Semi-Private Pro Was Key in Helping Daniel Meng Transform his Gym and Sell it for $950,000

Written by Emily Beers

For many years, programming for Daniel Meng meant spending hours upon hours each week "handwriting" individual programs for each client.

When the client would show up for their training session at his gym, MUVFit Personal Training in Nashville, Tennessee, Meng or one of his coaches would hand them their physical workout card with their training program of the day.

"Obviously that was not a scalable solution," Meng said, laughing. "And you were always programming."

In short, there was no cohesion across programs or coaches.

"We would have issues where the coach would throw in some crazy odd ball exercise all of a sudden into a client's program, and then another coach steps in and has no idea what this exercise is. That's a bad experience for a client," Meng said.

Further, somewhere in the back of his mind Meng knew that programming this way would make it incredibly difficult for him to ever be able to remove himself from the day-to-day operations of the gym, let alone turn his gym into an asset he could legitimately sell. But he wasn't sure how else to do it.

Enter Covid-19

When COVID-19 hit, workout cards were no longer an option, so Meng was forced to start looking for a digital solution.

He found a software that did an OK job. Though it still wasn't great, his research into other options led him nowhere.

One thing he didn't like with the app he was using was that people would be looking down at their phones the entire workout, as they needed them to view their programs.

"It took away from the community, and people were distracted by text messages and emails and so on and so forth," he said.

Further, the app didn't give people the sense that they were receiving their own individualized program designed for their specific needs and goals.

So he continued to look for a viable solution, and eventually stumbled across Semi-Private Pro, an app designed specifically for semi-private training gyms.

Enter Semi-Private Pro

At first, Meng was "skeptical," he said, of Semi-Private Pro, but he knew the founders of the app, Tim Lyons and Zach Columbia and trusted them.

So he dove right in and began the process of customizing Semi-Private Pro for his gym.

He admits it was a lot of work getting everything set up to be on brand with his gym's methodology to ensure the app would be able to appropriately progress and regress movements for each individual client to provide them with the best client experience, and ultimately bring them results.

Making the switch ended up being one of the best decisions Meng ever made.

"It really was a home run for our gym," Meng said.

Four Ways Semi-Private Pro Transformed MUVFit Personal Training

1. Time Savings

Though it was time-consuming for Meng and his head coach to set the app up to work for his unique gym, once it was set up, the work was done.

"We knew that once it was in there, we wouldn't have to do it ever again and it was just kind of all built out," Meng said.

After that, programming became a breeze, and Meng and his coaches no longer had to spend countless hours each week programming.

2. Consistency In Coaching

Semi-Private Pro also solved Meng's coaching consistency problem, putting coaches all on the same page, and ensuring clients received the same service regardless of who was coaching the training session.

Gone are the days where a coach can "go rogue" and program "oddball movements" another coach doesn't know how to coach, Meng explained.

That being said, this doesn't mean coaches become robots handcuffed to an app; it just means they're all working within the same structure, all the while still providing them the ability to progress or regress clients appropriately, Meng said. And at any point, they can step in and make changes on the fly to the client's program if need be, and the changes are immediately reflected in the app for the client.

Ultimately, Semi-Private Pro keeps coaches "on brand," Meng said. For the gym owner, this, of course, means they know their clients aren't reliant on just one coach.

"If people are too reliant on one person, and that person leaves, you're in a pickle as a gym owner," he explained.

3. Improved Client Experience

Semi-Private Pro was the solution Meng was looking for to be able to provide his clients with actual customized training programs tailored to them.

How it works: The client comes into the gym, and there's a tablet in their workout station with their name on it and their program for the day. They're able to track their weights and reps in the app, and there are videos if they need their memories jogged about a specific movement, if the coach happens to be busy with another client.

"We don't want them being coached by the system, but we want it to trigger their memory" Meng explained of the purpose of the video library.

Further, coaches are able to add notes about a client in the app, such as if the client has a knee or shoulder issue going on. This helps each coach gain a better understanding of the clients, which, of course, only enhances the client experience even more.

Because of all this, the programs themselves, as well as the coaching, his clients got after switching to Semi-Private Pro were night and day compared to the old workout card days.

4. Helped him Sell his Gym

Having systems in place was one of the keys to Meng being able to sell MUVFit in the summer of 2024, he said.

He credits having Semi-Private Pro "without a doubt" for playing a role in allowing him to remove himself from the day-to-day operations of the business and sell his gym for a profit.

"In fact, the guy who bought my gym was not from the fitness industry, so one of his concerns was programming because he had no idea how to do it. So having Semi-Private Pro, and because it's customizable—he was buying that customized, already built programming software," Meng said.

The result: Meng sold his training studio for $950,000.

"Of course, onboarding any new software can be a bit time consuming, but that time investment paid off big time!"