The Alloy Personal Training Fitness Brand has grown in leaps and bounds over the last 25 years to where we are right now; licensing and franchising thousands of clubs worldwide. Part of the reason for this growth is the opportunity that lies in going for the lucrative over-50 market. This demographic holds over 70% of America’s disposable income and continues to grow in numbers. In fact, it can be said to the wealthiest generation of all time. Intriguingly, only 5-10% of marketing dollars are ta...
Jun 16, 2021•26 min•Ep. 93
Last week, we talked about Dunbar's number and why it's critical to the success of your fitness business, especially when determining the ideal number of members in a gym. Today, we build on this by discussing the approach we use to determine the ideal client capacity in a personal training fitness model. We also speak of the percentage of capacity that is actually attainable in a gym. Most gym owners will often paint a rosy picture of being always full, but this is not the reality. In our model...
Jun 09, 2021•14 min•Ep. 92
What is the ideal number of members for a personal training gym? That's the question we attempt to answer in today's episode. And to help us better understand the answer, we discuss Dunbar's Number and its significance to the fitness business. Robin Dunbar was a British evolutionary anthropologist who suggested the ideal number of people who can maintain stable social relationships in a social circle. You may already be wondering how this applies to your fitness business. But as you'll be hearin...
Jun 02, 2021•14 min•Ep. 91
Why should anyone trust your business? One of the biggest indicators of the success of a business is the levels of trust customers have in it. Trust is the cornerstone upon which all other customer experiences are built on. So the question is, then how do you as a brand build trust? How do you get customers to trust that you are doing the right thing and want to do business with you and even refer their friends? Historically, gyms have not been very trustworthy. Clients are skeptical of our mark...
May 26, 2021•19 min•Ep. 90
Eleven years ago, a Georgia State University student walked into the Alloy facilities for an internship and loved what he saw from the first day. The gym was packed, everybody was smiling and having fun, and the experience looked great. Right there, Cody Parks knew that this is what he wanted to do; this is what personal training should look like. Everything that he had envisioned was right before his eyes. It didn’t take long for Rick to notice his passion for fitness, particularly his knack fo...
May 19, 2021•30 min•Ep. 89
In the United States, there are more than 100 million over the age of 50. They also account for 70% of disposable income spending. In addition to having higher amounts of disposable income, this demographic has the time to spend on fitness, which is very important for them. These reasons explain why they make great long-term fitness clients. However, as Jay puts it in this episode, fitness facilities don't know how to or don't even want to market to this demographic. This is very intriguing and ...
May 12, 2021•38 min•Ep. 88
Whether you are the manager of your business or you hire someone else for that role, you need a clear compensation structure for that position. Matt and Rick discuss 3 different scenarios and the best practices for manager compensation for each. The first scenario we talk about is the owner-operator, where you are most likely in the management seat as the owner. This might be as the Director of Training or as the General Manager. In this scenario, you’ll have to pay yourself a salary just like y...
May 05, 2021•19 min•Ep. 87
If you are in the fitness space, you've probably heard of Causely and their Facebook check-in business. They help businesses, mainly gyms, restaurants, and churches, generate social media reviews and referrals by giving back. This helps a business reach more people while creating a charitable reputation for them. Here at Alloy, we have found Causely to be a great giving partner, especially because prior to using them, we would spend so much time trying to vet the charities that we wanted to dona...
Apr 28, 2021•31 min•Ep. 86
How do you and your team answer the phone at your facility? How do your conduct a tour of your facility once a prospect walks in? These seem like really basic questions, but you'd be surprised at how many businesses get it wrong and waste the golden chance to convert the prospect to a client. You may run the most creative marketing campaign and get lots of people to call you or walk into your gym, but if your phone scripts and facility tours are not on point, your efforts will amount to naught. ...
Apr 21, 2021•27 min•Ep. 85
We have previously talked about the dirty C-word in our organization; today, we talk about another dirty word, the F word. That's right, we are talking about freezes and their impact on a fitness business. Right from the start, Rick and Matt implore all gym owners, especially those in the personal training space, to consider every freeze as a nice way of your client quitting without saying they are quitting. This way, you are able to fight it by going to the root cause of the problem and address...
