Developing a business from the ground up is always challenging, regardless of size or structure. That said, the story behind a facility owner’s reason for starting their company can range from blossoming from passion or interest to noticing a market gap or wanting a side hustle. But no matter the reason, having structure for your fitness business is critical for overall success.
However, one pain point we sometimes notice with small business owners is their avoidance of large-business tools, tactics, and principals because they do not want to come off as too “corporate” or “unauthentic.” This misguided thinking can set you back early on, so we want to squash any fears about leveraging big company tools, thinking, and structure within your business. No matter how small your studio is, there is a good chance you can benefit from implementing good fitness business processes and procedures.
This blog will dive headfirst into the corporate world’s playbook and discuss mission statements. That’s right, those extra vanilla statements found on “about us” pages all over the internet! But do gyms need a mission statement? Believe it or not, you can benefit from having one for your training facility–even if you’re the only employee.
What Is a Mission Statement
The good people at SHRM describe a mission statement as a concise explanation of an organization’s reason for existence, including its purpose, intention, and overall objectives. The mission statement supports the vision and communicates purpose and direction to employees, customers, vendors, and other stakeholders.
Reading through that definition, it can feel like a “big company” thing, particularly if you are operating a small studio or facility with only yourself or two to three other employees. But let’s think about this a little differently for a second. Some of the big topics we emphasize when trying to grow marketing for a gym are understanding your facility’s unique selling proposition (USP) and your target audience. Once you know how this information overlaps, business-based decisions become easier because you have vision, direction, and focus. A mission statement then helps to wrap all this core structure information into a seemingly simple sentence(s) that quickly shows, through words, what your facility is about and how/why you do it.
Why Does Your Gym Need a Mission Statement?
Okay, these snappy sentences are nice and all, but do gyms really need a mission statement? We think so. Even if you decide not to post your mission statement on your website or hang it prominently on the walls of your facility, it can be a great practice in strategic business planning for you and a company culture alignment process for your team.
By taking the time to consider all the factors that go into building your mission statement, you force yourself to look at your business strategically. Since its function supports the business’s vision, it makes you think about the future–an often forgotten or neglected aspect for many small business owners caught up in the company’s never-ending list of here-and-now projects.
How To Write a Mission Statement for a Gym
To begin drafting your facility’s mission statement, identify your gym’s unique points of distinction. These are the critical elements of your business that help differentiate you from the crowd in your market. Determining your specific target audience(s) will be essential to this process, as the overlap between your unique selling proposition and ideal clients is the sweet spot you want to focus on.
After you collect the information above, the next factor you will want to consider is your business’s values, whether they be science-based programming, empathy, or any factor that you deem necessary to deliver the desired quality output level. These values will be foundational to how you plan to operate and grow your business and play an integral part in your employee hiring, training, and review processes.
Next, connect the elements that make up your business (services/products and your audience) to the core values that you identify. This relation-building process could be multiple sentences or even paragraphs as you explain it in words. Once you bridge these aspects together cohesively, you should then work on condensing these pieces into a single statement. While this may take a few attempts, this process will help you get lean and focus on what matters for your business to achieve its objectives in the way you want.
How to Use a Mission Statement for a Gym
Again, if you run a small business, using a mission statement might feel too big for your britches. However, there is still a place for this crucial statement within your company, even if you do not plan on putting it prominently on your walls.
Implementing mission statements for gyms on the operations side could be one of the best use cases. From structuring your business to developing operating procedures and even training (or onboarding) employees, mission statements give you a very clear and direct reference point as to the overall objective for the business and the manner in which you do business.
Your mission statement sets the tone for everything you do. From client engagement to marketing and branding, your guiding principles and values built into the mission statement can help your business achieve its goals in a cohesive and concentrated manner.
Where to Put a Gym Mission Statement
We joke about not having to slap your mission statement on the walls of your gym, but realistically, where do you put this thing? Do gyms need a mission statement on their website? Do you put it in your gym’s marketing materials? New client forms?
The answer is “sure” to any of these. Realistically, many smaller gyms probably won’t put it on their website unless they want to achieve a particular look or think their mission statement can help target clients better understand their gym’s unique benefits.
Further, fitness-based businesses can benefit from mission statements by building them into their operating manual, onboarding documents, and ongoing employee training/reviews. This statement alone acts as a North Star for easy reference when employees act on your business’s behalf. From how to interact with clients or build programs to growing the business through additional services or areas of improvement within the facility, the mission statement can help make decisions more straightforward and more in line with the overall strategic plan.
Making A Splash
For the most part, not many owners ask, “Do gyms need a mission statement?” as they view it more as a corporate business mechanism that doesn’t have a place in the fitness industry. However, we believe that implementing this corporate tool, even in smaller businesses like gyms and personal training studios, can yield excellent results from a business operations standpoint since it requires you to formally identify the core function(s) of your business, your target audience(s), and values. Additionally, these statements can help guide you in future business decisions, daily operations, and even training/reviews for employees to help keep everything and everyone acting cohesively toward achieving gym growth goals.
