Opening My Own Gym

Hey all,

Im soon planning to open my own gym in a small town I was born in Arkansas. Its a small town but I know I can get at least 300+ members. With 300 members paying $35 per month for membership that will be $10,500 per month the gym will bring in. But Im pretty sure I can get more than 300 members.

Any suggestions?

Falcon

No contracts.. discounted prices for 3, 6 and 12 month memberships.. attentive staff, supplements sold barely above cost, clean lockerroom, plenty of freeweights, good operating hours (6am-midnight).. lots of mirrors, lots of TV's on mute, music thats not too loud, and no jazz/celine dion bullshit, more than one water fountain, deadlift platform, monolift, ghr, squat rack, powerrack .. also, let members bring a friend to train free on fridays..and give members a shirt when they sign up for 3+ months at a time

also, one free week added onto memberships for each new member they bring in is helpful.

edit: also, try to recruit the local powerlifting team to come in and train for free on saturday mornings or something like that, it'll help attract a unique clique to the gym and give it some credibility

Determine your optimal target market and cater to their needs. Find the hole in the market that needs servicing and focus on attracting that market segment. If you are looking to make it a muscle head gym then don't go wild on the cardio - give the people what they want - but in a small gym don't try to satisfy every type of person - your gym will be much better if you specialize.

mikefear said:

No contracts.. discounted prices for 3, 6 and 12 month memberships.. attentive staff, supplements sold barely above cost, clean lockerroom, plenty of freeweights, good operating hours (6am-midnight).. lots of mirrors, lots of TV's on mute, music thats not too loud, and no jazz/celine dion bullshit, more than one water fountain, deadlift platform, monolift, ghr, squat rack, powerrack

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there u go

dont have gay rules about chalk being used, either..

mikefear said:

No contracts.. discounted prices for 3, 6 and 12 month memberships.. attentive staff, supplements sold barely above cost, clean lockerroom, plenty of freeweights, good operating hours (6am-midnight).. lots of mirrors, lots of TV's on mute, music thats not too loud, and no jazz/celine dion bullshit, more than one water fountain, deadlift platform, monolift, ghr, squat rack, powerrack .. also, let members bring a friend to train free on fridays..and give members a shirt when they sign up for 3+ months at a time

also, one free week added onto memberships for each new member they bring in is helpful.

edit: also, try to recruit the local powerlifting team to come in and train for free on saturday mornings or something like that, it'll help attract a unique clique to the gym and give it some credibility

Click to expand...

DAMN MIKE>>>>> Where do you live bro? I wanna go into business with this guy..... Nice stuff there, I wish my gym were more like that....

rizz

charge more than $35.00/month.
without going into detail, I supply gyms with certain things they require and they just don't pay their bills. Actually let me qualify this. I supply all types of companies including gyms and gyms are the worst at paying their bills just ask my collection agency.

ps. Have a clutter free spotless babysitting room with good clean toys and friendly staff.

pps. most gyms don't make any money and close down---well in Toronto Canada anyway. (population 6 million)

mikefear said:

No contracts.. discounted prices for 3, 6 and 12 month memberships.. attentive staff, supplements sold barely above cost, clean lockerroom, plenty of freeweights, good operating hours (6am-midnight).. lots of mirrors, lots of TV's on mute, music thats not too loud, and no jazz/celine dion bullshit, more than one water fountain, deadlift platform, monolift, ghr, squat rack, powerrack .. also, let members bring a friend to train free on fridays..and give members a shirt when they sign up for 3+ months at a time

also, one free week added onto memberships for each new member they bring in is helpful.

edit: also, try to recruit the local powerlifting team to come in and train for free on saturday mornings or something like that, it'll help attract a unique clique to the gym and give it some credibility

Click to expand...

Totally disagree ... If you have no contracts you won't have a steady and calculatable income what makes future investments and improvements harder (you want to keep your members happy with new things from time to time). And no need for discounted prices because it sounds like he is the only one in that town and people don't mind paying a little bit more for a good gym. 10.500 dollars a month isn't that much at all for a gym. I worked at a small gym that made 15-20.000 euro's a month with a little over 500 members and they had no money left at the end of the month. The gym was owned by someone with no sense of business but still.... The biggest % of the members will come from the recreational group and not the hardcore powerlifters and bodybuilders so you really have to keep them in mind to and not go by just what you want as a dedicated bodybuilder/powerlifter. With only 300+ members opening hours from 6-12 is to much you'll be paying employees to do nothing and the gym will look dead most of the time!

I was thinking that in Arkansas the land there is CHEAP! I can get a large "Gold's Gym" size building built there for only $160,000 and I could hire maybe 6 employees.....a fulltime aerobics instructor.....Ill have plenty of cardio on what I will call "the ladies rooms" and then the muscle heads will also have their area to lift anytime. Im thinking of also having a day care with a couple of small TVs for kids who might want to watch Barney or something while their parents work out or do aerobics....this town is indeed a gold mine waiting to be found.....NO GYM at all currently in this town where I was born....I live in Georgia now but will move back to Arkansas to do this. I know it will be EASY to get 300 members....so maybe Ill charge a flat fee of $45 per month, or if they add the aerobics to it, then it will be an additional $10 per month ($55 total per month for gym and aerobics) or if they want to do the gym, aerobics AND tanning then that will be a total of $75 per month for all three. And for those who do all 3.....they get free day care if they want or need it. What do you guys think?

Falcon

In order to make any money in the gym business, you continually need to attract new customers. It's all cash flow. You want a steady membership but your best income is from those that join for a while, quit and come back again. There are more of these than the hardcore gym rat that works out every day.
That's why you see all the successful gyms always trying to promote and sell new memberships. It's a tough business, but the good thing is that when you go out of business at least you have some killer home gym equipment.