We had the opportunity to hear from Sarah Gevinski, a Franchise Owner with Club Pilates, about her story of becoming an entrepreneur and running a fitness business.
What made you decide to open your own franchise?
Gevinski: I'm a worker. I'm a workaholic. I always knew I was going to have my own sort of business, but I didn't know what that would be. Finding a franchise, especially in something that I really believed in and already wanted for myself, has made it so much easier to follow the model. It's still my own business. I have my own freedom to run the business how I like, but I have the support of the Corporate sales and marketing teams that they have to help support. That was almost a no-brainer.
Gevinski: I honestly fell in love with Club Pilates. I found it by chance. I'd been, at the time, doing Pilates for a little over 10 years or so. I loved the model and I loved the idea. I could see myself as a customer at Club Pilates and so I was all in basically from the beginning. Coming from a Pilates background as a consumer, I loved their model of affordability, larger group classes, and access for most people. I make quick decisions and I go with my gut, so I went from not working, being a stay-at-home mom, to less than a year later owning and operating a full-on business. It fell in my lap by chance, and I loved it. I believed in it. I was always impressed with the next (Club Pilates Corporate) person that I met and then the next person that I met. It just made sense to go into business with them.
What is the most intriguing part of owning your own Club Pilates?
Gevinski: It's always different. Every day is always different. I like it because it keeps me on my toes and the day goes by so quickly, almost too quickly. But I really like that. There's always some sort of problem presented and then the need to come up with a solution, whether it's myself trying to figure it out or working with my team to figure it out.
Has health and fitness always been a priority in your life?
Gevinski: Health and fitness has always played a huge part in my life. When I grew up, I was one of four kids. I have two older brothers and an older sister, so we were always playing basketball, football, and baseball. My sister ran track, and she was really great at that. I got into dance when I was 12 and I figured out dance was my thing. I danced all through college and was always going to the gym. I never liked group fitness until I was in my twenties. As I got older, I appreciated it more.
Gevinski: I love working in the field now because we see people from all types of backgrounds. People who come in, like me, maybe they were dancers or athletes, but others have never worked out before in their life and they’re finally find something for themselves. There's a whole mix of customers that we work with and it's nice to see all the different backgrounds embracing some sort of physical activity. I think health and wellness has really taken off in the last five years, but post-Covid especially.
If someone were to ask you about going to Club Pilates for their workout, what would be a piece of information you would like to share with them?
Gevinski: That it's for anybody. I know it can be intimidating to peek in the window and look at the machines and wonder what the heck they do. That's with any fitness studio, I guess. People are hesitant to start something new as it is. But we’re really is super welcoming, and any level can participate, whether you're brand new to fitness or brand new to Pilates. The instructors and the sales team are all super supportive. We're going to encourage you to come in, we're going to encourage you to book your classes, to try different instructors, and to really make the most of your membership. There's a reason that people walk in the door and then there's a reason that they stay. Once they get into the routine and they get a couple classes under their belts, Pilates speaks for itself.
How does ClubReady help you manage your operations?
Gevinski: A big piece of owning and running a business is being organized and that can be really hard to do. Especially because at the start of the day you come in with a plan and something always changes, right? But if you're organized and you have a good system behind you, it helps contain that and keep you on track, even if the day gets away from you. Staying organized is important and having a good tool like ClubReady is helpful in keeping organized. Everything's right there for you as long as you're putting in the information. When you log back in a day or two later, you can see the things that you have to follow up on or people you need to check in on and things like that. We put all of our notes in there, we put follow up tasks, so when I leave for the day, the next person can jump in a couple hours behind me and pick up exactly where I left off. The system tells you what to do. It's very user friendly.
Gevinski: In terms of organizing new leads, getting those new leads into classes once they become members, managing membership profiles and agreements. I love that it’s web-based, obviously, because I can work from home, I can pull it up on my phone and quickly. If the internet's down, I can still pull up my phone and log people into class.
Gevinski: It's a great way to communicate. If for whatever reason we have to cancel a class or something happens with an instructor and we need to switch, we can email or text them easily to give people a heads up. Even the instructors use the ClubReady app. It is great because they can see all of their bookings, who's in their classes, and they can see their private sessions. It's all one place for everything. There's a lot of information in there. The information's only as useful as what you put into it. We live and die by ClubReady.
If you are interested in hearing from other fitness business owners, check out the Customer Spotlight section of our blog.
If you would like to learn more about what ClubReady can do for you and your fitness business, get in contact with us. We would love to chat with you!