Lockdown Contingency Newsletter 2
"Celebrating our 11th Birthday"
11 May 2020
Dear Proactive Fitness members,
Today exactly 11 years ago (11th of May 2009) Proactive Fitness opened its doors to all of you at 5am and we have successfully survived the last 11 health filled years alongside all of you but it's surreal and a bit sad for me as the business owner to announce and to try to celebrate our 11th birthday in isolation of all of you. It just does not feel right at all because we should be celebrating it by training and sweating it out alongside you in my Health Club like we always have done together in the past.
It is now month 2 of the RSA national lockdown and there is still no conclusive nor accurate time frame that has been published nor predicted by our government that we can use to determine exactly what date we will be permitted to reopen our business apart from the fact that “Health Clubs” by definition appear to fall into either stage 1 or 2 of lockdown whenever we reach that point during this uncertain season. We are currently still in stage 4 and despite the frustrating fact that it appears that many other industries and businesses by definition appear to have arbitrarily reopened their doors prematurely for business I cannot just assume that we can do the same thing for fear of being fined or told to close our doors, so it’s a very tough and helpless situation for me as a business owner to deal with right now especially since we by definition stand for health which apparently is at risk. It's a catch 22 situation for all of us health conscious people and for our fitness industry as a whole because our health is potentially deteriorating if we aren't able to exercise but I sincerely hope that you are all making a concerted effort to train at home during lockdown albeit without the equipment that we 'should' be free to allow you to use in order to stay healthy!
I have tirelessly used all the limited resources at my disposal to creatively keep our precious small business afloat since we were forced to close our doors for trade on the 26th of March by selling essential goods (including hand sanitizers) and I have also successfully managed to pay our loyal staff members their salaries in full for the last 2 months and I naturally wish to continue doing so whilst we try to all survive whatever time is left before we can open our doors to you again.
Once again I humbly turn to you; our members in month 2 in a genuine plea to ask you to continue supporting our small business and it's many employees as you have done so loyally to date and certainly during this very uncertain time of national lockdown. My business is not only dependent on my steadfast and passionate leadership but it is also largely reliant on our loyal clients (that's all of you) to continue to support us financially each month despite us being unable to offer you the service that you have become accustomed to receiving from us each day in the past 11 years of us being open for business.
Like I mentioned to all of you before in my first “Lockdown Contingency Plan Newsletter” dated the 6th of April, the only way that I can reward you for your ongoing membership payments is to price freeze our usual 8% annual membership fee increases for an entire year for each month that you loyally and consecutively pay us your monthly membership fee either by way of a monthly direct debit (DD), EFT or by an annual upfront payment method. So if you have already paid us for April as well as for the month of May then you will not incur the usual annual fee increase of 8% per annum until September 2022! In other words the majority of our members that have generously decided to stand by us through thick and thin since the 26th of March 2020 by paying your fees for April and in May, you will continue paying exactly the same monthly membership fee that you are currently paying us for the next 2 years and if you elect to pay again in June; without us potentially being permitted to open up in June then you will not incur an annual rate increase for the next 3 years.
In so doing I have calculated as accurately as possible that you will actually save every cent that you have paid during Lockdown albeit it in the form of a future gain for you from us over the next few years. That is my financial pledge to you and bearing in mind that we still very much plan to resume building our new 2000 square meter, bells and whistles Health Club at the new Hermanus Sports Centre at the start of Stage 3, you will definitely in future be in the “pound seat” by this membership price freeze compared to those that are not currently members of Proactive Fitness.
Our core full time staff members including administration, floor instructors and cleaning staff have been working tirelessly “behind the scenes” during lockdown to communicate my messages to all of you and to keep the business momentum going alongside all of our personal trainers (PTs), Biokineticists (Bios), The Therapy Room (Tanya), studio class instructors including SAJKA Karate (Sensei Ronnie), Zumba Dance (Shontal), Yoga (Kim) and the many other amazingly motivated and professional business associates of Proactive Fitness. We are trying our utmost best to keep all of our clients up to speed by providing online support and communication.
We are also busy renovating our existing equipment and deep cleaning and disinfecting the entire interior of the building on a daily basis to keep it dust and germ free.
To all of them and to all of you, I can only say thank you ALL so very much for your ongoing combined energy, enthusiasm, love and support during this very challenging time. I have always believed that we can overcome all current and future adversity by communicating and by supporting each other with professional respect and with human dignity. I am immensely grateful for and energized by the many messages of goodwill and hope that we have received from everyone on a daily basis. It’s these positive messages that inspire me to get up every day at 4:30am and to face the world and to save our business that we have all spent the last 11 years keeping alive alongside each other and I will never ever give up that passionate drive to do so now and in the future.
I would like to remind you all that we will be on hand to answer your questions either by WhatsApp or by email so that our communication with you is recorded accurately in black and white for future reference and I assure you that when we reopen our gym doors again ASAP that Proactive Fitness and its team of fitness professionals will lead the way with our high protocol standards of hygiene and that you will have the safest exercise environment and that all of our team will be prepared and briefed accordingly. Your expectations will be exceeded by our already high service levels and we will always strive to keep you fit, safe and happy at Proactive Fitness.
If you have any questions for me or our admin team please do not hesitate to contact us. If you need to freeze or stop your monthly payments for reasons beyond our control please apply to do so in writing to Cass Matthews via email.
I urge you also all to please remain as patient as possible with our admin team as they are doing their very best to attend to the huge amount of administrative questions and queries that we are dealing with remotely during this time. They are the ones that are at the forefront of our business battle but I assure you that they communicate everything via me for approval and for decision making purposes therefore please hold me accountable for any frustrations that you may have encountered during this time and not them. If you are struggling to get your questions answered then by all means I am also contactable but my admin team are far more qualified than I am to help you immediately as they know all of our clients in person.
Yours in fitness
Mathew Browne
Director: Proactive Fitness