Apr 14, 2021•19 min•Ep. 84
In our current Alloy model, we do not use wearable tech as part of our personal training. It has not always been the case; we used to have specific heart rate belts with a screen where people would track their effort during workouts and outside the gym. However, from our personal training experience, we intuitively knew that having your heart rate as high as possible is not the end goal of a workout, and neither is it the ideal way to train. We had essentially created a tool that drove behavior ...
Apr 07, 2021•20 min•Ep. 83
In this episode, Jared and Rick discuss how to align your fitness business for the post-COVID era. The good news is there is a pent-up demand for fitness services IF you speak the right message to the right audience. Now that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel shining brighter with the vaccine program going on smoothly, we need to start looking at how the fitness industry will look post-Covid. Consumer confidence will definitely go up, and people will start getting out more, and as su...
Mar 31, 2021•20 min•Ep. 82
As a gym owner, have you ever thought about raising your rates, then somehow talked yourself from doing it? If you answered yes, then you are in the right place. Rick and Matt explore the reasons why you should consider raising your rates and how to do it in a way that won’t hurt your clients. The obvious reason why you need to raise your rates is to make more money… duh, which by the way, you deserve as a gym owner for the service you are offering to your clients. The fitness business is the on...
Mar 24, 2021•18 min•Ep. 81
In this episode, Matt and Rick discuss the optimal formula for how to pay your trainers. The subject of trainer compensation in the fitness industry is an issue that is always dividing opinions. Many gym owners want to know how best to pay their trainers without compromising their business while at the same time attracting good talent. Your payment structure and other benefits you can offer your trainers will greatly depend on your fitness business model. The small group personal training model ...
Mar 17, 2021•19 min•Ep. 80
As a pioneer of Personal Training and an expert in systems and scaling, having built a global franchise, Rick has a lot of insights to share on the evolution of the fitness industry and what the future looks like. Rick and Matt talk about the different gym models and how they differ from the perspective of member experience and price points. Rick shares his thought on how the different fitness models need to do to succeed. In addition to this, Rick shares his remarkable journey from how he start...
Mar 10, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 79
Just like a recipe can easily be ruined by one small wrong ingredient, so can a business. It doesn't matter how well you have done the other 99% of things correctly. If you don't connect all the dots all the time, it doesn't take much to break even a perfect machine. In a fitness business, if you over-promise in the sales office and under-deliver on the floor, and it may be just a small thing, you will push clients away. It doesn't matter how many things you got right if you got one small thing ...
Mar 03, 2021•15 min•Ep. 78
Many coaches or personal trainers find it hard to disassociate their likes and dislikes from their client’s needs. They are passionate about certain training types, modalities, or even equipment and project this to their clients. That’s why it easy to tell the preferences a particular coach has by watching their clients. However, this is not the right way to go about it. Rick and Matt persuade coaches and gym owners that the different types of training, modalities, equipment, etc., are just tool...
Feb 24, 2021•20 min•Ep. 77
In today's episode, Rick is excited to announce that Matt has bought a stake in the original Alloy Mothership gym. This gym is more than 30 years old and has never had any other owner prior to Matt acquiring a stake. Matt shares with us his long and interesting journey from stumbling upon Northpoint Personal Training as it was called back then to being a fitness director at the mothership location to being a VP of product design at Alloy Franchise. The biggest motivator for Matt to buy a stake w...
Feb 17, 2021•21 min•Ep. 76
In today's episode, Rick is joined by Jared Breen, our head Franchise Business Coach, to discuss why entrepreneurs should be ready to hear many nos without getting frustrated or quitting. It's not easy to hear so many nos and fail many times, but this just means you are working hard, and you will eventually succeed. A no is an opportunity to learn and get better. Everybody who ever encountered massive success in what they did had to hear many nos and failed a lot. But they took the nos, stacked ...
Feb 10, 2021•22 min•Ep. 75
As an expert or a personal training brand, not only should you really understand your craft, but you should also manage your member's health and fitness in the gym and outside of it. That's why we always talk about nutrition, supplements, and other important health advice. In this episode, we debunk the 3 most common myths that exist in the fitness industry. With these myths out of the way, we hope you will give the right advice to your clients as they righty expect. The first myth we debunk is ...
