Our story
It started with a shoebox.
A shoebox of receipts, a notebook of names and a phone full of M-Pesa messages. This is the problem we set out to fix, and why we care about getting it right.
10:47pm, a Tuesday
The shoebox
Otieno opened his gym in Kasarani with two squat racks, a sound system and a lot of goodwill. Three years later he had 300 members, four trainers and a shoebox.
In the shoebox: receipts, some of them. On the desk: a notebook of names and dates. In his pocket: a phone with 214 unread M-Pesa messages, half of them sent to the wrong account number.
Every month end
What the shoebox cost
Members who had quietly stopped paying but still walked in on a friend’s card. Members who had paid and were asked again, and left angry. Petty cash that never quite balanced.
And two partners who had put money into the gym, asking the same question every month: “So how are we doing?” He never had a quick answer. That was the part that hurt.
What we heard, gym after gym
It wasn’t just Otieno
Otieno isn’t one real person. He is a composite of the gym owners Ronifit is built for, in Kasarani, Nyali, Kisumu and Eldoret. Different gyms, the same shoebox.
The software they had tried was built for American studios: priced in dollars, no M-Pesa, no idea what a day pass or a petty cash box is, nothing for the partners. So they went back to the notebook.
So we built one record
Ronifit
Every payment, M-Pesa, cash or card, matched to a member with a receipt. Check-in from the member’s own phone. Classes, trainers and lockers on the same record. Petty cash with a photo and an approval. Partners with statements that match the owner’s.
And a free portal for members, because the person on the treadmill deserves proof of what they paid just as much as the owner deserves to know it arrived.
Six months later
9:15pm. Everything adds up. Home by ten.
The shoebox is in a cupboard. Members get their receipts before they leave the floor. The partners read their statement on their phones and, for the first time in years, don’t call.
That is the whole point of Ronifit: fewer arguments, more training.
Why it matters beyond the books.
When the admin is handled, trainers coach instead of chasing, owners stand on the floor instead of behind a desk, and a nervous beginner gets a smile at the door instead of “let me check if you’ve paid”.
Gyms are community places. We just want the paperwork out of the way.
What we believe.
Money should be easy to see
If a shilling came in or went out, the owner, the partners and the member can each see their part of it.
Members deserve receipts
Trust at the front desk starts with proof. Every payment, every time, no asking.
Built for M-Pesa and WhatsApp
Not a foreign tool with local payments bolted on. Designed from the first screen for how East Africa pays and talks.
Prices you can read
In shillings, on the page, no demo call needed and no contract to escape.
Pole pole
Software that doesn’t scare a front desk on day one, and a gym that doesn’t scare a beginner on theirs.
See it for your gym on the owners page, or talk to us.
Put the shoebox away.
Register your gym and get 30 days free. Members join free, always.