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Last week, if you remember, I griped about my gym subscription, I thought I would carry on with the trend. Many people go to gym essentially out of fear, fear of rejection by the girl across the room, fear of the fat-induced heart attack, fear that you do not live up to the photoshopped expectations of the Men’s Health cover guy. Others go to satisfy the macho-image of bench pressing a ludicrous amount of metal in the name of manhood. Seriously, where else do you ever lie on your back and push a weight off your chest.
Unless you are a mechanic and a VW Golf falls on top of you I fail to see the practical benefit of the bench press. “Ah but bru it gives you better pecs,” I hear you say?
Sure, that is a great reason for performing a non-functional exercise with massive shoulder wrecking capabilities if done wrong. Despite all this I really love the gym. A convenient way (not the only way) to get some exercise in and a great endorphin release.
I still cannot justify the expense at the new subscription rates though.
Here is my problem with gyms. They are a luxury experience at the high end of my expenses bill.
Like most businesses in Zimbabwe they are targeting the small minority of people with an above average income. All the gyms are basically competing for the same, finite pool of individuals. It is like being in a room of starving people and fighting over the same small pot of sadza instead of cooking another batch from the ingredients in the kitchen.
Only one gym in recent history came into the local market with a strategy of targeting new clients and even then I do not see it happening any more.
What we have is a pool of professional gym hoppers, people who shift from one gym to the other. What we do not have is large numbers of people who have never done gym before trying it out and sticking with it. What we do not have is a sustained marketing strategy aimed at converting people over to the product, no one is increasing the size of the sadza pot.
It takes effort to come up with a way of targeting new clients and building a relationship with them.
The process can be scripted and systematic, but it needs to be intentional.
As a business you cannot sit around and expect clients to fall into your lap.
You have to be intentional about targeting them, reaching out, and keeping them. Nor should you be waiting for a lull before you jump into action.
It needs to be part of your process from the opening all the way through.
If you focus on enriching the lives of the client rather than lining your pocket you will probably do a better job at keeping them. So for the gym, that means being a little more concerned about my health and fitness than about just increasing your fees, because if you take care of me well enough I may just bring a friend along to train.
This is not a gym unique problem. It affects almost any business in the country right now. I was reminded this last week of a quote from the 1954 movie “Sabrina”, where Linus Larrabee is explaining to his brother his motivation for business;
“A new product has been found, something of use to the world. A new industry moves into an undeveloped area. Factories go up, machines go in and you’re in business. It is coincidental that people who’ve never seen a dime now have a dollar and barefooted kids wear shoes and have their faces washed. What is wrong with an urge that gives people libraries, hospitals, baseball diamonds and movies on a Saturday night?”
If we keep fighting over the same pot of food we will never grow as a nation. If we never bother to grow other people and enrich their lives we will never grow as a nation.
If our business is all about just us getting money, getting fat, and never giving anything back we will never grow as a nation. It is that simple. We will become a bunch of greedy, corrupt people, happy to screw each other over in the name of gain, a bunch of people the rest of the world will never want to deal with because all we ever do is take.
I want to leave you with another quote from “Sabrina”: “Making money is not the main point of business. Money is a by-product.”
Have a great week.
Online Reporter