What Coaches and Facility Owners Are Saying
About Sean Greeley, James Fitzgerald, and the
OPT Business Systems Course

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"My Forecast is Up $4,100/month. I Can't Thank You Guys Enough!"

"This course validated my feelings that I was spinning my wheels with the business structure (or lack there of) of my gym. The course then gave me the guidance, confidence and support to do something about it...no, I mean to REALLY F*%$#$% DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. I've be busting my ass implementing it and the results are IMMEDIATE.

STAFF & STRUCTURE:  I've hired an admin on annual full-time salary ($27,500 with 6 month performance and salary review) to run webpage, program workouts, run facebook page, schedule coaches, run events within gym.

RESULTS: Saves me 15-20 hours per week which I now apply to my Personal Program Design business. This allowed me to take on 2 new clients ($1200 cost realization with their 3 month commitment)

 STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION (MY TEAM):
 -Established chain of command
-Created and distributed Tiered Coaching status explanation for pay based on longevity/qualifications
-Developed and released Coaching Continuing Education Modules (Lesson 1 was on our business structure)

HERE ARE THE LINKS:
PART 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYsrLiWwjb4
PART 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO_-mfYlsTU

RESULTS: Immediate increase in communication between my coaches and staff. Within 1 week I had feedback from our clients as to how engaged our coaches had seemed. It was the fire under the ass we needed. The turnaround time on getting the word out on new processes has gone from being measure with a sundial to less than a day...I love it. The Continuing Education Modules (I have 3 made now) and Chain of Command have energized my team with clear guidance on communication and structure. FIRED one coach who was not contributing to the team...detrimental.

MONEY: This is a doosy.

-Hired bookkeeper to enter receipts, credits and generate reports (right now it's monthly P/L and Budget vs. Actual).
-Got Quickbooks setup -Setup SEP for retirement
-Setup monthly allocations to SEP and IRAs
-Created an additional Savings Account for the Business
-Restructured our tax filing as an S-Corp
-Established regular paychecks for Nicole and Me (Sean, Nicole is my wife, and co-owner)

RATES:

We initiated our Raise the Rates campaign. Nicole has serious personal value issues with money and our clients. James consoled/counseled me on this.... it gave me a great opportunity to practice my Sales Delivery. All it did was reaffirm my confidence that we should be charging $200+ per month based on the response (positive) I got.

So here's what we settled on:

STEP 1: Bring all athletes to our current rate structure by Jan..we had been grandfathering people...

RESULT: gross monthly increase of: $2185 per month...holy shit dude...that's more than my mortgage payment....instantaneously). With this, we initiated a new and reinvigorated Referral program: $100 cash for every athlete who signs up on EFT and commitment...no limits. We also established a Scholarship fund to allow athletes add $5, $10, $15 or more dollars per month to their draft to support a younger athlete unable to pay their full fees. Goal is to offset up to 50% of dues for up to 5 athletes. -

STEP 2: Rate review in Jan, raising all athlete's rates AND our baseline rates by $10 ($167 Unlimited). That's another appx $1000+/mo (depends on new client gains). My 1 year goal is an $8000 monthly gross income increase. That will be slowed slightly...but not by much.

STEP 3: August increase to $177/mo. Same results

STEP 4: Raised my rates for Program design (doubled them). 100% retention. $800 monthly gross income increase just from that....immediately

STEP 5: Increased my Private Training costs and repackaged them in line with Sean's suggestions.

SALES AND MARKETING: - Restructure our last "TAKEOFF" intro course into a 20 minute presentation on our programs and focused on getting a commitment right then (we used to wait).

RESULTS: We've graduated 2 TAKEOFF course since the class began. Our retention went from a 42% average to 86%. And we're only getting better with each class. My quarterly goal was 12 new clients on commitment. We got 13 in just 1 month! Holy shit. Who knew, all you had to do was communicate the confidence you have in your own business and people will respond!

MARKETING:
-Complete Restructuring of our Website, Menu of Services and how we communicate to our athletes.
-Restarted our monthly newsletters
-Fired up our FACEBOOK Page and public announcements of events (thanks to my new Daily Operations Manager!)
-Demographic and Marketing review of our clients shows a balance between younger military males and middle-aged working moms. So, we communicated with the local Army and Marine Corps recruiting stations. We setup monthly "Training Sessions" for their recruits. We market "Basic Training Prep Course Packages" that go from 4-6 month commitments up to their departure dates. This yields from $560-$875 up front per person who commits. We also secured spots at two local community health events associated with school districts.

REVIEWS:
-Weekly meetings with my Daily Operations Manager covering Personnel, Clients, Classes, Events and Any issues
-Monthly Reviews presented by my bookkeeper. I CAN'T THANK YOU GUYS ENOUGH. MY JULY FORECASTED INCREASE (FROM MAY WHEN WE STARTED) IS APPX $2000 FROM MY GYM AND $800 FROM MY PROGRAM DESIGN. ADDING IN NEW COMMITMENTS FROM NEW CLIENTS, THAT'S $4100 PER MONTH!!!! MY VALUES AND VISION DRIVE MY DIRECTION AND HOW I STRUCTURE MY TEAM. MY TEAM DELIVERS THE PRODUCT TO MY CLIENTS...WHO ARE MY SOURCE OF INCOME. HOW FUCKING SIMPLE."

