Gym Owner how to survive in the U.S.? A 90days survival case of China 24KiCK

105,846 Gym owners in the U.S. market according to Stastics. I'm not sure how many of them reopen now. I suppose that a successful case study can lead a better result. You can regard it as a story but keep patience.

A gym's rollercoaster experience from the hell to the earth, with X-balls and despair, but also humanity and resilience. It's a story of "antifragility".

In early March, when Beijing is still cold and spring has yet to arrive, Rany is wearing an army green parka and a navy blue knit cap. An electric car travels through Chaoyang District.

The entrepreneur, who just received nearly 10 million RMB in Pre-A round of funding a year ago, is now an entrepreneur in order to keep the company alive. "The number one take-out master of the Wangjing Martial Arts Team."

For him, this is the most important event of the month of March. Because of the epidemic, the offline venue of 24KiCK, the fighting fitness brand founded by Rany, is not open at this time, which makes them The decision was made to launch the restaurant, which has been in preparation for nearly six months, online first. The new brand, called SOULMEAT, will sell beef, chicken, salads and drinks.

Due to concerns about the poor taste of the takeaway, SOULMEAT's first items were made into pre-products that needed to be reprocessed, which also meant that it was not possible to landed on the delivery platform, but Rany couldn't wait any longer and decided to go all-in with microbusinesses to start selling, and on March 9, the first products included The $118 Pork Ribs and $128 Long Island Iced Tea Set are online. rany himself spearheaded the SOULMEAT! The takeaway deliverymen.

SOULMEAT's first customers were mostly the same members of 24KiCK, many of whom were old friends to Rany.

"The takeaway couldn't go upstairs, it had to be left at a designated spot at the front of the block, and at that point I felt like an emotionless machine," he said. But there were times when the consignee would come downstairs specifically to wait for Rany, and the two would stand together for a chat, a pep talk, a pat on the shoulder, and to put the Deliver the goods before you leave. Some members will tell him, "Eat hard, get fat and train harder when you open the door".

This kind of support from members is very important to Rany and 24KiCK. The members of 24KiCK have been paying for the equipment they borrowed for free for a long time.

The members' support during the epidemic made Rany feel like she had "done the right thing" all along.

"The first time I was in the room was when I was in the car. People and things show up. If it's all desperate things, it's hard for a company, a person to survive no matter how strong they are", says Rany.

However, these revenues are not enough for 24KiCK. These past four months have been catastrophic for all offline sports venues, and no one has been spared.

Back in January, when the epidemic had just broken out in China, like all sports and fitness venues, 24KiCK's five stores in Beijing were The announcement of the closure began on the 23rd of April. At that time, Rany wrote to her friends that it would be nice to have a break from work.

On January 31, 24KiCK resumed work as planned, but the trainer couldn't come back and the store was closed. Unable to open, or even find an open café, the guys ended up sitting down the street for their first meeting since resuming work.

The meeting focused around the same themes as most gyms and even most companies - online and survival.

Starting in February, all of their peers flocked to online fitness and it became the only thing they could do right now. The major gym brands started offering online content through a host of platforms such as Shakespeare, Faster, B-Site, and One Live. It started with free live streaming and then slowly evolved into paid boot camps and other formats.

24KiCK also partnered with TT Live to launch live classes, with Rany personally doing coaching sessions.

▲Rany takes boxing lessons on TT Live.

Although the average viewership of each class is around 1500 people, with a high of 5000, Rany admits that it is not It is useless, at most can play a role in the operation of the membership, and live to become a normal business should be gradual, at least six months. There are some more practical problems, live can only teach simple movements, can not involve technical details, which is very for learning boxing important.

In other words, live courses don't generate revenue, they need to find another way.

And at this point, 24KiCK's cash flow is already a bit tight, with rent and manpower being the biggies, accounting for 70% of total costs, and light The loss in March was just over $1 million. To save on rent, they gave back the office.

The sale of peripheral products and a small amount of online peer-to-peer private tutoring became the source of income in February. Up to this point, 24KiCK had to be grateful that they had been trying to diversify their income before. For example, since last year, they've been selling tangos on their gadget marketplace for an average of $500 a piece, and so far sales are at 2000 items or so. On top of that, they cover merchandise related to fighting culture, such as at-home training gadgets, protein bars and jackets, and you even have able to buy spearheads and cleansers.

These bits and pieces of income sustained 24KiCK through March, but are still small compared to day-to-day operations, such as a sum of money raised in 1 The nearly $200,000 that should have been paid for the month's final payment in the donning supply chain left Rany in a state of distress, "After January the store had no revenue at all! and there was not that much cash on the books at all".

A week later, Rany met up with his friend, who told him about it. The company's main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to its customers.

This kind of without saying a word let this nearly 30 years old man in Liaoning also a little bit unable to suffer, Rany "then tears it. Downward."

