Why Hire a Consultant for your Health Club or Gym

Now I know what you are thinking:

“Consultants are a waste of time and money as we already hire staff to get us results”

In all honesty that is exactly how I felt as a club manager and business owner back in the day.  I was protective of my business, I felt a consultant would criticise and look to mock what we were trying o achieve and thus I never looked to improve further that what I knew I was capable of.

Now this is a very honest and admirable approach, believing in your own talents and that of those who you employ should be a high priority in your business.  Otherwise why would you employ them?

However, I urge you to look at consultants like myself in a different way.  We are in the success business, we work with clubs to improve on what they are currently doing.  We help find solutions to the challenges that affect you most and work within your own framework to improve your processes and maximise your success.

In any field of business, experience can expensive to hire. For many clubs, especially within hotels and independent clubs the managers are often inexperienced and whilst incredibly enthusiastic do not always have the skill set to deliver the budget targets expected.

This is where Charlesworth Consultants can make a difference.  We work with clubs on both a short and long term basis to implement training, improve skill and knowledge base and ensure that those running the clubs from the owners, general manager and club manager are aware of what is required to maximise their success

As consultants we do not take over the running of your club and dictate terms of engagement.  We act as an impact team to first determine with you what your aims and objectives are, we then aim to put in place a strategy for your team to deliver and put in place the required set of skills and processes to enable the team to deliver.

Every club differs and so some simply require membership sales training, others require a bespoke set of strategies to deliver results.  Some we work with as a one off, some we work with for years.

The Key is, we are there to support and guide your teams to deliver the success your business needs.  We will help identify these business needs which could range from:

-          Membership Sales Training

-          Membership Management and marketing strategies

-          Business reviews and management

-          Service deliver, standards and audits

-          Mystery shopping

-          Systems reviews

-          Operational standards delivery

For more information and to see how Charlesworth Consultants can support your 2018 success message me direct or e-mail ryan.charlesworth76@gmail.com

www.charlesworthconsulting.co.uk

Take advantage of your quiet times

Dont be caught out by the Christmas Joys!

November and December are notoriously quiet for the Health and Fitness Industry as prospective clients shift their focus from personal wellbeing and joining to partying and Christmas purchases.

So with this in mind in never fails to escape me how many clubs join this Christmas spirit by switching off and relaxing.  In fact this is the perfect opportunity to prepare your plans and train the team ready for the New Year.

Whilst it is not as vital as it once was, January and February are still the busiest time for membership sales and a failure in this early period will have an impact on your clubs performance all year.  It was not uncommon for many hotel leisure clubs to back load their budgets so that any poor performance did not have an early impact and any big success put the clubs on a real footing for the year ahead.

So what should you be preparing?

1) Your Budgets
2) Your sales and Marketing plans for the year.  These can obviously change as you go but having an annual plan allows you to to deliver rather than be planning as you go.  Adapating to changes is far easier than having to create a new plan every month. Especially if its busy.
3) All of your internal and external marketing material. Book your leaflet drops, create and print your mail drops, create newsletters and media adverts and press releases.
4) Train your team.  This is a perfect opportunity to take the team aside and work on any operational challenges, retrain the sales process and the customer journey.  Work on customer service standards and instill new practices.  It is also a great time to send team members on CPD courses, first aid, pool lifeguard and pool plant as the club will be quiet allowing for skeleton staff shifts.
5) Carry out club audits and ensure any preventative and essential maintenance is carried out now.

I still remember the old saying FAIL TO PLAN, PLAN TO FAIL

This quote ring so true when it comes to the New Year for most leisure Clubs.  This rings even more true for those in Hotels where traditionally November and December will be one of the busiest times for the hotel.  Come January the hotel business dies off and leisure pics up.  Its therefor easy to get caught up in the hotel's hecticness and fail to put in place what is needed for the clubs busy period.

Working hard now will pay dividends in the New Year!