Run a Profitable Gym
Run a Profitable Gym is packed with business tools for gym owners and CrossFit affiliates. This is actionable, data-backed business advice for all gym owners, including those who own personal training studios, fitness franchises, and strength and conditioning gyms. Broke gym owner Chris Cooper turned a struggling gym into an asset, then built a multi-million-dollar mentoring company to help other fitness entrepreneurs do the same thing. Every week, Chris presents the top tactics for building a profitable gym, as well as real success stories from gym owners who have found incredible success through Two-Brain Business mentorship. Chris’s goal is to create millionaire gym owners. Subscribe to Run a Profitable Gym and you could be one of them.
Run a Profitable Gym
How $18K Months Became $30K Months in Just 3 Years
Struggling to pay yourself enough as a gym owner? James Harris of Brentwood Barbell went from barely scraping by to generating $30,000 a month in revenue—and today, he’s sharing exactly how he did it.
In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” host Mike Warkentin sits down with James to unpack his journey from burnout to six-figure success.
A former physical therapist turned gym owner, James reveals how Two-Brain Business helped him triple his revenue in less than three years.
He also shares how ego nearly cost him his business and explains why “going out of business isn't the worst thing—staying in business and not making money is.”
James breaks down the key tactics that transformed his business, including tracking his metrics, planning his year, raising rates and building “gap strategies” to overcome revenue shortfalls.
Tune in to hear how to systemize your gym and boost your income, just like James did. Then, shoot Chris Cooper a DM to get free copies of his sample profit-and-loss statement (P&L) and annual plan.
You can find Chris—and thousands more supportive gym owners—in Gym Owners United, linked below.
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Gym Owners United
Book a Call
02:17 - Journey with Two-Brain
05:26 - Overview of James’ gym
09:37 - Low points to $100k NOB
13:28 - Paying yourself more
21:21 - What’s next for James?
You can earn a hundred grand from your gym. And I have proof. His name is James Harris, and he's here to tell you how he did it. He runs Brentwood Barbell in Missouri, and his story is next. This is Run a Profitable Gym. I'm your host, Mike Kinin . Please don't subscribe wherever you're watching or listing. And now let's get into Jim Ownership, Brent Wood Barbell in Missouri. James Harris. How are you today?
Speaker 2:I'm good, Mike. How are you?
Speaker 1:I am fired up. We were talking before the show and I almost asked you to share your secrets before we hit record. We're recording now, <laugh> . I wanna know the story. And , uh, you were talking a little bit about struggles , uh, before you found success. So put this in perspective for people who might be struggling out there right now. I was one of them at one point. What was your lowest point as a gym owner?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so a little bit of background. When I came in , uh, to , uh, owning a gym, I , uh, by trade I was a physical therapist. And , um, and so I was already used to working with folks and I knew that I wanted to do something in sort of health and fitness in , in that space. And so I sort of , I took the leap thinking, this'll be easy. No <laugh> . And , um, it turns out it's not easy. And so about five years or so into that process, it was somewhere around 2020 I kind of came to a a point where I had this revelation and , um, I was struggling. We were paying our bills, but there really wasn't anything. Uh, there was, there was more month than money to make, you know, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:It sure does. I've been there
Speaker 2:<laugh> . Yeah. And so I, I kind of just, I, I just was sick of it. And so I decided then I had this epiphany that like, going out of business isn't the worst thing. Staying in business and not making money is the worst thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're right. Right,
Speaker 2:Right. Because if you go out of business, you have time, you have time to build something new, you have time to start over. If you're just sort of in the middle and working your tail off and not making a profit, you don't have time or money,
Speaker 1:You can't see daylight at all . You're spinning plates and it's just, it's a horrible feeling. You feel like you're trapped. Honestly,
Speaker 2:It's pretty brutal. Uh, you're working all the time and your boss is a tyrant , uh, <laugh>, you know? Yep . And , uh, you know, it's like there's no insight . So I got to that point and I realized that something had to change. And it was probably within the year, somewhere around 20, maybe late 21, where I decided , uh, it's time to, it's time to find somebody who's done this already. And let me just expedite the process.
