14 T E C H N I Q U E • F e B R U A R y 2 0 0 9

On the back page of Oprah magazine “O”, she has a monthly column entitled, “What I Know For Sure.” I got to thinking... wouldn’t it be great to ask the top gym owners in the

industry what five things they know for sure about owning a successful gymnastics school. Read, absorb, enjoy, get inspired, and go out and do it yourself. Make 2009 your best year yet!

Note: We are planning to publish this article in sections. The following individuals will share their secrets on “What we know for sure” in upcoming issues of Technique. The club owners include: Steve Greeley, Dave Holcomb, Lynn Ledford, Ann Josephson, Jeff Metzger, Frank Sahlein, Laura Mikszan, Diane Barron, David Klein, Randy Sikora, Jeff Lulla and Patti Komara. Here is the first section! What I Know For Sure by Steve GreeleyCincinnati, Ohio

1. Location, Location, Location: In 18 years on the faculty of Jeff Metzger’s Boot Camp, I’ve seen too many good people have their business dreams squashed by setting up shop in an inadequate business location. For all their good intentions, “it seemed like a good area,” “it’s my hometown,”

and “kids seem to be everywhere,” just doesn’t cut it when a large loan is on the line or one’s life savings are invested or there’s a family to support. Take the time to thoroughly investigate the population and income demographics and the long term potential of your area.

2. Have the foresight to lay the foundation of your business with a tangible mission or purpose and strong principles of operation. Use your deep belief in these principles to develop a culture filled with people of leadership potential who nurture, grow and protect their environment, who have a vision for the future and consistently take steps to move the organization forward. Harness the integrity of these values to guide you in all your plans and decisions in day-to-day and long-term business. Your values, strong or weak, will prove to be the DNA and the immune system of your culture.

3. Develop the people or the wisdom to create systems directly from your core values. Systems that perpetuate the principles of the culture, not just through years but through ‘generations’ of staff and clients: Staff manuals, performance reviews, staff recognition, training programs. Wait, even more important, of the organizations that have these systems, 95 percent fail in the implementation, evolution, and maintenance of such systems. Therein lies our leadership challenge. Also, have the conviction to hire only the best people.

By Patti Komara, Tumblebear Connection in Dyer, IN

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LocAtion LocAtion LocAtion

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Hire onLy tHe BeSt PeoPLe

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foUndAtion of yoUr BUSineSS

Get tHe riGHt StAff

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deveLoP tHe PeoPLe or tHe WiSdom

to creAte SyStemS directLy from yoUr

core vALUeS.

reALize tHAt everytHinG cHAnGeS...

“WHAt We KnoW for SUre”

16 T E C H N I Q U E • F e B R U A R y 2 0 0 9

Do not settle for a warm body to “fill a hole” and to be so rooted in the company values not to languish or stall over terminating an employee who’s slowly poisoning your culture.

4. Your main marketing will always be “Word of Mouth.” Consider it a gift. But you have the responsibility of creating your word of mouth, perpetuating your word of mouth, and training your clients as your salespeople who continually spread your word of mouth. Word of mouth marketing must be a daily way of life, not simply an event or campaign. Get people talking _ set yourself apart in the sights, sounds, and even the smells of your organization. Does your gym look like the average gym of the 70s or 80s? It’s a new century; dump the stereotypes of the past. Go outside the gymnastics industry for inspiration! Study the companies that know families: Disney, Apple, Southwest, McDonalds.

5. What I really, really know for sure? Everything changes! The needs of parents change from wanting services with the maximum benefit to their children to wanting convenience and fuel economy. Children’s interest’s change from physical sports-challenge to visual, sedentary and mentally stimulating activities. Even demographics can change: areas can experience new development and an influx of families while others can be unexpectedly damaged by an exodus of local industry, technology or even a “graying” effect of an aging population producing few children and closing schools. Also, as we’re experiencing at the time of this writing, economic times do cycle. Be alert, be aware, be on top of change _ not a victim of change. Complacency has ugly consequences. Be careful of “what you know for sure.”

The final thing I know for sure is that chocolate can only help the diligent leader weather the toughest of times. Eat up and a happy and prosperous New Year to you.

