I just wanted to start a thread to get information from people who have opened their own gyms. I want to hear about your experiences and get any tips on what I should do. I’m looking to do that in the near future after I graduate.
I’m a fourth year chemical engineering student but I don’t see myself working in the field for too long cause I cant stand a 9-5.
Thanks in advance.
If you give JackAss some honey and some bear love, he will probably give you advice.
what do you want to know? PM me
Starting your own or opening a franchise? It’s not a great business. Like bars, most fail. EXTREMELY long hours, bitchy people who want the gym “their way”. A franchise can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars up front to start. It seems that every gym that I have belonged to was just barely keeping it’s head above water.
I don’t want to open a franchise. Well not right away. I just wanted to open a gym because I think that in the area I live in there is a demand for hardcore gyms. We have too many commercial gyms with only one squat rack and nothing but swiss balls.
I know it will be hard but I’m willing to wait for a WHILE to build up funds. A lot people have also told its a bad business like you guys but big risk equal big rewards.
I’ve not done it, but have looked into buying an existing gym.
Educate yourself on the business side …
liability insurance
profit margin
marketing
employee(s) and everything that comes along with benefit packages.
[quote]realt81 wrote:
I don’t want to open a franchise. Well not right away. I just wanted to open a gym because I think that in the area I live in there is a demand for hardcore gyms. We have too many commercial gyms with only one squat rack and nothing but swiss balls.
I know it will be hard but I’m willing to wait for a WHILE to build up funds. A lot people have also told its a bad business like you guys but big risk equal big rewards. [/quote]
I have thought about a gym a million times, but I have never done it. I would say to you, to at least at the beginning, I would work that 9 - 5 job, just so that you have money coming in, and to help cover expenses at the gym. If you are not going to cater to the treadmill crowd, you will have trouble getting lots of people to join anyways.
I have decided that if I was going to open a gym, it would be for hardcore lifters, competitive or not, and I would sell some supps, and just roll with it. I guess if you are content with not making a ton of money, you would be alright, but if you want to make alot of money at it, then you will have to shell out major bucks, and set up aerobic equipment, and the whole ball of wax.
[quote]PGJ wrote:
Starting your own or opening a franchise? It’s not a great business. Like bars, most fail. EXTREMELY long hours, bitchy people who want the gym “their way”. A franchise can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars up front to start. It seems that every gym that I have belonged to was just barely keeping it’s head above water. [/quote]
to add to this, take a few business management and marketing classes if you are considering opening a business. putting an engineer in a business environment would be like asking a marketing director to design a sky scraper.
before you open one, or ask for investments and loans, understand your target market, your competition, make a SWOT analysis (google it), heavily research your competition’s advantages and disadvantages, take advantage of their disadvantages and offer the advantages they do have.
come up with a solid business report. ask a business proffessor at your university for help on format.
write it up and ask a person you trust who has already done what you want to do successfully to critique it. take it to a business lawyer for another critique.
then take it to investors and bankers and raise as much money with as little return as possible. search around for your best deals. it may be cheaper to take a few people on board who want, say, 5% of each months income over paying back interest rates on a million dollar loan from a bank. you also have a greater lean on the gym if it goes under with investors than you do a bank, who technically owns your investment until they are paid off.
there is a lot more that goes in to operating any kind of business than it appears. educate yourself before you do anything.
[quote]SLERG wrote:
realt81 wrote:
I don’t want to open a franchise. Well not right away. I just wanted to open a gym because I think that in the area I live in there is a demand for hardcore gyms. We have too many commercial gyms with only one squat rack and nothing but swiss balls.
I know it will be hard but I’m willing to wait for a WHILE to build up funds. A lot people have also told its a bad business like you guys but big risk equal big rewards.
I have thought about a gym a million times, but I have never done it. I would say to you, to at least at the beginning, I would work that 9 - 5 job, just so that you have money coming in, and to help cover expenses at the gym. If you are not going to cater to the treadmill crowd, you will have trouble getting lots of people to join anyways.
I have decided that if I was going to open a gym, it would be for hardcore lifters, competitive or not, and I would sell some supps, and just roll with it. I guess if you are content with not making a ton of money, you would be alright, but if you want to make alot of money at it, then you will have to shell out major bucks, and set up aerobic equipment, and the whole ball of wax.
[/quote]
if you do open a gym, do yourself a favor and do research first. a good idea might not be so to most people in your area (ie, a hardcore gym)and though you like it, others won’t pay to use it if they don’t.
something like 50% of new businesses fail in the first year and 90% in the first five.
being a business owner brings you the responsibility of giving people what they want, not so much what you would want. otherwise, they won’t pay you and your business fails. a vision is great, but if it doesn’t fit the market it won’t work.