Speaker 1:Okay. So that's when you hooked up with two Brainin ?
Speaker 2:That's when I connected with two Brainin . And , and to be fully transparent, it wasn't the first time I had done a call before. And you know, like in typical sort of like no sweat intro fashion, I was like, let's do this. And then I backed out.
Speaker 1:Okay. So I gotta ask, why did you back out and then what made you come back to it?
Speaker 2:Yeah . Well, I think it was a combination of things. Uh , at first I sort of thought that I, this is what I do. I know what I'm doing, or I sort of felt like I should be able to do this. And so I , I guess I would summarize that as ego to some extent. I found it very difficult to ask for help. And then, you know, to be fully honest with you, I didn't have any money. Like, I just didn't have any money to pay for a coach, and I thought, I can barely pay myself now, how do I pay someone else? And so it , it was really just a very shortsighted or short, you know, narrow view of like the situation I was only thinking about tomorrow. Right. And so, you know, that was when I decided that either A, I had to figure out how to make this thing work or just go be a physical therapist, like <laugh> , you know, which is, you know, a lot of people didn't have that in their, in their back pocket, so to speak. So I, at any point I could have just said, you know what, I'm out, you know, and I could have went and worked somewhere and, you know, I , I wouldn't have had a lot of what I love about owning a gym in terms of freedom and terms and , and that, but I, I could have at least put more money in my pocket. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And there are a lot of people that were in that same spot, you know, and that's the thing about gym owners who need help often don't have a lot of money coming along. And that's the really hard part. And the cool part about the mentorship program is that it's set up in the first stage to help you get quick wins and build momentum so that you can actually see like, okay, I'm not drowning in debt by piling more debt on as I'm paying for mentorship. I'm actually earning some money. Was that your experience? Did you find that once you started up, things started to move quick?
Speaker 2:They moved very quickly financially, I would say within, you know, a year we had already, the program had more than paid for itself, maybe a year and a half . But it was, it was quick in terms of, and I'm, I'm basing that off of what our revenue sort of jumped when we started making these changes in the business. And so it was no time at all before it was like, wow, coaching turns out, you know, I coach for a living, turns out this coaching thing works. Um, and so I think as a side benefit, it gave me a tr tremendous amount of insight into now, like, talking to somebody who's sort of sweating a little bit about coming on and they're looking at the investment and, and I get it. It's like, look, man, I've been in that chair too. I, I totally understand where you're coming from. But it was, it was a very quick turnaround.
Speaker 1:Okay. So that's good to hear. And you know, it , it's interesting 'cause you talk about the ego thing. I had the same thing where I should be able to figure it out. I imagine you're probably a really great physical therapist and you're probably a great coach, but no one taught us entrepreneurial entrepreneurial skills. You know, that was my thing too, where I think I was an okay trainer, absolutely decent at media and so forth, but like, I had not a clue about running a business. And all of a sudden I'm trying to run my business by teaching squats better, and the things just don't match up, you know, and that's where I need help. And at my , my lowest point, I was losing $5,000 a month, and that's what I called Chris Cooper and said like, he was a personal friend I'd worked with , uh, in another job, and I actually , I'm screwed. I need help. And that's where we connected and it worked out , uh, really well. Eventually I had to put in the work though and swallow the egos the same as you did. So let me ask you this absolutely 62nd summary. What's your business? Tell me what you do. Like who do you sell to? Uh, what's your space like staff , all the stuff?
