A few days ago, there was a young man posting that he had a dream of opening a “Hardcore” Gym. (The thread has now gone to “T.C. Heaven”!)A lot of ideas were tossed around, the number one being “be careful” about going stictly “Hardcore”. Anyway. On my way to work, there are two gyms: One locally owned (soon-to-go-out-of-buisness) “hardcore” gym and a “Lady Fitness” (usually JAM PACKED, with a full parking lot; they are currently expanding). UUUmmmm…some thoughts:
1)Would it work to have a well demarcated room or area as "Hardcore" as part of an overall Fitness Facility, or does that exclusivity just not work? 2) Are there ways to make a purely "Hardcore" gym work?
A lot of people have dreams of a gym with the “Testosterone Philosophy”, but will it work?
It could…
Service: people are willing to pay more for the same thing if service is outstanding, service has a perceived value.
Uniqueness: People are always on the look out for something new, but being trendy can be a balancing at, and an organization has to be able to change to remain trendy. You would need to go after both groups of customers… the house wife type in a swank upstairs spa type gym… and a hardcore level downstairs in the dugeon… having a kit shop with the widest range of supplements at the best possible prices throw in a rack or two of Testosterone T-shirts.
The cheap price of supps will bring alot of the hard core in the door… the trick is to make them want to work out there… the ladies may just like the fact that even though they are up stairs in the swanky part, there’s the sweaty, rough, little bit wilder element in the same building. Location…Location…Location! And advertising. I used to own a business, and knew that half of my advertising $ were wasted, I just never knew which half. Could do Beauty & the Beast Ads … Have a magnificent babe and some brute … appeal to one’s curriousity… getting them in the door is easy… it’s keeping them… go for the kids as well… how about a climbing wall … have a free daycare maybe twice a week for a few hours…moms want to get back into shape, they also want a break from the kids (for god’s sake…just don’t put the daycare room in the basement with the animals)I don’t think you would benefit from an article in the paper about a new workout called “Toddler Flies”. Do your market analysis, don’t stop dreaming, but also always be prepaired to adjust ideas…
Another idea is to Market it as a European Spa.
have pools…one good sized for swimming, other smaller ones of different temperatures…some cold, some warm and hottubs. lots of roman columns, lava walls with waterfalls running into the pools… have a few more on an upper level where clothing is optional, have tanning beds on that level. people can walk around in towels… it’s not public nudity if it is by membership in some states… not everyone will venture upstairs, but majority of people will atleast be curious enough to check the place out… When I was in Germany, my wife and I used to go every Sunday … I would have gone more often if they had weights. There were a couple of pools outdoors as well,that you could swim out to via a little canal. When it got a little cooler out at night the fountains in the outdoor pool were lit with flood lights and the steam coming off the water looked like clouds.
This place was awesome… it maybe a little grander that what you were considering… but think on a big scale! Sell yourself to investors! Life is only exciting when you gamble a little and go for it!
It was i with the inspiration to open a hardcore gym and i came out of the discussion with the idea that it was maybe not such a great idea to have it exclusively for the hardcore lifters but to rather dedicate a considerable portion to them instead.I think a purely hardcore gym would work if you got the rep of producing great results ( look at westside barbell ).
My suggestion would be to go for the seperate hardcore area, as discussed in other posts it is the people who go for the circuit/aerobic/step classes who bring in the bucks. The profit is made from the people who sign up and only go for about 3 weeks and then flag it, they want to see machines and ‘noraml’ people working out not behemoth’s doing big sqautts and deads, too intimidating. But as I said I would still have a seperate area for the hardcore trainers if possible. It really may come down to whether you want to make a decent return or are buying for a more philisophical reason, it may be a case of not being able to please all the people all the time.
prob. is you have to stay in business long enough to get a rep!! sorry I don’t think it would work anymore. the prob. w/a section for “hard core” is the house wifes/business men won’t come even if it is in a seperate area, they don’t want to be intimidated, and they will FEEL that way. the ONLY way I can see it EVER working anymore is if you are in a HUGE H.S. and college town, then you might get enough kids in to stay in business. come on we may not like going to “spas” but we will still go, they will NOT go to a hard core gym.and realy what service can you provide that a spa can’t? think of how much these “services” will cost you.
Mufasa, where are you, man? If you’re in an urban area, I think a hard-core gym would work, because you’d have a high enough population that, once word got around, those who wanted that kind of gym would travel the extra miles to get there and get a good workout. The trick would be in surviving until that happened. And if you did decide to go with the two-in-one approach, I’d have two separate doors, one for the civilians and one for the animals. It’d require a little more work and money, but would probably be worth it. One other idea would be to have a larger building and have a chiropractor, ART practitioner, rehab specialist, etc. occupy part of it. A gym I went to in Orange County a few years back had that kind of a set-up, and it was great! Pull something? Hey, just walk through that door over there and get the doc to look at it. Of course, you’d have to find the right doctor…