If you are entrepreneurial-minded and love exercise, health and fitness, then starting a gym business may be the perfect career for you. Opening a gym can be a rewarding, and lucrative, business opportunity but you have to be sure to go about it in the right way. Here are 6 things to think about when setting up your first professional gym
1. How To Stand Out
There are plenty of gym studios and fitness clubs out there offering different types of equipment and exercise classes. If you’re looking to open your own gym and market it to clients, you’re going to need something that makes you stand out from the crowd. Starting your run-of-the-mill gym that’s designed for anyone and everyone isn’t likely to do well when competing against big corporations and companies who can offer better facilities and amenities. Instead, targeting a particular demographic or niche can usually get you better results because there is less competition. What demographic you target should depend on the location you choose and you can gauge what might be missing from the area by doing some research. For example, you could set up a female-only gym, a class-centred gym that focuses on something like pilates or barre, a boxing studio or gym that focus on rehabilitation and people with injuries.
2. The Financing
Once you’ve figured out the type of gym you want to open, the next step is getting the idea off the ground. Setting up a professional gym isn’t cheap - there are location costs, equipment costs, marketing costs and staffing costs to consider. Depending on where you live and where the gym will be, setting it up could cost around $50,000. In order to be eligible for loans or to approach investors, you need a well-thought-out business plan. While building a business plan can be overwhelming, intensive and time-consuming, it’s a good way of figuring out for yourself if your idea is going to work and making sense of how much the endeavour might cost you.
3. The Location
One of the most important aspects of setting up a gym is where you’re going to set it up. You need a space that works with your idea and isn’t going to be exorbitantly expensive to rent. However, you also need to think about the space from a client’s point of view. Clients want their gym to be convenient for them and easy to access. Having available parking can make a big difference because no one wants to drive around for ages searching for a park before their gym class. You must also ensure that you get permission from the council, landlord or building owners about running a business from whatever space you’re renting and how much freedom you have to make alterations or install certain equipment. One option is to use the sharing economy site like Spacer to rent a space from someone who isn’t using it. You can rent out commercial areas such as a warehouse that might usually be used for storage and transform it into a gym. Platforms such as these allow you to find the space most suited to your budget and your vision.
4. The Insurance
Insurance is essential for a professional gym. When looking for a policy it is best to talk to a specialist insurer to ensure that you get a policy that covers everything that could happen, or goes wrong, in a gym environment. Not being properly covered could spell the end of your business if you’re left to foot the costs after an incident. Usually, in order to be covered, you may have to meet certain conditions, for example properly introducing new clients to the machines and the layout of the gym. You also need to consider insurance for your employees as an employee and make sure to comply with any OHS rules.
5. The Clients
You can’t run a gym without clients so before you go head first into this venture you need to take a moment to think about how you might approach and recruit clients. If you already work at a big gym and are venturing out on your own, you might already have some dedicated clients who are willing to move with you. Even if you only have one client, if that client can refer you to five or ten friends, then soon you might have a lot more. Word of mouth is a great way to gain new clients so make sure to encourage your clientele to tell their family, friends and colleagues about the gym. Social media is also another great way to get the word out and posting frequently is one to keep your followers engaged. Another means of recruiting clients can be through offering introductory offers and deals or free classes to entice potential members to come and try the gm out.
6. A Website
Every successful business needs a website and the story is no different from a professional gym. Potential clients are going to want to learn more about the gym, the services and the pricing and they usually want to do this quickly and conveniently by looking online. There are a couple of things to keep in mind when setting up a website. You want it to be memorable, easy to navigate, optimised for mobile and have all the relevant information a person might be looking for. Make sure to link to social media and include contact information so that the potential client can make further enquiries if they want to.