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. So we we're serving mostly folks that are, you know, 40 to 60 years old. We've got younger, we've got older. Uh , but that's kind of like our, our primary demographic. It's about equal male female split, maybe maybe 55% female, 45 male, but pretty down the middle. And we're mostly working with folks that have in some way , shape or form come to understand the importance of strength training. But they don't know like where to start. They don't know how to do it. They're typically completely new or maybe they had a previous experience that didn't go so well for them. They know it's important. They know it's part of healthy aging and, and, you know, maintaining all the things they want to do in life, but they just don't know where to start. And so that's predominantly who we're serving. Uh, and we work with them through three primary programs. We have a , um, of course, personal training or private coaching. We have group coaching, and then we have what we call hybrid, which is a combination of the two or , or someone will get like a personal training session a week, and then they'll backfill their program with group group training. And so that's kind of how we work with them. And then as far as our staff, we have three full-time coaches, and that's including me. Uh, and then we have three part-time coaches, and we just brought on an intern this week. And so our goal is by the end of May to have her up and running and put it , you know, put her in the class rotation. And so as far as the space goes, we sort of got pushed into the space that we're in. Um, we , uh, we were in a building that we liked when I first started, but the city was rezoning and restructuring. They built this beautiful park, and so they were like, you guys gotta go. So we, we kind of got pushed into space , pushed
Speaker 1:Up to local businesses. Yeah. <laugh> .
Speaker 2:I know, right? And so we kind of got pushed into a space , uh, it's 6,000 square feet and , and frankly we did not need 6,000, but I wanted to be in this community. And, and so I said, you know, I'm gonna take the leap. And so that's, that's our space. Uh , it's about 6,000 square feet and it's, it's, it's actually perfect now because we've grown so much. Um, and we have it broken down. Basically half of the space is all power racks, barbells , uh, super cool folks get their own space to lift. And then , um, the other half is kind of, it's our turf area. There's like some general accessory type stuff, dumbbell stuff, that kind of stuff. And, and so the layout just works perfectly for us.
Speaker 1:Okay. So that's, that's a really great summary of what you're all about. Not uncommon, like you're doing a , you have your market dialed in, you've got a nice open space warehouse concept, I'm assuming, and then you've got like free weights and you're doing personal training, some group stuff, and then the hybrid plan, which I love between the two of them, because who, which, which group client couldn't benefit from one extra personal training session a month, literally all of them. That's a great, great thing that I wish I had done.
Speaker 2:It's actually really funny because we only have , have that program at the request of a client, <laugh> , and I , and I , at the time, I said, I don't know. And , uh, now there's like, we have 15 people in that program, and that's a a , that's a $350 a month program, right? And it's like, are you kidding me? Like I, so it was , it's just kind of funny how it , it took off like that, but it's a great program and people love it.
Speaker 1:Someone needed to smack me over the face with a sandbag back in the day. And tell me about that one. I wish I had started that because I would've been just our a RM at my gym was , uh, when we were struggling, was in like the 1 18, 1 20 range, something like that. If I had just sold, you know, a $50 PT session, which I think is too low of a price, but if I had sold $50, all of a sudden, sudden I'm up to 1 60, 1 70, my group prep classes were priced properly, all of a sudden I'm over 200. And then life is beautiful. And gym owners, if you're listing out there a $205 average revenue per member with 150 members, that can equal a hundred thousand dollars take home , we have the spreadsheets. You can literally see that it works like a charm. So those are some numbers that you can target. Can you go higher ? Yeah. Some of our top a RM gyms are like $500. It's insane. Absolutely. You're able to do, but start with 2 0 5 and one 50, and then you have the world at your , at your feet, and you can decide how you wanna scale. So let's talk about what you've done. I'm very curious to see. So you talked , talked about struggling. Obviously that was in the 2020 to 2022 period where things were not easy on gyms and service businesses. Let's talk about low points going to a hundred grand a year or more. What are some of the key moments that happened? Was it like, you know, a hockey stick where it just shot up? Or was it like a staircase for you? How did revenue and growth and income go for you? Yeah,
