Our facility finished at 137% of our quarter one projections and goals. On the surface that probably appears that we had everything figured out and just rolled through the last three months all hunky-dory (I think that's the word??). 

You couldn't be further from the truth. 

I have an amazing staff of 4 coaches, and we worked our butts off, sometimes 7 days a week to make sure we were able to deliver a quality experience to our customers, who just happen to be the most honest population to Coach...5-18 year old student athletes. They were so kind to let us know of some bumps along the way!

Here's a quick recap on some of the things we did, what we learned, and what we had to adapt to...

1) We spent $0 dollars on marketing, $0 on equipment, and over $1,000 on staff development...on purpose. 

I am a firm believer that we sell an experience. On the surface people call our facility because they want their children to run faster and jump higher. Don't get me wrong, we do that...BUT what we do FIRST is make sure every individual who walks through our doors has a memorable time. 

To do that we don't need brand new dumbbells. We don't need radio ads or social media banners. We need one thing, and one thing only: Coaches who work together towards one clear mission.

In quarter one we had 12 weeks where we met twice a week as a group and the remaining weeks we met once for 90 minutes. Staff was compensated for their time, sent agendas prior to operational meetings, and went through structured training sessions where we talked about personality types, ideal avatars, assessment, systems development, how to answer the phone, and how to explain our services. 

The ROI of our staff meetings is the best investment we can make as a business. 

2) At some point your current systems will become obsolete. 

This happened to us in January and then again in March. Within a span of 45 days we had to completely overhaul how our training schedule operated as well as our staff placement during peak business hours. 

In January this was a kick in the face. We didn't really know what we were doing and had zero clue on how to handle it. As I wrote about, a quick conversation with Strength Faction founder, Chris Merritt helped us overhaul our existing operations. This was an invaluable learning experience. When our new system was put to the test during another increase in membership in March and failed. This allowed us to quickly identify and make the necessary  changes behind the scenes. 

We got really comfortable with acknowledging what works today, may not work next week.

3) Controllable revenue streams are the only thing that matter.

The phrase 'controllable revenue stream' was introduced to me by Pete Dupuis during a Strength Faction business chat in early December 2017. What he defined as a 'controllable revenue stream' was simply your monthly billing. This is the most predictable and trackable income source for your business. Team training can disappear at the emergence of an in-house option and personal training clients can disappear at the start of their sports season, cheaper option, or simply just move out of town. Predicting sustainable growth and maintenance in these avenues can be very tricky and potentially lead to a revenue source that underwhelms. 

Long story short...we went all in on driving our monthly reoccurring billing (EFT) in 2018 which has now positioned us to be proactive in our business. We can better predict low points, and know what months will be higher with athletes coming to us out of season. This translates to us understanding if/when we need to hire another Coach, when and what to teach during our in-services, and focus on retention of current members. 

We still have our 'variable revenue streams' but we have a very solid foundation that allows us to strategically grow these wild card revenue streams for us. 

Want to talk more business with me? Do you live in the NYC or New England area? I will be presenting at the LAB Networking and Professional Growth Seminar in Shrub Oak New York on Saturday June 2nd! More information on that can be found here: http://labfitconsultants.com/events/