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In just seven years, Adam Wilson has gone from being a part-time instructor to a co-owner of five independent clubs in Cairns, Australia.
Adam’s last acquisition in February 2008 was of the club where he began his fitness career!
Adam’s clubs range in size from 330 to 1980 members, and he says group fitness has played a major part in their success. Group exercise accounts for between 47% and 87% of total visits at four of the five clubs in his Active Health chain.
Group fitness drives success.
 Adam makes attending group fitness as easy as possible for members. Four of his five clubs are within 15 minutes drive of each other, so Adam offers a passport facility and designs complimentary timetables which allow members to choose a class at the club that’s most convenient. The same instructors teach in each of the clubs, so the members enjoy the consistency of being taught by a tight team of familiar faces.
“As a part-time instructor, I wanted to offer outstanding group fitness experiences in my facilities, and I believed that the only way for me to be successful with group fitness was to have LES MILLS™ programs dominating the timetable.
“We have 88 classes per week across four clubs and 85% are LES MILLS™ classes. I think of it like paying a toll each month – once you’ve paid and got through the toll gate, the world is your oyster.
“For example, the club we have just bought had average class attendance of seven people at a peak time of 5.30pm. Today we are turning people away from BODYPUMP™ once we get to 38 participants.
“It’s simple: group fitness is growing my business every day.”
Staff spread the message.
Success is helped hugely by Adam’s committed sales team, who really understand how to market the benefits of group fitness to prospective members. Adam ensures all members of the sales team really get to know the business – they must participate in each group fitness program at least once, spend time on reception, and help out in child care. “Our sales team sells with sincerity rather than ‘spin’ and it really works.”
Adam values his staff highly and rewards them for growth. There are weekly competitions for both the personal trainers and instructors, with prizes ranging from champagne to tickets to see a film or a sport match, and just plain old recognition.
A personal approach.
Adam’s fun, friendly style is reflected in Active Health’s culture. He has a Group Fitness Manager, Personal Training Manager and Yield Manager, yet remains very hands-on. He and the Group Fitness Manager provide express assessment and feedback to the instructors by randomly dropping into classes (in addition to formal six-month assessments). He also joins the instructors for an impromptu team-teach if he’s around for either BODYPUMP™ or BODYSTEP™.
The Active Health team makes sure that new members get lots of support in the first 12 weeks of membership. During this time, new members enjoy free weekly consultations from fitness staff, and can then choose from three membership plans depending on how they want to exercise long term.
Group fitness events build loyalty.
Active Health hosts one regular group fitness event for profit each quarter across the whole chain. For an investment of about $1,350 on local newspaper ads, decorations, instructor wages, fruit platters, drinks and prizes he usually gains at least 20 new members. At that rate, gross revenue per event works out at approx AU$17,000 ($17 x 52 weeks x 20 new members). Even if you halve that to account for attrition, his payback is over four times his cost.
In the Zone.
Adam loves what he does and his staff members are inspired by his passion and commitment. He has low staff turnover and leads from the front. He is ready to help out with any initiative and his team follows his example. They go the extra mile to build a true fitness destination for their members.
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