Speaker 2:That's, that's a great question. And I kind of, in order to get ready this for this , uh, I kind of outlined a couple of things that I think now looking back on were particularly instrumental. The first one was, we've already talked about asking for help. Like, and I like that sounds sort of cliche, or maybe we talk about it a lot, you know, in this group, but like, be willing to ask for help. And so that was hard for me. I'm kind of a do it yourself kind of guy. And so I did that and I got into the on-ramp program, and then a few things were particularly impactful during, on-ramp. The first thing was get organized, right? So like, I had some version of a playbook, but it was kind of sloppy. So I really took that exercise very seriously. I went back and I wrote down all of the things, and I literally wrote out the gold standard for each hat or for each role. And I was, I mean, I , our playbook is like 50 pages long. It's, it's, I look at it now and I'm like, oh , I was, I , I like to hear myself talk, but <laugh> . But at the time, that was very important to me. And so , um, I really wanted to create all those expectations, all those roles. And then the next thing that I think was pretty important in terms of just getting organized was outlining those three services that we just talked about and really sort of defining what each one is and, and the price points and the expectations from us and from the client and, and just really writing that down and getting clear with it. Um, and then probably the biggest thing, and I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't do this, so if someone's listening and they're not writing an annual plan, like that was enormous. Like, everything that we were doing up to 2021 or 22 was reactive. Like it was chasing our tails. Like every single thing we did was in reaction to something. And , um, you know, when, when I started OnRamp and I'm working with my coach, and like, I'm like, oh my gosh, like, we're looking ahead. Like, and so that just changed my whole perspective. And I , again, I know that sounds like like a well duh moment, but like for me, that was brand new stuff. So the annual plan was big. Um, and then I , the last piece I think that was, you know, particularly important was , um, I was the guy, you know, before that used to say , uh, we've got money in the account, it's fine. Like, that was my monthly metrics. Yeah , yeah . Like, it , it's, so now I'm like, oh my gosh, like, I can't believe we've made it four or five years. But , um, that was a big deal because it gives you, you know, context on like, okay, here's my plan by the first quarter of the month or whatever, here's where I want to be, and I can now look at that and go, yeah, smooth sailing, or we're behind and how can we change that? Or maybe we're ahead. And I just didn't have any of that insight before I had a coach. And so I was terrified all the time, like, you know, and so now when you have data, you're like, things are far more logical and rational and less reactive, which I cannot overstate the significance of that.
Speaker 1:Listeners, I'm gonna give you two gifts right now that will help you out. If you are listening to JA James and saying , uh, that kind of feels like me. First thing, you can get a sample p and l statement, go on Facebook, find Chris Cooper and send him a DM and ask for a sample p and l. He will send it to you and you can start working on the metrics. If you don't have one of these, use his and just plug in your own numbers and you'll start to see, this is the first step toward financial literacy. It's a huge deal. You can also send him a thank you and then a follow up message that says, by the way, can I have your annual plan? He will literally send you a 12 month annual plan with key stuff already on it. You can add to it or subtract as you see fit, but there are tried and tested tactics on there that will help you make more money. So if your summers are crappy, send him a message right now and figure out what should I do now so that my summer revenue doesn't drop. So those are two gifts that you can have right away. I wanna ask you this, paying yourself, was it difficult to do? Because I talked to Jim Otter yesterday. She started getting some success. She started $0 income, she got a mentor before , uh, as she opened her gym, and she went from zero. And then she realized she was making money, but she didn't wanna pay herself. And it took a measure to say, you need to start paying yourself. How did that go for you? I was the same way. I was very crabby about keeping money in the business and not rewarding myself. What did you do?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I , that's a man, that's a great point. I think a lot of us get into coaching and we have this attitude that we would do it for free , uh, which is great and terrible, right? Um , didn't
Speaker 1:Get burned out and cranky <laugh>
