Beckwith’s Gym (Part 3)
[continued from yesterday]
…one, you can do the ‘country club’ model. Take your operating expenses and simply divide that by the number of powerlifters. I don’t know how many PL-ers are willing to pay $500 a MONTH to train here, but then again, I don’t really understand why golfers sink so much money into smacking a dimpled ball around a park.
Or two, expand your ‘menu’ to include other markets.
Obviously, I was strongly leaning toward the latter.
Out of the first 400-ish postcards I sent out, only a half dozen or so came back as undeliverable (possibly something to do with my chicken-scratch scrawl where a name and address should have gone), nearly a dozen made the plunge to the next step – going to the website and subscribing to an auto responder series. The other 300+ are still on my list of follow-up-to-do, but I’m gonna have to adjust my marketing strategy now that the ‘free gym membership + free personal training’ offer can’t be fulfilled (not at Beckwith’s anyway).
While Beckwith’s DID connect with another gym across town and arrange for their members to ‘transfer’ their memberships over, the fact is, for those living in the more southern range of their local market (towns like Jenison, Wyoming, Grandville, Byron Center or Hudsonville), the commute would now be as much as 30 minutes each way. “Official” backup plan or not, Strength Beyond Fitness (on Plainfield Ave) just wouldn’t meet the needs of every member affected by the sudden closure of Beckwiths.
Hence my promoting of Flex Fitness Center just down 196 in Holland (only half the drive time of Strength Beyond) as an alternate option. As I mentioned in the video back in Part 1, my friend and Flex owner, Shawn Miller, kindly offered to take stranded Beckwith’s members under his wing and honor the remainder of their membership – obviously with the hope they’d continue as paying members down the road – but moreso as an attempt to put a band-aid on the ‘black eye’ that is often cast when the public gets the (perceived or real) shaft from some branch of the fitness-industry-at-large.
To further expand on my video from Part 1, here’s Shawn personally extending his hand to any who may have been left without a place to pump iron…
[to be continued...?]
Beckwith’s Gym (Part 2)
[...continued from yesterday's post]
“Money?” I laughed. “That’s easy. We SELL program design”
He gave me that puzzled look you get from a dog when you ask it a question.
Long story short (whew!), my plan was to sell my program design services, include a gym membership and personal training (which I would pay for out of my program design fee) and EVERYBODY wins.
I often refer to this as my “toy-in-the-cereal-box-approach” (more on that some other day).
The problem was, there are only 20 or so competitive powerlifters in the area – and all of ‘em were already training at Beckwith’s.
I realized time was limited as this ship was already sinking and I’d have my work cut out for me. So I went for the obvious market: women.
Keep in mind, Beckwith’s build their reputation (since 1984) on powerlifting. The kind of sport many people (especially women) find intimidating.
So I purchased a list of women who fit a certain demographic and created a simple postcard to test the waters and see who might be interested in training in such an environment. I wrote the copy, but it was meant to appear as if it was coming directly from the gym. The postcard read something like this…
How Else Can We Say, ‘We’re Sorry’?
We understand you might find a traditional gym environment a little harsh. Maybe even a tad bit intimidating. Okay… maybe a LOT intimidating. And we realize it’s our fault. We’re guys. What do we really know about anything?
But we’ve been listening and you’ve been right all along. We’ve been selfish jerks and we’re sorry. Now we’re just hoping you’ll give us a chance to show you how much we want to change.
This isn’t a bouquet of flowers, but we do have a FREE Gym Membership and Personal Training offer we’d love to tell you about – if you’ll just give us a chance to start over…
All we’re asking is that you visit BeckwithsGym.com/freeoffer* to see how we’re trying to make things right.
Please check it out… We really do want to change.
Love always,
Beckwith’s GymP.S. Please say you’ll meet us half way… BeckwithsGym.com/freeoffer*
[* now that the gym is closed, this page is no longer active]
Again, the gym owners thought I was nuts. “…but this is a hardcore gym. This kind of thing will make us look… mainstream.” (gasp!)
I challenged ‘em with the question: What is McDonalds known for? (Ironic choice, I know – considering what I do and all…)
“Hamburgers?”
Exactly. But can’t you also walk into a McDonalds and get a chicken sandwich? Yogurt? SALAD?! Even with those options on the menu, they’ll never be able to ‘shake’ their image as a burger joint. Same with a gym like Beckwith’s. You’ll ALWAYS be a hardcore temple of the iron.
But as far as I can see, you have exactly TWO options…
[to be continued...]
