Opening Second Gym, Advice/Info ?

Off Topic
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A-rod, rough three years, good to have partner to lean on, worked nights for part of it, than got layed of and collected EI for part, but it was still rough no doubt.
StevenF, glad to hear your doing well bro, didn’t mean to offend, just pokin fun at some of the guys on this site, that hack on my grammer. I was trying to make a point, I know lots of guys that want to own they’re own gym, and I’m sure there are lots here.

I’m about to embark on a three month journey to open a small franchise club. I thought I would keep a log. This might not be the gym everyone here wants to own, it wasn’t the one I wanted at first, but it’s attainable, and it allows me to live my dream. I’ll post steps as they happen, and bounce ideas off people that want top follow along.

Hopefully this thing doen’t take a negative spin, I get guys all the time telling me how they’d run my gym, and what I’m doing wrong. Point is, I’ve found away to make it work, here goes

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Mon. June 3rd, Day 1
Contacted goverment office, left message to set up appointment for grant, several different grants, want a meeting to see what works for me.

contacted realestate agent, to look at space in new town, have one in mind already. On the plus side, going rate is 6$sqft, plus, 4$, TMI (taxes,maintnance,insurance) that means 10$sqft total, I pay 20$ for first gym, I’m expecting same sort of membership numbers, so only having to pay half the rent is going to help

Sent Email out to four eqipment companies I’ll put they’re names here, but TNation might take them down, Atlantis (canadian), Precor, Hammer strength/life fitness, and a company called Magnum ( from elite fts) I’ll wait for responce from reps, looking at 100-150 thousand worth of equipment, so I’m sure they’ll respond quickly

Lastly, spent hour and half on the phone with the local newspaper guy, did interview on what I’m planning for the town. This is important step, to start building interest, and have people in frenzy by the time I open,

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Isn’t there an ex-con on here who gets harassed by some big town cop?

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AnytimeJake - I rarely post man, but really enjoyed reading your story. Really respect any guy that turns his life around - and particularly how you’re doing things your way and making them work.

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thanks Rob, this whole thread is taking on a life of it’s own. I started out just wanting feed back on equipment, than thought it would be neat to mabey log my journey, for anyone thats interested. Somehow my life story got thrown in the mix, it is what it is. if I sound like I’m preachy somtimes, its probably because I tell my life story alot, and work kids. At least twice a week I’m standing in front of a room full of people, addicts, troubled kids, or ex-cons. When sports didn’t work out, I got sucked into a crazy life for about 12yrs, violence, subtance abuse, and gang bullshit, and now I try to give back. anyway thats not what this is at all, just thought I’d log what goes into opening a gym, so stay tuned

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Getting the pressed involved. That is a genius idea. How big of a town is it that you are opening up this new second gym at.

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Great job Jake!! This is my dream as well except my style of gym is going to be closer to a Crossfit Box than a gym full of machines. I found out that I can get that gym open for a very small amount compared to what your talking.

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Interesting thread.

Do you have a powerplate type vibration machine? I f not I recommend you consider one -I go to two very different gyms and at both they’re pretty much in non stop use especially with the wimmenz… Apart from the ‘powerplate’ brand the price seems to have come right down in the last couple of years.

Another thing that is super popular is a free 15 min abs class that runs every day at 6, trainers often have to put a cap on people joining in

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Ya this is the slow time in process, I was contacted by precor, and atlantis, sent them copy of wish list, than wait approx. a week for quote. This town I’m looking at is about 15000 people, plus outlaying areas. there’s a gym there, community thing, but gov. pulled funding, so the place is closing in Sept. This allows me to come in and look like hero, help the town out, and save them tax dollars, win-win. This is the main reason for all the press coverage.

Fisher, I looked into a crossfit place originally, thought it was closer to my way of training, it just wouldn’t fly in small town. I need to appeal to everyone, in order to turn a profit. On the plus side I think I found a space to rent, it’s an old mill/train station, the owner completely renovated and made it up to date, so we’ll see. We shook hands, when I go back to sign paper work I’ll post some pics.

