Clubindustry

It seems like I‘ve been blogging all afternoon, so I want to leave you with a few random thoughts about Club Industry East 2008:

Although I didn‘t get to see as much of the trade show floor as I had hoped, one thing that stood out was the number of massage tables exhibited. There must have been four or five booths that had them. Note to self: Get in the massage table business. The most fun booth I saw was Crunch‘s Wii booth. I saw two people going head-to-head playing tennis, and another two people playing baseball. Note to self: If you are lucky to get a Wii, do not give it up.

Pam, Jenn and I saw the musical “Curtains” with David Hyde Pierce (Frasier‘s brother) and enjoyed it very much. We traipsed all over New York to get half-price tickets, too. The next night, while Pam and Jenn went to the Met (no, not the Mets), I went solo and saw Laurence Fishburne in “Thurgood.” If you‘re in New York, this is a must-see. If officially opens later this month, but it will only be around until August.

Pam, Jenn and I went out to eat Wednesday night with Stacey Orlick, our conference director. We ended up at Junior‘s at Grand Central Station, and their hamburgers were huge. As I found out later in the week, their hot dogs were even bigger. After we ate, Pam and Jenn went to work out. Earlier in the day, Stacey, a Jersey girl, had asked me if I wanted to go to the Yankees-Red Sox game, provided that her contact could come through with tickets. That didn‘t materialize, but we sat and watched the rest of the game at the hotel bar, talking about spouses and babies. (Note: It‘s not often when a woman, married or otherwise, asks a man if he wants to have a beer and watch a game. Those are opportunities you have to seize upon.) Later in the game, our associate publisher, New York homeboy Marty McCallen, came through the lobby wearing his Paul O‘Neill autographed jersey. Marty, his wife, and their two sons had just come from Yankee Stadium, where they witnessed a couple of fights and heard a few choice words of the English language.

Ed Tock, one of our contributing writers, has been a popular person in this blog, and that‘s only because of his friendly nature. Ed picked up the tab for our cab ride from the hotel to the Javits Center one morning. As Ed tried to hail a cab, traffic was coming within a foot (literally, his own foot) of hitting Ed. I was worried that we were going to have to find another writer (and another speaker for the show). Ed, another native New Yorker, proved he knew what he was doing. Later, he gave me some good contacts at a nearby club.

At one point before our 8:30 a.m. sessions, Pam and I found ourselves in a sort of semi-circle talking with Rick Caro, Ed Tock, Bruce Carter and Michael Scott Scudder. We could have had a Club Industry magazine meeting right then and there. It‘s comforting to know that our writers and contributors are some of the best in the business. -Stuart

I probably attended more sessions at this show than any other show so far in my brief fitness industry trade show career.

Rather than write extensively about each one, I‘ll give a few highlights of each one here:

Prepare for Success: Creating a One-Year Plan That Drives Revenue and Increases Retention, Angela Cuocci. Cuocci has spent the past 16 years running Ladies Total Fitness in Bel Aire, MD. She talked about being confident and having no fear in your voice when talking to a prospective member. The top three ways of generating business are postcards, stake signs and referrals. Stake signs are something new to New York-area operators, and sometimes stake signs (on the side of the road, near office buildings, etc.) are not permitted. Some clubs even have fines as part of their budget.

How to Create a ‘Culture of Service‘ that has Bottom Line Impact, Scott Chovanec. All I kept thinking about while listening to Chovanec was that I wanted his shirt and tie. He had on a lime green shirt with a white collar and white cuffs. He even had his initials on the cuffs. Not bad for a school administrator. Anyway, we talked about bad customer service, and more than one attendee (including Chovanec) mentioned a club that one of my colleagues visited the night before. There was no response at the desk, and apparently no one offered a price list for the club. One attendee even cited Club Industry for a lack of customer service yesterday. Chovanec stressed the importance of body language when greeting members and remembering the beginning and the end of a visit.

Current Key Metrics for Club Operators, Rick Caro. This is the first time I sat in on a Rick Caro seminar, and he sounded a lot like he does when we chat on the phone about stories or topics in the industry. The term “metric” is another way of saying “measure,” and Rick outlined a variety of ways to measure a club‘s success–percentage of revenue per club, per “same store” clubs, per region, per company or per industry standard. There are a number of ways (more than I can count or realized) to measure revenues. Rick encouraged operators to analyze their data and try and understand why their data is different from industry data.

