Wellness Partners

How to Grow Your Gym with a Fitness Consultant

Last Updated Apr 2, 2025

Time to read: 8 minutes

Think of your gym like a high-performance engine — even the best ones need a tune-up to reach peak performance. No matter how successful your fitness center is, a fresh perspective and proven strategies can unlock even greater potential.

Maybe your membership numbers have plateaued, or that shiny new competitor down the street is stealing your thunder. Perhaps you're drowning in daily operations when you'd rather focus on growth. Whatever the case may be, a fitness consultant can bring the expertise and industry insights needed to transform your gym's performance from good to outstanding.

What Does a Fitness Consultant Do for Gyms?

Running a successful gym involves many moving pieces — from having the right equipment, the best fitness classes, and the ideal number of members. A fitness consultant is an industry expert who becomes your strategic partner on this journey, bringing their expertise in gym management to help optimize every aspect of your business.

Whether independent professionals or part of larger fitness consultancy firms, these professionals evaluate your current performance, identify areas for opportunity, and create a targeted plan to help you reach your business goals. Here are just a few things that you can expect a fitness consultancy to help out with:

Business Strategy and Planning

A fitness consultant can help transform your gym from just another fitness center into a thriving wellness hub. With almost 70 million active gym memberships in the United States, according to Statista, the competition for members is fierce. An experienced fitness consultant can help you capture its share of this massive market with:

Strategic planning: Your consultant works with you to create a grand business plan for success. This includes identifying your gym’s unique strengths, setting realistic growth targets, and developing actionable plans to achieve them.
Marketing plans: Understanding your local fitness landscape is incredibly important for success. Consultants analyze your competition, identify untapped opportunities, and help you carve out your perfect niche. They’ll show you who your ideal members are and how to reach them effectively.
Revenue optimization: Beyond just setting subscription prices, consultants help create pricing strategies that maximize value for both your gym and your members. This might include designing innovative membership tiers, creating premium service packages, or developing strategic partnerships with local businesses.

Operations and Management

Great systems turn chaos into clockwork. A fitness consultancy can help you create the best systems—from automated membership renewals to staff scheduling software—that streamline every aspect of your gym to create seamless experiences for staff and members. They’ll analyze your current operations, identify bottlenecks, and create solutions that save time and money.

Staff development is a key focus here, as consultants can create training programs that turn good employees into great ones. They can help you build a dedicated team committed to your gym’s success.

Fitness Programming and Services

Your workout offerings are the heart of your gym. Consultants help you design programming that keeps members engaged and coming back for more. Here’s how:

Program development: Fitness advisors can help you create diverse workout options that appeal to different age groups, fitness levels, and interests. From high-intensity interval training to gentle senior fitness classes, consultants help you build workout programs that serve your community.
Trend integration: Stay ahead of fitness trends without chasing every passing fad. Consultants help you identify which new workout styles and equipment are here to stay. For example, consumer spending on connected fitness equipment like Peloton has gone up by about 5% since the pandemic, according to a McKinsey report.
Quality assurance: Any gym needs standards and systems to deliver high-quality instruction all across the board. A consultant helps develop these quality controls by creating comprehensive training manuals, establishing feedback systems, and implementing regular quality checks.

Financial Management

Even the most popular gym won’t succeed without a solid financial plan. Consultants help you understand and optimize your gym’s financial performance. They can help with:

Performance analysis: Get clear insights into your gym’s financial health. Consultants help you track key metrics like member acquisition costs, retention rates, and revenue per square foot. They can show you exactly where your money’s going and where you can improve.
Growth planning: Create realistic budgets and forecasts that support your gym’s growth goals with the help of your consultant. Whether you’re planning to expand your space, add new services, or upgrade equipment, consultants can help you make financial decisions that align with your future plans.
Cost control: Identify areas where you’re spending too much and create strategies to reduce expenses without sacrificing quality. Experienced consultants have been doing this for years (if not decades!), so they know where to lower expenses without cutting into the customer experience.

