Managing a gym in a pandemic

F or the past many months, like every other industry, the fitness industry too has been affected by the pandemic. With the first lockdown, many fitness studios failed to survive and had to shut operations. Nobody would have, in their wildest dreams thought what 2020 has brought. While surviving in these tough times is a challenge, for many giving up is not an option. Let's dive in and look into a few survival tips.

• Ensuring safety
  Government has released SOP’s for fitness studios which all must follow. These include, having sanitising stations, operating in hourly slots with limited occupancy and following social distancing.

  Make sure to post about the precautionary measures you are taking on your social media. Let your existing members and prospective clients know you are adhering to the guidelines and it’s safe for them to workout at your studio. Record video testimonials of your members about their experience with the safety measures in your gym.

  To ensure adequate safety, handover a few red tags to members when they walk-in. Ask them to hang the red tag over the equipment after they use. Your housekeeping can sanitize the equipment and remove the red tag. This ensures the equipment is desanitized after every use.

• Pre-booking slots
  Showing up at the studio without a booking should be strictly discouraged. Invest in a booking system where your members can view the available slots and book their convenient slot. Keep the occupancy such that social distancing between members and trainers is maintained.
  Okfit, has an inbuilt slot booking system wherein you can create your slots and members can book from the member mobile app. The slot-wise bookings are visible on your dashboard.

• Online training
  If you still haven’t jumped into the online training bandwagon, you are missing an opportunity to generate revenue incase your city goes into a second lockdown. Better late than never. Start by introducing new memberships packages that offers your members freedom to workout from home. Make sure, your online offering offers the same value as 1:1 training onsite.

If possible, invest in a tripod to shoot professional quality videos.

Not all members would be comfortable with home workouts. It might be because they don't have equipments, enough space or just lack motivation. In such cases, talk to them and offer them a trial class. Take feedbacks via Instagram polls, email surveys or from Whatsapp groups. Improve your sessions based on the feedbacks and try providing them the same value as an onsite training.

If you are wondering where to host your online trainings, Okfit can connect to your Zoom account to host online trainings. Only the members booked to the class can join and no meeting Id or password sharing is required. Ain't that awesome! Signup and try it out today