Software Improvements Made to Meet Needs of Fitness Facilities

Software companies have improved their products and developed new ones to meet the needs of growing fitness facilities, and one of the major areas of growth is in non-dues revenue, or profit centers.

Most everybody has heard that humans use only 10 percent of their brain. It's a shocking statistic, and guess what - it's false. You actually use 100 percent of your brain, which is good news since you're a business owner in the fast-growing fitness industry. The bad news is, it's far more likely that you use only 10 percent of something else: your billing software.

Software companies have improved their products and developed new ones to meet the needs of growing fitness facilities, and one of the major areas of growth is in non-dues revenue, or profit centers. It's become increasingly difficult for a club to make money with dues revenue alone. "Profit centers offer club owners an opportunity to collect additional revenue from existing members, which is much more cost-effective than securing new members," says Ron Poliseno, health and fitness director of client development for CheckFree, Dublin, Ohio. "This is why many clubs across the country are quickly developing or expanding their personal training operations."

"If you look back at the past 40 years, the price of a health club membership has not changed or increased much at all," explains Dudley Extrom, vice president of eFit Financial, Denver, Colo. "The average monthly dues for health clubs today is about $38 per month, which is only about $3 or $4 more per month compared to the early 1970s. Health club membership dues have not kept pace with inflation - however, the cost and expense to run and maintain a club has continued to rise. Profit centers play an important part by providing additional sources of revenue beyond just membership dues. Many clubs could not survive in today's market without these profit centers."

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