I’m haggling over building the washrooms, there are none, so if I have to build them, than I want 3mths free rent. this is something to pay attention to, anyone thinking of opening a gym, of any type. Commercial rent is not like normal rent, you need to bargain hard. I pay 8000$ a month , and sign a 5yr lease, that’s almost half a million, so there’s lots of bargaining room, and lots of money to be saved.

Rampantbadger, I only have a small dance room at first club, this ones going to have a big one, so I’m going to be dealing with classes. I hate classes, think nobody gets in shape in them. this is a bridge I’ll cross when I get to it. As far as vibe plate we’ll see’ so far I’ve kept my place pretty basic, and than mould people into my way of thinking, results make this pretty easy. I think when I lock in my equipment order, I’ll post it as well, give you guys an idea what I’m talking about. latter

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Very cool thread. Interested to know more.

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[quote]AnytimeJake wrote:
Ya this is the slow time in process, I was contacted by precor, and atlantis, sent them copy of wish list, than wait approx. a week for quote. This town I’m looking at is about 15000 people, plus outlaying areas. there’s a gym there, community thing, but gov. pulled funding, so the place is closing in Sept. This allows me to come in and look like hero, help the town out, and save them tax dollars, win-win. This is the main reason for all the press coverage. Fisher, I looked into a crossfit place originally, thought it was closer to my way of training, it just wouldn’t fly in small town. I need to appeal to everyone, in order to turn a profit. On the plus side I think I found a space to rent, it’s an old mill/train station, the owner completely renovated and made it up to date, so we’ll see. We shook hands, when I go back to sign paper work I’ll post some pics. I’m haggling over building the washrooms, there are none, so if I have to build them, than I want 3mths free rent. this is something to pay attention to, anyone thinking of opening a gym, of any type. Commercial rent is not like normal rent, you need to bargain hard. I pay 8000$ a month , and sign a 5yr lease, that’s almost half a million, so there’s lots of bargaining room, and lots of money to be saved. Rampantbadger, I only have a small dance room at first club, this ones going to have a big one, so I’m going to be dealing with classes. I hate classes, think nobody gets in shape in them. this is a bridge I’ll cross when I get to it. As far as vibe plate we’ll see’ so far I’ve kept my place pretty basic, and than mould people into my way of thinking, results make this pretty easy. I think when I lock in my equipment order, I’ll post it as well, give you guys an idea what I’m talking about. latter
[/quote]

yeah I think abs class and the like is BS I just mentioned it from a marketing standpoint as it brings people in to the gym more regularly and seems to cost nothing.

Might be breaking all sorts of health and safety but they don’t do it in a studio just lay down 7 or 8 mats in a less busy corner of the gym

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Congrats on the second gym.

Atlantis is great equipment. My day job is equipment financing, mainly fitness equipment. Feel free to PM me, I would be happy to give a fellow T-Nation member my cost of funds for your new equipment purchase.

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I was trying to get some pics up of first place, have to wait till my girl gets here. I’m going to have roughly twice the space. right now I have a dance/streatch room thats 16x16ft, the new place will have the whole up stairs, so 3700sqft, just for dancing and streatching.

So I’ll have to hire an instructor, I hope to get some of the same people that already taught classes at the comunity rec center thats shutting down. The awesome thing for me is the basement, it’s empty and clean, 3700sqft, hope to be able to get some sleds and heavy bags, and make sort of an athletic dungon, should have pics of this place tomorow, when I sign deal.

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Here’s a rough list of what I sent to Precor and Atlantis
13 pieces of selectorized eqipment ; legpress, legext, legcurl, chestpress, row, pecdec, bis, tris, dip/chin asist, pullover, glutemachine, iner/outer thigh, and ab machine
Plate loaded ; legpress, shoulderpress, incline row, seated calf, pendelum squat, 2-halfracks, 1 power cage, smith machine, and a leg raise/chin/dip.

Cardio ; 4 motorizes treadmills, 2 freewheel treadmills, 2 elypticals, 2 recumperant bikes, 2 upright bikes, 1 rowing machine, 1 stair mill
Free weight stuff ; Dumbell rack and weight, plates aprox 12000lbs, assorted benches, hyper ext, GHR, ajustable stepup.