Feb 03, 2021•30 min•Ep. 74
The explosion in popularity of digital fitness streaming services poses a significant challenge to the brick and mortar fitness business model. Aided by AI, digital fitness is becoming more and more intuitive and appealing to a broader spectrum of people. Notwithstanding this meteoric rise of digital streaming fitness services, Rick and Matt believe that the brick and mortar fitness model is not dead. The secret lies in appreciating that in fitness, there exist two distinct markets; the younger ...
Jan 27, 2021•24 min•Ep. 73
Did you know that 70% of business partnerships fail? That's right, most partnerships fail due to some mistakes that the partners make early on. In this episode, Rick and Suzanne talk about their business partnership and why it has worked for a long time. The first thing to consider is choosing the right partner. Business partners should have trust and respect for each other and have complementary skills. It's super important to have clearly defined roles for each partner, ensuring that each pers...
Jan 20, 2021•27 min•Ep. 72
As many gym owners will be quick to point out, the fitness industry has taken a beating and has been unfairly targeted in the past year. However, there's a great opportunity right now in the industry as there's plenty of real estate available and some great markets to venture into. In this episode, Rick and Jared talk about the where and the how of finding and building out real estate for your fitness business. As you'll be hearing from them, where you put your gym and who you put in charge are ...
Jan 13, 2021•21 min•Ep. 71
There is no one in the world who doesn't benefit from sales training or a scripted sales process. Even the most talented salespeople are 80% more effective when they sell with a system rather than just shooting from the hip. However, the context of today's episode is related to marketing hooks and unqualified leads. One marketing hook that many people in the fitness space have been doing that rarely works in the long term is offering a free trial or challenge. Any person attracted by a free chal...
Jan 06, 2021•14 min•Ep. 70
As a gym owner, you have to make the decision whether to offer annual or monthly memberships or even both. It is not a straightforward decision since your membership structure affects other functions in the business as well. Over the years, the fitness industry has changed its approach to memberships largely because how we purchase other services has changed as well. Almost everybody in the world of subscriptions is doing month to month, that consumers have come to expect. Selling an annual memb...
Dec 30, 2020•18 min•Ep. 69
Occam's razor is a theory advanced by medieval times philosopher known as William Ockham, which states that the simpler explanation of any two is usually the right one. It gives preference for simplicity when looking for solutions or causes of problems. The razor part relates to shaving things down to the simplest solution. Entrepreneurs are always solving problems, but sometimes we make things more complex than they need to be. All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the best ...
Dec 23, 2020•24 min•Ep. 68
Does it make sense to convert your existing facility into an alloy franchise? Ever since we announced the new smaller pod model, which is simpler and less expensive, we have had multiple inquiries from gym owners on whether they can rebrand and convert their existing facilities to an Alloy Franchise. In this episode, Rick and Matt take us through why you would convert an existing facility to an Alloy Franchise and how to go about it. We also talk of the criteria we go through to determine if one...
Dec 16, 2020•23 min•Ep. 67
Entrepreneurs are by their nature problem solvers; that's why they get into entrepreneurship to help people by providing a solution to their problems. However, in your business, the first instinct shouldn't be How but Who. As an entrepreneur and a leader, your time is the most valuable asset to the whole business. It wouldn't be wise to spend it doing mundane tasks that you could easily delegate, which is essentially finding a 'who.' Ultimately, asking Who rather than How allows you to focus jus...
Dec 09, 2020•23 min•Ep. 66
In our small group personal training fitness model, we come across some questions all the time. These questions revolve around the construct of a small group training and how to do it. The first question that many people transitioning to small group training have is whether to do individualized training. Rick reckons that having an individual program design for each client makes it tough to coach. The coach cannot deliver a great customer experience while coaching four or six clients individuall...
Dec 02, 2020•30 min•Ep. 65
What a better way to celebrate Rick's birthday and 29 years in business than sharing some key lessons Rick has learned along the way. As you'll be hearing in the episode, we had so much fun doing this but, most importantly, went through each of these 10 lessons in greater detail to help you get a more in-depth insight on how running a fitness business for such a long time entails. Number one in Rick's list of top 10 lessons is the 10,000-hour rule. What this simply means is that you have to put ...
Nov 25, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 64
