It is a bitter sweet feeling knowing today is my last day as the assistant operations manager. I am going to continue being a member of GSP so my relationship with Val and Darren will continue to grow. They also made sure I was aware of new ideas and events that will be coming up at the box. Val will continue to include me on certain topics since she, "values my opinion" as she stated. Today was the last day for me to respond to emails and follow up with potential members. In between phone calls, Facebook postings, interacting with members and selling supplements/apparel the three of us did engage in conversation. The main topic of conversation we discussed focused on my future in the CrossFit world. I expressed to both Val and Darren that I am still interested in getting my L1 certification and will be more then happy to attend the same seminar as Val if our schedules allow it. They both gave me open arms to discuss my future plans in opening my box as well. They stated, "we will be more then happy to help get me started and to help me develop my own business plan/model if it is something I really wanted to do." I am overly grateful for knowing they would be happy to help me and guide me along the way. Over all this has been a great experience and although at times it was slow and uneventful I am happy I decided to do my mentorship here. I gained insight on utilizing social media to promote a business, new webpages that offer me multi use functions for a businesses statistics, members/clients, merchendise, and marketing strategies. I will continue to use some of the websites such as Mail Chimp, Picmonkey and Fitness HQ whenever possible. They seem to be good tools to organize a business and to even promote it in an informal manner. These websites can be used in with my current employer and any employer I find myself working for in the near future.
To make sure all of our equipment was accounted for and accurate myself and Val took one more look each at what we had at the facility to make sure we were giving HQ the most accurate information. We would hate for them to pick us as host and then not be able to host it due to the lack of communication and available equipment. Now that the checklist was complete it came time for answering their questions. These questions also included the main contact persons name, phone number and email, outdoor space available for parking and exercising, among a few other related questions. These questions are also found on the "projects" page. It is some what confidential information so it will be posted their as a separate link rather then explained here. This was a good way to end my mentorship because if I ever have the chance to become an owner or manage my own CrossFit business I now know what steps need to be taken in order to become an owner, manager, get affiliated with Reebok and how to host these certification seminars. Not many members or athletes have had the ability to learn the ropes on what steps need to be taken to make all this happen.
GOOD NEWS! Our new website is 95% ready to go! The only thing that needed to be added was our new class schedule. This schedule has been recently updated on the Fitness HQ website so all that needed to be done was link it to our website. The new interactive webpage is complete and we are ready to announce it to the members. I drafted an email that will be sent via mail chimp to all current members to encourage them to check out our new cite and to spread the word. One key aspect of this new website is that all member who have inquiries can email us straight from the website. This will give us the ability to receive and answer questions in a easier fashion and in a more timely way. To continue the efforts from Monday, Val and I tag teamed the checklist together so we could move through it fast. As Val and I were going through the check list we realized that some of the minimum requirements seemed very high, but luckily for us we had almost everything they were looking for. One aspect of this system is that for a box who is selected to host the L1/2 Kids Cert. is that they are offered x amount of dollars to help the facility get all the extra materials they need before the seminar begins. If the facility has everything needed then the money allotted to the box ail be for a free spot or two in the seminars class (ideally 1/2 people interested in getting certified). Val and I continued to clean a majority of the equipment because it seems as though the cleaning people have not been doing a great job at it. Some dusting and wiping down of the counters, medicine balls and barbells was all that needed to be done.
Touching on a subject that we discussed a few weeks ago regarding an interactive website was brought up again. One of our members is a web designing pro was willing and able to sit down with us and re-create our website. This was not going to take to long as our original cite had a lot of information already on it. We outlined what additional information we wanted to have on the cite in addition to certain links and button capabilities. Once we created a blue print and a mental vision of this new interactive website it was in our members hand. He will keep in contact with Darren about what information is removed and added before it hits the internet. Over the next few days we will be looking at the design to make last minute changes if there needs to be. This is an exciting time for GSP as we have been waiting to make some new strides via our social media pages so our motto matches our image. Today starts the beginning of my last week at my mentorship. Before I finish I am determined to get the checklist and questionnaire form finished and turned into HQ before my last day. I responded to a few emails regarding membership options and fundamentals and screened a few phone calls from people trying to sell us things. When I had some free time I started walking around the facility identifying the number of kettle bells, medicine balls, PVC pipes, pens etc. The full list will be posted in the "projects" section for further detail as to what was needed and what was counted. In the process of me counting our equipment, I was getting side tracked talking to members who were in between sets or stretching before they started their workout. We made casual conversation about their day, week or upcoming weekend plans and the possibility of hosting the Level 1 certification class at our facility. When members herd this they were pretty excited that we were investigating getting our box on the list of contenders. They were told that nothing is set in stone because anything can happen and there is no guarantee that they use all locations available to them.
There are many members who are all interested in getting their level 1's because they are interested in the education side of it in addition to having the ability to possibly coach one day. For any athlete that has a determined mind set to coach or own their own facility one day, this is the first process anyone has to go through. Most owners all have their Level 1 or at least part if the ownership does. In CrossFit GSP's case Darren is the only owner who has his Level 1 and Val and myself are looking into getting ours as well. The course is roughly $1,000 dollars before travel so it has to be at the right location and at the right time before we can consider attending. Talking with members helps time fly for both of us and before you know it 30 minutes to an hour could go by depending on the depth of conversation and the number of parties involved. Being involved in the fitness world is something I have always dreamed of doing. There is always someone to talk to, a new story to be herd and a new mindset to be found. I received a phone call early this morning that Val and Darren wouldn't be able to open the box. So they asked me if I could open the place up and get everyone started. Since I leave near by this was not a problem. We had a full house for our morning classes in addition to a good number of people for the free Intro to CrossFit class. After the intro class was over two out of the four participants wanted to sign up right away. I offered them our newest promotion that included a monthly price of $165 a with no registration fee or $155 a month with a registration of $75 (normally $175). The two new members went with the higher monthly fee, but were happy to get started. Since they were new to CrossFit they had to go through our fundamental program to prevent injury and to become accustomed to the movements. They were signed up to complete the workouts in the coming week and would be able to jump into the regular classes next Saturday if their weekly schedule doesn't change! Signing new members up is a great feeling even though it is not my business, i know I had a part of getting our clients numbers where it is today.
HQ fitness finally emailed us back regarding the steps we need to take in order to have the CrossFit Level 1 seminar at our location. They apologized for the last response, but have been getting a large number of emails from CrissFit Locations interested in hosting the Level 1/2 and Kids Certification classes as well. One of the first things that we have to do is glance over their equipment requirements for all three certifications. The level 1 and 2 requirements are the same, but some equipment differs if we wanted to host the kids CrossFit seminar. We were basically going to have to go around the room and check out our inventory for every item they had on the check list. Then we would have fill out a questioner that included questions like the size of our space, near by airports, hotels, etc. These needed to be answered because people from all over the country and even the world travel to these seminars in search of their certification. With CrossFit becoming a huge aspect of the fitness world, HQ/Reebok only allows a certain number of seminars to be located in close proximity to each other within a small time period. These seminars are spread throughout the country in hopes they sell out ASAP and draws people from all over. I will be actively partaking in this project in hopes we can capitalize on this opportunity as quickly as we can. There were a few sales done today along side three tours that I gave. This aspect of the business seems to be an ongoing trend and is a great way to meet new people and hope they share their experience with us with their family and friends.
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