Group Fitness for Profit, Sara Kooperman. Most group fitness classes are at their fullest at 9:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., says Kooperman of SCW Fitness. She suggests moving your best instructors to off-hour times. As for those 9:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. classes, “a duck” could teach them, she says, and they‘d still be full. Club managers or owners should evaluate their instructors every six months, Kooperman says, even to the point of videotaping them as part of their evaluations. -Stuart

Here are the rest of the sessions I attended at Club Industry East:

How to Manage Without Losing Your Mind, Ajay Pant. Ajay is the national tennis director for Midtown Tennis Clubs and works where I live and work in Overland Park, KS. He spoke at one of my “Tennis in No Time” sessions last summer (which I wrote about here), plus I ran into him in Chicago last fall when Midtown‘s Alan Schwartz was honored as our Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Ajay talked about how to deal with staff members. If they are willing and able, they are superstars. If not, you have to decide whether they‘re worth the time and effort to improve them. If they are willing but just not able, they need to go, Ajay says. Managing friends can be difficult, and Ajay talked about how he fired a friend who was a great tennis pro, but just not a very good manager. The two still have not spoken since.

Club Design: The Most Popular Design Trends for Successful Clubs, Part 2, Bruce Carter. I don‘t want to spoil some of the highlights Bruce hit upon here, since he also writes about them in our upcoming May issue. For a sneak preview, Bruce talked about how green is a popular color these days, as are “earth” colors, such as brown and tan. Bruce also talked about how Curves (not the club company) are in for club design, and owners should reduce the amount of mirrors in their clubs to prevent people from seeing themselves right away. Some sales areas are off to the side in some clubs, Bruce says, and water walls are inviting and give off positive energy in a club.

Legal Issues Involving Running a Small Business, Alan Roth. Jennipher went over some of the highlights in a previous post, but I‘ll add a few things here. Even if you‘re a small business, there are so many things to consider and hoops to go through before opening your doors, more than I realized. My favorite line from Roth was that a private equity lender is like a home-run hitter, and a mezzanine lender is like a singles hitter. Roth and Sara Kooperman are a husband-and-wife team who also happen to be lawyers. I wonder what they talk about at the dinner table.

Retention: Why Members Quit and How to Prevent It, Thomas Kulp. Can you imagine if your club no longer had contracts? That‘s what Kulp is considering in about a year or so at his Universal Athletic Club in Lancaster, PA. Kulp‘s club has had a lot of success over the years, going from 500 members in 1994 to more than 11,000 members today. Kulp says his club has an 84 percent retention rate. Owners need to get “married” to their members and encourage family memberships over single memberships, says Kulp, who adds that working out at a club should be recess for members. -Stuart

For me, one of the best parts about going to New York City is the increased chance of seeing a celebrity just walking by on the street. Unlike LA, which revolves around the celeb scene, New York is more subdued, even ignoring celebs at times. I hear that’s why famous people like to live here so much. However, I’m not from NYC, and in Kansas City, we don’t have many opportunities to see famous people. So, during the whole trip, I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled for one of the Olsen Twins, one of the girls from Sex and the City or even Beyonce (all reported to have residences in NYC).

Well, this morning I was beginning to lose hope of seeing a celeb. So far, Stuart and I thought we saw Amarosa from “The Apprentice,” but a) she’s not that big of a celebrity, so I‘m not sure if she counts and b) she looked really nice and friendly, so it probably wasn’t her (or at least her persona on TV).

However, my fears were put to rest today at the Javits Convention Center. After coming out of part one of Robert Rose’s seminar about developing a successful sport-specific training program, I saw Seth Green! (The seminar was great, by the way. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay through part two because I had a flight to catch, but if you’re looking to learn more about sport-specific training, I recommend you check out his Explosive Performance facilities at www.explosiveperformance.com.) Seth, probably best known for his role as Dr. Evil’s son in the movie “Austin Powers” and his voice work on “Family Guy,” looked to be a happy go-lucky guy and was there for Comic Con, a massive comic book convention that was also being held in Javits. (I always thought a lot of fitness people had interesting fashion choices at times, but this convention had them beat. I saw everything from mohawks and tight black leather to girls dressed as Little Bo Peep and Princess Leia.)

