A LOT of gyms are closing right now. I wrote that prediction a few weeks ago, and I see it’s already becoming a reality. With every gym that closes, there are two things you’re going to see though (and I left these out when I wrote that post): 

    1. Some gyms will close, while other gyms are going to find themselves wildly successful this season. Those athletes, for the most part, aren’t going to just quit cheer. They’ll find another place to cheer. So, some gyms that were D2 are going to be D1. Some gyms that were super small are going to see substantial growth. If you’re one of those gyms, just know – it can be harder to get athletes from another gym than to grow them yourself (not like you planted seeds and grew those level 3 kids…but you know what I mean.) I’ve gotten kids from other gyms for both cheer and gymnastics before. One year we got about 10 new upper level gymnasts from a gym that closed. It was harder to coach them than our own kids. They had a way of doing things. They had an expectation of how practice should go and how coaches should act. Their parents had an expectation of what our program should look like. It was a pivotal year for us to really build the culture in our gym. You can’t take what someone knows and believes all star to look like and change it overnight. If this is you this year, you’ll need to really invest into communication. Build relationships with those parents. Tell them what they can expect from your program. Ask for their feedback (along with your own veteran parents) often. Observe practices from a distance. Watch the parent viewing area and listen to what people are saying. Proceed with caution, but not because they’re awful people – because they have needs to be met, and you don’t really know those needs yet. It can be a very successful transition…or they can make your life pretty hard for a season and then move onto another gym. Adapt and communicate – those will be the keys to success if you have a bunch of new families at your gym this season.
    2. New gyms are going to open. We’ve already heard from MANY people looking to open gyms this season as the result of another closing. I have seen my own competitor open and close four times in 10 years. To be fair, they’re right. Our town is all about sports and there’s room for two facilities in my tiny town of 20,000 people. The community has successfully supported three studios/gyms before. Don’t panic when you hear of another gym opening down the street – EVEN if it’s a major brand. You’ll need to adapt. You’ll need to define your brand even more and you’ll have to get more creative than ever before, but don’t panic. You might be shocked to know that having another gym in town lights a fire for me. For those brief periods that they were closed and our only real competitor was a dance studio, I found myself getting lackadaisical on my marketing. It was good. It wasn’t great. I found myself not pushing for strategic goals. Our business grew by default…not because we were intentional about our growth (and yes, it matters HOW you grow…more on that next week.) When there is a competitor in your town, never see them as an underdog. In fact, from day one my strategy has always been to put our competitors on a pedestal. Assume they’re going to be better than me and work extremely hard to prove myself wrong.You need some tricks up your sleeve if you intend to do that and do it well though. You’ll need to be systemized. One bad experience can turn people away forever. You’ll need good marketing (and I don’t just mean boosting posts randomly…I see your posts out there in Maryland that are not targeted correctly!) You’ll need to focus on staff development. You’ll need to manage your own time to prevent burnout. You’ll need to have a solid budget. Don’t wait until you’re holding on to your last rope before you do all these things. By then, it will be too late and you’ll have lost your competitive edge.

If you’re the new gym owner getting ready to open, take all the advice above and make it your own. When we first opened, there was another super successful cheer gym in town. I knew we were the underdogs. I just wanted a program that would be different, so we developed a brand that was, in fact, different. It worked, and 10 years later, here we are actually loving owning a gym. Those who say, “Don’t open a gym” are wrong. It can be amazing and fun. It can be profitable and supported by the community, but you’ll need to work for it.