Does anyone here own a gym?

[indygolfer]

I am thinking of opening a gym, but I need to gather some information on operating expenses, initial investment, monthly expenses, type of gym (equipment split), equipment lease or purchase, etc.

If you would rather email me, here is my address.

[email protected]

Thanks for any input

 

[Megalomaniac]

No but if you get some good info please pm it to me because that is my goal in 6 years when I retire. Someone post up some tips please.

 

[musketeer]

I know a guy who started one 12 years ago for about USD50,000.

Leased all of the equipment and hired the premises (paying monthly) and had modifications done like changing rooms with showers and matting put in.

Took years to turn a profit and he was there from 05:30 till 10:00pm every day for the first year.

I dont see how regular gyms make money and I worked in the industry for years...

 

[wardy1973]

I own a gym, its hard, but it can pay off.

 

[02gixxersix]

I saw something a while back that said you need about 1.5 million worth of equipment to even be competitive. I want to own one someday but I think I'll just open a Gold's.

 

[blondy13]

My husband and I started a gym in 2002 for $60,000. Found a 3600 sq ft facility built to suit and bought our equipment outright. Had 425 members by the end of 5 years and made 50% profit. Sold it and made $100,000 profit (from initial investment). BUT, we live in a rural california upscale gated community of 7,000 people with no competition for over 8 miles. It can be done but you need some HEAVY research before you jump in. You can email me if you need any additional info or advice.
Best of Luck to You!!!!

 

[alexykidman]

Yes definitely we can get profits, it can be possible if we don't have much competition. This is what happen on your side. as you said your are started a gym in rural area. so that you got profits. this is not applicable in cities and big towns. As of my knowledge starting a gym is not a good idea on these days!!!

 

[kx250rider]

As Alexykidman says, no small business, especially a gym, is going to be a booming success with the economy the way it is now. Be careful!

Although I've never owned a gym, I've owned other small businesses in the Los Angeles area. The fundamentals are the same whether it's a gym, a car repair shop, or a grocery store. The hardest part is to know that you can't expect to take home any money for the first year or two, unless you have enough money up front to get it strarted without loans to repay. Knowing that going in, you can look forward to getting profitable after the first couple years, and then if you do things right, it can be a lifelong decent income. If I were to open a gym, the first thing I'd do is find one that is just going out of business, and try to buy out their machines & equipment, and maybe, depending on their membership, try to lure some of their clients to your new place by giving a special, or honoring their old memberships if the old gym is gone bust, and they lost their money. That way, you get equipment at pennies on the dollar, and built-in members.

What would scare the sh*t out of me would be to either borrow a huge amount of money to buy new equipment, or to use up all your savings, etc., to start the gym with about $10 left to your name. At least if you start out with used equipment, and maybe a short-term lease on a building, you could get out of it safely after a couple years without owing $10s of $1000s on stuff you bought new, but is now used and worth a fraction of what you owe on it. You need to either have enough money on hand to pay all your bills for awhile, or keep another job until the gym gets going on it's own. Too many people lay out their whole life savings, and borrow against everything but their underwear, then lose it all becuase they can't keep things afloat while the new business is still shakey and not paying it's own way yet.

And then you need to figure out how many people you want to join, and how many people are in that area who might join. That's a hard thing to do, but companies like McDonald's will spend more in marketing research to check out an area than it might cost them to just stick a new restaurant in place.

Another thing you could do to "test the water" is to do what my friends are always trying to railroad me into... I have a decent gym which I built at home, and you could do something like that and see how many people would show interest in coming on a pay basis. Mine is too small to do that, but you could easily do it if you have a 2-car garage, or a big bonus room or basement. I have every machine that a gym has, and all high-end names. I got it all from gyms that went belly-up, and from millionaires who buy this stuff and never use it, then get tired of looking at it.

Just my thoughts...