What I Know For Sure by Dave HolcombWesterville, Ohio

1. Become a business expert as well as a gymnastics expert to ensure the success of your gymnastics business and spend at least as much time on your business success as you do on your gymnast’s performance success. For example, read (and live!) the best business books (7 Habits and Good to Great would be a terrific start),

become a USA Gymnastics Member Club, attend Boot Camp, consult with 3rd Level, get critical information from Patti Komara, and get to the business lectures at Regional and National Congress as well as the USA Gymnastics Business Conference.

2. Location: make sure that your gym is located in an area with enough children and money to support your gymnastics business. Within that area make sure you position your gym where it is highly visible and easy to get to.

3. Design your gym to provide both a great gymnastics experience for your students and a reasonable return on your investment of time, money, and effort. In most cases it makes sense to pour resources into creating a wonderful preschool gymnastics program that becomes the focal point of the entire gym. Design this first and then build the rest of the gym around it. Why? Because a great preschool gymnastics program often supports the rest of the program financially. School-age gymnastics must provide a fun fitness experience in addition to great gymnastics instruction. This means no lines, no waiting, and lots of turns. It also means giving the children what they like the most: trampolines and pits. In an ideal world the competitive team would operate in the back of the gym so that every time the class parents look up they would see fit, happy, and confident kids doing great gymnastics (or cheerleading or trampoline, etc) and having a blast doing it.

4. Get the right staff into your gym. Hire talent and character; train the lights out of them so they understand, embrace, and reflect your mission and vision; and eliminate the energy vampires and drama queens (and kings).

5. Do not lose money on your team programs. In too many gyms the team program means highly paid coaches, high ceilings and empty space that needs to be heated and cooled, expensive equipment, and most of the prime time hours. At the same time the athletes pay discounted tuition that does not pay for the coaches, support staff, a fair share of rent or the mortgage, equipment, benefits, and the lost opportunity costs associated with eliminating profitable classes in order to make room for the advanced level team kids. If you offer team then make sure that you know how much it actually costs to offer it and price accordingly. Or, make sure that your preschool and school-age programs are so full and profitable that you can indulge your passion for competitive gymnastics. Better yet: do both!

What I Know for Sure by Jeff MetzgerCincinnati, Ohio

I respectfully submit The Three Things I Know for Sure about GymClub success in 2009. All three are general and necessary in good times and bad:

1. Acquire responsible, emotionally mature Staff Members of outstanding ‘Character’ who are dedicated to

the Mission. At Kids First, “character” refers to alignment with the unifying principles and our mission is to build “happy, healthy, and responsible kids”. Once these ideals are genuinely met then it follows naturally that the staff members enjoy working together and willingly go the extra mile because that is the way they go about their lives. Getting such a staff requires great hiring practices and great leadership, top to bottom. Patience and courage, by definition a function of great hiring practices and great leadership, deserve special mention.

2. Good demographics are critical. Note I said “good demographics.” as I have seen some exceptional businesses in “good” demographics. Let me clarify the need for good demographics like this: “You can do all the right things in poor demographics and your business will struggle; on the other hand, you can do all the wrong things in great demographics and your business will prosper (until worthy competition steps in and commandeers your marketplace)!” Perhaps the best way of all to think about demographics is to borrow an expression from the late Jane Boone Metzger, my Mom (she had many): “you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”

(I list the final thought in third position because its absence can be tolerated for a while, even years. Certainly, sometimes its absence is not even noticed until the owner’s kids need college tuition!)

3. Key crew members must understand basic economic and financial realities of running a business. This means the crew members must have a visceral understanding of profit, why it is necessary, where it comes from and how to get it. After 18 years of chairing Boot Camp I am continually dismayed to see how many business owners do not understand a profit and loss statement and the critical importance of managing by the margins (percentages). Most certainly, if the owner lacks this basic understanding so do the crew members and that means at best, the business is leaving money on the table and at worst, the owner and the crew members are at odds over money.

Garnering honorable mention is good marketing skills. I give it honorable mention to emphasize the importance of numbers 1-3, especially #1. The best marketing you can have is to put forth a visibly fun and excited crew who loves kids, loves working together, and has a command of a well-crafted curriculum. When moms and dads see and sense this they feel compelled to tell their friends and neighbors and that is the way great GymClubs grow.

StAy tUNED FOR SECTION 2 OF THIS

ARtICLE tHAt WILL BE PUBLISHED IN MARCH

2009 tECHNIQUE.