Setting up a gym

gavinhenson

Any advice/tips on setting up a gym?

Lantus

Identify your market. What makes you different? What facilites do you offer? Are the staff going to offer a one on one service, advice on nutrition? Or just take the money and occassionally smile? or somewhere in the middle?

I'd love to see gyms opening that offer a flexible pay as you go system for those that are not as comitted to pay for a year up front. I mean we dont pay for a years worth of cinema or bowling so why gyms????!?!?!

ssbob

Lantus wrote: »

I'd love to see gyms opening that offer a flexible pay as you go system for those that are not as comitted to pay for a year up front. I mean we dont pay for a years worth of cinema or bowling so why gyms????!?!?!

In most gyms I know, there are options to pay as you go but it is normally €10 a pop so it makes more sense to join them if you are going to be there 2/3 times a week.

john kinsella

Find a good catchment area, where there are no other gyms too close by. Find a reason why your gym will be better than others.

Will you be opening a gym that focuses on women, bodybuilding or cardio or a selection of all. Will you be offering personal training and or giving advice to people with their goals? You will need to find a good rental property to use with good facilities and parking etc etc.

Loads and loads of things to consider and the cost would be huge!

Where abouts are you thinking of out of interest?

gavinhenson

Based in limerick.

Seem to be getting a good deal renting out some space in an industrial estate/ retail park.

Plenty of space, for what I need (hardcore gym, not leisure/health club), and plenty of parking.

Looking for any suggestions on picking up cheap/used equipment etc.

GoneShootin

Let me preface this with the fact that I am a General Manager of a chain of gyms based in Cork (4 of the them), so I speak with a certain amount of experience.

If you are looking to go the hardcore route, then in effect your are alienating a large amount of potential customers, and it may be difficult for you to change your brand position to attract that side of the market if you found yourself struggling for hardcore customers. While it's difficult to be all things to all men, keep an eye on specialising in a niche market.

Location is key, but as you are doing the harcore route then you dont really need to he high street or in the middle of a densly populated area. You won't be depending on window shoppers, hoping to turn the potential customer off the street into a member, so you can afford to be a bit outside of the population centre but still accessible.

There are gyms closing all across the country with decent enough gear to be had at small money (trawl through donedeal.ie for eg). Be careful financing these though. If you are taking out a loan to pay for gear you must check the leasing agreement that may be outstanding on that equipment. Don't be tempted to buy cheap gear to save money either - believe me we have been stung with terrible spinning bikes because we thought we were saving a few quid.

Although with your harcore angle I'd imaging your fitout cost inc equipment should be low enough in comparison to a "catch all" gym, what with your free weights, cave man type training and so on.

Let me finish with saying that the fitness industry can be a very rewarding profession particularly if you have a passion for it. But passion must be packed with sensible decisions. Don't try to expand too quickly. Get yourself some regular clients, establish what you are good at, and look to expand/employ over a period of 2-3 years.

Just stay out of Cork

gavinhenson

Thanks for the advice, greatly appreciated.

beggars_bush

GoneShootin wrote: »

Let me preface this with the fact that I am a General Manager of a chain of gyms based in Cork (4 of the them), so I speak with a certain amount of experience.

If you are looking to go the hardcore route, then in effect your are alienating a large amount of potential customers, and it may be difficult for you to change your brand position to attract that side of the market if you found yourself struggling for hardcore customers. While it's difficult to be all things to all men, keep an eye on specialising in a niche market.

Location is key, but as you are doing the harcore route then you dont really need to he high street or in the middle of a densly populated area. You won't be depending on window shoppers, hoping to turn the potential customer off the street into a member, so you can afford to be a bit outside of the population centre but still accessible.

There are gyms closing all across the country with decent enough gear to be had at small money (trawl through donedeal.ie for eg). Be careful financing these though. If you are taking out a loan to pay for gear you must check the leasing agreement that may be outstanding on that equipment. Don't be tempted to buy cheap gear to save money either - believe me we have been stung with terrible spinning bikes because we thought we were saving a few quid.