Celebrity sighting? Check that one off the list! –Jennipher

Although Pam may be ready to give her journalism career the heave-ho to open her own club (see her post “I Wanna Be in the Club Business” below), I‘m not so sure she should do that quite yet. Not only does this magazine need her as an editor (raise, please, Pam?), but also running a business is hard work. And even more time consuming and complicated than I ever realized. Stuart and I sat in on Alan Roth‘s session on legal issues involving funding, owning and running a small business yesterday afternoon. Boy was it an eye-opener.

Roth said the single biggest issue facing a small business today was having enough money or capitalization. Money can come from a number of places including friends and family or professional investors such as venture capitalists, private equity firms or mezzanine lenders, but one thing is certain: you need a lot of it. Especially because most small businesses have to deal with what Roth calls the J Curve. This curve basically means that you start out low on the revenue side, fall down even lower and then slowly build up to more than you started with as time goes by. On paper, it looks like a “J.” Well, that‘s what successful small businesses do. I believe he said about half of them don‘t make it. Ouch.

Roth also went through the basics of forming a business plan and dealing with operational issues. From taxes, retirement issues, licenses, leases and human resources, it‘s quite the undertaking. However, I‘m sure the payoff and work is incredibly satisfying. Just a warning, Pam. –Jennipher

Sometimes when I go to a trade show and sit in on sessions, the speakers and sessions are so good that I find myself wanting to chuck all my years of journalism school and trade magazine experience to open my own club or become a personal trainer. That’s the way it was with this morning’s session, “Getting Your Personal Training Business to Become an Integral Revenue Generator” by Kelli Calabrese of Calabrese Consulting.

The great thing about Kelli was that she actually offers real ideas. Even though she’s a consultant, she didn’t hesitate to offer almost 20 ideas on how to reach out to get new personal training clients (from doing boot camps to peforming supermarket tours to offering online training for people who can’t afford in-person personal training–although you need to be able to meet with them in person on occasion).

Kelli emphasized something that I think a lot of club owners and personal trainers forget. The personal training service you provide your members is just as valuable (if not more so) as a visit to their doctor, their hair dresser and their auto mechanic. None of those professionals would ever offer one visit, one haircut or one transmission job for free in hopes of luring you back for another one later. So why do club owners and personal training directors devalue personal training sessions by offering the first one for free? Good question, and no one in the room had a good answer. Including me. –Pam

I‘ve always been one of those people who liked school. (Crazy, I know.) I enjoyed taking notes, going to lectures and learning something new every day. That‘s why I loved the keynote address by Dr. Michael Phillips, hospital epidemiologist at NYU Medical Center, this afternoon. His topic, “MRSA: Super Bug or Just Hype,” was delivered just like my college classes on public health, and I loved it. (I haven‘t been in a college class since 2003, so it hit the spot.)

Although MRSA has been in the news a lot lately, Dr. Phillips calmed many operators‘ fears during his address. Although hospital-based MRSA can be difficult and expensive to treat, community-based MRSA (that which could but has rarely spread in a fitness facility) can be treated quickly with cheap antibiotics. MRSA is usually transmitted from person to person through an open cut or scratch, so members and staff should be encouraged to clean and cover their wounds.

“Don‘t forget the basics,” Dr. Phillips told the crowd. “It‘s just what Mom said. Cover up cuts and scrapes. Clean your hands a lot and take a shower after working out.”

Dr. Phillips recommended that clubs offer sanitizing hand gel to clients and staff and provide wipes for members to clean the equipment. Wipes may not eliminate risks entirely, but they help, he said. Also, clubs should perform good regular cleaning, focusing on key contact areas, such as doorknobs, lockers, etc.

Overall, though, risk is low in health clubs, he said.

“You have to keep things in perspective,” Dr. Phillips said. “It‘s all about having good basics in check. Outbreaks are unusual.”

Phew! –Jennipher

Ed Tock regularly contributes to the magazine as a Focus On Clubs columnist. However — and I‘m not sure how I managed it because Ed speaks at all of our shows — I had the chance to hear him speak for the first time this morning. I sat in on the second part of his series on marketing, “Staying Competitive — Proven Guerilla Marketing Tactics That Work.” The session was great. Ed has a no-nonsense way about him and an incredible portfolio of clients that he‘s consulted with that make for one heck of a session. If you ever have the chance to sit in on one of his seminars, I highly recommend it.

