How to Maintain a Good Health Club Facility

"I'm Ivan Madar. I'm here on behalf of Expert Village. Obviously a good facility is a necessity. It doesn't have to be the biggest facility, it doesn't have to have the most recent equipment, as long as it's maintained properly and you maintain the people's relationships that I've mentioned before you are going to have a successful club. However, one area that is very, very important is to have safe and up-to-date equipment, exercise equipment. And over the years I've learned that leasing the equipment, I'm talking about weight machines and cardio equipment. The technology has not changed that much recently, but every three to five years there is new equipment that comes on and obviously competition matters in this business. I've found that leasing the equipment is much more efficient than purchasing the equipment and waiting until it breaks. When you purchase the equipment you usually wait until it wears out and that's usually somewhere between seven to ten years, or maybe longer. If it's longer than that, it is outdated equipment, and then you are not competitive with the other clubs. Leasing the equipment is very convenient because every three to four years it's usually when the warranty runs out, you can exchange the equipment for brand new equipment. Incorporate the expense into your operating expenses and it is much, much better way of dealing with it than trying to keep repairing the old equipment and buying a new one every ten to fifteen years. It doesn't work and again, it doesn't save you money in the long run."