AFFILIATE CONTENT

If you’re an aspiring affiliate owner, you’ll need great coaches, and a place to gather and curate your community and teach the CrossFit methodology. You’ll need a sound business plan to ensure success and mitigate risk. You’ll need a solid understanding of the common pitfalls of affiliate ownership and how to get ahead of them before you open your doors. So where do you start? CrossFit HQ and the brand new Affiliate Starter Kit can help.

Longtime affiliate owners, Nicole Christensen of CrossFit Roots, and David Osorio of CrossFit South Brooklyn, discuss strategies to make the Open a successful event in their respective afilliates. The two chat about leading by example, educating their members about what the Open is, how they make the Open special, and more. 

CrossFit affiliates change lives. From losing weight, to reversing chronic disease, to achieving optimal fitness and health, the first step is often that step through the door of a CrossFit affiliate. And one reason the experience of joining an affiliate is so impactful is because affiliates support not only physical health but mental health as well. Realizing this, CrossFit’s affiliate team has been hard at work developing a program to empower affiliate owners and coaches to positively impact the lives of athletes who have experienced trauma.

Affiliate owner, coach, and financial planner Graciano Rubio offers tips for making your affiliate profitable and ensuring it will remain for years to come. While most affiliate owners have a servant’s heart and want to help their community in any way they can, Rubio points out that in order to sustain your business sound financial principles are necessary.  “The very best thing you can do for your community is make sure it survives," he says. "Make sure that 10, 20, 30 years from now, there’s one place people can go in town, they can show up, they’re with a group of likeminded people, and that’s like their little health oasis.”

Brandon Garcia (CCFT, CFL3) owns CrossFit Elm, a 10 year-old affiliate in Thornton, Colorado. Garcia first opened his affiliate in his garage, and has learned a lot in his decade of affiliate ownership including the importance of treating a business like a business, and being intentional about every single decision.

When rising rents were pushing CrossFit Lake Highlands out of its 9,000 square-foot location, the opportunity arose for the affiliate to move to a new storefront in the same shopping center. Even though the building needed thousands of dollars in renovation, affiliate owner Warren Sibley was steadfast that this was the best option to keep the gym close to its dedicated members.  Before too long, two of those members, Steve McClure and Chris Neilson, offered to help with the renovations in the new space and acquire part of the business to help keep their gym close to home.

Owner of CrossFit Avalanche in Kings Beach, California, Myles Lewis (CF-L3) offers his best piece of advice to CrossFit affiliate owners everywhere.

Matt Newmann (CF-L3) opened CrossFit Dog Fight in 2013 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Leading with positivity and always learning, Newmann and his staff create a welcoming space that brings joy to the gym's members every day. Learn how Newmann stays motivated as an affiliate owner, and what his goals and challenges are as he continues to grow his business. 

Listen in as multiyear CrossFit affiliate owners David Osorio and Nicole Christensen discuss how each of them approaches staff compensation. The two discuss how their pay structures have evolved over the years, which employee incentives and benefits they offer to their staff, how they pay themselves, and how to embrace an ownership mindset while also remaining empathetic to what it takes to be successful as a working coach.

As coaches, affiliate owners, and athletes seek to continue their education on the path to optimal fitness and health, nutrition will always be at the forefront. To take away a CrossFit trainer’s right to coach their athletes on nutrition habits is to run the risk of watering down a program that has been proven to reverse chronic diseases, including those related to obesity and metabolic derangement. And that risk, said CrossFit Head of Government Relations Brett Ewer, is very real.