Brick and Mortar vs. Online: Business Shifts in Tough Times

Published by Jenn Neal on

Going online in tough times

Brick and Mortar vs. Online – Business Shifts in Tough Times
How to keep your business and self fit with an online fitness program during the pandemic

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TIP: Brick and mortar vs online – How to Keep it Personal

3 Tips to Keep Highly Personal Online Fitness Programs Selling
Advise from Kelly Altman

  1. Ask

    o Pay attention to your customers – especially during tough times
    o Ask a lot of questions
    o Be real about how you are feeling and what you are seeing and see if that resonates

  2. Shift

    o Determine what needs and desires are changing for your customers
    o Ask yourself how you can support these with your product or program

  3. Repeat

    o Ask customers by name how the adjustments are helping
    o Look at what is working and continue carrying that forward
    o Continue asking and adjusting – it’s not just a worldwide pandemic that causes changes in your customers 😊 This practice should be ongoing.

3 Tips to Keep Highly Personal Online Fitness Programs Selling Advice from Kelly Altman
How to keep your business and self fit with an online fitness program during the pandemic

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What’s In This Episode

Brick and mortar vs. online – how to shift a local business into an online setting? It can be done, even in a time when many other businesses are doing the same. The key is keeping it personal. Listen as entrepreneur Kelly Altman shares how she shifted her gym community to live online fitness programs, and is thriving more than ever.

Jenn Neal

Jenn Neal on Brick and Mortar vs Online

It’s about listening, growing, and making it work!

-Jenn Neal

Minutes before I recorded this episode with our guest expert Kelly Altman, I turned to stretch my legs and saw my two cats all snuggled up in one of my office chairs.

I actually stopped and took a picture. Partly because it was cute – but in my mind I was thinking of a caption.

Liquid Cats.

staying fit in tough times - the liquid cat example
Liquid cats – making it work to stay fit in tough times

And the power of making it work – even if you have to fit two cats into one chair. Or something like that. LOL

Then I recorded the interview – and maybe because it was on my mind or we were just in sync – but Kelly referred to many things as just do it – just keep going – just make it work.

And it’s so true.

Kelly shares her journey in 2020 as a local gym owner and her successful transition to an online fitness program.

So if you’re a brick and mortar looking to online or simply someone wanting some ideas on how to take good from the bad and move forward – this episode is more than just about fitness.

It’s about listening, growing, and making it work! – Jenn Neal
“It’s about listening, growing, and making it work!” Jenn says, summarizing the essential points of transitioning a business online during a pandemic. In her interview with Kelly Altman, owner of Ultimate Fitness, keeping a personal touch emerges as all-important. It’s clear that during tough times, listening to your client’s needs and being flexible to change are the keys to success.

It’s about listening, and growing, and making it work. 😊 Enjoy!

Kelly Altman

Meet Kelly Altman

Kelly Altman is a self-proclaimed accidental entrepreneur who, along with her husband Jay, had built a successful fitness training business in a brick and mortar gym in Minnesota..
Then COVID happened. To salvage their business they decided to take it online. The results were amazing
https://altmanfitness.com/

How to keep your business and self fit with an online fitness program during the pandemic
Brick and Mortar vs. Online – Business Shifts in Tough Times

Brick and Mortar vs. Online – Business Shifts in Tough Times

Brick And Mortar Stores Going Online

In this episode I chat with self-proclaimed accidental entrepreneur, Kelly Altman about the unexpected ways that her business has grown since pandemic restrictions forced her to move her brick and mortar business online.

Kelly and Jay Altman are the founders of Altman Fitness providing fitness training for classes of 20 to 40 people at a time in their brick & mortar gym in Minnesota. Kelly and her husband opened their gym with the express goal of becoming the “Cheers” of the fitness world. They wanted to create a gym “where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came”. They were able to stand out in the crowded fitness world by focusing on building and maintaining a personal connection with every client. Then in March 2020 the COVID pandemic forced them to close their doors.

I started to see how much you could use your passion to create a lifestyle and create a living, and just how fulfilled you can be. – Kelly Altman
“I started to see how much you could use your passion to create a lifestyle and create a living, and just how fulfilled you can be.” Says Kelly Altman, owner of Ultimate Fitness, talking about how she became an entrepreneur. In this episode, she shares how she was able to move her passion for creating a community of fitness to the online world. To her surprise, the community has only gotten richer!

Brick And Mortar vs Online

Kelly spoke candidly about the disbelief and uncertainty she felt in the earliest days of the lockdown. Their business relied on people being physically present in the gym and that was no longer an option. Wanting to maintain the close personal relationships and daily conversations they enjoyed with their clients, they set up daily online “huddles” to keep the conversations alive. Through those conversations they realized how important structured physical fitness activity had been to their clients, and Kelly began looking at ways that they could continue to provide that structure in a virtual environment.

To set yourself apart from a small business standpoint, it's going to be about the relationships. – Kelly Altman
How can your business succeed online? “To set yourself apart from a small business standpoint, it’s going to be about the relationships,” says Kelly Altman, who has moved her fitness business online because of the pandemic. She has not just weathered the transition – she is thriving, and so are her clients.

Kelly had no virtual fitness experience so hosting online fitness classes live was a steep learning curve. Kelly tells of the struggles to master audio quality and feeling inferior to the glossy online personal training software programs that are popular now.

Online Fitness Programs

Kelly realized that they had something that the big budget productions did not have. They had a personal relationship with their clients. During their online fitness programs they engaged with class members just as they would at the gym. They greeted everyone and asked questions about recent events in their lives. They shared their learning journey with their members and listened to their feedback about what was working and what was falling flat.

We're all great as we are, sometimes we just want to feel a little differently. So we have got to do some things a little differently. – Kelly Altman
“We’re all great as we are, sometimes we just want to feel a little differently. So we have got to do some things a little differently.” Kelly Altman, owner of Ultimate Fitness, shares how she had to change her perspective and take to new approaches when her business was forced online because of the pandemic.

After bringing in some expert help they were able to fine tune the platform to provide pre-recorded fitness classes so clients could work-out on their schedule. They also incorporated scheduled live sessions, special events, and fitness challenges to keep the personal connections alive. The Altman Fitness online fitness studio was such a hit with members that when the physical gym re-opened in June, many members chose to stay home and continue using the virtual program.

Online Fitness Studio Success

The pivot from a brick and mortar business to an online fitness studio has been an unexpected success. Instead of experiencing the despair of losing their family business they are now enjoying the excitement of opportunity. Their local client base has expanded to include people from all over the nation. If you are feeling inspired I encourage you to check out Kelly and Jay’s new Lifestyle Kickstart Program at AltmanFitness.com which offers a 30 day introduction to everything that Altman fitness has to offer.

Kelly Altman

The Magnetic Law of Attraction for Business Success

Turning Virtual Events Physical with Virtual Collaboration Tools

What are some challenges you have faced, or are concerned you may face, in moving your business online?

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