Signs You Need a Fitness Consultant

If having a gym was always your dream, then it might be difficult to admit that you need help. But there’s no shame! Virtually every large business has relied on consultants in one way or another. With over one million consultancies in the U.S. alone and almost $370 billion of combined revenue, according to Forbes, it’s clear that successful businesses recognize the value of expert guidance.

These signs might indicate it’s time to join the many successful companies that hire consultants:

Declining membership numbers: If your gym starts feeling empty, something’s not working. Watch for patterns like increasing cancellations, fewer new sign-ups, or members who seem to vanish after their initial enthusiasm wears off. A consultant can help you figure out what’s driving numbers away and how to fix it.
High staff turnover or low employee morale: When your trainers and staff members can’t seem to stay at their jobs, you’ve got some HR work to do. High turnover tends to signal deeper issues with the work environment, employee compensation, and stress, according to a study published in the European Journal of Business and Management Research.
Outdated equipment or inefficient use of gym space: You invested in top-notch equipment, but some machines don’t get any action. Maybe your layout needs a refresh or you’re missing important equipment that members actually want.
Lack of a clear marketing strategy: If your social media presence looks like it’s stuck in the home aerobics era, then it’s time for a strategic upgrade. A fitness consultant can help you find the right Instagram or TikTok marketing campaign to revitalize your business.
Difficulty keeping up with industry trends: Feeling like every new boutique studio or budget gym is eating into your market share? When you can’t keep up with industry trends or find yourself constantly playing catch-up with competitors, a consultant can help you find what makes your gym stand out from the crowd.
Feeling overwhelmed with day-to-day management: If you’re spending more time wrestling with spreadsheets than interacting with members, something’s got to give. You can’t focus on growth and improved customer experience when daily operations are consuming all your energy.

How to Choose the Right Fitness Consultant

Finding the perfect fitness consultant is like finding a great personal trainer — you need someone who understands your goals, challenges you appropriately, and keeps you accountable. Here’s how to make the right choice:

Step 1: Define Your Needs

Before you start your search, get crystal clear about what you need help with. Are you looking for a complete business overhaul or need focused help in specific areas? Maybe you’re crushing it with member retention but struggling with marketing, or vice versa.

Create a priority list of challenges you want to address. This can help you find consultants who specialize in your needs rather than settling for the first consultant you speak to.

Step 2: Look for Relevant Experience

The fitness industry has many unique challenges that business consultants might not understand. Look for someone who speaks your language and has walked in your shoes. Consider these three things:

Industry expertise: Look for consultants with proven, hands-on experience in gym operations and management.
Success stories: Ask about specific examples of how fitness consultants have helped gyms overcome challenges similar to yours.
Current knowledge: Ask if consultants attend industry conferences or how and when they got their latest certification.

Step 3: Check Credentials

While experience matters more than letters after someone’s name, proper certification shows commitment to professionalism and ongoing education. Look for consultants certified by respected organizations in fitness and business.

Step 4: Evaluate Their Approach

A consultant should feel like a partner in your gym’s success, not just someone who drops in, makes recommendations, and dips. During initial conversations, pay attention to:

How well they listen to your specific challenges
Their ability to explain complex concepts clearly
Their process for implementing changes
How they measure success

Tap Into the Growing Corporate Wellness Market

While working with a fitness consultancy can help you overhaul your gym’s core operations, there’s another powerful way to grow your gym. Corporate market wellness is expected to reach almost $75 billion by 2030, according to Grand View Research. This untapped market of corporate clients represents an opportunity for gym owners.

With more companies investing in employee wellbeing, gyms that position themselves to serve this market can see substantial growth. Wellhub helps you tap this quickly growing market — 75% of first-time visitors from our platform become repeat customers, and 90% of Wellhub members are new customers for our partners.

Partner with Wellhub to connect with our network of thousands of fitness professionals committed to making wellbeing universal. Learn more about joining our network today!