I live in a beautiful city that has fantastic people and was recently voted the fittest place in Canada. So it goes without saying that there are a few gyms in town and some stiff competition even the athletes get into the action with the Steve Nash Clubs and the new Trevor Linden’s Club 16 we have a wide variety of choices for those uber fit Canadians.

However in this year alone I know of three gyms or training studios that have closed their doors the most recent Kitsilano Workout a 10 year old business closed just last week. The thing that really bothers me is that these gyms sell membership right up to the day they close. They do not tell staff, trainers or members of their impending closure. Now I know that a few people will disagree with me here but in my opinion this practice needs to stop and the gym owners need to be held more accountable to their members.

Your members are essentially share holders in your gym they are the investors that should keep you afloat and as such, the members should have access to how the gym is doing and if the gym is going to make it or close down in the next few days or weeks.

The practice of never-ending memberships has been stopped in some states and provinces but yet I constantly hear of gyms that keep charging members that have clearly quit or did not resign.

Why do I care what they do? Simple put there are a ton of really good honest people that want to run fitness companies that have a hard time gaining the trust of their members or community that have been stung in the past. These young budding entrepreneurs also have a harder time get bank loans, lines of credit, equipment leases and merchant services because of a few crooked shoddy operators that decide to put their personal gain ahead of the moral and right thing to do, be honest.

The real irony here is if they had run an honest and open business they probably would not be closing the gym doors. Some of the excuses are:

• They are in lease negotiations
• They thought that the promotion could save them
• They did not want to lose the existing members in case they could keep the business open

All of these have the same common thing fear, fear of losing the members or money. The thing is to turn the fear into a positive thing.

• When renewing your lease having your membership know it is happening and even what the landlord is doing could get them more on your side or prepare them for a small fee increase to cover it.
• Promotions to try and beat debt is like borrowing money to pay off your credit card and really at this point honesty may be too late but offering to your members an ability to keep you open by asking for a one time or even annual fee to cover the new equipment or hard costs is very reasonable. If you run a great club you members will probably open their wallets.
• And last but not least the fear of losing membership, if you run your business like this you have already lost them because you are spending too much time being reactive versus proactive. Try listening and communicating with members and create a plan that shows when their ideas and concepts are being implemented.

Running a gym can be a fantastic and rewarding thing that could make you a millionaire, however for the majority of people running your own fitness business won’t make you a millionaire but it will give you a great career, doing things you love and helping change people’s lives. If you are open, honest and communicate with your staff and members they will do anything to keep you in business, yes even pay more per month.

Fitness is a service business and if you can focus on this one key element and over deliver it you will have members for life and never have to worry about that nasty closed for good sign showing up on your door.