You probably started your gym because you loved coaching cheerleading. Am I right? If you started your gym because you love business and thought cheerleading might be a good business to start, you’re a unicorn and you probably don’t need to read any further.
What many of us come to realize over time is that the skills that made us good coaches are not necessarily the same skills that make us good business owners.
Knowing a thing or two about cheerleading helps, but I’ve seen quite a few moms start gyms and be super successful. I’ve seen very few coaches start gyms without having to learn finances, taxes, payroll and marketing to be successful.
The first two years we were in business, I bragged a lot that we had never spent a single dollar on marketing. Our program was amazing and people heard about it from their friends.
Oh young Danielle. You’re cute. You’re wrong, but you’re cute.
Over time, I got a wake up call. We could grow, or we could GROW. Now, I believe a steady growth is better long-term than a boom, as steady growth allows you to adapt over time. Not marketing tends to have some natural growth, but usually your number of enrollments each month evens out with your number of drops. So, not intentionally marketing hurts you.
Having enough money to do what I need to do every month is fine. Unfortunately when you can’t take a raise because you’re “not in this for the money” becomes pretty painful when you’re on the verge of a potential national recession.
Creating systems is time consuming and quite honestly not necessary for a lot of owners – unless that system has to do with calculating your team retention, hitting monthly benchmarks with teams or analyzing your scores to make changes to your routine. I’ve also never known an owner who didn’t have systems who could take a 2-week vacation without working or being on the phone with staff the whole time.
Oh yeah…then there’s staff. As a coach, some of my best friends were also coaches. We’d hang out after work, go out to eat and there was never a hierarchy. At work, we were equals. Once you own a gym, that can no longer be the case. I’ve never seen a successful gym owner who thinks the staff should be held to the same expectations as the owner. In fact, great owners know they are held to the highest expectation above anything expected of the staff.
As a coach, time management wasn’t really a thing unless you were talking about using practice time effectively. I worked a day job (or was in school for a period of time) and then I went in to coach. That was pretty much it. I’ve never known a successful owner who didn’t spend time working on the business long before staff arrived for the day.
Many of the skills you had as a coach may have led you to this point, but it’s a whole new ballgame now. You have to learn to like numbers, payroll, taxes, and finances. You have to find value in systems and checklists. You have to love rec kids as much as you love all star kids, and you have to do all of that while growing a business. I’ve also never met a single owner who I didn’t think had the potential to be successful. Not once. If I’ve met you before, that means I think you have the potential to do amazing things.
So if you’re a coach thinking of opening a gym, ask questions first. Find out what the role of an owner actually is. If you’re an owner and now you’re a little nervous you don’t have the skills to do this, find a mentor or business coach who will guide you through the process. You are absolutely capable, but you’re going to need to learn a new set of skills, so get ready!
