In a week, Chen Qiang did not sell a few 50% off membership cards.
This was also what Chen Qiang expected. Chen Qiang did not plan to sell a 50% discount membership card in his original plan.
After all, the gym has not been built yet, and customers have not seen what the gym looks like with their own eyes. It is difficult for customers to pay for just one leaflet.
If it is a chain gym, the situation will be different. Even if the gym has not opened yet, it will attract many customers with the name of the chain.
After opening, Chen Qiang planned to increase the discount for membership to 30% off in the first month, start with a 10% off discount in the second month, and return to the original price in three months, and then increase the discount on some special holidays.
For the gym industry, the so-called pre-opening or opening discounts are just marketing routines.
Different from the catering department, the catering industry actually requires the cost of raw materials. After all, the ingredients must be prepared fresh, so it is impossible to buy a lot of them.
For places such as Internet cafes, gyms, and billiards halls, the cost of discounting is not high. Anyway, the machines or equipment have been bought and placed there. Regardless of whether there are customers or not, the equipment will be depreciated there. This kind of place is not afraid of many people, but fear of no one.
Therefore, there are often gyms that seem to be very valuable discounts. For example, if you have a membership for three years, the discount is much larger than if you have a membership for one year. For example, you have a membership of 2,000 yuan per year, 3,000 yuan per year, and 3,500 yuan per year. It sounds so great. Three-year membership only costs 1,500 yuan more than one year membership. So why not hurry up and get it for three years!
Let’s not talk about whether you can persist in fitness for three years. Just in terms of the cost of the gym, the fitness equipment has been bought and placed there. I originally planned to use it for many years, and the one-time investment and subsequent use are almost zero. Every customer can earn a free payment for one year.
What's more, many people apply for fitness cards, which may be fresh for a week or two, and they won't go much further in the future.
Many small gyms, which are only 200 to 300 square meters, can have 300,000 members. If three or 4000 people come, there is no place to stand for these 200 square meters. In fact, most people do not come to exercise frequently after applying for a fitness card, so a gym that is 200 to 300 square meters can accommodate 300,000 members.
Moreover, the most profitable thing in later gyms was to sell courses.
The membership fees in many gyms are not expensive, and the membership fees per month are just a meal, but there are various courses, even if they cost tens of thousands per month.
Of course Chen Qiang knew all these routines, and he was also planning to use them in his gym.
Renovation, decoration, installation of boilers, construction of bathrooms, and then transporting fitness equipment to assemble, Chen Qiang's gym finally completed the preparations before opening.
Chen Qiang also hired several fitness coaches, all of whom were athletes, and Chen Qiang also planned to recruit some part-time coaches.
Then Chen Qiang chose an auspicious day to officially open the gym, and the name of the gym was "Chen Qiang Fitness".
...
A car was parked on the side of the road, and the whiskey businessman Anthony walked off the car and looked up at the sign hanging on the wall.
"Chen Qiang's fitness should be here." Anthony confirmed it and walked directly into the gym.
As soon as he walked into the gym, Anthony suddenly realized that the gym he had visited before was a little different. Compared with other gyms, it was brighter. The huge windows were more like the windows of street shops. In front of the windows, there were treadmills.
Anthony looked carefully and found that this treadmill was different from what he had seen. In other places, treadmills used wood or leather treads, which looked like a tank car. In this gym, the treadmill tracks were a whole line of black rubber, which felt so high-end, atmospheric and high-end.
More importantly, the treadmill track here is longer and wider, and the area that can be run is also large. At least in the eyes of Anthony, an American, the wider the treadmill track, the higher the treadmill.
Treadmills were originally a torture instrument in prison. It is said that prisoners in a prison had nothing to do all day long, so they often fought. The warden came up with a way to let the prisoners vent their extra energy, so they would not have time to fight. So the warden invented a treadmill and let the prisoners step on the treadmill every day. They were so tired that they did not have the energy to fight.
The treadmill in the prison is a large cylinder roller with a shelf on it. The prisoners will hold the rack and run on the cylinder. This is a bit like the circular cage that is locked in hamsters, but the prisoners run outside the cage. In the past few years, similar fitness equipment can be found in many parks and communities in China.
