Unless you’re running a small, elite club for a few select athletes you hope to hone into Olympians or world champions, you could probably use some more business in your gym—or you could at least stand to keep the business you have. One of the best ways to do this is to target not just super athletes, but regular everyday joes. That’s because there are far more normies than there are star athletes, and these are people who could benefit just as much (if not more) from being in a healthy, professional training environment or from your coaching expertise.
 
There’s no magic bullet to getting these folks through the door or keeping them around, but a small dose of common sense can have a massive impact. So let’s run through some basics you’ve probably long since forgotten on how to make your gym open and hospitable and welcoming to people whose goals don’t involve standing on podiums or rocking six-pack abs.
 
Post Your Hours and Rules Clearly
 
It’s amazing how difficult it can be to find the most basic of information for some gyms. We’re talking things like hours of operation, holiday hours, times of classes, which coaches teach which classes—all that stuff that the chain box gym you love to hate have down pat. Making it easy for people to find out basic details without feeling like they’re not in the know is just a small detail that can create a more welcoming environment for everyone.
 
If you’re intent on only sharing prices and fees when people walk through the door and get their requisite tour or free week or whatnot, make sure that it’s all outlined clearly for them.
 
Once people join, if you share information by any other means—text messages, a secret Facebook group, a members-only email list, etc.—it’s absolutely crucial to get new people on board, so make this a part of your onboarding process instead of something you think to add people to if you spend a lot of time talking to them and they remind you.
 
Make It Easy to Use Equipment
 
Your best lifters may have no problem hauling around even the heaviest, most oversized or most awkwardly shaped equipment, but that doesn’t mean it won’t leave your other clients confounded. And there’s nothing to make people feel like they don’t belong in a gym as much as not being able to move around the equipment that they need to get their workout done. Telling people “just leave it there and I’ll take care of it” can be a good temporary solution if you’re okay with people feeling incapable of setting up or breaking down their own stations, but the best way to address this issue is ahead of time.
 
People go to all sorts of overpriced marketing workshops to discuss creating “avatars”— personas for the types of clients they hope to attract. If one of your clients is an average Joe rather than a star athlete, why not think about them when you’re creating the layout for your gym? What equipment are they likely to need help with? How can you store it in a way that’s more accessible? What can you set up for people ahead of time to help them feel like you actually want them working out in your space, rather than you just tolerating them and taking care of cumbersome equipment for them because it’s less trouble than watching them try and fail to do it on their own?
 
Clean Up Your Music
 
Probably the least popular item on the list, and far be it from me to take away from a gym’s personal style. But I can’t count on both hands the number of times I’ve heard people complain about racist or sexist lyrics at gyms—and in each instance, they decided not to say anything about it, and instead slowly self-selected out. Just something to keep in mind.
 
Coach Everyone in Your Group
 
If you teach group classes, you may be gravitating towards your star athletes in a group without even realizing it. (I once pointed out to a coach that he was talking to just two people and literally had his back turned to everyone else.) But even if you’re dividing your attention among all participants, you could be inadvertently only giving quality feedback to a few. Pay attention to how you respond to everyone’s questions to make sure you’re not dismissing folks or giving short shrift to your everyday Joes. (This is when listening to people’s feedback can provide you with useful insight instead of shutting people down and being a disciplinarian.)
 
This also includes sending people follow-up information that you promised. Obviously, you can’t treat everybody entirely the same and some people will be more open to follow-up information you want to send them—and it’s sometimes best to ignore people who feel left out even if said information isn’t relevant or appropriate to send to them. But if you’re programming for multiple athletes and one of them is getting daily tweaks to their two-a-days and the other has to wait a month to get videos of their warmups, it’s pretty obvious who’s getting preferential treatment for the same fee (and doesn’t make people feel very good).
 
Use Terms People Understand
 
Getting the majority of people you’re working with understanding what the fuck you’re saying… is more important than impressing the top 1% with your super specialized knowledge of old-school gurus or newfangled internet celebrities. If you catch yourself using language that nobody but you and a select few understand, simplify it a bit for the rest of us.
 
Stop Pretending You’re Training Special Forces
 
Yep, it looks cool when you’re marketing boot camps, but acting like you’re coaching grizzled warriors when you’re just working with regular folks scares people away. Worse, the people who do stay end up thinking they’re ready for combat because they’ve done a lot of burpees (I know, it doesn’t make sense to me either), and then they just act like shitheads and make your gym look bad. Drop the pseudo-military shtick and we’ll all be better off.
 
Pay Attention to How People Use Space
 
Your star athletes are probably pretty comfortable taking up space. The world is their oyster and the gym is their living room. More power to them, as long as they’re not occupying common areas in a way that excludes the common folk. For example, if people are getting yelled at for doing farmer’s walks on some turf because a gaggle of CrossFitters have called dibs on a large chunk of space so they can take videos of every lift or rock some Instagram belfies—and are yelling at anyone who’s not aware of this elaborate setup and are simply doing a workout and (gasp!) getting in their way, maybe a conversation needs to happen. And not with the folks getting yelled at.
 
Keep Track of People’s Goals
 
Of course it’s easy to remember that your star athletes are competing in Regionals or whatever tournament or meet is coming up for their sport, but other people have goals, too. If you’re having trouble remembering what everyone is working on, jot down the low-profile goals on an index card for each class (or member) and review them from time to time so you can make sure you’re helping everyone move forward.
 
Highlight Everyone’s Wins
 
Whether you feature clients in your email newsletter, on your blog, or on social media, make sure you’re not just focusing on your top performers week in and week out. You can randomly select the people you want to highlight or go in some kind of pre-selected order, so long as you’re not sticking to a handful of athletes and ignoring everyone else. It’ll probably mean a lot more to the rest of your crew and could help with recruitment as well. After all, people are more likely to join gyms if they see profiles of people who look the way they do.