Although with your harcore angle I'd imaging your fitout cost inc equipment should be low enough in comparison to a "catch all" gym, what with your free weights, cave man type training and so on.

Let me finish with saying that the fitness industry can be a very rewarding profession particularly if you have a passion for it. But passion must be packed with sensible decisions. Don't try to expand too quickly. Get yourself some regular clients, establish what you are good at, and look to expand/employ over a period of 2-3 years.

Just stay out of Cork

some good advice. was thinking of setting up a gym in a midlands town.
What would your recommendation be for a minimum size of a gym? cardio + weights.
would you look for a place that has seperate rooms/space for classes (are they a big earner for gyms?)
what are the biggest costs in starting a gym?
would you buy or lease equipment??

hinault

Total Fitness were put in to liquidation recently.

I would think that the liquidator would be seeking to sell the fixtures and fitting in the TF gyms.
The liquidator appointed is Kavanagh Fennell.

David Van Dessell is the contact at Kavanagh Fennell who is liquidating TF.
I suggest you or you representatives should place a call to the company to enquire about his selling TF's equipment.
He might be trying to offload equipment in small lots.
While your on you could make enquiries as to purchasing equipment in other liquidations.

Tel: +353-1-206 0800
Fax: +353-1-206 0801
email: info@kavanaghfennell.ie

aristotle25

Clane Health & Leisure also closing down in Co. Kildare on 12th June.

GoneShootin

beggars_bush wrote: »

What would your recommendation be for a minimum size of a gym? cardio + weights.

This is really all down to how many customres you plan to service after 2 to 3 years in business. You should re-pose your question to:

"What size space do I need to cater for X number of members, who use the gym at the same time".

How many gym members can you afford to have? Are you willing to hire to deliver a 15 hour per day service to X number of members? These kinds of questions will dictate what size of operation you intend to run.

beggars_bush wrote: »

would you look for a place that has seperate rooms/space for classes (are they a big earner for gyms?)

There are good and bad for having seperate rooms. The good is that you can decide to walk away from a certain room (rent wise) if that particular arm of the business is not performing, which leaves you with the "main room" that is a viable business. The bad is that you will not be able to train members across multiple rooms at the same time, so you would need someone else to run those other rooms.

Room layout will be dictated also by the question:

"Do you want to run classes & allow gym members to do weight training at the same time".

If Yes to the above, then plan for a single space, large enough to:

- provide space for weight training
- deliver your classes
- be divided/clearly identifiable as "weight training"/"classes". Ladies don't particularly feel comfortable doing core classes while big animals of men are pumping their guns at the other side in full view.

If no to the above, if classes won't clash with weight training, then you can make do with a space big enough to

- swap weight gear for class gear
- be large enough to swallow the gear when you pack the class equipment away

beggars_bush wrote: »

what are the biggest costs in starting a gym?

Again it depends on if you are going for an equipment heavy or equipment light setup.

In fact the biggest cost I see in starting a gym is not investigating properly your membership charges to cover for hidden costs. You can't afford to set a price that is turns out to be too low to cover for unseen events like increases in rent/utilities/accident insurance claims/etc. Never ever plan to sell a low cost product at high volume unless you have sufficient gaurenteed cash flow to take a hit in revenue when times get tough and investment in marketing is needed to offset the drop in numbers.

When you get your members in, make sure you have a product that they really want and can't do without. People are in fact willing to pay more for a service they really enjoy!

beggars_bush wrote: »

would you buy or lease equipment??

There's no question that leasing proves to be the more expensive option after the leasing term has been completed vs purchasing outright, however the catch-22 is that often you won't have the cash reserves to commit to buying gear outright, and so leasing becomes an "affordable" option. I think it comes back to my first comment, where you first need decide on what your gym is going to be like in 2-3 years.

Big and bold with swelling member numbers (lease), or tightly ran operation with small levels of gear (buy - quality 2nd hand) The answer to that I think will point you in the right direction.

Meltdown

If I were you, I'd set up a Boot Camp Gym first of all and see how that goes, seems to be booming right now.
http://www.bootcampireland.com/

Regards
Melt