Speaker 2:Ab absolutely, it's not a long-term strategy. It's great to have the passion to love it that much, but you've got to reward yourself for putting in the work. And so that was hard for me. Um, and I, you know, what I did was , um, working with my coach, she made me increase it. Like she just literally said, by the time I talk to you next week, you have to have increased your , the way you're paying yourself. And so I, I pay myself currently a , a few different ways. One way is, is I'm actually on the payroll. And so I have kind of a, I guess you'd call it a base. Then I also do a profit distribution each month. And then the third way that I pay myself is the gym pays for some of the things I enjoy in life, right? You know, whether it's my truck payment or I go to another gym and practice jujitsu, my gym pays me to do, you know, that kind of stuff. And so those are kind of the three ways that I pay myself. But , uh, it was hard. I'm not gonna lie to you. And I think , uh, I think it's a combination of a, the , the fact that we just are so passionate about helping people , uh, that you kind of have this weird feeling about getting rewarded for it because you were like me historically, you didn't get much reward. Um, and then also I think it's a confidence thing. You know, like I said, when I was sort of in that reaction mode and I didn't know what was coming up and I didn't know what the plan was, I was kind of prepared for the worst at all times. Like, it's okay if the , if the account is this at this time of the month, because I know that the total month looks like this and I don't need to freak out and not pay myself this week because we're in a certain place, it's, and so it just gives you kind of the 10,000 foot view, if you will. And I, I just can't, you know, I can't say how, how life changing that that was for me. So
Speaker 1:Yeah, you need someone sometimes to tell you to pay yourself. And it , it's almost, it sounds silly because there's other people like want more money, obviously, but I do is the same way. I, I held stuff in the business and I didn't pay myself for anything. And it was, it was just demoralizing after a while. There was no reward for it. And , and the reward was helping people obviously, but like, that didn't put groceries in <laugh> in the fridge, you know? So that was the thing where , what we'll do now, and the , the mentorship program has evolved a little bit over the last few years since you joined, where now when people come on, they're gonna find ways to sell some stuff and price and create service packages, exactly like you talked about right away. You're gonna get some new members, you're gonna drive up your a RM and you're gonna take the pressure off by generating some revenue. At that point, once you know the fires are out, you're going to systemize your business. And that's exactly what you talked about, James, where you're like, you're, now, you're making sure that everything runs properly. What is my intake? What is my retention? How are clients coming in? How long are they staying? What am I doing? How am I staffing, playbooks, all that stuff. And then from there, and this is the stage where I think you're at now, is like you've hit some of your major targets. You're no longer putting out fires every day . Your business runs pretty well. You can then decide what else you want to do. And that's our stage three where you're like thinking, what is my perfect day? Is it like sitting on the beach and working for an hour and checking in? Or is it like opening a second business, replicating my original gym? What is it? And that's the whole progression now. But the whole goal is if you're out there and you're struggling right now, the first stage is designed to put you on the launchpad and give you some breathing room by generating some momentum very quickly, and then systemize things so that you can like really start to scale up. So talk to me what the, how is a mentor , we've , we've hit on this a couple times, brushing, but obviously the direct question, how important was a mentor to make you do this stuff? Would you have done it even with the info? Like if you, all this stuff is out there for free, would you have done this yourself without a mentor to tell you to do it?
Speaker 2:Well, I can, I can answer that. The answer is no, because I had been following two brain the whole time I owned my business.
Speaker 1:Oh, so you saw the stuff but didn't do
Speaker 2:It? Oh, yeah. Well, and I would even download the, I would do all the stuff, right? I was checking in, I was reading the articles, I would go to the web , you know, I , I was, I was plugged in for sure. But a, it's really easy to miss a deadline with yourself, right? And then b, I just, I didn't really understand how it all fit together, right? Like, you know, it's like I can tell somebody, well, in order to get you stronger, we need to get your squat, your deadlift and your overhead press up how you specifically do that. Like, that's where the sauce is , right? Like, that's the magic. It's like, okay, we know the things like, okay, increasing revenue, okay, but what does that mean? Like, and so it just having somebody to sort of see it from the top down and explain, well, here's why we do the playbook. Here's why we define the services. Here's why you must raise your rates. By the way, that was terrifying. Here's, you know, like,
Speaker 1:Did you , did you lose all your clients? I gotta ask, did you lose all your clients when
Speaker 2:You did ? We didn't lose any , uh, well actually take that , but we did lose like three or four. But, but our revenue shot up dramatically. We did that. Um, uh, it's been a couple years now, and we did a big increase. And I als not only did I increase the dollar amount, I increased the unit of time. So we went from month to month to 28 day cycles. Oh yeah. Okay. So it, so all of that combined was like that year we grew like 20%.
Speaker 1:And so your income grows right, as a result of that
Speaker 2:Right away, right? I mean, and not only that, you, you end up, or it , let's say you did lose a few people. They were probably on the way out anyways.
