Why Your Fitness Business Needs Less Strategy and More Soul
I'll never forget the day I had to close my first studio.
March 16th, 2020. I stood in my empty space, looking at the dumbbells I'd arranged so carefully just that morning, wondering if I'd ever see my members again. Like thousands of other fitness entrepreneurs, I thought I was screwed.
But here's the thing—I wasn't prepared like Mike Tromello from Precision CrossFit. I didn't have six months of reserves. I barely had six weeks. Yet somehow, 18 months later, I emerged stronger than before. And it wasn't because I suddenly became a financial genius or discovered some secret business hack.
It was because COVID forced me to stop thinking like a business owner and start thinking like a community builder.
The Survival Playbook Everyone's Missing
Everyone's talking about Mike's success story—the reserves, the outdoor pivot, the smart planning. And yeah, those things matter. A lot. But if you're reading articles like this hoping to find the magic formula for fitness business survival, you're looking in the wrong place.
Because here's what nobody wants to admit: Most fitness businesses that survived COVID didn't make it because of their business acumen. They made it because their members literally couldn't imagine their lives without them.
Think about it. When everything went to hell, which businesses did people fight to keep alive? The ones that felt essential. Not because they had the best equipment or the slickest marketing, but because they'd become woven into the fabric of people's daily existence.
Mike gets this. When he says "people will remember those who helped them during tough times," he's not talking about customer service. He's talking about becoming irreplaceable.
What "Community-First" Actually Means (Hint: It's Not What You Think)
I used to roll my eyes when fitness gurus talked about "building community." It felt like buzzword bingo. Post some motivational quotes on Instagram, remember people's names, maybe organize a potluck. Community built, right?
Wrong.
Real community-building in fitness isn't about making people feel good about their workouts. It's about making your business essential to how people navigate their lives. Mike talks about finding job opportunities for his members. That's not customer service—that's recognizing that fitness intersects with everything else someone's dealing with.
When my studio was closed, I didn't just send workout videos. I created a private Facebook group where members could share what they were struggling with beyond fitness. Job losses, relationship issues, kids going crazy at home. And you know what happened? They started helping each other. I became the facilitator of a support network that had very little to do with burpees and everything to do with life.
That's when I realized: Your fitness business isn't competing with other gyms. It's competing with Netflix, therapy sessions, and happy hour with friends. You're in the life-enhancement business, not the exercise business.
The Antifragile Fitness Framework
After studying businesses that didn't just survive COVID but thrived, I've noticed they all share four characteristics. I call it the Antifragile Fitness Framework:
1. Optionality Over Optimization
Most fitness entrepreneurs obsess over perfecting one model. The perfect class schedule, the perfect pricing structure, the perfect space layout. But antifragile businesses build in multiple ways to deliver value.
Mike pivoted to outdoor training. But he could have done a dozen other things—online coaching, corporate wellness programs, equipment rental, nutrition consulting. The businesses that survived had already been experimenting with different revenue streams before they needed them.
Your homework: What are three different ways you could deliver your core value proposition if your primary model disappeared tomorrow?
2. Depth Over Scale
Here's an uncomfortable truth: If you have 500 members and you can't name 100 of them off the top of your head, you don't have a community. You have a customer base.
And customer bases are fragile. Communities are antifragile.
I watch fitness entrepreneurs constantly chase growth—more members, bigger spaces, additional locations. But the businesses I've seen weather every storm focus obsessively on deepening relationships with existing members before expanding their reach.
Your homework: Can you name your top 50 members and one specific thing going on in their lives outside of fitness? If not, start there.
3. Systems Over Heroics
Mike's six-month reserve fund isn't sexy, but it's systematic. Too many fitness entrepreneurs run their businesses on adrenaline and good intentions. They'll stay late to accommodate a member's crazy schedule, they'll skip their own workouts to cover classes, they'll absorb price increases instead of passing them along.
This feels noble, but it's actually selfish. Because when you burn out or your business fails, everyone depending on you gets hurt.
Your homework: What would your business need to run for three months without you? Start building those systems now, while things are good.
4. Values Over Tactics
Every business decision Mike made during COVID aligned with his core value: taking care of his community. Offering payment delays, finding job opportunities, maintaining connection when everything felt disconnected.
Most fitness entrepreneurs make decisions based on what they think will work, not what feels right. But here's the thing about values-based decision making—even when it doesn't optimize for short-term profit, it builds the kind of trust that creates long-term sustainability.
Your homework: Write down your top three business values. Now look at your last ten major decisions. How many aligned with those values?
The Real Lesson From Precision CrossFit
Mike's story isn't really about reserves or outdoor gyms or even surviving COVID. It's about what happens when you stop thinking of yourself as someone who teaches fitness and start thinking of yourself as someone who strengthens communities.
And that shift? It changes everything.
Because when you're community-first, financial planning isn't about protecting your business—it's about protecting the people who depend on you. Pivoting isn't about saving your revenue—it's about maintaining connection with people who need you. Innovation isn't about competitive advantage—it's about finding new ways to serve.
The fitness industry loves to talk about transformation. We're obsessed with before-and-after photos, success stories, dramatic changes. But the real transformation happening in our industry isn't physical—it's entrepreneurs finally understanding that we're not in the business of changing bodies. We're in the business of changing lives.
Your Move
So here's my question for you: What would your business look like if you designed it around making people's lives genuinely better, not just their fitness levels?
Because here's what I've learned: The cream that rises to the top isn't the smartest or the most prepared or even the most successful. It's the businesses that become so essential to their communities that failure literally isn't an option.
The good news? You don't need six months of reserves to start building that kind of business. You just need to start treating every interaction like it matters more than the money it generates.
And maybe—just maybe—stop reading articles about business strategy and start having conversations with your members about how you can make their lives easier.
Trust me, your bank account will thank you later.