Charles

 

[forged71]

I've owned a health club for 11 years now. Opened it while still in the military. The only thing that I was able to do that breaks most clubs is pay for my equipment with cash up front. That's the killer in the industry your first 3 years your cash intake goes straight to equipment in most cases. After the 1st. year your basically starting over with clientele to make the next 2 years pay off the equipment after that its how well you run your business. I have a private practice that allows me to come and go as I need to make sure things don't go to shit like, the singles club syndrome that most gyms have or the dealing crowd. I don't allow any juice to be pushed or even the talk of it or your out permanently. Discounts to military, students, police officers, and fire department personell can be a great crowd draw as well. Advertising I left to a professional though just because its very time consuming. As far as the 1.5 million post not really I started with a little over 450 thousand I already owned the building and the property, but like I said even with all this I didn't see a substantial return til the 3rd year. Best of luck to you!!
Peace, Forged

 

[kx250rider]

I've owned a health club for 11 years now. Opened it while still in the military. The only thing that I was able to do that breaks most clubs is pay for my equipment with cash up front. That's the killer in the industry your first 3 years your cash intake goes straight to equipment in most cases. After the 1st. year your basically starting over with clientele to make the next 2 years pay off the equipment after that its how well you run your business. I have a private practice that allows me to come and go as I need to make sure things don't go to shit like, the singles club syndrome that most gyms have or the dealing crowd. I don't allow any juice to be pushed or even the talk of it or your out permanently. Discounts to military, students, police officers, and fire department personell can be a great crowd draw as well. Advertising I left to a professional though just because its very time consuming. As far as the 1.5 million post not really I started with a little over 450 thousand I already owned the building and the property, but like I said even with all this I didn't see a substantial return til the 3rd year. Best of luck to you!!
Peace, Forged

Sounds like you have a business mind! Cash for the equipment, and owning the building, would be the "make or break" pieces to the puzzle in many cases. If a person were to lease a building, they might be able to get creative and get a car repair bay, or some other type of building to use as a gym, that might be lower cost to lease than a commercial 4-walls storefront. Zoning laws permitting, of course. And as with any other business to be successful, your heart has to be in it. I'd NEVER start a gym if my passion werent fitness and weightlifting, much as I'd never open a bar or saloon when I don't drink or care much about shooting pool. I made my TV repair shop decenlty profitable for years after the other guys quit the business. I did a decent job in the business, and I loved fooling around with old TVs and radios since I was 9 or 10 years old. And when the time came that I saw how TV repair was not going to be a viable business anymore with nobody wanting to get a TV fixed, I quit too, before it went negative. Now I still have the skill as a hobby, and once in awhile I get a panic phonecall from an old friend on Superbowl Sunday, and have to spring back into action when they're having 100 guys over to watch the game, and there's nothing but lines on their big screen....

Charles

 

[forged71]

I joined the military at 17 right before desert storm no kids that I knew of at the time so all my income went into a saving account, I was a member of 5th group so I never was in one place long enough to spend anything money or set roots and had no one at the time (wife ) to spend it for me until 2000 took a desk job and finished my education. As far as the building it was my old high school gymnasium 30000 square foot all brick building and metal girder construction locker rooms, showers, offices, already there...2500$ cash this was the deal of a lifetime the school closed in 1996 in 1998 a construction company bought it and turned it into an apartment complex they had no need for the old gymnasium and had a silent auction. I just for fun put as start bid of 2500 and a max bid 7000. I was one of 3 bidders. All I had to do to it was sand blast the exterior, change out the plumbing (lead), and drywall and paint. I put maybe 7 more grand in it. Opened in early 1999. when I retired from the military in 05 I started a private practice and just bounce back and fourth. Don't let this fool you though the industry can be a bitch. My insurance is what burns my ass its out crazy. The best thing to do in my opinion is to find a decent size maybe 5000 square to start and open a small 24 hour satellite gym. There's one around they way from me it does good business from what I hear another secret I allow auto bank draft from their bank not the private companies that auto charge people they have a very bad reputation of screwing people or allow them to pay month to month. Now I don't recomend this to start only after they have been members for 1 year. I don't charge enrollment fees either cause really what are doing, filling out some paper work. Right now my rates are 30 for singles, 40 for couples, 50 for families. I have tanning for 15 more unlimited and the juice bar thing don't do it waste of time the overhead is sick. If anything I put in 3 vending machine and have various drink muscle milk etc. and barter bro!!!!! I barter my gym for the athletic gear from a local screen printing shop, my supplements from a local nutrition store and what ever else I can.

