Professional Blogger & Writer

Communicating interesting business ideas to the lay public drives my writing. Within every private company or organization, there is a compelling tale. For many, their stories bubble up every day as they construct and run their companies. It's my job to recognize those stories and turn them into good, relevant content. For a full biography, please visit my LinkedIn page, where I am a LinkedIn ProFinder Pro.  

Gym Insight Blog | The business of fitness •

Pros and Cons to Being an Independent Gym Owner

Should you open an independent gym or go with a franchise concept? In our previous blog, we considered the pros and cons of owning a franchise fitness center. Here, we take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of being an independent gym owner and starting your own health club. 
It is a sole proprietorship or LLC, started by an individual or partnership, that provides fitness services to the public — essentially, one of the estimated 17 million small businesses founded every year by aspiri...
Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries •

College Students: Shop for the Dorm at Goodwill this Fall - Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries

There are more than 150,000 college students coming to Boston and environs every year! With around 114 colleges and universities in the Commonwealth, Massachusetts is one of the  top destinations for college students in the country. Even better, you have us — the nation’s first and founding Goodwill, with 15 retail locations and 27 donation sites. So, no matter what you need — a comfy new-to-you winter jacket or a drop-off spot for summer wear — we are here, ready to help you decorate your way t...
Gym Insight Blog | The business of fitness •

Avoid These Common Lease Mistakes: Expert Tips for Gym Owners.

In our last two blogs, we’ve discussed how a gym owner can secure the best possible position when signing a commercial lease. In this final piece, we go over common mistakes gym owners make when searching for a new location and signing a lease. Thank you, Ken Jorgenson, national director for CARR, a commercial real estate firm specializing in the healthcare industry and fitness facilities, for your vital input.
The most common mistake a gym owner makes when searching for a fitness location is te...
Gym Insight Blog | The business of fitness •

How Can Gym Owners Extract the Best Lease Concessions?

This week we spoke with Ken Jorgenson, national director for CARR, the nation’s leading provider of commercial real estate services for healthcare and fitness businesses. Our enlightening discussion turned up good advice for gym owners on extracting the best, highest value concessions and the most favorable leases from potential landlords or property managers.
Gyms draw people! Fitness centers are often the largest drivers of traffic for a plaza. The industry refers to them as “portfolio stabil...
Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries •

Here Are Three Great Reasons Why Now Is a Right Time to Clear Out Closets for Goodwill! - Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries

You are probably living the reality that Boston’s apartments provide 13% less space than the national average, with a paltry 773 square feet on average. Ok, we can live with that, but what about bedrooms? Lately, nearly half of all new apartment builds are either studios or one-bedrooms. We know, multi-use, space-saving ideas abound, but seriously, it might be time to ditch that collection of flowery summer maxi dresses and save room for new mittens and scarves.
 
Add donating to Goodwill to you...
Gym Insight Blog | The business of fitness •

Gym Owners: Here’s How to Flex Your Leasing Power

If you’re a gym owner searching for a new location to set up your health club, here are three tips on controlling the lease negotiations. 
Gyms, fitness boutiques, and wellness centers arrive at the negotiation table with many advantages. As we wrote in our blog “Gym Leases: Four Surprising Reasons Landlords Love Fitness Today,” gyms provide steady, increased traffic through their members’ regular gym visits.
Larger gyms and wellness centers are also becoming potential retail center anchors, rep...
Gym Insight Blog | The business of fitness •

Stand Up to Unexpected Computer Updates with Insight Access.

Ever experience the frustration of a computer restart unexpectedly shutting down your fitness center’s member management system? We feel your pain. In response, we recently revamped our gym access application, called Insight Access, to better counter disruptions caused by outside updates. 
To solve this conflict, our software team redesigned the Insight Access application to run in the computer’s background, thereby making it immune to outside shake-ups. 
Now gym members may check into your club...
Gym Insight Blog | The business of fitness •

Ready for a New Idea? Here are Five Labor Day Referral Strategies for Independent Gym Owners.