Speaker 1:They were looking for a reason. Yeah.
Speaker 2:They were waiting. And the people that stuck around have a vested interest in you succeeding. They're, they're there, they're , they want you to win so they can win. And so you end up with a little bit tighter group, you know, and , and people that are a little more sort of , uh, going in the same direction that you're going. And , and what I've learned is that, you know, every so often there'll be a little bit of like a two , or like, we just had like a group of people leave, like it was , and , and , and it's like we're just kind of heading in a different direction. And, and that like couple years ago, that would've put me in a tailspin. And , um, and when I talked to my mentor just last week, I said, you know what? I said, I'm not nervous at all about this. And I was like, should I be nervous about this? And she's like, no. She's like, they were just going in a different direction than you. And that's okay. Like, it's, it's all good. You know, they'll find what they need and, and we'll find who's on, on our mission and it's all good. Um, but that's, again, that all comes back to just having a plan, having a vision, having a mission, and then understanding all those little pieces fit into that.
Speaker 1:Now , listeners know that we have a specific plan for rate increases. So when it's time to do that, there are figure out how many, what percent are we going up, how are we rolling it out, what's the timeline? And then if someone's gonna be account , hold you accountable and say, we're doing this this week and I've done it myself, it is very scary. But with the help of someone who has a plan, totally fine. And we've had, I , we have one mentor, one of our team members has done, I think it's 85 rate increases so far. Oh my gosh . And not one gym is shut down. Oh my , yeah. Isn't that crazy? Greg Strauss's name 85 . Yeah , 85. It's , that's ,
Speaker 2:That's,
Speaker 1:And I did the math and it , he's made millions of dollars for gyms. If you actually think about how much, you know, you bet increased , I bet . And it's, this gym increased over, like spinning up now five years now, seven years, and like millions of dollars. Not one of those gyms lost all their clients. Not one of those gyms went out of business because there's a plan. And that's what I'm getting, is that there is a plan for this stuff. And this, when you increase rates and, you know, reflect the value that you're provid to clients, that drops to your bottom line, and you can make more as an owner. It's scary to do on your own. I would not recommend you do this with the help of a mentor, but I'll tell you this, the first thing you can do right now, today, the next person you sell to do not offer a discount. They don't even know their discounts exist. So you just stop giving discounts right away. That's a step in the right direction. You can pay yourself more. So that's a huge one. Uh, I won't dwell on that. Facts , other shows about that. And I wanna get back to Jane . So I'll ask you this, your next goals for this business, now that you've got some stability, you've like, you're, you're going forward with confidence, you've got a mentor, what are you looking to do next? What's the big job ? Jobs ?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I have, I have some revenue goals of course, that I wanna continue to work towards , uh, for the gym as a whole, the way that we've operated , uh, as far as my mentor and I, we will set like a target revenue, pr, Hey, let's shoot for X and then X will kind of happen two or three times, maybe not in a row, maybe in a row sometimes. And then once we've kind of hit that, then it's like, let's make that the new normal, right? So what we've been doing , uh, recently is like 30 KA month is the new normal. Like, let's just make that the, that's the baseline, right? And so, so we're, we're kind of in that phase. And so that process, I, you know, I plan on continuing that process up, you know, a few more cycles. So financially that's kind of what we're doing in terms of just sort of the bigger picture.
Speaker 1:Can I ask you one thing before you go on to that one ? Yeah. What was your baseline back when you were like, in the 20, 20, 21 range, do you know?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Uh, <laugh> , I can give you a range. So a typical month would've been more like 18.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So we're talking almost double over the last five years. Yeah.
Speaker 2:<laugh> . Yeah .
Speaker 1:Congratulations on that. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so, and , and honestly, a lot of it , uh, I mean, I started working with two Brain , it would've been July, I looked this up, it was July of 22. So this has all really happened in less than three years.
Speaker 1:Three years even. Whoa. So that's incredible. Yeah. Wow. So , yeah .