In the United States in the 1930s, fitness equipment was basically invented by Swedish doctor Gustav Jander. After all, Gustav Jander was a figure in the 19th century. At that time, the rubber industry was not yet developed, so there were no rubber tracks. So at that time, Gustav Jander used wood chips and leather to make long strips, and then connected them to make treadmill tracks.
Since the treadmill was driven by gravity at that time, and the weight of wood chips or leather was relatively large, the tracks of the treadmill would be relatively heavy. If the tracks were made too large, the weight of the person would not be enough to drive the treadmill to rotate, and the treadmill would naturally not be able to run.
Therefore, the treadmill with wood chips or leather tracks at that time had a relatively small track area, which was to reduce the weight of the track and facilitate gravity driving.
Anyone who has been to the gym knows that if the tracks of the treadmill are narrow and short, they will not be able to run at all, and they will easily fall off from it. Therefore, the treadmills in the 1930s were not suitable for "running". At best, they would take small steps.
Chen Qiang improved the old-fashioned treadmill and replaced the wood chips or leather with a whole rubber track, so the treadmill designed by Chen Qiang is almost the same as the simple treadmills in later generations.
In the United States in the 1930s, assembly line operations were basically popular. For example, in Chaplin's "Modern Times", there were clips of assembly line workers. The most basic thing about assembly line is naturally the transmission track. Since the United States has been able to process transmission tracks for assembly lines, it is not easy to capture the manufacturing of a treadmill track.
In terms of appearance alone, the treadmill copied from later generations is more than a hundred times better than the treadmill of that era. The appearance is simpler, more fashionable, and more technological. More importantly, Chen Qiang's treadmill is bigger!
This is probably like taking Alto produced in the 1990s and now Prado. With a spacious Prado, who would drive Alto!
There is no doubt that Anthony was attracted by the first sight of this treadmill and couldn't wait to go up and run for a lap.
"Mr. Anthony, welcome to my gym!" Chen Qiang's voice sounded from behind. Chen Qiang saw Anthony's arrival and greeted him in person.
"Chan, your gym is really good, especially this treadmill." Anthony looked at the treadmill reluctantly.
"It's not just a treadmill, I'll take you to see something else." Chen Qiang took Anthony and began to visit his gym.
In Chen Qiang's gym, all the fitness equipment was designed in reference to later generations. As long as the fitness equipment in later generations did not require motor drive, Chen Qiang almost copied it. Such as stepper machines with counterweights, rowing machines, sit-ups, bench presses, gantry frames, etc.
At that time, there were actually similar fitness equipment, but how could the fitness equipment of that era be compared with Chen Qiang copied from later generations? Not to mention whether it conforms to ergonomics, it was several levels short of appearance alone.
In fact, with the aesthetic perspective of the 1930s, even if you look at the products designed in the 1950s, it is full of science fiction, let alone the design of the next 21st century. Chen Qiang took the future design to the 1930s, instantly turning the entire gym into a science fiction exhibition.
After Chen Qiang introduced his fitness equipment one by one, Anthony felt overwhelmed and dazzled. Gradually, he even felt that his mind could no longer keep up with his eyes.
"Mr. Anthony, our bathroom is in front of us." Chen Qiang pointed to the room in front.
"Bathroom? Do you have a bathroom here?" Anthony asked in surprise.
"Of course, after physical exercise, you will definitely sweat all over. We can't let our gentlemen go out to see people in sweat, so I have a bathroom here. After you finish fitness, you can take a shower, wash away the sweat, and wash away the fatigue after fitness. Isn't it better to go out with a refreshed mood?" Chen Qiang introduced.
"It makes sense. If you go to the client after exercise, you will have no problem." Anthony nodded and continued, "Chan, you are quite high-end here. As far as I know, there are no dedicated bathrooms in other gyms. Only those high-end clubs have separate rooms, and there will be bathrooms inside."
"I also hope to provide the best service to customers." Chen Qiang smiled slightly and continued: "The disinfection room is in front of me."
