Starting a gym...

[nuh_mizer]

Anybody in Oregon want to start a gym?

 

[gwl9dta4]

It depends if you are in it for the money or the passion. Of course the money matters but I could not afford to open a 10,000 sq. ft.
gym. Mine is 6,000 ft. I wanted to do this because it was my dream to own a gym that was old school. Somewhere I could cut loose and train like a F#*!ing animal and so could everybody else!
There's nothing in the world like family this big. All Bros.
As long as the bills are paid I'm friggin beyond happy.

Well that is cool and a good reason to open a gym. BUT take my word for it, that many many many guys with the same dreams opened a gym and failed. You must remeber that running a gym is a Business FIRST AND FOREMOST. All the big bro's are a minority and as a business you MUST cater to the largest potential customer group. That would include a small mainstrean co-ed facility or a womens only club. That may not sound too appealing but from a business standpoint you can have a 3000 Square foot facility generate 5-10K per month, And THAT IS APPEALING.

 

[liftsiron]

Sorry but you are worng. I speak from lot's of actual experience and this is how it works. Say a 10,000 square foot facility is what you want to open. You find the building, negotiate a kick ass deal with the landlord and have him contribute to your buildout costs. Then you do the standard thing and LEASE all your equipment with no money down. That way you get NEW equipment every 3-5 years. You do all your pre-sales and agressively sell long money down. That way you get NEW equipment every 3-5 years. You do all your pre-sales and agressively sell long term memberships and in 5 years have a base or 3000 members on file. You total estomaled buildout costs for a co-ed facility of that size would be around 2-3 hundred thousand. OK? [/QUOT

What your talking here is a total wetdream. Have the landloard contribute to your buildout cost? Dream on. Lease with no money down, nice trick if you can do it. Selling long term memberships to a non existing is also eaiser said than done. But this was in Poland right?

 

[mike1107]

I'm really thinking about opening a gym in a few years wher I live...you must have THE good concept to attract people...but you have to find WHAT exactly is the tendancy and to adapt to it (here it's more fitness than hardcore bodybuilding)..

 

[gwl9dta4]

[/QUOT

What your talking here is a total wetdream. Have the landloard contribute to your buildout cost? Dream on. Lease with no money down, nice trick if you can do it. Selling long term memberships to a non existing is also eaiser said than done. But this was in Poland right?

No sir this is in the USA. You Americans have excellent business tactics with many tricks in where one hand shakes the other. Contributions forBuildout costs are VERY real, VERY. It all depends on your skills and a kicks ass indesputable business plan with good financial backing. Long term memeberships are also easy to sell IF you have a professional salesman. Trust me that a good gym is first and foremost a Business. You must be agressive. I know 7000 Square foot gyms generating 30,000 monthly and the owner is more then happy. I know what i am talking about guys, i am NOT making stuff up everything i said is a FACT. I have been around businesses since i was born, it's whole different world of possibilities. Anything is possible.

 

[SoCAmuscle]

No sir this is in the USA. You Americans have excellent business tactics with many tricks in where one hand shakes the other. Contributions forBuildout costs are VERY real, VERY. It all depends on your skills and a kicks ass indesputable business plan with good financial backing. Long term memeberships are also easy to sell IF you have a professional salesman. Trust me that a good gym is first and foremost a Business. You must be agressive. I know 7000 Square foot gyms generating 30,000 monthly and the owner is more then happy. I know what i am talking about guys, i am NOT making stuff up everything i said is a FACT. I have been around businesses since i was born, it's whole different world of possibilities. Anything is possible.

It all depends on how horny the Landlord is for the tenant. I am in the business and work for the largest commercial real estate company in the world. There was a scenario here in town where the Landlord wanted Bally's so badly that they were going to give $80,000 towards improvements. Granted, this was a 20 year lease and a somewhat distressed retail center with a failry high vacancy rate. This a not typical! The typical retail scenario is pretty much "as is", unless there is a good finacial statement or personal guarantee on the line. The Landlord 'might' amortize some improvements at this point....

 

[gwl9dta4]

It all depends on how horny the Landlord is for the tenant. I am in the business and work for the largest commercial real estate company in the world. There was a scenario here in town where the Landlord wanted Bally's so badly that they were going to give $80,000 towards improvements. Granted, this was a 20 year lease and a somewhat distressed retail center with a failry high vacancy rate. This a not typical! The typical retail scenario is pretty much "as is", unless there is a good finacial statement or personal guarantee on the line. The Landlord 'might' amortize some improvements at this point....

Right on. It's all in how you bait the landlord. Having good backing, and excellent business plan and a slightly distresses stip mall location can all equal good potential for free money. Landlords LOVE 10-20 year leases. And after all why not?

 

[liftsiron]

gwl9dta4 I realize what you are saying and I see the possibilites that it can work and beyond a doubt has many times. But I still believe that in you can find gym in a good location that is failing because of poor management, you got it made. We bought such a gym this past April, I had one investor, actually he put up all the money. The selling price for the gym was 485k, we ended up buying it for 345k. We put around 400k into renovations, and already the business is estimated at better than 1 mil. And we are breaking the 30k a month sales barrier each month already. We do a huge supplement trade, supps are our number one source of income, followed by gym membership. You see I'm in a smaller city so some things work a little differantly than in a large city. Peace bro. Also we were able to pay for everything in full without any loans.

 

[PatBateman]

^

 

[George Spellwin]

I finished my article on how to Find a Gym, the top 10 things to look for. Thanks for your help. Here's a link to the article "Find a Gym"!