Gym owners, get ready to amp up your Labor Day with these five tactics to attract new prospects and boost member loyalty. Celebrate the American worker — and the unofficial end of summer — while building a powerful referral base.
1. Creat a Facebook events page
If you own a gym, consider creating a Facebook events group reflecting your fitness center’s vibe. Participants love its sense of exclusivity and being in-the-know for fun activities. The best part is this page becomes an ongoing marketin...
Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries •

Why Should I Donate My Clothes to Goodwill? - Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries

The industry has exploded! There are thousands of Goodwill retail locations throughout the United States. And, as you know, our stores are just one avenue for donations. Thrifting has become a pastime, a hobby, a business, and for many, a necessity in today’s tight economic times. Through it all, Goodwill has provided gently used clothing and household items at reasonable prices for individuals and families, while staying true to our mission.
 
Giving to Goodwill is like reaching your hand out t...
Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries •

Score Your Best Vacation Finds at Goodwill - Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries

Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries
Goodwill is a community-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to help individuals with barriers to self-sufficiency to achieve independence and dignity through work. It provides job training programs for individuals who are responding to challenges such as disabilities, domestic violence, low educational attainment and previous incarceration. Goodwill also operates MassHire Boston Career Center, a one-stop career center located in Boston that offers un...
| The business of fitness •

Automated Membership Sign-Ups Made it Easy for Gym Members to Help Owners Thru Covid Crisis.

Ryan Celli founded Celli’s Fitness Center in 2007 catering to strength athletes and power lifters. Since then, his privately owned gym has relocated, expanded, and added automated membership sign-up.

Like many small gyms, he relies on technology to keep costs down.

As he grew, he added cameras, a door controller, programable music, and a self-serve drink station along with a better gym management system. The investments allowed him to scale back hours and employ a staff of only his wife and so
| The business of fitness •

Give Yourself the Gift of Great Gym Software This Holiday!

Why Gym Insight is the right gym management software for your fitness center

Choosing the right gym management software for your fitness club is probably one of the hardest decisions you’ll make as an owner. Not only is it the track on which your gym runs, but if you need to switch software companies, transferring data can be brain-numbingly difficult. So you want to get it right, if not the first time, at least the second go-around.

We built the gym software that runs your business.

Our foun
| The business of fitness •

How Gym Membership Pre-sales Create a Stress-Free Opening Day!

Opening a new gym can be really stressful. You’ve put a ton of money into this new business and now it’s time to switch on the lights and hope members sign up fast enough to cover mounting bills. But it does not have to be that way.

These are sold prior to your fitness center’s opening. Marketed through social media or an advertising campaign, this is a phased-in campaign, with each pitch increasing in urgency while decreasing in financial value. The pre-sales end when the health club is open f
| The business of fitness •

Here’s Why Buying Used Gym Equipment will Make you a More Successful Business

Buying used gym equipment for your business can seem like a cop-out. Why would you invest in second-hand gear for an industry seeped in an Instagram culture? Don’t looks matter here?

Uh, no, actually. What matters is keeping your health club in the black so you can stay in business.

Last month, Gym Insight’s sales representative interviewed Steven Harvalias, owner of Superfitness New & Used Gym Equipment, based in Burlington, North Carolina, about starting a successful fitness business. In thi
| The business of fitness •

The Gift Of Membership And Other Gift Card Things

There are lots of interesting ways to do promotions. Once again, with the holidays upon us, I think it’s time to take another look. One of the most accessible is selling gift cards as part of your retail operation. Even if it means just a desktop display at your reception you can boost your return on investment by offering this popular, high margin product to your membership and the general public.
• Distribute them through your trainers

There is a reason that you see so many different types of
The 100 Club of Massachusetts •

Cocoanut Grove Fire: Made America Safer

The tragic story of the Cocoanut Grove Fire on Piedmont Street near downtown Boston is a telling reminder of how important progress is often etched from terrible beginnings. On Nov. 28, 1942, more than 492 people died from wounds sustained in the fast-moving gaseous inferno engulfing the small nightclub, marking it the second-worst fire in United States history. Frantic efforts by medical personnel to save lives, and the very public investigation which unfolded in the days following, led to unpr
| The business of fitness •

