When you opened the doors to your business, you didn’t have grand dreams of being an administrative powerhouse. And if you’re like other fitness business owners, you could be losing hours every week to repetitive, manual tasks. That’s why the right gym management software doesn’t check just admin boxes—it actually gives you time back.

What if we told you that using Wodify could give you more than 10 hours back every week? That’s time you could spend with family, growing your business or working on your own fitness goals. Or maybe you’d just get out of the gym for some self care, like a massage or hike.

Today, we’re looking at areas where fitness business owners typically lose the most time, and how the right gym management software can solve that. We’ll also show you how the right software can give your business a competitive advantage, and how to get started gaining 10+ hours back each week.

Where Fitness Business Owners Lose the Most Time

Fitness business owners, we see you. As we’ve chatted with thousands of owners all over the globe, we’ve noticed patterns in how admin tasks can be a tremendous time-suck.

Here are just a few of the areas where you might be spending unnecessary time on the operations side of running your business:

  • Spreadsheets, anyone? Some gym owners are still manually tracking payments for memberships or class passes.
  • Chasing “those” clients—How much time have you spent tracking down clients who ghosted, or whose payments didn’t go through.
  • Playing connect the dots—If you’re using multiple systems for things like billing, scheduling and communication, you know the overwhelm of trying to connect them.
  • Scheduling like Taylor Swift’s tour manager—There’s no faster way to overwhelm yourself than trying to manually manage ever-changing class and staff schedules.
  • Repeating yourself like a flight attendant—If you’ve noticed a pattern in the same top ten questions you answer for leads and clients, automation may be your life raft.

If any of these things sound familiar, you’re not alone. But the good news is that your gym management software can save the day. It’s like adding another employee that works around the clock. It’s a superhero without a cape. And the great news is that switching to Wodify is easier than you’d think!

How Gym Management Software Should Automate Your Manual Work

When you look at your full list of admin tasks, and the different ways that software can take each one off your plate, it’s easy to see where you can stack time savings. Here are just a few solutions:

1. Automate Billing and Recurring Payments

If you’re still using a spreadsheet or individually entering billing and recurring payments, this might be your biggest time-saving opportunity. Instead of manually charging clients each month or tracking down missed payments, let your gym management software do the work automatically. When payments don’t go through, the system will retry daily without any effort from you. So you can ditch the spreadsheets, surprises and stress. Plus, your gym revenue data will stay up to date in real time.

Average hours saved per week: 1-2

2. Integrate POS Systems that Eliminate Double Entry

When it comes to retail sales in your fitness business, having multiple systems can cost you a ton of time. On the other hand, one integrated system in your gym management software helps you avoid copying and pasting transactions, and manually reconciling at the end of each month. The result is cleaner data, more accurate reporting and less admin stress.

Average hours saved per week: 1-2

3. Automate Workflows for Onboarding and Client Management

Think about the amount of time you’re spending on communication with leads and clients. Maybe you’re sending a waiver to someone on their first day. Or perhaps you’re celebrating Sharon’s 150th class milestone. Automating workflows ensures that everyone has a consistent experience at your fitness business without you needing to remember each step. Eliminating those “Did you fill this out yet?”reminders and manual communication can give you back hours in your day.

Computer screen showing fitness business lead segment for automated workflows
Automated workflows can save you hours by nurturing leads from inquiry to signup.

Average hours saved per week: 4-5

4. Self-Service for Clients Saves You Even More Time

Giving clients the ability to manage their own accounts instantly takes a significant amount of work off your plate. Self-service options allow them to update payment information, book or cancel classes, make purchases and log their workouts. For you and your staff, this can mean fewer interruptions and more time to focus on coaching, sales or growing your fitness business.

Average hours per week: 4-5

Adding Up Your Time Savings

Each of the items listed above may seem like a tiny time commitment on their own. But combined, they can add up quickly. In fact, we’ve seen this happening with Wodify clients that are reclaiming more than 10 hours every week—without working harder. The right gym management software can make all the difference in giving you back an entire workday every week.

How the Right Gym Management Software is a Competitive Advantage (and What to Look for)

As you start to look at all the time you’ll be saving with the right gym management software, it’s important to realize that it’s not just about the hours. Instead, the primary value comes from what you’ll do with that extra time. And that’s where your competitive advantage comes in.

If we waved a magic wand that magically gave you 10+ extra hours each week, you could first consider spending that time on growing your business. Could you work on improving your gym sales process or focusing on boosting retention? These things could obviously build more consistency for your business and lead to growth.

But what about one of the most important projects you’ll ever work on? Prioritizing your own mental health and avoiding burnout is arguably one of the best places to spend 10 extra hours.

Fitness business owner enjoying free time hiking in nature
Spend extra free time with family, building the business, or get out of the gym to enjoy nature.

When you think about these benefits, it helps you avoid making “shiny object” decisions with your gym management software. Look for things like an all-in-one platform, versus several disconnected tools that you’ll have to manually integrate. Or what about pre-built automated workflows that you don’t have to spend hours creating? And we’re obviously partial to a POS system that’s built specifically for your fitness business.

In Summary: Let Your Gym Management Software Buy Back Your Time

From the 10,000-foot-view, your gym management software isn’t an expense—it’s a time multiplier. When you take the list of solutions above and combine the hours each can save you, it adds up to more than 10 hours each week. Over the course of a year, that’s over 500 hours saved. And that means the right software pays for itself in time alone.

In other words, if your software isn’t saving you time, it’s probably costing you more than you realize.

Ready to get started with the industry leader in gym management software, and having your valuable time back? Book a demo with the Wodify team today!