Run a Profitable Gym

Amanda Buckner’s gym, Untamed Fitness in Washington, recently earned a spot on Two-Brain’s leaderboard for average revenue per member (ARM)—with top performers hitting between $500 and $821 per client per month. Since opening her gym just a year and a half ago, Amanda has scaled her monthly revenue from $6,000 to $15,000. In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” host Mike Warkentin digs into how...

Cynthia Fotti, Two-Brain mentor and owner of CrossFit Rush, helps gym owners turn healthy habits into thousands of dollars in revenue. In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” Cynthia explains how she helped her gym generate front-end revenue of $3,500 in just four weeks with a healthy habits challenge—and an additional $1,800 in ongoing revenue. Cynthia lays out everything you need to run your...

Mike Monaco took his gym from parking lot workouts to a thriving 5,000-square-foot facility that generates over $420 per member per month. How? He switched to a PT-focused model with an emphasis on relationship building and holistic wellness. In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” host Mike Warkentin talks to Mike Monaco, owner of RX FIT in New York State, who shares how he skyrocketed his ARM...

Imagine if every client paid you between $500 and $800 every month. That’s a reality for the gyms on this month’s leaderboard. In today’s episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” Two-Brain CEO Chris Cooper shares the Top 10 leaderboard for average revenue per member (ARM). With a mean ARM of $608 and an average client headcount of 58, our leaders are focusing on high-value options beyond group training,...

Want more gym members without slashing your prices? Discounts can undermine your gym’s value, hurt your profit margins and attract the wrong clients. There’s a better way. In this episode of "Run a Profitable Gym," host Mike Warkentin is joined by John Franklin, chief marketing officer at Two-Brain and Kilo. John shares four proven strategies to help you attract and retain new clients wi...

Slashing prices for Black Friday is a mistake if you sell coaching. Discounts attract the wrong clients and teach the right clients to wait for sales instead of renew memberships at full price. Worse, the discount comes out of your profit. The government still gets paid if you cut your rates, and so does the landlord. But you take home less money. In this episode of "Run a Profitable Gym,&quo...

Two-Brain's annual industry-defining report is out! The 2024 "State of the Industry" guide is packed with the essential data gym owners need to grow their businesses. This year, it even contains 13 ratings scales fitness entrepreneurs can use to evaluate their businesses and target areas for improvement. How many clients does the average gym have? How much revenue? What do gym owner...

Two-Brain’s fifth annual “State of the Industry” report is out, and it’s more useful than ever. It’s not just a collection of statistics but a practical tool designed to help gym owners assess their strengths and weaknesses and make strategic decisions. Kilo and Wodify kicked in stats from thousands of gyms around the world, and our greatest survey response ever filled the guide with data on avera...

Dana Fouche is busy. In addition to running Reach Athletics, she’s a mother and the owner of a farm. To ensure she never lets her business falter—even when the cows escape again—Dana uses Chris Cooper’s Golden Hour concept: Every day, do one thing to grow your business before you do anything else. To start her days, Dana goes to a quiet place, clears her head, works on simple but effective marketi...

Today on “Run a Profitable Gym,” Two-Brain founder and CEO Chris Cooper lays out three gym business models that actually work, using case studies from gym owners earning $100,000 per year.  Chris walks through profit-and-loss statements, revealing all the nitty-gritty details, so you can see exactly what levers these gym owners pulled to reach $100,000. The first gym owner ran big group classes wi...

Three years ago, gym owner Magnus Bjorsvik increased rates dramatically, and some of his clients were angry about it. Today, Magnus is on Two-Brain’s Top 10 leaderboard for net owner benefit (NOB)—salary, dividends and anything else the gym pays its owner. He also won the coveted Clients’ Choice Award at this year’s Two-Brain Summit in Chicago. In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” host Mike...

The average fitness entrepreneur earns between $2,500 and $6,000 per month. The top earning gym owner on our leaderboard brings home six times the high end of that average. In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” Two-Brain CEO Chris Cooper presents the Top 10 leaders for net owner benefit (NOB)—profit, salary and anything else a gym owner earns from their business. Then, he shares how they got...

