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Our Focus and Vision at Punchpass

Punchpass helps independent fitness instructors grow their businesses. We believe Independent instructors will continue to be a growing part of the fitness industry.

September 20, 2013

We’ve stated many times that our mission at Punchpass is to help independent fitness instructors run & grow their businesses.  I thought we should expand a bit on why that is our focus, and why we believe Independent instructors are going to be a growing part of the fitness industry in years to come.

A venture capital firm called Homebrew recently wrote a great blog post about their investment thesis, which they summarize as the rise of the ‘Bottoms Up Economy’.  One of their main arguments is that the path back to personal economic stability is individual entrepreneurial activity.

Today a Zumba or Bokwa instructor can:

– Use Facebook to easily communicate with customers and spread their brand.

– Use Weebly to create a great looking free website.

– Use Mailchimp to create an email newsletter for free.

– Use Square to take credit cards from anywhere.

– Play their setlist from their phone on portable speakers.

The kicker is all of those things can be done from their phones or tablets.  For a little more work, an Instructor can capture significantly more value (cash!) and control their own destiny.  When Inc Magazine named Zumba their 2012 Company of the Year, they noted approximately 35% of all licensed Zumba instructors start their own small businesses – “renting space in community centers, schools, and hospitals.”  That % is growing as more and more instructors realize how much more money they can make on their own.

This behavior is encouraged by the brands they represent. Zumba, Bokwa, and others are putting the power in the hands of their licensed instructors, not the gym chains, by providing tools to help them launch and grow their own business.  Empowering their members to become entrepreneurs is a core part of the Zumba & Bokwa business model.

And that’s where we think we come in:  Punchpass is the missing piece of software that lets instructors track the passes they sell and attendance to their classes. That is what we are laser focused on as we develop and improve Punchpass.  

We’d love to hear your thoughts and comments!  We’re available any time you’d like at hello@punchpass.com