Speaker 2:So, yeah. So I mean, we've, you know, we've, we've done so much in the last three and a half years. Yeah, it was 18, we might see a 20, you know, 21. But that was like, you know, how did we do that? You know, it's like, let's do that again. Well ,
Speaker 1:When you, when you work with your mentor now, so you set these goals, it's one thing to say, I wanna make 30 K in revenue, or whatever it is, or whatever your number is. Did you get tactics and a plan for how to do that?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So yeah , great question . Yeah . So
Speaker 1:That's the part that people miss,
Speaker 2:Right? So one of the things I mentioned a couple times now is the metrics. And so the way I have it set up is each month , uh, I, I do our monthly metrics from the previous month, right? So I look at all the things, I look at our revenue expenses, all the stuff, and then, so I kind of make my piece with that. And where we landed and what we did. And then another document that I have that's very closely related to the metrics document is a projections document. So our payments coming in are a combination of manual payments and automated, and typically our group and hybrid stuff is the automated stuff. And then PT is a little more volatile. And so we typically invoice those clients directly, you know, for the upcoming month. And so there's a combination there. But what we do is we have a process for getting projections in the first seven days of the month, right? So I know, okay, in April we're projected to make X Well, if, if X is less than the goal, then I, I put together what we just , my mentor and I just call 'em gap strategies. And so like, I did a quick little example. So like, let's say I need an extra 5K to hit my goal. So I know for us, that's five new client intro programs that's turning those five clients over into their monthly rx, which is group or private or hybrid. And then , uh, typically there's a specialty program going on. So this month specifically, we had right under, I think it was 13 kids sign up for an eight week program, and that's $2,500. And so when we, when we put the five intros together, we do the five turnovers, we do the kids specialty, that's like $5,500. So that was my gap strategies for this month.
Speaker 1:This is like dark wizardry to me if you told me the stuff back in 2010, right? Or it's like Exactly . You have a plan to make revenue next month other than just like sit and wait and hope <laugh>
Speaker 2:Ex . Exactly . So like, you know, my, my mentor would be like, okay, so I said , well, here's, here's the projection. Here's here's what we're, here's what , here's the goal. And then she would say, well , what are you gonna do about it? And like, at first, I didn't know the answers,
Speaker 1:Right ? Don't put up some ,
Speaker 2:Please tell me like
Speaker 1:Yeah , yeah. You know , that's when the tool , their toolkit comes in. Right? Now you can go in there and say like , absolutely , this is, you know, you , I need this thing. Oh, here's how I'm gonna add revenue. I have a plug and play kids program. I have a plug and play older adults , barbell program, nutrition habits, coaching, whatever. Right? Yeah. It's,
Speaker 2:It's a game changer, right? And, and , you know , I'm not gonna, there are months where we just, you know, we didn't hit it, you know, whatever, most of the time we do. But it happens. But the point is, you're not just sitting, waiting to see what's gonna happen. The you're, you're actively participating. And that , like, that is the biggest single thing that has changed between or since not being with Two Brain and being with Two Brain is the ability to control my future to some extent, right? To the degree that any of us can. Uh, I feel like I can. And I did not have that before. Like that was just
Speaker 1:Oh, I happy to hear that. Yeah. And that's the accountability factor of someone saying, did you do the thing that I told you to do that's battle tested , that's worked 500 times in other gyms around the world? And you're like , uh, yeah, I did that. Oh, and it's working and it works.
Speaker 2:I know.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Well, I cut you off before, 'cause I wanted to hit this, but what were you saying ? You had some big picture stuff that you wanted to get into , uh, for the business. What else have you got going on?
