Opening a Crossfit Box (Part 4): Your People

Part 4: Your People

When opening a Crossfit box, you need to bring the right people aboard. To be honest, beginner box owners can with little experience can be pretty bad managers and even worse leaders. You could have won the Crossfit games last year, but that doesn't mean you’ll be a good coach let alone a good box owner. Box owners are typically passionate about what they do, but that can also be their downfall. When you start a box, you’re not just a Cross-fitter anymore, you’re a business owner with an additional set of challenges to deal with.

Owning a business comes with many responsibilities that have nothing to do with running a Crossfit box. You’re going to have to deal with getting new members, customer service, broken light-bulbs, the raccoon that somehow got into the gym, insurance, bookkeeping, budgets, paying the bills, sweeping, replacing toilet paper, etc. In fact, you’ll probably spend the majority of time do things other than training people or working out, which is a tough transition for many.

The best way to manage is not having to manage. You do this by hiring the right people. If a person is lazy, they’re probably not going to be a good employee no matter how motivating or strict you are. Try to hire people that are internally motivated and want to get results and not just show up and check off boxes. Remember, just because they love Crossfit doesn't mean they’ll be a good employee.

4 tips on managing people:

1. Listen Actively: Sometimes your employees have great ideas and you’ll never know if you don’t listen.
2. Give them meaning: People want to improve things. It’s just that they never get an opportunity to do them. Start asking for your employees opinions on things and ask them to help on higher level projects.
3. Train them better: You can get mad at someone if they screw things up that they’re not trained on. You’re the business owner. Get your people up to speed on things they should know.
4. Have fun: Don’t make you box like working in a funeral home. It’s okay to joke around sometimes and be a little goofy. Sometimes you need to relieve the tension.

Find out more about opening a Crossfit box

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