Mel Tempest Digital Library A-Z Guide To Running a Kick Ass Fitness Business | Page 2

BY MEL TEMPEST

Twenty years ago clubs were coming out of an era of leopard g-string leotards,
scrunchies and more heel-digs and star jumps than anyone wants to remember!
The industry found itself catapulted into the program and structure of group fitness.
Club owners asked themselves as they went into debt buying steps and BODYPUMP
kits: “Will I ever get my money back?” Well, we all know the answer to that. Les Mills
gave the industry structure, education and savvy marketing. Numbers grew across
the world as participants joined and the demand for instructors grew. The business
of group fitness was born. Today Les Mills is now the biggest group fitness provider
globally, and group fitness classes have grown to over 70 per cent attendance in
health clubs.
Over the last decade we have witnessed the launch of hundreds of group fitness
products, and compression garments have quickly replaced leotards. Tae Bo was one
of the first group fitness classes to take the world by storm, then Zumba and High
Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) arrived, and now Bodyweight training. Not to mention
the popular home workouts such as Jillian Michaels from The Biggest Loser TV
program and Tapout. In some European countries you can even find workout DVDs
attached to your cereal box! Innovative? Yes. Successful? Yes. The question, however,
is “why?” The answer: They meet demand.
So what does it take to establish and sustain a successful fitness business?
Here is an A to Z Guide, answering that very question.

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THE A TO Z GUIDE TO RUNNING A KICK ASS FITNESS BUSINESS BY MEL TEMPEST