Unfortunately, many business owners are now coming across a society that has turned into a litigious one. Often people will take advantage of minor issues for monetary gain. Fitness facilities with their heavy machinery and large potential for slips can be the most heavily targeted by these types of people. So, how can you protect yourself from these potential litigations? The following list entails some of the best ways to protect yourself and your facility.

Liability Waivers 

If you’ve ever joined one of the larger franchise gyms, then you will be very familiar with the liability waiver that you are asked to sign at the beginning. Companies do this not to have an excuse not to keep their facility clean and safe, but from people who have a predatorial sense of wanting to sue. Any size fitness facility should counsel an attorney in order to draft a well-crafted legal document. Although this does offer a good level of protection, it is not full proof. If you present a facility with clear dangers that could have been fixed, this waiver will not protect you. Thus, as we protect ourselves from these risks, we should also protect our members from potential dangers.

Continuous Employee Training 

After working in a gym for a while, it’s easy to start losing focus on the important aspects of it. Therefore, we highly recommend implementing continuous training for your employees. Since so much of fitness training relies on a variety of feedback it can be easy to accidentally cross over into what some individuals may interpret as harassing behavior, regardless of the intent behind the feedback. Having readily available training and resources such as literature can help your employees constantly improving performance and keeping your business professional and effective.

Maintain the Equipment and Facility 

Training and waivers are all well and good, but if your equipment isn’t being kept up to code, then the risk of litigation is solely coming from you. Understandably, fitness facility maintenance can be a costly expense. However, having to go to court and potentially losing will no doubt cost you tens of thousands of dollars all for a repair that could have only cost at most a few hundred to fix.  

 

Though it is impossible to remove all risks from your business, being proactive can surely lower the chances of being sued. Simply adhere to the recommendations above, and you will no doubt decrease the probability of going into litigation.

Are you a fitness entrepreneur? ProFit Marketing Solutions wants to help your business succeed by improving your fitness marketing. Check out all the ways we can help you!