Turning A Lifelong Passion into A Multi-Unit Fitness Business
Abby Rossi
May 15, 2023
Jordan Meinster has always had a passion for pickup basketball. “I’ve always played pickup basketball. I never really played organized or on teams or in high school or college. I would go to local parks or gyms or rec centers and join any games that were running,” Jordan says. There were many frustrations that came with him playing pickup games versus structured, organized basketball games; the courts were typically crowded and dirty and there was usually no structure to filter people in and out of games. So, Jordan had an idea to “create a business where it’s pickup basketball and you can still show up whenever you want, but it’s more organized.”
Jordan Meinster is the CEO of PickUp Fitness USA Franchise Company. He built his fitness business from the ground up to provide the industry of pickup basketball with structure and stability.
The first Pickup Fitness USA was founded in Irwindale, California, just outside of Los Angeles in 2012. They now have 63 franchise licenses awarded across the country with 20 locations either open or being built and they anticipate having over 70 locations open by the end of 2024.
The concept of PickUp Fitness USA started by providing adults the opportunity to have more structured game play in a pickup setting but has since expanded their ground into two verticals: adult hoopers and youth hoopers. Within their adult hoopers vertical, they utilize technology they call “CaseyQueue” – named after Casey Meinster, Jordan’s wife and co-founder.
They built the youth vertical to provide kids with the opportunity to learn to play basketball, but also train their skills to consistently improve. They utilize their partnership with Dr. Dish to provide the youth with machines that can track how many shots they make and their shooting percentage, so the kids can see themselves improve.
Finding ClubReady
Meinster first heard about ClubReady through a fitness business mentor from his master’s program. He would always ask him questions about how his business works and his answer would always be ‘ClubReady does it.’ It was clear to Meinster that ClubReady is how his mentor scaled his business to the large brand it is today, so there was no doubt Meinster would be making the change for his own business.
PickUp Fitness opened their first location in 2012 and switched to ClubReady in 2015.
During the transition to using ClubReady, Meinster found that he was able to stop taking the time to analyze data, worrying about past-due accounts, updating credit cards, and more, and was able to focus on the personal touches of his single location of PickUp Fitness USA.
From the moment a customer provides interest in going to PickUp Fitness, ClubReady is there. “As soon as the customer requests a free guest pass or information about any of the locations, the lead is automatically entered in ClubReady and then the automations take hold from there,” Meinster says. Although there is an automation system in place, it’s still important to have a human connection in place, so the sales staff calls the customer almost immediately.
A Five-Part System to Great Franchise Operations
Meinster has built a five-part system for his franchise owners to track progress and feel successful.
ClubReady helps Meinster and each franchise owner track every piece of the puzzle. For example, through the lens of marketing, it allows them to see the number of leads generated from a particular Facebook Ad as well as building email blasts.
After leads are generated, the staff utilizes ClubReady throughout the sales process to send texts and emails, log phone calls, and take notes on prospects. This allows each franchise owner to have a higher conversion percentage and see what is actually happening when a prospective person is interested in going to PickUp Fitness USA.
Having it all under one umbrella allows the entire team to be able to see their progress as an individual franchise as well as from the corporate perspective. Not only do they utilize ClubReady on the customer side, but they also use it internally. All staff profiles, timecards, and disciplinary actions are held within the ClubReady portal.
Finally, the fifth piece of the puzzle is the financial side.
iKizmet guides them through understanding each element of their financials. It provides them with ‘user-friendly reports’ that help them identify their areas of strength and opportunity for each franchise. These reports allow them to see how each individual franchise compares to the overall goals of the business.
Building Out the Business
From Meinster’s experience, he “really can’t imagine life without ClubReady.” It has allowed him to grow his career from being a singular location owner to overseeing dozens of locations, with all his management tools under one roof. ClubReady handles everything for the club owner and allows for consistency across the franchises.
During Meinster’s time vetting management software, he did look at other software companies. They were only a singular location at the time, so the other company was not interested in them.
The Future of PickUp Fitness USA
Growth is inspiring to Meinster and his team, and they have done a lot of work to gain traction and scale their business. Meinster has put forth a ton of effort into providing his franchise owners with the training they need. Each franchise owner attends the PickUp USA Academy, so they are “armed with the knowledge and the tools to understand how to successfully run the business,” says Meinster. He strives to continue to grow his business and establish more franchises across the country.
If you are interested in owning a PickUp Fitness USA Franchise, or learning more about PickUp Fitness USA, click the button below!
If you would like to learn more about what ClubReady can do to help you build and establish your fitness business, we would love to get in touch with you. Click the button below to get connected with our ClubReady team.
