There are two ‘facts’ that have not changed at all for the more than 20 years I have been working in the Australian fitness industry; the first is the golden 10% statistic where 10% of the population regularly participate in exercise. The second is that there is a concerning lack of information technology expertise with comprehensive, real-world, fitness industry experience.
Addressing the “Golden 10%” is outside my skillset, and is the domain of the many, many sales/marketing and retention consultants, experts and gurus that have saturated the industry. What I can do however is attempt to address the dearth of fitness industry-specific IT information that is available to club/studio managers and others who have an interest in ensuring they are getting the most out of their computer systems for their business.
Health clubs, studios and trainers have unique IT needs. On one hand, a computer is a computer. What works for any small business around town will technically work for any health club. On the other hand, your average small business doesn’t have to contend with issues such as protecting your computer from the humidity that comes with a nearby wet area. Nor do they generally have to concern themselves with the differences between the high traffic/low latency needs of a reception computer and the low traffic usage of the office computer. How about the issue of using iTunes to pipe music through to the gym floor? So yes, a fitness industry business is in many respects no different to any other business, but it is also quite different in others. Our industry has it's own specific conditions, requirements, traps and tricks.
I feel for the average club manager these days. Not only are they fighting the ongoing battles they always have with staff management, attrition, financial management, marketing and so on, they now also have the very rapidly changing technology landscape to deal with. Members’ expectations on what clubs offer via their Web sites are increasing. Commoditisation of facilities is forcing competitive differentiation to come more from services, which increases the need to rely on technology to manage this. And mobile. Oh boy. Mobile. The wholesale embracing of mobile tech is placing a whole new level of pressure and expectations on clubs, personal trainers and studios.
And it is in these areas I aim to do my part in addressing the dearth of expertise. Through this blog (along with various other mechanisms to be announced) I will be offering you the benefit of my 20+ years of fitness industry-specific experience and knowledge. I aim to help you get the most out of your technology investments, ensure you make appropriate purchase decisions for your business and ask the right questions when shopping for technology. I will offer tips, hints and tricks you will find interesting and valuable to your business.
If you have any questions, topic requests or feedback, I’d love to hear from you, so please use this site to drop me a line.
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