But in March, Rany, who has always been a good friend, is faced with a tough choice: layoffs.

Rany, who has always been quick to talk, is much less forthcoming on the subject. He says only that the entire company, which originally had nearly 70 people, is down to a dozen, leaving essentially only the stores and the coaching team. "We're all good friends and brothers, and no matter how hard we push it to that point, we have to do it. The company has to survive, and he has to survive."

It was at this time in March that Rany decided to put SOULMEAT online, saving what little he could.

After more than a month of intermittent deliveries, the offline store finally saw a glimmer of light in April, the notice came out and it was ready to start working again! The

The newest addition to the collection is the new "24KiCK" T-shirt, which was launched in April.

The newest addition to the collection is the newest addition to the collection. Disinfection several times per hour, ventilation times, toilets and changing rooms immediately after each use, user access to stores' The entire motion line, whether there is a temporary isolation room, the motion line for those being isolated to leave the arena, the evacuation routes for those present, the contact information for those in charge , the main head and members of the epidemic prevention team and learning progress, and so on.

Secondly, there are many departments involved in epidemic prevention and control. As the role of epidemic prevention and control, resumption of work requires permission from all relevant authorities.

In addition, the re-work requirements also require that the qualifications are legally sound. For example, the registered address and business address are the same, the scope of business includes sports and fitness, the instructor has a nationally recognized qualification, the The fire procedures are sound...all of that has to be reviewed," he said.

Rany would find it tedious, but he supports it, "It's like registering a sports facility. to see can also better regulate the industry, raise the barrier to entry, has been, the fitness industry entry barrier is too low and exit barrier is too high. up."

Ultimately 24KiCK prepared over 50 documents, including various forms, documents and commitments, which took two weeks to prepare and finally came to fruition on April 4. On the 13th of April, we got the approval for reworking in Chaoyang District, the 39th in the whole district, and the only one doing fights at that time.

Although due to the policy explicitly stating that group classes, those with physical contact and aerobics were not allowed, only anaerobic strength training could be opened, the Rany had been happy. For the first time since Jan. 23, he was able to breathe a sigh of relief.

It also proved that traffic was back up to 40 percent during the return to work, strength classes were almost always full, and there was about $300,000 in cash flow a week! Entry.

24KiCK partially resumed work after a 2-week application for resumption.

The first time I saw it, it was the first time I saw it.

Because of an asymptomatic infected person incident in Shunyi, April 18, Beijing, including Chaoyang District, Shunyi District, Fengtai District and other multiple The district issued an emergency notice to suspend the opening of indoor gyms, which are already open, and immediately stop operating by 3 p.m.

Took two weeks, met with many people to get the approval to resume work, and opened in good shape, but less than a week, this closure notice The epidemic and the repetition and unpredictability of the policy response, that day made him feel a more bone-crushing It was a day of dismay and even despair for the Beijing fitness industry.

It was also a day of woe for the Beijing fitness industry, as many other gyms suffered the same fate as 24KiCK.

But once again, luck was on the side of disaster. Although the gyms were shut down, Beijing's food and beverage scene was able to resume work, and SOULMEAT was able to officially open on April 17th! After the 18th, Rany put all his energy back into the business, and the result is that "in one week, it has skyrocketed to the point where it is now the largest offline business in the world. Tenth place for creative cuisine in Beijing, much better than expected".

Rany attributes SOULMEAT's smooth start and opening during tough times to the previous 24KiCK brick-and-mortar operation. of experience, "including risk avoidance, etc., so there's no such thing as suffering for nothing."

The good news is that on April 28th, 24KiCK received another re-work approval from Chaoyang District, and on April 29th, part of the venue was reopened to the public. Back in business, of course, it's still only open for strength training. But there is hope for opening.

For the fitness industry as a whole, which tends to have a peak season from March-October each year, March and April are now lost, but optimistically. It also leaves six months for them to figure out how to recoup their losses.

This past period has been an extremely hard lesson for many entrepreneurs, and when a company is in an extreme environment, 'planning' Do you have the ability, resilience, reserves, and courage to cope with the increased difficulty of the "can't keep up with change" game? If the "antifragile" message was only received at the level of a bestseller or a training course, this time the reality itself was a lesson.

When Lazy Bear Sports asked him, "How do you feel about the past four months?", he said. When, Rany's first reaction was, "I can't imagine."

When he looks back on the months in earnest, Rany says that every day he was on the brink of life and death, "I was taking everything hypothetical and assuming my hypothesis "- if the policy regenerates, if the landlord wants rent right away, if the member wants a refund, if the coach says he doesn't get paid and has to go. If the old shareholders were to pull out, "there are so many things that could finish me off".

"Sometimes life forces you to fight with hope, so you cannot wait", says Rany, "It's harder to be in film and TV industry.After all, we're okay now."