In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” Eric Conner shares how he measurably improved his gym in just 60 minutes a day using Chris Cooper’s Golden Hour framework: Go to a place where you can focus Open your mind Lead with marketing reps Do your big projects End after one hour Next steps  Eric sets aside a Golden Hour every morning in which he focuses on high-value, CEO-level work. He puts in ma...

Gym owners with the fastest-growing businesses share one specific skill: focus. They have access to the same tools, resources and mentors as everyone else. What sets them apart is their ability to consistently do the key things that are required to improve their gyms without second-guessing themselves or getting distracted. You can learn how to build this entrepreneurial focus by reading “The Gold...

Gym owners in Two-Brain’s Tinker group have hit about $100,000 in net owner benefit and are working toward reaching $1 million net worth. In fact, the program has certified 54 millionaire gym owners—with seven earning that status in the last quarter alone. Today on “Run a Profitable Gym,” Mike Warkentin sits down with Joleen Bingham, one of the program’s leaders, to explain exactly how top gym own...

You have access to tons of information about growing your gym, so what’s keeping you from getting results on your own? Just like the clients in your gym, you need a coach—someone to help you set a goal, build a plan to accomplish it and stick to that plan. Today on “Run a Profitable Gym,” Two-Brain founder and CEO Chris Cooper outlines the phases of Two-Brain mentorship and explains exactly how th...

Gyms are fragile businesses. Seasonal fluctuations, local competition, staff departures, economic changes and even pandemics can all reduce or eliminate profit.  At a recent meetup for top gym owners, Two-Brain mentor Kenny Markwardt laid out a plan to help entrepreneurs prepare for a financial downturn. In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” Kenny walks through his four-stage plan with host M...

Gym owners give their members reps to help them get results, and business experts do the same thing with their clients. In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” Two-Brain founder and CEO Chris Cooper presents several common scenarios gym owners face regularly. If you practice operating in these situations, you’ll be ultra-prepared when they come up in the real world. And your gym business will g...

“We've documented absolutely everything in our sales process,” says closing king Brian Foley, owner of Activate gym in Killarney, Ireland. Brian and his team at Activate were on the July leaderboard for close rate, which ran from 22 to 34 new clients. In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” host Mike Warkentin grills Brian on his impressive sales funnel to find out how his gym closes so ma...

Last year, Facebook generated US$131 billion in ad revenue, proving that paid ads work—but they don’t work for everyone. In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” host Mike Warkentin sits down with Two-Brain chief marketing officer John Franklin to break down why some gym owners struggle with paid ads while others have great success. The most common ad mistakes gym owners make are not understandi...

Ivan Racic’s gym, CrossFit XV in Croatia, has tripled its revenue since joining the Two-Brain Business mentorship program three years ago, and month after month Ivan is consistently earning more. This July, Ivan landed on Two-Brain’s marketing leaderboards for set rate and show rate—the number of leads who book appointments and the number of bookers who actually show up. Today on “Run a Profitable...

Are you using your leads to grow your gym? In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” Two-Brain founder and CEO Chris Cooper presents the monthly leaderboards for set, show and close rates. The owners of the gyms on our leaderboards have mastered key areas of the marketing funnel: they get leads to set appointments, they work hard to ensure people show up, and they change lives by closing sales. C...

Today’s guest, Joleen Bingham, has developed an ascension model to help you retain staff by creating careers for them. Since implementing the model, Joleen’s staff retention has improved, and she has multiple team members earning over $100,000 a year. In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” host Mike Warkentin sits down with Joleen, a multi-gym owner and the leader of Two-Brain’s Tinker program...

A link is missing between credentials and careers in the fitness industry—and it’s costing gym owners a lot of great people. Common story: A trainer starts making $20 per class and works up to coaching 40 sessions a week. But the trainer isn’t making enough money and can’t see a way to make more without burning out. So the coach leaves the fitness industry to “get a real job.” The gym owner shrugs...

It’s Worst-Case Scenario Week on “Run a Profitable Gym.” Today, host Mike Warkentin is joined by Matthew Becker, owner of GymLaywers.com, who shares stories of partnerships from hell and explains how to avoid them. Partnerships in gyms can go wrong fast and create living nightmares for entrepreneurs. Partners might have very different views on topics such as dating members, day-to-day operations a...