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BEFORE & AFTER: Fitness Studio Goes From “Breaking Even” to a 250% Revenue Increase in 6 Months

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“What’s stopping you?” The three words his dad said that helped Oskars launch his fitness studio MyEMS in Finland. That was then, and a 250% revenue increase is now! Here’s how…

(And later, I’ll share Oskars’ 5 Keys to Increasing Revenue and Growing a Successful Fitness Business.)

Only Gym Owners Will Understand This…

After moving to Finland, Oskars and his wife Ruuta had a baby girl and no money. So… 

Oskars printed out CDs and walked 18-24 miles every day for 4 months, just asking businesses for a job.

It got so bad that Oskars and Ruuta thought about giving up and going back to their parents. They didn’t know what else to do.

Suddenly, in a single week during his 4th month of doing this, he got 2 jobs:

“During the day, I worked with a demolition company and carried bricks all day. It was exhausting.” Oskars says. “Then, in the evenings I was training people at a fitness club.”

Grateful for the jobs, “I worked my ass off at both jobs for 2 years.” But, he had this crazy idea… 

One night, at 3 a.m., Oskars was walking with his dad. His parents were in town visiting for his daughter’s birthday.

As they walked, Oskars told his dad about his dream of launching his own business. There was a pause. His dad looked at him and said 3 words that changed everything.

“What’s stopping you?”

That same morning, after taking his parents to the airport, Oskars didn’t sleep. Instead, he started writing his first business plan for MyEMS.

“I realized something crazy in that moment,” he says, “I’m not afraid of losing. I’d already lost so much until that point. Friends, family, money. I think not being afraid to lose is what’s helped me get to this point.”

Oskars Book Now - Case Studio Revenue (1)

2 Dreamers, a Manager, and an Investor

As his business plan came together, Oskars and Ruuta joined an entrepreneurial group to get some guidance on loans, builds, marketing… everything.

The group had Oskars meet with a Marketer. As he told this Marketer about his plan for MyEMS, she just smiled and nodded along. When he was done, she didn’t offer him Marketing advice. Instead… 

She asked him if he wanted to pitch her boyfriend Antti, a local business investor.

Before meeting with Antti, “I tore up my business plan. I looked it over, and it sucked.” he says, “So by the time I met with Antti, I had a new pitch.”

Antti loved the concept and jumped in.

From there, it was: 

  • Oskars and Ruuta, the dreamers. 
  • Misha, their studio trainer
  • And Antti, their investor (who does something unheard of later that led to MyEMS increasing revenue by 250%).

After Antti put up the money, it was time to get to work building MyEMS… 

“My dad, my dad’s cousin, my brother, and I brought all of the materials to build the gym from Latvia to Finland in minivans.”

Oskars’s entire family helped him and Ruuta build the gym. From construction to painting. Everything!

During the day, it was Oskars, his dad, and his brother working on construction.

At night, it was Oskars and Misha.

Misha went his entire first year of working at MyEMS without a paycheck. He lived on whatever Oskars, Ruuta, and Antti could give him to get by.

Tero, their studio manager, also went without pay for 6 months until MyEMS was able to pay him.

Both of these guys believed in the dream, and worked hard to make it a reality.

“That’s why this business is so precious for us,” Oskars says, “Ruuta, my family, all of us, we didn’t have money and we put every bit of ourselves into building MyEMS.”

My EMS - Revenue Strategies

Slow Revenue Growth But On The Right Track

Once the studio was built, MyEMS Oy was instantly profitable, right? No… 

Oskars worked morning, day, and night on every aspect of the business. His wife Ruuta worked hard to grow the studio, made several sales calls, all while taking care of their baby girl.

“Ruuta is the soul of this business,” Oskars says.

And still, despite all of their hard work, growth was extremely slow… 

So how did MyEMS go from breaking even, slower-than-they-wanted growth, to increasing revenue by 250% in 6 Months?

By dispelling 3 Myths and going ALL IN on success.

Myth #1: Fitness Studios Need To Set “Realistic” Revenue Goals

Normally, this is where I’d say something like After everything he’s been through, if you told Oskars he’d increase his revenue by 250% in 6 months he would’ve said you’re crazy! But that’s not true. In fact, it’s the opposite!

