I chose to keep going. I am renovating a new location in the heart of our downtown with a 10-year lease. I still have more gas in the tank as an owner, entrepreneur, and fitness professional. I invite you to find your spark, to re-invent, and to find a way to keep serving your community with health, fitness and prevention. Find your next chapter.

As always, I’ll share two business tips and a personal growth tip. The video below expands on each lesson with stories and examples.

This is my favorite theme for summer and I’ve used it for more than a decade. To focus on retention, we run this campaign all of July. When our members complete a Bingo card of 12 group fitness classes, they earn a tank or a t-shirt that says: “Fitness Doesn’t Take the Summer Off.” We have members who have the whole collection. Adults love accountability and structure. We can provide that. If you run a training business or a coaching business, make this fit you. Can you reward them for attending “x” number of sessions, or trying new services in the summer?

We offer rewards for our check-ins (workouts) all year long. Our members want to keep coming in the summer for the results, but they also want to come because they are rewarded for consistency. We have prizes for 50, 100, 200 and 300 check-ins per year. Can you offer something comparable in your business?

We offer a fun “Fit Summer” special that is unlike anything else the rest of the year. I am not known for specials, savings, deals, steals, coupons or gimmicks. I like summer specials because it invites educators and students to step back into the gym in the summer. We bring back and start a lot of new memberships with this offer.

Members get to pick any nine weeks for $99 access to the club. Our normal pricing is $55/month, so $110 for eight weeks. With this promotion, they get $10 off and one week free. You can scale that to fit your pricing. We offer low-cost, high-value memberships in a rural, lower-income part of the country. Make this concept fit your business. Make it an easy decision for people to come to your gym, studio or sessions in the summer.

Quite simply, I like to slim down my business offerings in the summer. We focus on member connection and retention more than new programming. We offer a few fresh specialty workouts like “summer cycle and shred,” and “yoga, mimosas and mocktails.” We offer simple “one-off” experiences like “yoga on the beach” to keep people connected and engaged without overwhelming my team or my members with a lot of extra summer responsibility.

My teammates are parents, grandparents, and working professionals who want to enjoy time with family and vacations in the summer. They stay committed to work without feeling burdened by work. I have learned over time when to put my foot down on the gas as an owner, and when to enjoy cruise control with a few little sprints along the way.

In business and in life, the unexpected happens. People oversleep a shift, clients cancel, a disgruntled member rants on social media, teammates quit and revenue takes a hit. How we respond to the challenge matters most. Trust that you are highly capable of seeing your way through it. I created a three-step process that I walk you through in the related video.