"Disin room? What does that do?" Anthony continued.
"After the business ends every day, we will disinfect the fitness equipment. You know, many people use these fitness equipment every day, and a lot of sweat will fall on it. If it is not disinfected, it will cause bacteria to grow over time and affect human health. So we will disinfect every day to ensure that customers use clean fitness equipment." Chen Qiang replied.
Anthony nodded suddenly and his evaluation of Chen Qiang's gym was a little higher.
Chen Qiang's gym opened Anthony's eyes. These technology-filled fitness equipment, as well as bathrooms, and disinfection services have long conquered Anthony. There is no doubt that after visiting the gym, Anthony directly applied for a three-year membership card.
...
As for the money-losing routines in the gym, Chen Qiang is very familiar with it, and in terms of the service and details of the gym, Chen Qiang is far beyond this era.
The gyms in the future are similar. There are equipment you have and my family, so everyone is competing for services and details. Which gym has more services and details, can attract more customers. These small routines in services and details are constantly explored in the fierce competition in later generations. During this period, countless gyms have been constantly exploring the fierce competition. During this period, I don’t know how many gyms have become cannon fodder and went bankrupt.
Chen Qiang casually brought one-tenth of these small tricks in services and details, which was enough to conquer customers in the 1930s.
Anthony, a big businessman who has seen the world, felt like Liu Laolao entering the Grand View Garden when he came to Chen Qiang's gym. Those New York local buns who had never seen the world came to bring Chen Qiang's gym, which was more like Monkey King Sun entering the peach banquet. He saw everything was fresh and wanted to try everything, even a piece of coriander wanted to lick it carefully.
Word of mouth spreads very quickly, one to ten, ten to hundreds, and soon, many people came to Chen Qiang’s gym to apply for membership.
Especially at the end of the first month, since the 30% discount period was about to end, the gym ushered in a peak period for applying for membership cards.
As a result, in the first month, Chen Qiang's gym received more than 1,000 members, and on average, more than 30 people came to apply for membership cards a day.
If it were later generations, for those big gyms, if there were more than 30 members a day in the first month of opening, it would be considered a relatively disappointing result. However, in the United States in the 1930s, this was a very good result. After all, the population of the United States is not as large as that of China. With thirty members a day, it has exceeded many of its peers.
The customer's situation is as Chen Qiang expected. Most people only spend three or four days fresh, and then they come less and less. Although Chen Qiang's gym environment is good and he can take a free bath, it is really difficult to stick to fitness. Unless he is the kind of person who really loves fitness, who would spend in the gym every day and go to the gym twice or three times a week, which would be good.
For Chen Qiang, his gym is still in the stage of attracting people, and now it is mainly to let more people apply for membership. When the number of members gradually increases, Chen Qiang plans to start selling courses, and the profits of the gym will increase significantly.
In the second month after the opening, the discount became 10% off. There were indeed fewer people coming to apply for membership cards, but Chen Qiang was not worried. He immediately launched an old member to bring new members and give away members. It immediately attracted a large group of customers to apply for membership cards. After all, people are greedy for cheap people. Those who have applied for membership cards heard that introducing new members can give away membership time, so they brought relatives and friends to apply for membership cards.
This is a bit like a pyramid scheme, but pyramid schemes are about cheating relatives and friends, while fitness is a good thing. Ttraction of relatives and friends to exercise will obviously help them improve their physical fitness and improve their health.
What Chen Qiang paid was just giving away some members. For Chen Qiang, the fitness equipment had been bought, and it was just a waste of depreciation there, which could no longer be considered a cost. The only thing Chen Qiang paid was probably the coal and water used for burning the boiler every day. After all, Chen Qiang could take a bath in the gym. As long as he came to exercise, no matter how much sweat he sweated, he would take a bathhouse and wash it before leaving.
People come to join the membership every day and money is collected every day. This kind of life is really comfortable.
Moreover, the huge profits in the gym also surprised Chen Qiang. Chen Qiang made a calculation. If this trend continues, he will be able to recover the cost of opening a gym in two months.
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Chapter completed!