He would’ve said YOU are “crazy” for not believing that he and his team could do it! That was the mindset shift that transformed himself and his business:

“As I said, I’m not afraid to lose. One thing this experience with Loud Rumor has taught me is to never compromise on your revenue goals… 10X them!” he says.

So, why do people push for “realistic” revenue goals? Well:

1. That way you’re not crushed if you don’t achieve it.

…But, wouldn’t it be worse to miss a goal that’s too low than to miss one that’s “too” high?

2. With everything going on, do you really think you can increase revenue by THAT much?

…Plenty of fitness studios we work with exceed their “higher-than-realistic” goals. Here’s a brief look at our internal spreadsheet:

#2590 Challenge - Revenue Increase - Fitness Studio

That doesn’t mean everyone is planning on hitting or even will hit a goal like Oskars. It means they’re shooting for the highest goal that’ll have the greatest impact on their specific business.

90% of people perform better with relevant and challenging goals.

Goals aren’t things you think you can hit. They’re things that if you did hit them they’d make your life and your business exponentially better. That’s what goals are really about.

 

This really hit home for Oskars. For him, one phone call “blew my mind” and took MyEMS to the next level… 

BEFORE: From Breaking Even, to Slow Revenue Growth and No Business Savings, to One Game-Changing Phone Call…

Just 6 months ago, Oskars was looking to acquire a second location in Latvia.

Unfortunately, many fitness studios in the area closed because of COVID. So Oskars and his investor Antti were discussing what it would look like to build a 2nd location.

The problem was, they weren’t growing as much as they wanted to with MyEMS. But before joining GSD 360, they were just breaking even. That’s when Oskars reached out to Loud Rumor CEO Mike Arce to get his thoughts on opening a 2nd location.

“Mike hopped on the call with me and Antti, and said he wanted to bring in Matt Kafora,” Oskars says. “Obviously Matt has a lot of experience in opening multiple studio locations.”

This one call “blew my mind,” Oskars says. “Those two guys just dropped so many value bombs.”

On top of acquiring a 2nd location, Oskars and Antti had something else to discuss… 

An Unusual Request For An Investor…

After that phone call with Mike and Matt, Oskars knew that joining the GSD 360 TEAM program would take his business to the next level.

Oskars and Ruuta have always been willing to put their paychecks back into the business. At one point, they were both collecting a paycheck from the business. 

But, they agreed that they could live off of just one paycheck and put the other back into MyEMS.

That’s how passionate they are. And, that’s how much growing MyEMS means to them.

So, Oskars put in what he could from his paycheck and what he could from the business to join GSD 360 TEAM… but it wasn’t quite enough. That’s when he turned to Antti… 

Myth #2: There’s No Way To Measure ROI When Investing In Yourself

“It’s not really a normal request to ask an investor to invest in personal development and coaching like this.” Oskars says.

Luckily, Antti was on that call with Mike and Matt. He saw the value and potential of it.

Antti not only invested in GSD 360 TEAM, but he invested in Oskars, Ruuta, and the entire MyEMS team. He knew what all of them were capable of doing with this knowledge and training.

On top of that, Fitness Studios in GSD 360 TEAM signed 347% more new members over studios NOT in GSD 360 TEAM in 2020—during a global pandemic!

Oskars fitness growth strategies 2

“Antti and I were on the same page and saw what the future looked like with GSD 360 TEAM,” Oskars says.

That was August 2020… 

The #2590 Revenue Challenge (When Oskars Compromised On His Revenue Goal)

Before joining GSD 360 TEAM, from January 2020 to August 2020, Oskars saw his revenue creep up a little bit each month, but not as much as he wanted. “The difference between Q1-Q3 of 2020 and Q4, you won’t believe it unless you see it.”

LRVT TEAM Oskars Revenue

Right after MyEMS joined TEAM, in September 2020, Loud Rumor started the #2590 Revenue Challenge. This was specifically designed to help gyms and fitness studios hit a 25% increase in revenue in the last 90 days of what was an incredibly challenging year.

In just two weeks, MyEMS “increased revenue by 25% and we have grown dramatically,” Oskars says.

“The whole Loud Rumor team is pushing us to have a call every week. They make sure we’re on track with going past our goals. It’s just out of this world,” he says.

How did Oskars view the #2590 challenge?