Jeremy Gordon
CrossFit Hamptons Road
Yorktown, VA

"$3,000 Over Our Best Month Ever!"

"I enjoyed how far outside my comfort zone the class required me to go. I decided from the start to follow all suggestions even if they didn't agree with my own sense of good or bad practices. Since I had spent the last year running in place I figured I wasn't really a good judge of good or bad ideas. It was very tough, especially the first 4 weeks but it was been effective and now I am open to much more change than I had been previously.

The results of my commitment to "follow the program" have truly been phenomenal. Our sales are way up, our closing percentage is up, our transaction size is up a little, and our intro workout session has changed into just a consultation. The changes in the first month we so significant I was hesitant to accept them as a result of just a few small changes. Our highest revenue month ever was $12,450 in June of 2010 with an average for the year of $10,760. In 2011 we had a hard start to the year and 3 of the first 4 months of 2011 were actually below our 2010 average. May sales were $15,180. I was blown away. Almost $3k over our best month ever and $5k over our 2011 average. I was so shocked in fact that I refused to believe it was a direct result of the systems. I told myself that if next month we hit a good number then I would believe.

I didn't even have high hopes for June. I decided that if we went over $12,000 that would be sufficient evidence that things were working. Right now we are at $14,860 and we should break $15,000 again this month. After reading Found Money, and The Total Money Makeover the way money is handled inside and outside of my business has changed dramatically. I had a 2 or 3 year debt free goal and now we are on pace to be debt free by Dec. 24th. Attendance is even up over May and June of last year. I haver started a trainer development course to bring along some folks who have an interest since we are getting to a place where we really need more help. I am still working both ends of the schedule but I hope to have that resolved in the next 2 months. Personal training hours are up as well as cost per session. We sold $3,500 more personal training in May and June than in previous months.

The material wasn't challenging in terms of being able to comprehend it. It was exceptional challenging with regards to moving outside of my comfort zone. I couldn't argue with the numbers though so I kept moving forward and it has paid off. Switching from an intro workout to a consultation was a big stretch. I find it really helpful though now to spend that much time learning about someone before you close. Found Money wasn't required but it should have been. I don't know if I was in the minority in this category but I was certainly running my business poorly in terms of financial management.

I already had a bookkeeper and she is amazing and we are in the black every year so I thought I was good. Found Money completely turned me upside down with my thinking and just in time too. I think the ROI, NP, CF triangle concept was super important and I consider it one of the more valuable things I learned. Raising rates was tough and I raised them but not as much as I would like because we are in a terrible leasing situation inside of another gym. I did cut out a price point that wasn't serving us well, and increase personal training rates. I found the CVMVGP stuff to be hard work but immensely rewarding. I must reference it every other day. Just having a stated purpose has been motivational. It took me almost two weeks to nail it down. The Collins article really got my mind going though and I enjoyed the process even though it was difficult."

Jordan Holland
Xplore CrossFit
Seattle, WA
 

"I have taken something that had 2 clients as a side business and turned it into something that will generate $5000 in its first month!"

"I liked almost everything, but two things stand out in particular. First, I appreciate the professionalism and knowledge that Sean exudes. He makes me want to listen and learn more from him. It is the same way I feel about learning Program design from James. Second, i love hearing James' stories about what he learned, what worked well, what he messed up on.

All I can say is WOW. The first exercise on writing down goals, vision, etc. forced me to look at what I wanted to do and how to get there. I realized that in my current house, at my current gym and with my current business sense I couldn't get there.

I said I wanted to move to a new house where I could have more space to grow my business and I wanted to get working on several projects that had been on the back burner for several months. That was May 12th or something.

Since then, we have moved to a new house where I can train small groups and private clients both indoors and outdoors and am having my soft opening July 2, 2011. I said I wanted 5 corporate wellness clients in a year and I am negotiating with 3 companies right now with 2 for sure a go and the third likely.

Another goal was to do community health programs to generate momentum as well as exposure for myself and my partner. We have started a walking/running group with stretching/mobility that is free for the community to come to and I am seen as the expert. Alongside of this, I started a running clinic focusing on mechanics and technique that local chiros and PTs can send their clients to. I did my first clinic a couple weeks ago with paying clients. All of this stuff was on my goals sheet.

Additionally, I have begun a raise the rates campaign with my clients with only a few challenges. I have had conversations with clients who were on low pricing and explained to them that their rates are going up, explained why and given them a referral program by which they can receive discounted services by bringing their friends who sign up. So far, no one has left, though I don't expect that to be true in a couple months. As a result, I have increased my monthly revenue 25% in 4 weeks.

I have also begun repackaging my services and asking for longer commitments as a way of allowing a slightly lower per session rate. I have taken two clients from a month-to-month to three month contracts and foresee this trend continuing.

Lastly, as a result of this course, I have a better relationship with my wife. No longer does she feel apprehensive about me starting my own things. She is excited and enthusiastic and one of my biggest supporters. Before she was always saying are you sure you can do this or it seems like the wrong time. It may not seem like a lot to those who own gyms with 220 members, but I have taken something that had 2 clients as a side business and turned it into something that will generate $5000 in its first month! I am pretty happy about that...thanks Sean and James"

Brandon Henry
Performance Strength & Conditioning
South Pasadena, CA