4 Mistakes I Wouldn’t Make Twice Opening a Gym

What could be better than exercising every day and hanging out in your own awesome health club? If owning a gym is your dream job — keep reading our blog. The truth is – opening a gym is a lot more than just buying gym equipment and unlocking doors. Succeeding at owning a gym takes planning, perseverance, moxie, and money. Today, we’ve spoken with experienced gym owners to learn four of the most common mistakes new gym owners make when getting started in the business.

Claude Mumpower owns Iron
| The business of fitness •

How to List Your New Gym Business With Search Engines

Ensuring your fitness center appears in an internet search engine business listing feed is one of the most important marketing steps you can take as a new gym owner. Your health club needs to be on the list when a potential member types in “gyms near me.” Here’s how to make sure you’ve got a shot at the top spot.

Which are the top business citation sites?

There are literally hundreds national directories, but you need to make sure your gym is listed in the top sites. As well, your gym should b
| The business of fitness •

Market Your Gym Locally To Reach the Best Prospects

As a gym owner, you’re constantly balancing spending money with losing money. One of the hardest decisions is always — where to invest your marketing dollars. Although that’s a complex question, it might be easier to start at a very basic idea. From how far away will someone drive to exercise at your gym? Most industry experts say about four miles. Gym goers will trek twice that distance, or between six and eight miles, if they can expect a high-end, exclusive club experience.

There are excepti
| The business of fitness •

What Are Successful Small Gyms Doing Right?

It takes passion to run a small gym. Not just an interest in hanging around weights, but a true desire to be in the industry, to pull it off when so many factors are pushing against you. We all want you to succeed, but what does it take to make it in today’s competitive fitness industry?

Who are the ones succeeding?

Most Americans are not gym members!

Fewer than 40% of people in the United States currently have gym memberships, according to Policy Advice’s research. That totals about 64 milli
| The business of fitness •

Hashtags Confusing You? Here’s a Quick Guide!

Hashtags, those crazy little pound signs, are a big part of making social media work for your fitness studio. However, like every marketing tool, hashtags have their own list of do’s and don’ts. Read on to gain a better insight into the best practices of adding hashtags to your social media posts and how to make them work for your gym.

Hashtags direct your post to a community of like-minded people and magnifies your social voice. Additionally, they grow reach organically. That means individuals
The 100 Club of Massachusetts •

Massachusetts’ female police officers — a 138-year history

Across the State of Massachusetts, 122 agencies are supporting Breast Cancer Awareness Month by wearing #pinkpatches and — in many eye-popping cases — driving police cars swathed in pink wraps.
• Women first entered law enforcement before the turn of the 20th century. “Police matrons,” as they were called, assisted in the care of women and girls held in custody. Boston appointed its first police matron in 1883.
• This year marks the 100th anniversary of the State of Massachusetts authorizing the
| The business of fitness •

5 Biggest Questions about Playing Music in Class

Originally published on 4-6-21 by Cory Sterling, founder of Conscious Counsel, on the Conscious Counsel website. Republished with permission. Five minute read.

Music can increase motivation and add a spark of fun to anything. The music you play in your business is the soundtrack of your customers’ experience. In this blog post we explore the legalities of using music in wellness classes: what is a copyright, do I have the right to play music on my premises, how can I legally play music in my cl
| The business of fitness •

How to Successfully Advertise Your Gym On The Web

Digital marketing is here to stay. And chances are you’ve already dipped into online advertising by promoting your fitness center on social media. However, when it comes to spending money on digital advertising, where should you start? We know the internet is immense and your budget limited. To understand the fundamentals of digital marketing we turned to Get Amplified Marketing Group owner Nick Sakkis for some answers.

First, what kind of budget do I need?

There are two main players in the di
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