CONCEPT BEHIND Mentorship
Our basic premise is simple: Gym owners from around the world sharing what works and what doesn’t from a long-term business perspective.
WHERE TO START
There are a lot of ways to skin the cat in order to produce a successful Crossfit affiliate. We are here to help you find the best way to run your affiliate. We have teamed up with some of the most interesting and successful affiliates from around the world to share best practices and improve each others’ businesses.
To come up with our universal best practices, we have analyzed data from our box and the hundreds of boxes we have consulted to over the years. With all this data, we have created an entirely new way to operate a Crossfit Gym, or any gym for that matter.
Here’s what we have learned so far:
– We are not a globo gym – it should not be run like Gold’s or Fitness World.
– We are not a martial arts studio – it should not use the same systems as a Karate Studeo.
– We are not a “Boot Camp” – it should not operate or pay its people like a “Boot Camp”
Have a long look at the chart below. This is essentially the skeleton for all Crossfit Gyms. The systems, content, and expertise from each section will ultimately dictate your affiliate’s success.
We believe the key to running a successful affiliate is in creating systems and providing opportunity for smart, self-starting individuals to succeed by way of the free market. To get some free advice on your CrossFit affiliate’s “health,” fill out this survey:
Most CrossFit affiliates today face similar problems.
Current Crossfit Business Models:
1) One man band – some relief here and there, but for the most part the owner is running the show
2) Partners – mornings/evenings – relief staff
3) Coaches are paid based on an hourly wage while the owner is a micro-manager (looks like a globo gym, martial arts studeo or boot camp)
Here are the tunnels that lead away from success, happiness and financial freedom:
A) Opening a box – “I love Crossfit, the program is great, this should be easy, the gym will run itself.” Most CrossFit gyms start as a hobby, or a part-time second job. But within a year the excitement for CrossFit and being a gym owner is replaced with, “What do I do now?” The problem is that nearly all new CrossFit affiliate owners’ business instincts were completely wrong. Their approach to the market was not well thought out, bad partner agreements were signed, and they give their product (CrossFit) away, as opposed to honing virtuosity.
B) “I have 50 clients I need some sort of system here.” Most Crossfit affiliates implement an “onramp” or “fundamentals” system with a low barrier to entry – this leads to a dead-end.
C) The CrossFit owners with a lot of personality and knowledge of human movement can typically work their way up to 100 clients and generate monthly revenues of $15-20k pretty quickly. These owners often complain that, “My coaches all suck, they can’t bring anybody in, and I have to manage the shit out of them”.
D) “I am at 150-200 clients and/or $40,000 a month and I am completely fucking burnt out. I do not want to go into my own gym or talk to humans.” Back to the drawing board with the scotch bottle in hand.
The next step in the evolution of Crossfit Gyms Using the “Road map” as our guide, we can begin to ask questions. Then through trial and error and data tracking we can uncover what works best on all aspects of the business. Each one of these sections has best practices associated with them. The Law Firm / Co-operative
- Free market rewards excellence
- Partners that work together
- Coaches earn a professional wage ($80-$100k/year) that competes with engineers, lawyers, accountants etc.
- The free market should determine your coaches success. (i.e. your coach has to become excellent in order to earn a professional wage).
- Your coaches should work less than 35 hours per week and take 4 weeks of paid vacation (50% pay) per year
- Link your coaches wages to to the continued success of each client he/she is responsible for.
- Your coaches wages should represent his/her ability to find new clients, get referrals, and retain existing clients.
- No want or need for your best coaches to leave the company to start their own business. Create a system where there is no financial benefit for a coach to ever leave.
- No Hourly wages
- No getting paid by the class or based on class attendance
- System rewards coaches who help each other, so you’re not competing for finite resources inside the gym
- Each coach has a specialty inside the Crossfit protocol to help other coaches and apprentices in each specific field.
- Coaches coach less than 10 hours of classes per week
- Flex time – Coaches set their own schedule
- No Micro manager needed to fill schedules and tell coaches how to do their jobs
- Mentorship of apprentices to become totally self-sufficient coaches – assured mutual benefit for coach and apprentice.
- Coach has ability to buy shares in the company and retire on the value of these shares by selling to the next generation.
- Longevity and collection of knowledge. Coaches work 25- 30 years in fitness industry and pass their knowledge on to next generation.
- Owner of business is not mired in the details of micro-managing the company.
- Owner never has to worry about scheduling coaches or having coaches miss classes etc.
- Owner of company is freed up to find new business opportunities in the community for their coaches.
- Vacation time for all.
In short, our business model looks similar to that of an engineering or law firm, but better in that coaches are rewarded by client success and not based on an hourly wage. They have flex time and don’t have to work 60 hours a week to make partnership. The system works like a co-operative with strong leadership. This means, coaches don’t get trapped working for twenty-five dollars an hour in a fitness facility, eventually forced to “find a real job” in order to afford a home and start a family. Instead, they work as entrepreneurs and independent contractors incentivized by the free market, with stock option to own a portion of the company. For our coaches – the sky is the limit.
Our larger vision: Working together, we can further our knowledge and talent base to make the product inside our school better every day.
So far, the best practices we have discovered have led to a potent business model, supported by systems and software that: Improve
- Retention, referrals, income per coach, income per square foot, morale and culture, as well as general fitness in the box
- Vacations for everyone – soothe some burnt out souls.
Reduce
- Injuries, client turnover, coach burnout, coach turnover
- Heartaches
Send me an email, if this looks interesting
patty@crossfit.ca