Ed gave some great marketing tips, including always wearing your name badge on your right side so that when you shake someone‘s hand, it‘s in direct sight, and sending out an “alumni” mailer to former members listing the top 10 reasons they should return to your club. Ed also told the attendees about a club owner he worked with who replaced the standard “out of order” sign for equipment with a more endearing sign that read, “Please excuse me. I‘m out sick today.” Ed says that instead of being upset that their favorite piece of equipment was broken, members smiled at the sign.

After this session, I know I’ll be sitting on another one of Ed’s sessions at Club Industry 2008 in Chicago! –Jennipher

Religion is a hot topic in New York these days.

You can‘t turn on the TV without some mention of the Pope‘s visit today to the Big Apple. If the Pope wasn‘t here, I don‘t think there‘d be any news at all. The Pope has a number of area visits through the weekend, including Mass at Yankee Stadium on Sunday. David Letterman had a good joke the other night. The Pope will lead Mass for 45 minutes, then Mariano Rivera will come in and close it out. I just wish the Pope would swing by the trade show floor. Talk about publicity!

This weekend also marks the start of Passover. When I land in Kansas City on Saturday night, I plan on getting in my car and heading straight to Mom‘s house for a family Seder. Usually, I don‘t want to get too “Jewish” in these posts, but I feel a lot more comfortable doing it here in New York.

There have been a lot of attendees in my sessions who are Jewish or who run JCCs in the area. I had a session on Thursday that touched on member complaints and how you handle them. One complaint at JCCs that adhere to Jewish laws more strictly than other JCCs around the country was from members who don‘t understand why the JCCs are closed on Jewish holidays. A good response, we were told, is to start out by saying, “I understand how you feel…”

At another session, the speaker had in her handout packet a religious credo that‘s posted at her women-only club in Maryland. There‘s a quote at the top of the page toward the back of the packet from (wait, there‘s a pigeon in the part of the convention center where I‘m typing this…where‘s Bert from Bert and Ernie when you need him?). Where was I? Oh, yeah. There‘s a quote from Philippians 4:13 on the sheet that reads: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

The speaker told us that the message is intended for her club and its members and is not meant to offend anyone. That‘s fine, but I wonder if she could attract more members if the club appeared more open to women of all faiths.

(The pigeon is still behind me, by the way. Is somebody going to call animal control?)

Don‘t think that religion doesn‘t play a big role in the success or failure of clubs. Before I left for this show, I saw an article about a club in Indiana that is going out of business. The owner believes that God wants the club to close so that a Christian school can open in its place. So the owner is terminating the club‘s lease agreement–eight years early.

“I didn‘t know what the Lord‘s timing was,” the owner said. “He‘s decided now‘s the time.”

According to the story, anyone who paid a one-year membership will get his or her money back if the club cannot reopen at a new location. We‘ll see how fate–or faith–plays out. -Stuart

The attendees here are more serious and more attentive in sessions than at previous shows I‘ve attended. It must be a New York, Tri-State area thing.

A lot of attendees are not afraid to stop the speaker to ask a question or two. I get the impression that many of these attendees are serious-minded individuals who want to improve their business and have been in the fitness club business for many years. There have been a lot of hard-nosed, roll-up-the-sleeves discussions here this week. I‘ve kept my sleeves down, by the way. It‘s too cold here in the Javits Center.

Most of the attendees are not easily impressed. Angela Cuocci of Ladies Total Fitness gave a role-play demonstration with an attendee. The situation was a phone call from a prospective member (an attendee) to the club owner (Cuocci).

After the prospect called and asked about pricing at the club, Cuocci (yes, it‘s pronounced KOO-chee) wanted to get the prospect to give her first name, then her last name, then her phone number. It was at that point when the attendee asked, “Wait, why do you need my phone number?” Cuocci went on to say that hardly anyone who calls her Maryland-based club asks that question.

The collective response from the room was, “Aw, c‘mon!” They weren‘t buying it. People are more guarded here. They don‘t just give away their phone number for no reason. Again, it must be a New York thing. -Stuart