is this the future of fitness?

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31 Day Cash Flow Challenge Day #16 – Don’t forget about Pro-rata Payments

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Ezypay’s 31 Day Cash Flow ChallengeGuest Blogger – Amanda Bracks – Bracks Consulting - Women in Fitness

There are many businesses that are currently not taking pro rata. They go through all the hard work of negotiating with the prospect on a sale price, the sale is accepted and then the business discounts the customer’s fee when they are actually processing the payment details. The customer never asked for this to be removed and it’s a lost opportunity of income.

Pro rata is the amount of money owed before the next debit is due. Many sales people seem to waive the pro rata, thinking the payments can simply start on the next debit. It is very important to the business to retrieve all funds owed for the purchase including the amount owed before the first debit is due.

Working out the pro rata is simple. Just divide the debit amount to get a daily amount. Eg if your services are $89 a month x 12 months and divided by 365 days = $2.93 per day. If someone had 10 days before their debit is due, they owe $29.25 to get started (plus relevant joining / admin fees). If you sell 100 units per month and your pro rata is roughly $29.25 on average – that’s $35,100 extra income per year (money your staff are giving away now for no reason).

Ensure your staff are disciplined to collect the pro rata on every unit sold, either at point of sale or to be debited out of their account on their first debit.

Follow the 31 day Cash Flow Challenge here and on Facebook.

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31 Day Cash Flow Challenge Day #3 – Reconcile your membership income on a weekly basis

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Ezypay 31 Day Cash Flow Challenge

Reconcile your membership income on a weekly basis

Who has paid and who has not? Gym entry is always a tricky situation for the member and the staff when discussing non-payment issues.
It’s essential to make sure that you know who has and who has not paid their membership on a regular basis. With direct debit payments being the main source of membership income you need to reconcile each member’s payment as they occur to ensure they are up to date.

If you fall behind your reconciliation it soon becomes a mountain to climb, members are often not aware that their payment didn’t go through, their credit card has expired or their bank failed.

Avoid that uncomfortable entry situation; do a regular weekly check to make sure your business is healthy and your members are happy.

Follow the 31 day Cash Flow Challenge here and on Facebook

Payment Solution Tips for Swim Schools

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A lot of Managers and owners of swim schools have asked me over the years “Dan – how do I get my swim school onto direct debit?” or “how do I make my swim school debits better?”

My simple answer is this…

“Market and manage them like you do a gym membership“.

Here’s why and how:

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Online members – more engaged or less?

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One of our clients Fit n Fast has received a lot of industry and media interest in the way that they are signing up members.  That is using Ezypay’s online application (the direct debit gateway) which they have embedded on their website and their facebook fan page. 

Fit n Fast Penrith

Fancy a quickie in Penrith?

A question that was raised by Justin Tamsett, of Active Management, was really very interesting.  He wondered what the long term retention stats would be for members that had signed up via online.  On one hand you might argue that they will be more engaged because they know exactly what they want.  They haven’t had to go through a sales presentation to sign up.  On the other hand you could argue that because the barrier to entry has been so low (they may have signed up in their lounge room) then their commitment to attending the club will also be low. 

 I was thinking about doing a short and long term study of their retention rates to finally answer  the question.  If anyone has any insights or opinions on this issue I would really like to hear them.