Guide To Starting A Gym Facility

What could be better than owning your own gym? have the best job of being a personal trainer and get to workout when you want, the way you want, with the awesome equipment you chose! If you are a bit of a fitness buff that would love to open your own gym here is a few things to think to help you make it a reality.

Find The Best Location

This is literally the most important consideration when starting up a gym. You need to put your facility in a place where you will acquire the best clients to keep you busy. Make sure you research the demographics of potential locations eg households, age ranges, wealth average. These statistics are critical in ensuring you have chosen the right place. By doing this you will make sure your target market is there.

Once you have found the right area to start your facility you need to choose the actual building to make yours. Rental units are often in places with high visibility and can be more convenient for clients but often it is expensive and lacking in sufficient car parks. Industrial units on the other hand are less expensive and offer more space, however can be inconvenient for clients to get to and have less visibility. Weigh up your pros and cons carefully before deciding on an exact location.

Define Your Vision

This might sound like fluff and unnecessary bother but it is extremely important when starting up a fitness facility. Fitness in itself is driven by passion, dedication and motivation. These things are mainly connected to thought processes and emotions, therefore you need to state what your facility is all about, what you care about and what your goals are. If you have an inspiring vision and motivational atmosphere this will assuredly bring a lot of clients already part of the fitness industry and motivate those who aren’t to give it a go.

Know The Numbers

Before putting anything into concrete it is imperative to have the following documents sorted.

• Business Plan- This is a formal statement of a set of business goals. It also involves the plan you will use to reach these goals. This directs every decision you will make.
• Sales Forecast & Pro Formula- You need to invest in professional sales forecasting and budgeting tools so you know exactly what your business can afford.
• Finance Options- Do sufficient research to determine your strategy and options for funding the investments required to open your gym.

Funding The Opening 

Most people do not have enough cash in hand to start up their own gym without using some aspect of funding. Research the different options and choose what is best for finance support in your situation.

Choosing Equipment & Layout

It is very important for a gym to be placed out properly and practically in relation to how people will use it. If equipment is unpractically located this can lead to frustration and annoyance of clients. Ideally different training zones should extend out from the reception area, where you will be able to have visual control across most of training space.

You do not have to begin with a huge range of different equipment for every different purpose but make sure you choose carefully when you decide on the equipment you will buy. Make sure that you have a good variation of weights and machines so that every exercise can be performed, whether on a machine or with a bar or free-weights. Also think about how multiple people will operate working out in your gym and whether you will have enough equipment to not double up too much. eg if someone is using the smith machine doing squats there is a free cage or rack for another 1 or more people to do squats on.

Safety Measures

Safety red tape is huge in fitness, especially weights and martial arts where the risk of injury is high. Remember that injuries that occur on your premises will fall back on you legally unless the victim was acting outside your rules as a gym.

Easy ways to reduce risk of injury are to invest in proper impact flooring, ensure good air quality and temperature control, and provide visual access to all unstaffed areas.

Bring In A lot Of Clients First Up

Good marketing is very important when opening up your fitness facility. You need to do a lot of marketing before you open so clients come in the doors on the first day. Create ads to your target market that define who you are as an organisation and try to offer something better or different from immediate competition. You can use old fashioned methods like flyers, emails, posters or direct marketing and modern forms such as online advertising, presence on social media and networking.