Thursday, June 23, 2016

After several months of planning, prepping, designing, and analyzing the data, I'm proud to announce that the AFS 2016 Fitness Studio Marketing Best Practices Research Report is here!  

We surveyed hundreds of studio owners across the country - identified the successful strategies - and provide them to you, in this report. The first-ever market research of its kind for the fitness studio community! (Can you tell I'm excited?) 

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Talk to any fitness professional in the Bay Area and I can just about guarantee they know Khaled Elmasri. His enthusiastic approach to changing people's lives is evident and his desire to make others around him better is one of the biggest reasons I was excited to work more closely with him and the Nor-Cal Fitness Summit.

When I met Khaled earlier this year I was drawn to his entrepreneurial spirit. From that initial meeting and follow up calls, I've learned more about his future aspirations including where he wants to take the Nor-Cal Fitness Summit.  

Thursday, June 16, 2016

In the fitness industry when you come across great minds, it always presents a unique opportunity to gain as much insight as you can from that individual.  Learning from others, including their past experiences and education background can provide key references points to help you navigate your business now and in the future. 

I recently had the pleasure of being introduced to Ingrid Owen, who happens to be our expert presenter for our webinar "Setting up Your Programming to Increase Revenue."

Thursday, June 9, 2016

There are 100 million baby boomers (those over 50), that make up about 30% of our population, and three-fourths of America’s wealth.

They are expected to live longer than previous generations.  This is the largest segment in our economy with the largest percentage of wealth. They are seeking help for their aging bodies.  Because this is the generation of consumption and personal gratification they are spending at “boomer levels”.

Saturday, June 4, 2016

In order to maximize your website traffic, it is critical to have a web address that is short, meaningful, and keyword-rich. Fortunately, two domain extensions recently launched that are a perfect match for fitness professionals looking to drive traffic to their website: ‘dot-fitness’ (.Fitness) and dot-training (.Training).

These new extensions are the most fertile ground on the Internet for fitness professionals who are looking to strengthen their digital brand. It’s often difficult to find the domain name you want – these names are ripe with availability.

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Picking a software platform to initiate your keep in touch strategy is one of the most important elements of running a fitness business. Getting people OUT of your email inbox and address books and into a system that can track their path to you and notes on their activity will help you provide relevant information to each of your contacts.

When you can keep in touch in this way, it’s easier to provide value and, therefore, build trust and credibility.

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

UPDATE (6/23/16): The 2016 Fitness Studio Marketing Best Practices Report has been released! Learn more about this ground breaking research!

At AFS, one of our biggest priorities is conducting on-going market research to uncover best practices for the fitness studio community.  This couldn't be more apparent with our soon to be released, 2016 Fitness Studio Marketing Best Practices Research Report!

In recent years we've released our 2014 Fitness Studio Industry Research Study along with our 2015 Fitness Studio Operating & Financial Benchmarking Report - both reports, a first for the fitness industry!  

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

"The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it, keep looking. Don't settle." - Steve Jobs

I recently had the pleasure of co-hosting a focus group/roundtable with some of the brightest studio owners in the San Francisco Bay Area.  At AFS, we always jump at the chance to assemble these types of events.  It's essential that we fully understand exactly what our members are going through.  

Sunday, May 8, 2016

As you may know, two domain extensions recently launched that are a perfect match for fitness professionals looking to strengthen their digital brand: ‘dot-fitness’ (.fitness) and ‘dot-training’ (.training).

These new domains allow you to create short, meaningful web addresses that stand out from the crowd and speak to your passion. Having a strong web presence is critical to the success of any business, and it’s even more important in the incredibly competitive fitness industry.

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

All hiring should be done carefully to make sure that the right candidates are selected and brought on board properly.

A quality hire may become a long-term valuable asset to your business, while hiring the wrong person can cause stress on all involved, hurt your business and waste resources causing you to start again.