Peace, Forged

 

[trenerific]

I have years of experience with gym ownership and what not. Use the same principles you would for buying a piece of land. Location, location location, plus get that rent down. These days you can find spaces for cheap and sap up the equipment cheap. Most places, nobody cares what equipment you got as long as it looks good and works. After you got the location and rent locked down get some young trainers in there and penetrate your small client base for as much PT as you can. Suck every dollar out of your trainers that you can.

 

[benaziza]

hi
i have few question for the guys who used to own gyms , do you have pay any kind of tax ? a gym owner in massachussets told me that he used tp pay tax for the irs every 3 months or so , another question , do i need any kind of license to open a gym ? by the way i live in new york state , thanks in advance.

 

[swm1972]

Anyone that is self employed or owns a business where they aren't on a "payroll" have to submit quarterly income tax estimates based on what their withholdings will be. They don't let you just hold that money all year long and then pay for it at the end. They want it now. If you do wait until the end of the year and owe more then $1000 you are penalized and charged interest.

 

[mich29]

great advice in this thread

 

[swole79]

Anyone have any experience or any idea how much you can make on a typical anytime fitness type facility in a year? I just started looking into them. They are similar to what the gentleman above said. Usually about 4000 ft and they average between 700-800 members. I was on a conference call the other day with some of their people and they have people in place to do studies to help you select a location and negotiate the best terms on your lease. 2 VERY important factors in success. But they are very low overhead, almost like a key club but not totally.

 

[rockyourroll]

Anyone have any experience or any idea how much you can make on a typical anytime fitness type facility in a year? I just started looking into them. They are similar to what the gentleman above said. Usually about 4000 ft and they average between 700-800 members. I was on a conference call the other day with some of their people and they have people in place to do studies to help you select a location and negotiate the best terms on your lease. 2 VERY important factors in success. But they are very low overhead, almost like a key club but not totally.

I was a manager of an Anytime Fitness a few years ago. The owners (2 of them) at the time had owned it for about 5 years. They sold it about 6 months after I started working there and neither one took a salary the entire time. I think they made about $50k each on the sale...at best. One worked @ the gym full-time so paid herself essentially 10k a year.

Did you hear that they average 700-800 members from a Franchisee rep? Because that seems very high. I say it seems high because there are internal forums where people get badges for having over 500 members. There weren't an overwhelming number of badges.

We had about 300 members and were located in one of the wealthiest Minneapolis suburbs with a population of about 60k. There was a fair amount of competition but there is competition everywhere. Great location with a ton of street traffic.

Overhead depends a lot on your location. Good location = high rent. The equipment required for the gym is not cheap. If I were to buy an AF I would definitely buy an existing one that is already profitable in a growing city. Building one from scratch - while potentially profitable upon selling it - requires a lot of money.

 

[Joanna80]

I believe the lease on the premises is one of the biggest expenses on top of your taxes and of course the equipment (whether you choose to buy or lease it). Gyms can make money but you need a lot of upfront capital (or at least be prepared to borrow heavily) to get it off the ground.

 

[stevesmi]

I am opening up a gym myself soon. I will be a co-owner.. the trick is putting up a little money only and keeping members. thats why gyms obsess over contracts, most people who join gyms end up quitting.. starting a new gym is very difficult because you have to get members from other gyms and that is tough since they are already under contract.

 

[Gorilla-Pharma]

Steve if you have any questions I may answer please pm or email me. I am just over a year open and pushing 500 members...I was profitable in first 2 months, I am currently looking to remodel another larger building I own. Key is marketing and atmosphere....me and my wife present a face, friend, and family atmosphere...that's why I am a fitness club rather then gym!