Ideas of a Tired Mind

My boss called me today, and asked if we had any customers come into the shop today. My response was, "Not a single one! Not even a phone call!"

Obviously this wasn't good news to him. Even though it is our slow season, we should be getting some customers! He commented that we need to start doing something about that. I laughed and told him that maybe we should start going door to door!

His concern kicked my brain into high gear, and I came up with a few ideas. They may not be good ones, but its a start at least.

I have been thinking a lot about why someone would buy fitness equipment, besides their obvious need for an extra place to hang the clothes out to dry. The biggest reason I can think of for someone to purchase fitness equipment is to better their health. But not everyone thinks about their health all that much, aside from weight loss. And a lot of people get fed up with their weight, start a work our program, only to stop in only a few weeks. The reason? Because they don't really know what they are doing, or where to start. I know thats the case with me. I quit for two reasons mainly. Either because I don't see any results, or working out is too hard. And I think both of those reasons are because I don't really know what I'm doing.

So maybe the question I should be asking myself isn't "What prompts people to buy" as much as "What causes people not to buy". And maybe the biggest reason is because people aren't educated about fitness. How to do it, why its even necessary, what it does for your body, how it can improve quality of life.

That's what really attracts me to the idea of holding free community classes sposored by Columbia Fitness and Club 24. I think as people become more educated about the benefits of fitness, and how to do it, they will become more interested in doing it, and want to purchase fitness products.
I also had the idea of creating a company blog. Somewhere like this forum, to discuss the same sorts of things. Why fitness is important, how to do it. What exercise programs and products are a scam, and what things actually work.

You know, one of our company slogans is "We Make Fitness Fun". But I can't really think of a way that we do that. I think that is one of our biggest opportunities for advertizing/generating sales. To actually make fitness fun!

I got really excited about the blog idea. I also got excited about making a CFS news letter to send out along with our postcard ads we send out every now and then.

Maybe I'll work on getting some rough draft ideas for all of these things to show to my boss, and see what he thinks.

Burned by the Sun

My friend has a car that is the exact same make, model, and color as mine. The only difference is, mine runs, and his has a blown motor. So yesterday, I spent the day swapping parts from his car to mine. A couple of doors, the trunk lid, some interior cosmetic pieces. We even tried to switch out the cluster on the dash because my speedometer doesn't work. That was a failed endeavor, apparantly Pontiac puts some kind of security feature in the cluster that makes it only work for its original car.

Anyways, I spent the whole day out in the sun. Needless to say, I am now sufficiently burned. The back of my neck, and one side of my face have a nice reddish color to them. My arms aren't too bad.

Car's are a pain in the butt. I thought my experience working on fitness equipment would make working on my car a piece of cake. Not so! Car's are a hundred times harder! Ok, maybe not a hundred. But they are deffinately harder. We spent a good 5 hours on that darn thing, and there is still work to be done. We're not even doing anything that involved! I hate to think what working on the motor is like!

We got the doors swapped, which is good, since my drivers side window didn't roll down, and the rear drivers side wing window was broken out. But when we hooked the wiring back up, the door locks didn't work. We still have yet to figure that one out...

One day when I'm rich, I'm going to buy brand new cars, and pay for some one else to maintain them! I now know that being a car mechanic is not my dream job.

It's just me all alone at the shop today again. Every one else is in Lewiston doing a major delivery and set up job. They've been there since yesterday. This is one of our biggest deals yet. Its like a two hundered and fifty thousand dollar sale to a gym that is opening up there. Fitness clubs have been opening up like crazy in these past few years. It seems that people have fitness on the brain.

That's another reason why I think this company really could do well. Fitness clubs have to have their suppliers. And with more and more people focusing on their health these days, there is deffinately room for some good growth in this industry.

I think the biggest challenge for our company is that we are a small business, and have a hard time getting our name out there. Advertizing on the radio or the tv is expensive, as are billboards and ads in the newspaper. We're kind of located in the armpit of Kennewick in a run down little location.
I was thinking a little bit on how to get our name out there better. I'm sure there are so many opportunities out there that cost little or no money, like displaying our product at Numerica CU. I didn't even know that things like that were out there as an option for us. Andy's idea about sponsoring sporting/fitness events is one I also wouldn't have thought about. An idea I had today was getting us more involved in health and fitness education by setting up a free community class about staying in shape, how to exercise, how to eat healthy, etc. Since we are so closely connected with Club 24, we could hold the classes there, or here at our little shop. I think that would be a really good idea.

As for advertizing, there's always flyers on people's cars! Word of mouth is working ok, we just need more mouths spreading the word.

Anyways, lunch is over (a while ago...) so I should go be usefull!