There’s lots of other stuff I didn’t list, bars and what not, but this is what I basicaly need to get up and running. I put TV’s on cardio equipment in first gym, but I’m not doing it this time, it’s to many headaches, I’m just going to put TV’s on walls where people can see.(I think TV’s in gyms are stupid) Some of this stuff goes against what I believe in, I don’t like smith machines, leg ext, bis, tris and ab machines, but people want to see them in a gym. the kind of split membership I have means I have to double up on some stuff, I need two legpress’s because the seniors won’t use the plats loaded, and us guys won’t use the selectorizes one.

Once people join, than I can teach them. I have 17yr lining up at the squat rack, while the crossover is empty(love seeing that) I have an 83yr lady who uses the trap bar, because I think it’s the best exercise for seniors, I have two, I found an extra small light one, just for this purpose. Anyway enough for today, lots to do, I’ll keep ya posted

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This thread is awesome. We had an anytime right near my work that closed down b/c it was horrible. Very small space and the machines were crap (not based on the company just based on the selection) so I don’t think it got much business plus I don’t know how much work they put into figuring out the demand.

I think this is interesting and while it’s definitely not the ideal gym I would want it still sound pretty fun to do. I couldn’t even get enough attention when I wanted to rent a storage unit and get some guys together for some more intense stuff hahaha

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The franchises are all individualy owned, and they don’t bother you at all, so you can set it up how you like, to fit your market. I like to joke that I have the most hard core gym in the chain. I didn’t start this thread to highlight one franchise over another, or one style of gym over another. I just wanted to log my journey and mabey inspire somone to try they’re own idea. I basicaly house two completely different gyms under one roof, and it seems to work pretty well.

as far as the franchise, they provide me with the cameras and security and door pass system that allows me to run the place all alone, and stay open around the clock. My last buisiness I had 17 guys working for me, (construction) so with this I wanted to be able to do it with no one working for me. that was a personal thing.

I’m no Jim Wendler, or CT, but I still love and want to make my living from the fitness industry, so this is where I’m at. I spend alot of my time working with 15–18yr kids, they join up with no clue, just dreams of Jay Cutler, and a magazine program, I teach them about balance, basics, and proper nutrition. I’ve turned lots of kids onto this site, and onto basic training like 531. That part is really rewarding, I don’t consider myself a super trainer, but I teach them proper form on the big lifts, proper progression. I do alot of this for free, just because it’s my passion.

I also work alot with seniors, because no one else wants to, squats(trapbar, goblet) , stepups, and dip machine. My oldest member is 83, been with me three years, she told me she never used to be able to cut her own lawn, and now after training she cuts it all herself. so there’s alot more to owning a little gym than just making a couple bucks, I love what I do, and it’s not very often I don’t have a great big smile on my face.

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I have no advice on what your gym needs. I train in my basement.

I love your story though. Congratulations on making a life that you’re happy living and working hard to make it happen for yourself. Being well educated is no substitute for stubborn hard work. You’ve proven that.

Best of luck with the second franchise.

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Thats my very first location, it’s the only pic I have for some reason, anyway I was there about 1 year before moving to present location. Its amazing to me when I look at these pics, how far we’ve come, when I left that location at the end of first year we already had 450 members.

This is my way I guess, even in life I just charge in, or jump in, and figure it out as I go. That place was so cramped and I ordered so much equipment without a floor plan, that two pieces had to go in my garage at home. I was giving free training, and people were getting great results, and the place filled up. nobody knew me in this town, so I picked this guy that weighed just about 400lbs, and in one year had him at 260lbs. I trained him for free, but the deal was I could use his pics in adds. He managed the KFC for 20 years, so I struck gold. Anyway I hope to have pics of train station, where new gym is going tomorow, latter

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Really enjoying this thread Jake. Thanks for doing this. It sounds like you’ve worked out a lot of the kinks over the last 3 years. I expect the new gym will be a big success.

You sound like a guy who’s gone through a lot, and emerged victorious on the other side. Kudos to you for working with both teens and seniors. Those are two segments of the fitness market that are largely ignored by mainstream gyms.