HybridAF Helps Breakfast Club Barbell Double Membership Revenue in One Year

For many small gym owners, the story goes like this: they open their doors and begin to grow. Membership and revenue climb for a year, three years, five years, and then it stalls.

They get stuck at 80 or 100 members, costs have gone up, and the profit is thin. So they start looking for ways to grow membership again.

That was the case for Katie Jobe, the owner of CrossFit Sedalia in Missouri. She turned to HybridAF after nearly a decade of gym ownership and quickly added $1,000 a month in revenue without adding any work to her plate.

It was also the case for Dan Messinger, the owner of CrossFit Breckenridge in Colorado, a gym that sees a lot of drop-ins. He added unattended access, and today 20 to 25 percent of his revenue comes from drop-ins, which is close to hands-off income.

!HybridAF graphic on growing gym membership with unattended access

Amalie Flowers’s story is less common.

Flowers opened her gym, Breakfast Club Barbell in Medina, Ohio at the end of 2023 and immediately knew she wanted HybridAF’s unattended access as part of her offering.

A little more than a year into gym ownership, she already has 80 members, a milestone that takes some owners several years to reach. She credits unattended access as a major selling feature behind that growth.

!Breakfast Club Barbell in Medina, Ohio

“Prospective members love the idea of 24/7 access through an app, and it helps us really sell those memberships. Members love the flexibility,” she said, adding that customer service “has always been helpful if we have an issue.”

She added: “We wanted to be able to offer open gym to our class members, but also as a stand-alone option for those not taking our classes.”

Today, Flowers estimates that 75 percent of her members use the unattended access option to train. Because she can charge more for the upgrade, 24/7 access became its own revenue line: an extra $35 a month for the add-on, and $50 a month for an access-only membership.

Two more things

1. Easier access. Breakfast Club Barbell sits in northeast Ohio, where winter temperatures often drop below freezing, so quick entry matters. “Having the ability to open the door quickly and not mess around with a key is something I’m proud we offer to our members and coaches,” Flowers said.
2. Remote access. Opening the door remotely, whether for a delivery or anything else, is a nice touch. “I love the capability of HybridAF to open the door remotely as an admin,” she said.

Bottom line: HybridAF has made daily operations easier and helped Breakfast Club Barbell grow quickly in its first fifteen months.