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. I mean, the big picture stuff is, is a little murky to be honest with you. Uh, what I've come to realize is the gym ultimately will be , uh, I want the gym to be a springboard into other things. And I, but I'm not sure specifically what those things are. I'm sort of interested in some real estate stuff. I'm sort of interested maybe in owning another small local business, like that's kind of , uh, uh, maybe enticing a little bit. So I , I don't know exactly, but I'm at a point now where I can start to see that it's possible to at least start looking or at least start thinking, right? I don't, I'm not consumed every single minute of every single day by keeping the lights on anymore. And so that really frees you up to do a little bit of like planning and dreaming and, you know, that kind of stuff. Uh, which is, which is fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's pretty cool. And it's neat to see what some of our, we call them the tinkers, that's the tinker level , uh, Jim Miller , that's our, our , you know, call 'em stage three essentially, where they're, they have this security, they're making about a hundred grand, and their businesses are running pretty much by themselves, and they do certainly incredible stuff. We're talking like Airbnbs crypto commercial properties, buying their buildings. So one guy started a , a distillery, another guy started a , a , a sports beverage company. Like, there's incredible stuff that happens in that group. And so when you have the time and you know, money to do that, away you go. And then you start thinking about retirement, legacy building for kids, families, the whole thing. Some people just straight up retire and like, there's all sorts of options, but that's where it gets to. So we've taken like the arc from you starting struggling here, you're up at the other end. There are people out there that are at the beginning. And what would you say to someone out there who's thinking like, Ugh , I am nervous about this. I'd love, you know, to do better with my business, but I don't know how, and I'm scared. What do you say to that person?
Speaker 2:Ask for help.
Speaker 1:Yeah ,
Speaker 2:Seriously. I, I know we've said that now a couple times, you don't have to do this on your own right now. There's a very small percentage of human beings that just for whatever reason can do that kind of stuff. That's just not most of us
Speaker 1:What cost too, you know?
Speaker 2:Well, absolutely not. Right? Even if, even if you were able to get it, you know, like I, I basically flailed about for like four years. Yeah. And that's
Speaker 1:Four years of time .
Speaker 2:I'm , I'm four years behind where I could be. Me too. Yeah , right . We , we could be doing this meeting about some stuff, like you're talking about
Speaker 1:In Florida, person over cocktails, <laugh>
Speaker 2:Ab absolutely. But yeah, so time, time is the, is is really what's valuable. And so if you can find a way to save the time, my advice would be to do that. 100%. Invest in that. Um, and that's fundamentally that has changed for me where I, again, I said I was the DIY guy. I'm not so much the DIY guy. If, if I'm comfortable with something, great, I'll do it. If I don't know, man, I can't wait to ask somebody like, let me find out who knows more about this than me do . And I'll be the student like, right away, what's the
Speaker 1:Shortcut? I'll pay you for the shortcut. And it's worth it in the end because like I , I figured out a few things in gym ownership and it took me too long and I waste a lot of money. And I was very frustrated when I got the answer given to me and someone said, do this. And I did it like, raise your rates, for example, and do it on this the third of the month. Do it now. All of a sudden things change . Whereas I didn't have to beat my head against the wall to try and figure things out and get scared. So it reduced my anxiety and it also just made me take action and move. And the time saving was enormous, but I had wasted too much time at that point. So if you're listening out there , uh, book a call link in the show notes. You can definitely talk to someone. They're gonna do a deep dive in your business, find out your greatest areas of opportunity and give you some suggestions. If you like the plan, jump in and you , uh, could one day be where James is. James, congrats on your success and thanks for sharing your story. I really appreciate it. Thanks,
Speaker 2:Mike. I really appreciate being on. It's , uh, been a lot of fun talking about
Speaker 1:It. Yeah. We'll check in with you again and see what you decide to do when you decide to take the next step and grow even further. Maybe in a second business or something like that, you'll come back.
Speaker 2:Absolutely can't wait.
Speaker 1:All right . That was James Harris. He might be back. This is Run a Profitable Gym , and I'm your host, Mike Warton . And now here's Chris Cooper to bring founder with a final message.
Speaker 3:Hey, it's two Brain founder Chris Cooper. With a quick note, we created the Gym Owners United Facebook group to help you run a profitable gym. Thousands of gym owners, just like you have already joined in the group. We share sound advice about the business of fitness. Every day I answer questions, I run free webinars, and I give away all kinds of great resources to help you grow your gym. I'd love to have you in that group. It's Gym Owners United on Facebook, or go to gym owners united.com to join. Do it today.
