Sep 19, 2019
How we grew during COVID-19
At the time of writing this, we are due to relax lockdown restrictions due to COVID-19 in 2020.
We have a date for our gym re-opening and it is all hands on decks to get everything set and ready to welcome the surge of interest we have had.
But now, it is a good time to reflect on how things have gone for us and our clients over lockdown, and how we have adapted to continue serving our clients even with heavy restrictions in place.
Since lockdown, we have INCREASED our client base. We are based in Bude in North Cornwall but have reached out to the rest of the county and into Devon too thanks. We have created a brand new product which is proving to be a huge success. We have bought in new coaches into the team. We have adapted many of our physical assets to work online. Most importantly, we have continued to support and assist our clients throughout these tough times.
Just check out a small collection of what our clients have been saying in the attached pictures!
We have learnt a lot along the way, and continue to do so. But, like our clients, we will be coming out of lockdown much stronger than when we went in.
But how have we done this?
It starts with mindset.
Many were stumped by COVID-19 and the national lockdown it bought with it, letting it get into their minds that nothing could be done and to just wait it out, hoping for government backing to help them survive.
We had a different mindset. We have built a business around the support, community and results our clients gain, and we understand that a physical location is not essential to deliver this (although of course, it is a bonus we are looking forward to using again!)
We knew a lockdown was coming, way before it was announced. We had the mindset to think positive, rather than focusing on the downfalls. We saw we had an opportunity. An opportunity to support our clients on the NEXT LEVEL. An opportunity to reach new clients who need us now more than ever. We saw an opportunity to not hide away for 3 months, but to grow.
This mindset meant we could focus on what we needed to do, which was to continue to provide the best results, support and community to our clients and customers.
With this 'forward thinking and positive' mindset in place, and in absence of the 'wait it out' mindset, we created a plan.
We knew lockdown was coming, and we had a choice. Let it come to us and take the hit, unprepared, or plan for the worse case scenario.
We did the latter, and as soon as lockdown was announced, our plan was put into motion.
From day 1, we had moved ALL of our gym group training and private sessions online. From in person, to webcam workouts. We did not wait, this happened immediately, so our customers did not miss out on a single day.
These proved to be a success, with up to 20 people attending some of the larger classes. It was clear that people just needed to exercise and have some form of social interaction, both of which the online classes provided.
But we wanted to give people more. Understanding that it was a tough time, with limited interaction and support available, we decided to expand our online support and community network. We invited all our in-person members into our online groups, where we could provide them with unrivalled support, guidance, accountability and social interaction.
From within this group we have hosted monthly challenges, run workshops, bought in guest speakers, recorded 150 online workouts, shared hundreds of recipe ideas, run competitions and coffee mornings.
We gave people a place to go, to keep interacting with their peers, to join in on the fun, to challenge themselves and their mates.
The community is something we value very highly, so we wanted to make sure we did not lose this at all.
All you have to do is read some of the feedback and kind comments we have been getting to understand what a success this has been.
So much so, that we decided to turn it into a product itself, so we could reach and help more people who required what we had given our current customers.
So we launched the ELITE. A program designed to give people a process to follow, a support network to guide them and a commuinty to be part of. The goal of this program is to give people total control of the way they look and feel at any time.
We launched the elite alongside a 3 week kickstart program, and a revamp of our now famous 5 day challenge, and it has been a great success, filling up the monthly spaces every time.
In fact, people have loved what we are doing so much, that come the end of lockdown, we are actually going to KEEP all the new elements we have added to the business.
Once lockdown is lifted and our gym can re-open, we are going to continue offering webcam workouts, an online community and support network that we created during lockdown.
With this, it has given us another string the the bow and we are happy knowing we can reach and help more people.
The challenge came, and we faced it, knowing full well it was going to be tough.
But with the opening of gyms coming very soon, it is important to reflect over what we have been doing over the last few months so we can make considerations on how to move forward.
People needed us more than ever during lockdown. We understood this and adapted accordingly.
We and our clients are going to be coming out of lockdown more confident and stronger than we were before.
If you want to get involved, then make sure you sign up to our weekly newsletter and join our free community. From here you will gain daily support and advice, and get a taste for what we are all about: https://rhfitness909.activehosted.com/f/7
Also make sure you check out our gym website as well as my own coaching site:
