Market Research: Starting a barebones gym

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The only gyms within 10 miles of my house are one that is exorbitantly expensive, and a Planet Fitness. While it’s been frustrating for me as a consumer, I see a business opportunity. I want to start a small gym in my area. This is a part of my informal market research. I especially hope to get some advice from gym owners.

I want to purchase a small industrial building and focus on free weights. However, people that I have spoken to say that at least some machines like the leg press are necessary for a gym to be commercially viable. I agree. What pieces of equipment do you think are non-negotiable for a gym to have, even if it’s barebones? I mean machines especially.

Thank you.

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There’s a non-commercial “club” in my town that fits your description. It is oriented around powerlifting but many non competitors lift there.

In addition to all things free weights, they have the following machines.

Leg press
Cables
Chest supported row
Belt squat
Glute ham raise
Reverse hyper.
Hack squat
Calf raise
Leg extensions and hamstring curls
Cable rows

The rest of the space is for dumbbells, power cages, mono lift, deadlift platform and competition bench presses.

I am unsure of whether the club makes or loses money, but it has been around for almost a decade and is what you describe.

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What the above poster said + plate loadable machines + rowing machine(s) + somewhere to do trx type work etc.

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That’s the vibe of the gym I train at (well it’s a big warehouse building now)

https://www.instagram.com/p/DA9w9FKAlxr/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

This is a better view of all the stuff in there:

With all this stuff, there’s not a lot missing besides really niche pieces of equipment

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How about a barbell club, there is one in my area

bench presses, squat racks and deadlift platforms

thats what they started with years ago, they may have expanded as time went on

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I hate peeing in anyone’s Cheerios, but here’s on older article we posted about that topic with some eye-opening stuff:

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I would love one day to open a not for profit gym promoting exercise science and nutrition education.

I have never been able to quite figure out how to make it self-sustaining though. Insurance alone is crazy.

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Can you have people sign a waiver saying absolutely nothing that happens is your responsibility? I did something similar when I had a business.

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Many of these reasons simply do not apply to me. I am studying to be an accountant and hope to open my own CPA firm one day. I don’t hope to get wealthy by starting a gym. It would be more of a “labor of love”, like he said. I modest profit is all I need.

The market in my area is not saturated. There is one gym in my town and a crossfit center. The one gym costs $54 at minimum per month. The gym nearest my town is a Planet Fitness, which is of course terrible. It’s also 9 miles away. To be fair, I live in a rural area so population might still be an issue; but I hope to get a location on the nearby highway where it would be more accessible to people from other towns.

The bills will be a problem, but the spaces I am looking at are small with a small monthly rent. I laughed when I saw the $16,500 number in the article: it’s out of left field for my situation.

I could go on.

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How commercially viable do you think a barbell club could possibly be? Is the place busy?

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That gym is enormous. I don’t have nearly as much space to work with.

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Thank you. That list seems to cover just about everything. Do you think a gym of this type could be viable as a commercial gym?

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I believe I did have to do that for the first gym I joined. But how does this relate to the issue of necessary equipment?

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You can. It’s not a catch all preventing lawsuits though.

The other issue is I don’t know when I would have time to run it between a full time job and three kids.

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I couldn’t begin to guess about the commercial viability for you.

It is my uninformed guess that the owner of my local club runs it as a hobby. He seems to be a man of some means and, as you can see, it is all top shelf equipment. That’s just my hunch.

He charged $35 a month when I lifted there but I think he’s up to $40-$45 per month now. Membership gives you a 24/7 access and the place runs on the honor system.

L/A Strength Club is the name. Maine, not California. You could always reach out and ask to pick the owners brain. He’s a hardass, but a very helpful one to anyone serious about their lifting.

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Just giving ideas

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It doesn’t. I apologize - I was only trying to reply to cycloneengineer about liability, I wasn’t commenting on how you’d equip a gym.

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I don’t train there, but the parking has plenty of vehicles

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A lot of times when I see a place that has no specific amenity, I assume its because there’s not enough demand for said amenity to be viable.

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That’s certainly what it always must come down to. But I doubt how much things like saunas are truly “needed” in a gym.

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