If you want to back a winner - then why not back yourself?
Here’s an idea - Turn back the clock
As the Spring
racing carnival is now upon us and Spring is often the season of renewal and
making a fresh start it got me thinking about the state of the fitness industry
and the doom and gloom that we hear about all the time -- “there are too many gyms opening up”, or “ too much competition,
not enough profit”, or “
wage costs too high”, or “ R.O.I. just not like it was back in the
“hey day” of the late 80s early 90s”.
Then I thought
about the Blue
Ocean Strategy.
Blue Ocean
Strategy is often defined as:
- the simultaneous pursuit of differentiation and low
cost.
- not to out-perform the competition in the existing
industry, but to create new market space or a blue ocean, thereby making the
competition irrelevant.
* Companies have long engaged in
head-to-head competition in search of sustained, profitable growth. They have
fought for competitive advantage, battled over market share, and struggled for
differentiation.
* Yet in today’s overcrowded
industries, competing head-on results in nothing but a bloody “red ocean” of
rivals fighting over a shrinking profit pool. In a book that challenges everything
you thought you knew about the requirements for strategic success, W. Chan Kim
and Renée Mauborgne contend that while most companies compete within such red
oceans, this strategy is increasingly unlikely to create profitable growth in
the future.
© Kim & Mauborgne, 2012
So, how does this management concept relate to the
individual Group Fitness instructor or have any real impact on their lives?
Isn't this strategy stuff just corporate jargon for
big companies looking to position themselves in an ever changing business
landscape, where nothing stays the same from day to day let alone from year to
year?
Well, here’s a discussion topic that may incite or
inspire.
Group Fitness instructors, I mean great Group Fitness instructors, have a tough job. They
have to simultaneously coach and cajole upwards of 20-30 people in a class
whilst being brand champions for their health clubs, the programs they teach
and their own “love mark”.
Many
instructors have reported over the years that they think and feel that they are
worth more money per hour and feel that they are not appreciated by the health
clubs they work for.
Here is a very simply solution. Back yourself -- put
your money where your mouth is and turn back the clock. Back the days of the
“aerobic pioneers”. Back to a time where classes were held in school halls,
squash courts, or any space that could be rented for minimal cost.
Not exactly a Blue Ocean, more like a Blue Lake or even Blue
Puddle.
Imagine a small group of passionate, inspiring group
exercise teachers getting together as a coaching collective and opening a “turn
key” group fitness studio.
Imagine positioning that studio in the hearts and
minds of potential clients as the ultimate place to come together for that
tribal experience called a Group Fitness class? No expensive gym equipment to
lease, no wages just a share of the profits after minimal costs.
Imagine “backing yourself” so much that you are
willing to put your skills, your personality, and your “client pull factor” on
the line to be able to not only pay the rent but also pocket some decent pocket
jingle?
Two things are likely to occur:
1. You and your group ex. Buddies will make enough
money to keep your “Blue Lake” venture alive and kicking on for as long you
continue to attract clients. Independence and autonomy and no one telling you
what to do and how to do it.
2. You and your buddies will realise what risk your
Health Club owners take to put on classes that attract classes in the single
digit category. You and your buddies will discover that every class has to be
world class a show stopper to make sure that you are only as great as “your
last gig”.
So, I hope you back a winner and the winner is YOU.
Author: Garry Hart
