Hello Grasshoppa,
The past few weeks have been busy for me with my old gym dismantling, new gym renovation & moving. It has been a tiring journey for me but seeing a glimpse of how the new gym is shaping up really gets me excited. I started my gym with my business partner in 2012 with a vision to introduce combat sports to be part of fitness. The journey was not an easy journey to start with especially with many people being unaware of the sports & people usually think that Muay Thai, Boxing, BJJ & MMA are all about violence & fighting each other all the time but the fact is, our gym focuses on using martial art as part of our fitness program.
There are ups & downs running this business & there are also many lessons that I have learned throughout the years of being in this business. This experience has taught me many things and has made me a better person in life.
What Are The Lessons I Have Learned?
To Always Have A Written Agreement And Not Verbal Agreement
We started off with 3 partners but things turned out to be pretty bad when we started to trust a wrong friend/business partner. The valuable lesson to learn in this situation is never to put friendship & business together no matter how close you are.
Be Prepared For The Worst
Being in the fitness industry, there are many high & low seasons that I’ve learned over the years. Ramadhan, Pre-CNY & year-end will usually be our slow month. The peak will usually be January, post CNY & Hari Raya. Covid-19 Pandemic has also caught many industries off guard & thankfully, we are able to take advantage of the situation to move to a better place. It is important to have plans to ensure that we can balance out our profit & loss during good & bad times.
Keeping The Operating Cost Low
When we started, we had a very high cost by hiring full-time coaches, providing a place to stay, spent a high amount on renovation, buying treadmill & etc. Even our monthly operating cost was high with 2 landlines, internet & other expenses. With the decision to move to a new & better facility, the goal is to ensure that the renovation & operating cost will be as low as possible. Happy to say that our new facility looks way better than the old one with the help of a really good friend.
Each Square Foot = Money
The new facility size is 1/3 of my old facility size but what makes it better? In the old facility, we underutilised the space by building shower rooms, huge counter, boxing ring, office room & relaxing area. Those spaces can be used to cater more members rather than leaving it unused or underused. Training space for the new facility is bigger as we maximised the space to lay more mats to ensure more members can train.
Importance Of Social Media & Website
When we started our business, we used social media platforms to promote our gym & we will usually be on top when people search for keywords “Muay Thai Penang”, “BJJ Penang” or “MMA Penang”. Nowadays, our ranking just dropped & our old website became inactive. I will definitely start focusing back on these platforms consistently to ensure our SEO ranking is high.
Always Seek For Opportunity
8 years of being in this business, I realised that sometimes I get too comfortable with it & I have missed out many opportunities. One of the things that I think my gym can do better is utilizing the space during non-peak hour & working with MNC on Team Building.
Happy Coaches = Happy Students
Over the years, there is 1 coach left us on bad terms & most of them are still with us after so many years. Our boxing coach stayed with us since we started, our MMA coach has always been our friend & he is the most passionate fighter coach I’ve known with his dedication towards our fighter. Our BJJ coach really helped us to grow & allow us to rediscover how fun BJJ can be. And not forgetting my business partner who leads our Muay Thai program where he is able to balance between members & fighters. Each of them really contribute a lot to grow the gym to what it is now.
Automating Each Process
We used to have most of our membership tracking & account expenses under manual. Technology is so advanced now & there are so many free or paid platform that can help the gym to automate our process. Our new facility process will definitely be automated to ensure we minimise on our manual work.
Conclusion :
Many people usually say that it takes 3 years to know whether it’s a stable business or not but we have been operating for 8 years & I do look forward to many years to come with the new facility. With all the lessons I have learned, I am confident that I can manage the gym better comparing to what I have done in the past. While writing this, the gym renovation is 80% done & I am waiting to get the wall painted & mirrors installed. We will be gathering tomorrow to move our last batch of goods over to the new facility. When this article is published, most probably the new gym is already up & running. If you are based in Penang or travelling to Penang, you can always drop by for a good training session.
I would also like to express my appreciation to our members & coaches for being part of our journey, members that helped us to move all our stuff during the past few weeks & also not forgetting a friend of mine that helped us on the renovation. I can’t express how thankful I am to him for helping us out to accelerate the process & linking us with the right contractor.
THANK YOU!
OSS!
