Growing a family business to 10 locations

Can you tell us a little bit about your business?

24Fit is a group of family-owned gyms operating across South Australia. Right now, we have 9 gyms with our 10th opening soon. We’re not a franchise — it’s all one company — and our mission from day one has been simple: make the gym experience easy and accessible.

We’ve been in the business since 2010, when 24-hour gyms weren’t common in our area, and there weren’t many off-the-shelf systems that supported what we needed.

What really sets us apart is our belief that joining and leaving a gym should be easy. That approach has helped us stay ahead of the curve and build long-term trust with members.

What systems had you previously used?

We ran our own custom-built CRM, door access, and billing systems for over 10 years. Initially, it worked — but as we started adding more services like group fitness and different membership tiers, things got messy.

Eventually, we found ourselves juggling multiple third-party apps and patching together tools just to manage everyday operations. It became complicated for staff and members alike, and we couldn’t trust that things like billing would just work.

On billing days, it was a coin toss — sometimes things went fine, and other times there were errors, duplicate charges, or settlement mismatches. It wasn’t sustainable. And, most importantly, we had no trust in the systems we were using.

What made you decide to use Gymflow initially?

We looked at five or six different options. What stood out about Gymflow was how modern and well-integrated everything was — especially the use of Stripe and Kisi. It was clear you were building toward a future where everything was streamlined for both staff and members.

Even though Gymflow was still a relatively new product when we joined, the roadmap and the user-first mindset really aligned with our own direction.

We also appreciated how reasonable and structured the onboarding process was compared to others we’d seen.

How long did it take after switching to Gymflow for your day-to-day to feel easier?

Incredibly quickly. We rolled it out in phases, a couple of gyms at a time. The system is intuitive and easy to train staff on, so the learning curve wasn’t steep.

After just a few weeks of billing running smoothly — no errors, no surprises — we could finally take a deep breath. You stop waking up in the middle of the night, wondering what’s broken. That peace of mind is hard to overstate.

You’ve been on the platform for 3 years — would you say we’ve lived up to the mission of continuous improvement?

Absolutely. From the start, we’ve seen regular improvements and most of the time it’s stuff we didn’t even know we needed until it showed up.

Whether it’s member-facing features or operator-side tools, the updates just keep coming, and they actually make a difference. I genuinely look forward to those product update emails — they’ve made it easier to run the business month by month.

How has Gymflow helped power your growth with each new location?

Probably the biggest shift is that now, when people sign up online, their membership activates immediately — no need to wait for staff hours or manual approvals. Before Gymflow, new members would sit in a pending state until they physically visited the gym.

Now, everything is instant. That’s not only helped sales but also allowed us to reduce staffed hours — for example, one location went from 30 to 19 staffed hours per week. That’s a big saving when you scale it across multiple gyms.

What features do you use the most or couldn’t live without?

The biggest game changer for us has been giving members immediate access after signing up. That single feature has completely changed the way we operate. People can join online and start using the gym straight away — no delays, no staff involvement. It’s something we would never walk back from.

Another massive win has been letting members manage their own payment details. We used to spend every Thursday morning chasing overdue payments, and updating a card used to require a phone call. Now, members just update their details themselves — it’s saved us a huge amount of admin time and effort.

If a fellow gym owner asked you whether they should try Gymflow out, what would you say?

I'd say put me on commission. I’ve already recommended Gymflow to many gym owners.

If you're looking to simplify operations, reduce staffing needs, and make your member experience genuinely frictionless, this is the platform. It’s intuitive, modern, and built with both the member and operator in mind.