In this episode of "Ask Evan," Evan Carmichael answers a question from newsletter reader Ajith, a gym owner seeking to boost profitability and turn his business around. Evan identifies member engagement as the primary lever for sustained revenue, explaining that gyms typically see a surge in January due to New Year’s resolutions, followed by a steep drop‑off. He advises Ajith to focus on keeping members motivated and connected throughout the year. Practical, low‑cost retention tactics include offering free classes, expert workshops, "bring‑a‑friend" days, regular email or phone outreach, and providing goal‑setting sheets for members to track progress. Beyond retention, Evan suggests low‑budget marketing strategies: forming reciprocal partnerships with nearby businesses and positioning the gym owner as a local fitness expert for media outlets, thereby generating publicity and attracting new members. The overarching message is that high engagement leads to repeat visits, higher spend on classes and merchandise, and organic referrals, which together drive profitability. The video ends with a call for viewers to comment, like, and subscribe.
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Hi, I'm Evan Carmichael. Welcome to another edition of Ask Evan. Today I'm going to answer a question from one of my newsletter readers, Ajith, who runs a gym and is looking for ways to improve his profitability and turn the company around. So Ajith, some ideas for you. I think the most important thing you can work on is the engagement of your audience. Audience. One of the biggest things you see every January with gyms is everybody's kind of hitting the gym and trying to make those New Year's resolutions work, and then the rate drops off hugely. Uh, you don't see people going to the gym anymore after January, and then it's another big rush the next year. So the thing for you, I think, would be how can you make those people stick around? How can you get that engagement level high? Because if people are committed to your gym, they're going to come more often, they're going to spend more money with you, they're going to sign up for some classes, they're going to bring their friends with them. So how can you keep that system so people want to come back to your gym? So some things to look at, you may want to have free classes to encourage people to come in, you may want to have workshops with experts for, again, for your current customer base to come back, make sure they keep coming back, offer some special days where they can bring their friends in, look for different ways to get that engagement level high. If it's sending them emails, calling them, try to keep them motivated, maybe you have a goal sheet at the gym. To have people fill out their goals and keep track of how they're doing. Basically, you want to try to find ways to get that motivation level high so they keep wanting to come back and spend time with you. If you can do that, you've solved a huge problem that most of the gyms are facing, and if you have those repeat people coming back, again, they're bringing their friends, they're spending more money on your gear and classes, etc. So that'd be the first nut I'd try to crack to get your business even more profitable. You can also look at different ways that are, you know, low-cost marketing to bring more attention to your business. One could be to partner up with other business owners, so you know, you promote them, they promote you type of thing, local businesses that are kind of located around where you are. And then I'd also try to partner up with some media outlets, position yourself as an expert. Whenever there's articles that they need an expert to comment on, health, fitness related, you wanna be the go-to person to be able to answer those questions. And you make a kind of little splash with your local media, again, get well known, get people coming into the gym. But your biggest thing is still that engagement. So if you get people to come in, you don't want them just to stick for a couple weeks. You want them to stick for the whole year, bring their friends, spend lots of money with you. So I hope that helps. Uh, for anybody watching the video, I'd love to hear your thoughts if you want to leave a comment on the video. And if you like the video, please give it a thumbs up. I love seeing those, and we'll see you in the next episode.
