Struggling to scale your coaching business? Learn Joe Riggio's blueprint for success!
Scaling a Successful Strength Business
For many strength coaches, owning a gym begins with a love for training, helping people, and creating a vibrant community. But as Joe Riggio—successful gym owner and founder of the Business of Strength—explains, passion alone isn’t enough to build a scalable, sustainable business. In this interview, Joe unpacks his journey from being a hands-on coach to a strategic entrepreneur managing multiple fitness locations, offering hard-earned lessons for those navigating the “coach-owner paradox.”
The Coach-Owner Paradox: Trading Barbells for Balance Sheets
At the heart of Joe’s story is the “coach-owner paradox,” a tension many gym owners face as their businesses grow. The very skills that make someone a great coach—presence on the training floor, deep client relationships, technical expertise—can become limitations when growth demands leadership, strategy, and systems. Joe admits this transition was not easy for him, either. For years, he tried to grow while still coaching full-time, until financial stress and burnout forced a change.
“The business got to a point where I had to step off the floor to actually save it,” Joe says. This realization marked a turning point. He began focusing on marketing, financial planning, and leadership development. These are areas many coaches neglect but are essential for scaling.
Attrition: The Silent Killer of Gym Profitability
One of the most overlooked challenges in the gym business is client attrition. While industry churn rates average around 6% per month, many owners fail to account for this in their planning. Ignoring attrition creates a false sense of stability: adding five clients per month while losing six is unsustainable.
To combat this, Joe implemented proactive retention strategies—from community events to transformation challenges—creating an ecosystem that both attracts and keeps members engaged. Understanding and managing attrition turned it from being a stressor into a strategic advantage.
Rewriting the Rules on Pricing: Start with the Owner
Joe challenges the typical pricing strategy used by many gym owners, which often relies on local competition or perceived affordability. Instead, gym owners should start with their own income goals.
“Decide what you want to earn, then calculate your expenses, margins, and how many clients you need to support that,” he says. This shift reframes pricing from a reactive guess to a strategic tool. It informs not just how much to charge, but how to structure services, staff, space utilization, and sales targets. Aligning pricing with personal and business goals ensures financial sustainability rather than constant struggle.
Marketing Without the Guesswork: The Power of Community Events
Joe’s approach to marketing centers on low-cost, high-engagement community events. From “buddy weeks” and open houses to themed nights and social workouts, these events do double duty: they build stronger client relationships while naturally generating referrals.
“The best marketing is embedded into your gym’s culture,” Joe explains. “If people love the experience and have chances to invite others, you don’t need a big marketing budget.”
These events are measurable, repeatable, and build brand loyalty—something that discounts or Facebook ads alone rarely achieve. They also offer social proof: prospective clients see a gym full of happy, motivated people, making it easier to commit.
Along the same lines, six-week transformation programs have become a staple in fitness marketing, but Joe elevates them beyond a quick win. At his gyms, these challenges serve as both client acquisition tools and re-engagement campaigns for existing members.
He shares that post-challenge retention rates can reach 50–75%, especially when incentives, social support, and structured outcomes are built in. It gives people a reason to show up, track progress, make friends, and see results. Even better, many participants upgrade their memberships, increasing their lifetime value.
By turning challenges into structured, repeatable campaigns, they become key growth drivers rather than short-term promotions.
Online Coaching: Growth Potential, But Not a Shortcut
Joe’s focus remains on in-person experiences, where culture and community thrive. However, for gym owners exploring hybrid models, Joe suggests starting small and ensuring digital offerings complement the in-person brand. Most online coaching software focuses only on spreadsheet optimization tools. This leaves clients with a cheap, impersonal feeling product—something that is easy to leave. TurnKey Coach offers a quick path to a premium client experience, getting as close to an in-person experience as possible without taking more time from the coach.
Joe Riggio proves that professionalizing your systems (marketing, pricing, finance, team development) does not have to mean abandoning coaching. It can elevate your coaching. By stepping back from the floor and stepping into leadership, Joe did not just save his business. He built a thriving enterprise that empowers others to do the same.
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