Casey Conrad Visits FitZone for Women in Westminster, CO

For those of you who watched the explosion of the women's 30-minute circuit business you know that the space became over-crowded with some franchisors selling way too many locations way too close to one another. As a result many of these facilities have closed their doors because their simply was not the market share in most towns to support more than one of these types of facilities.

This FitZone for women is relatively new to the market so they have had to deal with both competition and the economy since day one and they're doing well. What is interesting is that they are much more than a circuit facility, as you will see. In addition they have added things like personal training and other ancillary revenues. Kudos to them and some great insights for those who are struggling with this type of model.

Casey Conrad visits Miramont Lifestyle Fitness in Fort Collins, CO

Miramont Lifestyle Fitness has three locations in Fort Collins, Colorado; Central, South and North. Cliff Buchholz, a long time club operator has done a spectacular job of making these three locations destinations. He is also doing some pretty amazing things with his programming, which I've blogged a bit about over the past few months. Check out all these program (short term)options--all for around $149.

* Quickstart (learn to exercise)
* Wellness Coaching (life guidance)
* Healthy Back
* Healthy Lifestyle (Weight Management)
* Take Conrol (diabetes program)

Of course, they also have individual and group personal training. This approach allows them to attract people that aren't yet ready to commit to a memberships AND allows them to approach corporate accounts with measurable and cost effective options.

Because of multiple locations and footage, there are two videos on this post.

Casey Conrad Visits Lifepointe in Lincoln, NE

Lifepointe is an absolutely amazing facility. New and affiliated with the hospital it has first class facilities all the way around. It's also attached to an Urgent Care facility run by the hospital. Interesting though is that it is a for profit division of the hospital organization. Although my entire visit was impressive from a marketing standpoint what is really interesting is the number of different educational programs and, of course, rehabilatative offerings they have. One in particular was "Know Your Numbers." At this session anyone who has had bloodwork can come and hear about what their report means. Of course, every attendee gets a 7 day guest pass to the club. Hmmmm, I wonder if clubs could do some sort of cross promotion with their local hospital or docs with something like that? Definitely worth the watch.

Casey Conrad Visits Better Bodies in Omaha

Sorry for the delay in this post but I have been staying in camp grounds that have had terrible internet connection.

If you are a mid-size, mid-priced club you know how difficult it is to compete. You're not the biggest box and you're not the low priced box. So, how do you maintain membership sales? Better Bodies in Omaha,NE is doing it by focusing in corporate memberships. See my visit below:

Casey Conrad visits Lady Fit in Ottumwa, IA

Sorry for the gap in blogging. I have been staying in camping grounds and areas where the Internet connection isn't strong enough to upload the video footage. It's amazing how spoiled we get with technology and when it's not there it drives you nuts.

Anyway, I'm hoping to get a few visits up on the Internet this week so keep checking.

In a day and age when many women's only circuit facilities are struggling or closing, this facility in a relatively small town is doing great. This mom and daughter team have owned their facility for 8+ years but have moved a few times. Now they own their building and have done something very interesting; they have created a destination of businesses that cater to women. This helps the traffic and the joint marketing opportunities. They also do some very clever things with marketing. For big clubs you may laugh at their "smallness" and their cute marketing ideas but the bottom line is that it works. They had over 125 people show up for an anniversary open house!

My Visit to the Refinery

I am loving my near cross country trip visiting clubs that I would have never otherwise had an opportunity to see! Some have been around for a long time but this club is relatively new at just over 4 years. Perhaps most interesting is that the owner is a developer of apartment complexes and decided to put this facility underneath the apartment building. The club is half underground and half on the ground floor. Wait till you see their "group ex" rooms and what they/it is used for on the weekends! Also interesting is that for a smaller size club they have a dedicated corporate salesperson.

Casey Conrad Visits Anytime Fitness in Indiana

This is a very interesting blog posting. Imagine your club is in an agricultural town of 6,000 population. your club is 6,000 square feet and you have 1,200 members! Now imagine that 300 of them--or 25% are using personal training. But not just enrolled in PT but enrolled on 12 month EFT contracts. You read that right. This is a very, very interesting model/insight. Actually, I think this is worth the entire trip from a "Wow" factor. What makes it more interesting is that it is a very similar model to the one I saw at Urban Active in Ohio. Both are posting incredible numbers--numbers like I've never seen before. When I saw what this small facility was doing it really hit home. You know, it's one thing to think, "yea, a big club with thousands of members should be doing that kind of PT revenue," but when such a small club, in a median income town of about 32k posts these kinds of results it is impressive. It is CULTURAL.

Sadly, I cannot post the blog video tonight b/c I am in a remote place and the ocnnection is so weak that it keeps kicking me off. So, you'll have to wait till tomorrow but I bet I've got your attention now!