“I’m a big fan of Grant Cardone and I just want to 10X everything, but…” Oskars says.

“I compromised and settled with a goal of increasing our revenue by 150% instead.”

Most people wouldn’t be that confident after what Oskars has been through… 

“It’s unbelievable,” he says. “It just feels like 2 years in the fitness game and we weren’t growing at the speed we wanted to grow.”

Oskars says the investment in GSD 360 TEAM was worth it. The support and growth in just 2 weeks showed them what’s really possible with their gym.

“One of the biggest changes for us and when we really started to grow is when we were sticking with the sales scripts GSD 360 provides,” Oskars says.

Brandon increase sales revenue script free marketing

What happened next is awesome… 

AFTER: Hitting a 250% Revenue Increase In 6 Months and Adding +$51,686.68 In Monthly Recurring Revenue after 12 Months

“In 90 days, Loud Rumor helped us increase our revenue by 175%!” Oskars says. But, that’s not the crazy part… 

“Because Antti made that investment and helped us join GSD 360 TEAM, our whole team was able to participate in the Sales and Leadership Boot Camps for FREE!” he says.

This too, was a complete game-changer for his fitness studio… 

Myth #3: There’s Not Enough Time For Fitness Business Owners To Get It All Done

“My team and I are in Finland and we stayed up until 2:00 AM watching these Boot Camps LIVE, absorbing all of the information, and creating plans to execute on it!”

In the video Oskars created—that’s right, Oskars and his team created this case study video on their own—Oskars surprises Tero, his studio manager, to get Tero’s raw take on the Loud Rumor Boot Camps. Check out his response around the 1-minute mark:

oskars testimonial 250 revenue - play button

After Only 6 Months (And Just Getting Started)

“We got so much value after signing up with Loud Rumor! After implementing it all:

  • The one-on-one business calls with Corbyn
  • Daily Mastermind calls in the Members Only Group
  • Sales, Referrals, and 58+ other Scripts
  • Video Business Training just for Fitness Studios
  • The incredible Boot Camps

…we increased revenue by 250% in the 6 months with GSD 360 TEAM! That helped us add £43,200 (+$51,686.68) in Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) in 12 months with Loud Rumor!” Oskars says, shaking his head and smiling, “It blows my mind, honestly.”

What a Crazy Journey It’s Been for MyEMS

“I don’t think I’ve told this whole story before… it’s crazy looking back at it,” Oskars tells me.

  • Oskars and his wife Ruuta move to Finland with their baby girl
  • With no money and no job, Oskars walks miles for 4 months to get a job (any job)
  • Oskars spent years working for a demolition company and as a fitness club trainer
  • Building his business plan for MyEMS, Oskars’s dad says, “What’s stopping you?”
  • Oskars starts building out his business plan
  • He meets Antti through a chance encounter with a Marketer
  • Antti invests in Oskars’s and Ruuta’s dream
  • Oskars, Ruuta, his family, and his club trainer Misha start construction on MyEMS
  • Business is slow, as Oskars and Ruuta work tirelessly to increase sales
  • MyEMS breaks even with help from GSD 360
  • Oskars and Ruuta put their own money in to join GSD 360 TEAM and Antti invests the rest
  • 6 Months after joining GSD 360 TEAM, MyEMS increases revenue by 250%

“We’ve been through a lot,” Oskars puts his head down and shakes it back and forth just thinking about it, “Yeah… we’ve been through a lot to get here. It’s crazy.”

Final Thoughts From Revenue Boosting Fitness Studio Owner Oskars Zapackis

Here are Oskars’s 5 Keys to Increasing Revenue and Growing a Successful Fitness Business:

  1. Know that your gym can achieve big goals. So 10X everything!
  2. Join GSD 360 TEAM now. Get on a call with these guys and invest in it. You won’t regret it.
  3. Get your entire team to believe in your gym so everyone is elevating the business
  4. Always use and practice scripts. For everything! Sales, Referrals, Upsells, everything!
  5. Be part of a community of successful gym owners and learn what they’re doing.

“You won’t believe what you’re actually capable of achieving with your business!” Oskars says. “It’s true what they say: TEAM work makes the DREAM work. Namaste.”

loud rumor virtual training lrvt promo successful fitness entrepreneur revenue

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