What Happened to Beckwith’s Gym? – Part 1
Grand Rapids area fitness and powerlifting mecca is no more
Maybe it’s just the natural cycle of life, but sometimes good gyms go out of business. It was a real shame to find out yesterday morning that the weekend rumors about Beckwith’s Gym in Grandville, Michigan were true.
As I pulled into the parking lot at 3040 28th Street SW yesterday morning to meet with one of my personal training clients, I quickly noticed the lights were off and the interior looked eerily vacant for the normally active time of 11am.
Having been around the fit-biz block a few times, I immediately realized that Beckwith’s Gym’s time has come (and mysteriously gone sometime over the weekend).
I only discovered the gym a few months earlier. Always on the lookout for resources that I can direct clients, readers, friends and fans to, I heard talk of this dinosaur-style gym since moving to Grand Rapids a year earlier.
Yet every time I set out in search of the mythical Beckwith’s, I always wound up at their previous location (with an entrance in the back of a retired bowling alley) that always had a “closed” sign on the door. I just assumed it was because it was such an exclusive, powerlifting-niche club, they only had a handful of dedicated members who’d meet there at specific times. I wanted to know the secret handshake to get in – so I checked back every couple of months.
It was finally mid-summer before I thought to track ‘em down via the internet (this may come as a surprise to some of you younguns, but even though I consider myself a bit of a tech-geek, we old-timers sometimes take a bit longer to remember that google knows EVERYTHING).
I emailed one of their trainers who quickly replied that they moved about 3 miles west earlier in the year and they have typical operating hours. Finally – all I had to do was make the 20 minute drive to Grandville and I’d see what all the talk was about.
When I walked in I was greeted by “Pops” – the 73 year old majority owner and one heck of a deadlifter, too! We got to talking and I quickly understood that they were finding their new location (and the low-ball priced area competitors) to be forces they weren’t quite equipped to handle.
Membership at gyms like Beckwith’s are usually in the $40/month range but they found themselves competing against the franchised outfits with healthy marketing budgets and the ability to undercut the “real” gyms with membership as low as $12/month.
“Pops” knee-jerk response in order to stay competitive was to offer an annual membership for just $180 – with NO ‘initiation fee’ and no contractual obligation to renew.
So I asked him what he would offer when the franchises went down to $10/month… Or $5.
Being the lowest price option is rarely the best way to be profitable, but he needed to get people in the door to even have a chance to sell ‘em on the Beckwith’s ideal of training.
Because he was so set on competing strictly on PRICE, I suggested he take the low-ball approach to the max and give membership away for FREE. He looked at me like I just escaped the loonie-bin.
It was at this point I explained what I do. Not wanting him to be the only one ‘risking’ anything by giving away membership to his gym, I even offered to throw in my personal training services for free.
“But how do we make any MONEY?” he understandably asked.
[to be continued...]
Have you purchased a Beckwith’s Gym membership and have nowhere to train? Be sure to watch the following short video…
More From The West Michigan Bodybuilding Scene…
My friend Shawn Miller has a gym…make that THE gym in Holland, Michigan. FLEX Fitness Center is known locally as the place to work out when you’re serious about change. A couple of his gym members put their efforts on display at the 2009 NPC Western Michigan Bodybuilding, Fitness, Figure & Bikini Championships this past weekend – and I was there capturing video of their evening posing routines…
Dave Kaletka
Greg Castro
…and of course, I somehow happened to record some random bikini competitors (none from FLEX that I’m aware of, but I told you yesterday some bikini comp footage was on its way):
BTW, I’ve been working on a couple ‘top secret’ projects with Shawn/FLEX – the kinds of things that are only being announced through the gym and on their Facebook Fan Page. If you want to find out what we have up our heavily muscles sleeves, you need to become a “fan”.
Mr. Olympia 2009 Jay Cutler
Something about the overwhelming scent of Pro Tan (not to mention the equally overwhelming sight of big guys in small posing trunks) usually prevents me from going out of my way to check out a bodybuilding show, but this weekend, the 2009 Western Michigan Bodybuilding, Fitness, Figure & Bikini Championships rolled through town so I figr’d what the heck…
I’ll be posting some (bikini contest) vids at my YouTube channel (you DO subscribe, don’t you?), but for now, you’ll have to settle for this footage of 2009 Mr. Olympia, Jay Cutler, guest posing just 3 weeks after reclaiming his title. He really knows how to work the crowd – be sure to watch what he does at about the 3 minute mark…
"Mighty" Joe Stankowski
