The past year has been quite a rollercoaster for businesses of all types. Gyms specifically were hit hard by the pandemic through mandates to close, having to limit interactions, and abiding by social distancing measures. Central Athlete had to contend with these challenges like all other gyms, but due to a number of factors, the business was able to grow month over month since its reopening in May. Here’s how we did it:

1. Smart business model: To begin with, Central Athlete’s model of personalized fitness is relatively “disaster-proof.” When gyms were ordered to close in Texas, we loaned out all of our equipment to clients and transitioned everyone to remote training for 1.5 months. Already having the infrastructure through TrueCoach to manage this, as well as having clients accustomed to training independently made this transition a bummer (we have a really great community!), but also pretty seamless. It also ensured that we lost next to none of our clients.
2. Diversification of revenue streams: I’ve written previously about our video library and how that came to be here. During the pandemic, as many gyms and trainers have moved their services online, there has been an uptick in interest in licensing our video library. By being able to diversify our revenue streams in this way, we were able to make up for any client losses we experienced when folks lost their jobs or had to tighten their budgets.
3. Client experience as our North Star: This is true 24/7/365 and has been a huge driver in our growth over the last six years in general, but was especially true over the last year. The number one filter that we run any decision through is, “How does this impact the client experience?” We did a lot of listening to what clients needed to feel comfortable and safe, as well as how we can improve the value we provide while things looked different over the last year. While we didn’t always get it right, we have gained over twice as many clients as we've lost in the last year, which tells us that we're on the right track.
4. Not geographically limited: Going back to point number one, while most other gyms struggled to transition their services online, Central Athlete had already been providing remote coaching for the last six years. With some additional blog posts and a marketing push for remote coaching, we were able to grow our client base that way for months when other gyms were closed.
5. Developed expertise and professionalism: Clients will gravitate towards businesses that offer tangible, sustainable solutions to their problems. Central Athlete has heavily invested in our coaches; we have hired competent and professional individuals and focused on developing expertise in program design, assessment, consulting, nutrition, and business best practices.

The Central Athlete team has worked over the last year to continue to provide exceptional services to our clients and a thriving career to our coaches. It hasn’t always been easy, but by focusing on our mission to empower people to live their most fulfilled lives through health and fitness, it’s been worth it. This latest phase of growth is just the beginning of what is already proving to be an unbelievable 2021.

If you’d like to come along for the ride as our client, schedule a free strategy session with one of our professional coaches below. If you feel that you can contribute to this growth as a team member, reach out to me so we can chat.

‍