The Starving Gym Owner

an ode to gym owners

BEEP!, BEEP!, BEEP! as the ringing of your phone alarm goes off. You roll over and look at the time its 4:28 am. Its a cold, dark, depressing January morning. Or as some call it a different part of the day altogether, a time when you are naturally supposed to be sleeping. Anyway your eyes are now open starring at the ceiling of your bedroom, your still beyond tired and now a rush of thoughts flow into your brain. The thoughts of what if? What if I just close my eyes for 5 more mins, what if I just miss todays class, what it I say Im sick........ I mean hell I got home at 9pm last night from coaching and then was up programming, making and eating dinner till 11pm. People will understand, right?

Wrong, they will not, they pay you good $$ to come to the gym and be apart of this community and be coached. So now the thought process turns from What if to just Work Harder. ( More on this later).

So you roll out of bed its 4:36 you throw on one of your 18 gym hoodies, and head outside into the 10 degree, darkness of a early January morning before the sun has even thought of rising. You get in the car and think, what the hell am I DOING, this isn't even a hour of the day for humans to operate. Crazy thoughts run through your mind again as you turn on the car and start your journey to the gym. All the while planning what you are going to say, checking to see who is in this class so you can plan accordingly, and so on.

You pull into the parking lot at 4:51 and 7 cars are already there anxious waiting for you, hoping you arrive on time because if you are even 3 mins late they know they may have to leave class early to go to work themselves. As you park you notice the exhaust emanating from the cars and everyone just waiting on you to get this party started.

As you head into the gym and turn the lights and the screens on and turn up the heat just a bit because we gotta keep that electric bill down but its freezing in here. The members start filing in, half asleep as you call people over to the usual gathering spot before you breakdown the workout of the day, give a few tips, devise a plan of attack for the stimulus of the workout, make announcements, offer scaling options and then add a little joke and some motivation words. Its time to start its now 5:05am, then next 55 mins are a blur of caffeine, energy transfer from you to your clients via coaching, yelling across a 8000 sqft gym and pushing people thru a grueling workout, or more like a rite of passage really.

Its 5:58 half the class is laying on the floor in exhausting thinking what the hell am I doing this for , but at the same time they feel amazing and almost high on the chemical release they are experiencing. The other half of the class is slowly putting away equipment all the while your next group is patently waiting at the whiteboard to get started on time.

You take a deep breath and repeat what you just did for the next 4 hours straight. After 5 classes done, giving your all to your clients. The energy expenditure adds up that being equivalent to 15 hours of work. You feel absolutely wrecked and drained of all your energy, your mind is on food and sleep, forget about those emails, DMs or Voicemails you need to get back to in order to actually grow this business. its 10:07 am. But hey at least I am off from coaching this afternoon and evening you think to yourself!

You take a look at your numbers, hell its early January we should be getting new members right? Its that time of year. But as you look over your CRM since membership billing just hit your account you see you lost 4 members and added 4 keeping you at 84 members still, the same its been since August and monthly revenue has leveled off as well. You sit there half asleep not sure what the problem is. You think we offer a good service, our members seem to like coming here and are always saying so, we put back into the gym by reinvesting in equipment and take less money as the owner to do so. But at the same time you know if nothing changes you may not be able to do this much longer. As the last of your morning members files out you head out to finally eat and end up going home and falling asleep for 2 hours from pure exhaustion.

You wake up in a sweat and look at your phone that was ringing but you slept thru the alarm its 1:30pm and you look at your texts your part time coach that you barter a membership with for coaching 6 classes a week has just called out today because his kids are sick. You send a few texts no one can cover, its on you again. You had the afternoon and evening set aside to workout, reset your mind and to create some content and marketing for the gym. Thats now being pushed back, again.

You rush back to the gym and prepare for the 5 afternoon and evening classes. You drink more caffeine and give it your all. Delivering an A+ performance. The evening classes drag a bit and when your finally done its 830PM. The gym is a mess and you have to clean it or it wont fit with what is programmed for tomorrow. You finish cleaning and get to your car, its 9:06pm.

You drive home, looking forward to a warm meal and rest and then you look at your email, 3 members cancelled today. WTF!!!!! you think as you try to fall asleep with your mind racing thinking of ways you are going to get and keep your members. How much longer can I keep this up for?

If you read this far, first thank you, this probably hit home a bit in that case. Just know there is a better way, a way to earn a great living doing what you love without crushing yourself. Working smarter and not harder is the key. Ive done it both ways and Ill pick working smarter every time. I hear to chat anytime for those that are in a position like this and want to make a change for the better.