Gym Owner Numbers: Why They’re Sometimes Wrong and What To Do About It

If your gym’s revenue, client count, and bank balance don’t seem to line up, the problem may be deeper than underperformance.

I shook my head in disbelief. 

The steam rose from my half-drunk mug of coffee as the morning sun streamed in through our NYC skyline-facing windows. Uncharacteristically, I let it sit. I had just spent 60 minutes of my Sunday morning reviewing every single client in our booking and billing platform, one by one.

And I was not happy with what I was seeing.

This was April of 2024. At the time, I was still licking the emotional wounds of my father’s recent passing. So I was not in my most resilient mental state. Nonetheless, what started as a simmer of annoyance was boiling to a heated rage.

We had opened up our gym in NJ about six months prior. And it had been a bumpy start. We struggled to wrangle any kind of consistency with our team, and the numbers were showing it.

But underperformance aside, the math wasn’t mathing.

Based on the reporting we were getting from our Fitness Director, we should have had more money actually making it into our bank account.

After getting annoyed, again, by a P&L that seemed off, I decided it was time to see just what the hell was going on.

And here I beheld a Gym Owner House of Horrors…

First off, we had a bunch of clients no longer coming who were showing up as “active clients,” but whose “payments,” such as they were, were going to an account balance. This was why the cash into the bank account wasn’t matching the active client count.

This meant either forgoing the money we never received, OR sheepishly asking loyal clients to ante up for past due payments we forgot to take.

Not only that, but I found a solid handful of “clients” who WERE paying consistently… but hadn’t been coming in several months. Some of them should have had their memberships terminated. And others just hadn’t been making it in. Either way, we may have been on the hook to offer credit and/or refund cash.

And finally we had a cohort of actually active clients who were paying and attending some of the time, but doing so very erratically. A clear and obvious flight risk.

I started leaving my partner increasingly erratic voice texts as I uncovered the depths to which our client list was fugazi.

But let us be clear…

This was on me.

I was an owner of the business. I had taken the reporting I was getting for granted. I was not “inspecting what I was expecting.” Distracted by still running Mark Fisher Fitness, the growth of Business for Unicorns, and the passing of my father, to say nothing of an adorable toddler chaos agent, my eye was decidedly not on this professional ball.

I could have been more active in the business, coaching our team, and managing the living shit out of the daily behaviors and reporting. But I wasn’t. 

The good news is that we’re in a pretty great place two years later. There’s an incredible Fitness Director in place, the business is profitable, the debt is being paid down, and we’re discussing various expansion plans, including but not limited to future locations.

But I share this with you because I’m an “expert” (guffaw!).

And in spite of my experience and skillset, I wasn’t looking at the numbers as deeply as I should have been. I wasn’t as engaged and invested in developing my team as I should have been.

In my case, it was because I was drowning with too many commitments and a side serving of grief.

More typically, greener gym owners simply don’t know how to manage their business. They don’t have systems for looking at the most important numbers on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. They’re not pouring in the attention and care their team needs to develop and perform consistently. 

Not because they don’t want to; but because they don’t know how.

The good news is pretty much every gym owner starts this way. Most of us learn by taking a lump or two.

But for all my sins above, if there’s one thing I did well, I owned up my contribution to the shit show.

So if you’re finding yourself discouraged by your business results of late…

I have bad news and good news.

The bad news is that you’re responsible. 

You’re at least a big part of why results aren’t there (yet).

The good news is that you’re responsible. 

You can turn the ship around. Gyms like ours aren’t especially complicated. It may take a few months. And those months can feel ugly and hard. 

But no matter where you are today, 

You’re only ever 12 months away from a completely transformed business.

And if you ever want our help…

You know where to find us.

Not just the president of the Hair Club for Men but also a client,

Mark

PS: Whenever you’re ready to work with us to build a gym and life you love,

Here are two ways we can help:

1) Join the Unicorn Society

A mentorship program for gym owners that shortcuts the path to more income, impact, and freedom. 

Think of it like franchise-level business-in-a-box support, but customized for your business. And without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars up front and paying royalties for life.

To learn more about the US, book a 10-minute intro call HERE.

2) Work with Keeler, Pete, or Me 1-on-1

Spend a day with Keeler or me in NYC, Pete in Hudson, MA, or any of us over Zoom. 

We’ll study your entire business from top to bottom: your marketing, finances, team performance, and more. Then we’ll collaborate on a customized plan to take action for the next 3-6 months.

To learn more about working with us 1-on-1, comment “MENTORSHIP”