AB Conference: Everything You Know Is Wrong

That's not quite the title of this seminar…Barry Klein and Rob Bishop, owners of Elevations Health Club in Scotrun, Pa., are speaking about questioning assumptions about your business plan in "Everything You Know About Running a Health Club Is Wrong." Barry was just relating an interesting anecdote about a seminar he attended at a club conference a couple of months ago. The subject had turned to enhancement fees, which are a one-time annual fee charged to members ostensibly to fund capital improvements such as new fitness equipment, new carpeting and so on. These are becoming very popular in for-profit facilities - that is, popular among club operators, not club members. Members, in fact, can get downright ornery about them - "isn't my $49 a month fee paying for fitness equipment and carpeting?" Barry and Rob are inclined to side with members on this one, as they consider such fees cowardly; one would think a business owner would be courageous enough to charge $52 instead of $49 a month, rather than stick a one-time $36 fee down in the fine print.

However, they've considered them because it's the conventional wisdom right now, and the theme of their talk is that everything should be on the table if it could potentially help your business. The trouble is they haven't been able to find any industry "expert" or other club owner who can make the case for enhancement fees given their particular fee structure, which involves three-month memberships. What's to stop members from quitting to avoid the fee?

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