Box Owner Question

[sharzid]

@skizzik183

More trying to get a balance of if this is something that can be done as a career in the future.

You should check out this responseI gave someone else on the topic.

 

[skizzik183]

@sharzid Fantastic I’ll check it out thanks!

 

[marieeeee]

@sharzid Can I ask what area your gym is located?

 

[vorianatredies]

@skizzik183 I coach at two separate gyms. One pays me and gives me a free membership. The other just a free membership. I good with both because I really only do it to have access to two gyms anytime I want

 

[4godabove]

@vorianatredies So you don’t have access to the boxes when you are not coaching? That’s interesting…I have the keys to our box and can train whenever I want.

 

[vorianatredies]

@4godabove That’s what I meant. I have keys to both so I can go to
Either one anytime

 

[gabrielt]

@skizzik183 This is so interesting to me because no one coaches at our box except the owners. We have some coaches who have keys and stuff but the only time they coach is when the owners are away.

 

[bena7]

@skizzik183 Back in 2018/2019, I was a CF coach in NorCal. The owner paid me $18hr, free membership, and she paid for half of the L1 course.

 

[twinmama]

@skizzik183 I do 2 classes a week for a 150 membership. I also wouldn't do 6 a week for that.

 

[tmcleod]

@skizzik183 I know this might be controversial but we don’t actually include a free membership in their coaching gig. All of our coaches are paid hourly and they get paid very well hourly. We had an issue where we had like 12 “coaches” who would coach infrequently that it was losing us money (they’d sometimes go 6 weeks without coaching a class). We consolidated the coaching staff, gave them much more pay and allow them to take as many classes as they want (they’re all doing this as a side gig). We find this works really well since there’s no animosity if they decide they want to go back to being normal members, or if they just don’t want to coach for a little bit.

Myself and the other owner pick up any classes that need to be covered and have the standard classes we always coach.

If we had a full time coach or somebody who coached a very consistent schedule and they also did other duties around the gym we would salary them and a free membership would be included, but right now we don’t have any coaches in that position.

(5x30)x4 should put you at about $600 of work each month, which I would agree is not equal to a membership at any gym. Talk to them about getting paid, if they don’t want to pay you, then tell them you’re only willing to coach 5-6 classes a month to get the free membership value and don’t work anymore than you have to/what your time is worth.

Edit: we also pay for any certs or continuing education our coaches want.

 

[timnewton85]

@skizzik183 Not an owner, but a coach here.

My membership is subsidized, but not free. I get paid per class I take, and work a full time job.

The owner only subsidizes memberships for coaches to encourage us to continue taking part in classes. I agree with this policy, when coaches don't work out with the members it creates a hierarchy.

 

[leemills]

@skizzik183 I’m not a gym owner or a coach but I thought this was interesting and relevant to the conversation so I will share it! I recently heard an owner of a gym who pays their coaches a bonus based on the number of attendees in the class. I think they get a base rate per class, something like $5, then $1 per member that attends. Not sure if those were the exact amounts but you get the idea.

 

[slp40]

@skizzik183 Not an owner, but have been coaching since I was 20 and will be 28 soon. I’ve coached at many gyms, and the ones I felt most loyal to paid me in addition to a free membership, and they paid me on time. The number of gyms I’ve worked at that fucked around with paying on time is astounding. If you absolutely need to trade membership for work, make that very clear up front. I’ve also had owners randomly try to take membership money out of my pay just on a whim without bringing it up to me. It also would be nice to receive some sort of a discounted rate if your trading as well. Typically a part time coach is going to be coaching during hours they would otherwise be working out, and that is being taken from them. Above all, communicate everything as soon as necessary. It is a huge issue when I’ve had owners come to want something fixed that had not been brought up but had been bothering them for some time.

 

[chantelle1989g]

@skizzik183 My box paid the equivalent of $15/class and expected the certification cost to be borne by the coach. Part time coaches paid 1/2 the going rate for an unlimited membership and all staff are required to be in 3 class workouts per week. “Full time” coaches have PT clients and I don’t know what the salary considerations are there.

There’s not a ton of money to be made in CrossFit coaching; personal trainers can make more but the success of that is dependent on the availability of clients. If you teach class 4-7 you have to schedule pt clients during the day, if they can come then.

 

[artistforjesus]

@skizzik183 Always paid my staff. $20 1st year, $25 second year, $30 going forward. Required 3 classes a week.

I have coaches that have been coaching here 10 years.

Salaried was harder and typically stayed 1-3 years. Better success with part time

 

[judithmotta]

@skizzik183 Every aspect of a CF box needs to be commercially viable, otherwise it will just ruin the business for those who actually do it for a living.

 

[maggymay]

@skizzik183 Paid them. Gave them a weekly stipend based on the number of classes per week they coached.

 

[xrt]

@skizzik183 $25 an hour for part-time coaches, salary for full time coaches.

Full time is 12-15 coaching hours a week, 30 hours total, we start at 45k a year, ranges up to 55k. Unlimited pto, added membership for a person of your choice. Up to 1k in educational costs reimbursed. End of year bonus depending on gym success, preCovid that was 2-3k a year, last year was 1k, early covid none at all.

 

[gingerrunner]

@skizzik183 Our structure is fairly common (percentage of non class stuff, paid hourly for classes, open gyms, and meetings) but I would urge gym owners to build prices off of what you want to be able to pay. We calculate the cost of delivering each service to clients, then figure out what pay figure makes coaches excited to deliver that service, and build profit margins in for the gym on top of that. Many gym owners just price off of what the gym down the street charges, but you have no idea what their costs are, and if yours are different, that's an easy way to go out of business.