# a dream of mine



## chaotichealth (May 21, 2014)

I have this one dream.  I would like to open my own gym.  Not something the caters just to fellow meatheads.  But one that caters to a lot of people.  I have the idea in my head and can picture it.  the name is chaotic health and spa.  comes complete with a restaurant that caters to your goals.  Bulking or cutting.  to even have it package meals to go.  with so much more. 

     But what I want to know is how do you get started on opening a gym.  I have a lot credit score.  almost 600   so it makes it harder.   I just assumed there should be some people around here that might be able to set me on the right path.  Thank you in advance.


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## Phoe2006 (May 21, 2014)

Yea pretty much everything you're gonna need a financial backer of some sort(credit). Unless you're one of the few lucky ones who has money just sitting around that's dispensable.


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## frizzlefry (May 21, 2014)

Gonna need some serious cash to pull this off.  With a kitchen and good equipment, couple hundred grand maybe.  No small undertaking.  Cool idea good luck.


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## Sully (May 21, 2014)

frizzlefry said:


> Gonna need some serious cash to pull this off.  With a kitchen and good equipment, couple hundred grand maybe.  No small undertaking.  Cool idea good luck.



$200,000 would be doing it on a shoestring budget. Businesses like this always take far more cash than most people think they do.

If you're wanting to do this right with nice new equipment, a newish building with a good location with road frontage in a busy area of a midsize city, paying a full time chef to do the cooking, you'd have a hard time getting this off the ground for under $400 grand. Maybe closer to a half million. All depending on the size of market u live in and what commercial real estate runs in your market. 

Always remember you should have at least a years worth of operating expenses on hand in cash to get you through the tough times initially. Things don't always take off like people think they're going to. Then you've got advertising expenses on top of everything else. Unless you're a genius with free online marketing, you'll need another good chunk of cash to pay for marketing. 

It's not an easy road. Most gyms are out of business in very short order. First thing you need to do is learn a little something about businesses and how to run them, how to do the books and finances and the metrics that are used to gauge progress and success. And while you're doing that, start working on fixing your credit. No bank will lend you money for something like this with lower than a 760 FICO. Even then you're going to need $100,000 cash before they're gonna lend you anything. When it comes to businesses, as a general rule, banks only lend money to those that already have money. 

Good luck, and start working you're ass off to make you 're dream a reality.


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## frizzlefry (May 21, 2014)

And there is sooo much competition.  Where I live there is a gym everywhere and some of them give their memberships away for ten bucks.  I dont see how any of them make money.  Best bet would be to buy one thats already operating and expand it.


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## *Bio* (May 21, 2014)

chaotichealth said:


> I have this one dream.  I would like to open my own gym.  Not something the caters just to fellow meatheads.  But one that caters to a lot of people.  I have the idea in my head and can picture it.  the name is chaotic health and spa.  comes complete with a restaurant that caters to your goals.  Bulking or cutting.  to even have it package meals to go.  with so much more.
> 
> But what I want to know is how do you get started on opening a gym.  I have a lot credit score.  almost 600   so it makes it harder.   I just assumed there should be some people around here that might be able to set me on the right path.  Thank you in advance.




Before you even start worrying about dollars and cents, you need to put your ideas down on paper and go through the process of rewriting that time and time again, as new ideas pop up and things change as you go this process.  Afterward, you need to sit down and put a business plan together which explains what you're offering and the devil is in the detail when you're presenting this to investors.  What will set your gym apart from other gyms...This is the tough part!

I like the idea of a restaurant inside but if you're going to offer such a high end packeage, remember that you're catering to a specific demographic.  You're looking at high income individuals and corporate packages.  The average person might think it's great but since they can't afford it, they stick with the $10 to $20 a month gym membership!  Having surveys done to find out what it is a cross section of individuals want out of a "dream" gym and how much they would be willing to pay monthly / annually for that "dream" gym.

I sincerely wish you the best of luck!  The gym business is cutthroat!!


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## chaotichealth (May 22, 2014)

Thanks guys.  I was looking all over for government grants and stuff.  But no luck with that.  Yes it's a big dream.  It's going to be a lot of hard work but anything worth having is worth working for.


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## Ironbuilt (May 23, 2014)

Hard to compete with big business and corporations ..people dont want to go out and eat good food they want deep fried buttery goodness lip smacking good bro..
Trending now are the bootcamps, mma, and after those have caused too many injuries to bon bon eating wanabees, the big thing will be bone and joint Drs making a killing off blown out rubber tire flipping invertebreitous victims 
THEN. Comes the audiologists to all the people with ear budd ipod ear syndrom with irreversable hearing damage..SO.. go back to college and learn one of those things I mentiones..lol..


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## chaotichealth (May 23, 2014)

The sad part is there is a lot of truth to what you just said.  Even though we are in somewhat of a health trend now.  Gyms all over the place.  People just don't want to go all the way.  I'm a man that I don't test the water.  I jump in with both feet


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## *Bio* (May 24, 2014)

chaotichealth said:


> The sad part is there is a lot of truth to what you just said.  Even though we are in somewhat of a health trend now.  Gyms all over the place.  People just don't want to go all the way.  I'm a man that I don't test the water.  I jump in with both feet



Sometimes that's the way to go, as long as you've done your due diligence.  To jump in with both feet without having all your ducks in a row, is a recipe for failure!

One thing to keep in mind, once you have your rough monthly, quarterly, and / or annual costs figured out, is how long you're willing to float that cost if things get off to a slow start?  6 months...A year??  You always have to plan for the hard times.  I guess my point is, for the type of place you're talking about, your overhead is going to be high...Be prepared!!


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## Sully (May 26, 2014)

There's so many things to consider. One of the biggest is going to be payroll. Too many people think they can run the whole place themselves. It doesn't take long before they find themselves overwhelmed, and scrambling to hire someone to help. And based on what you described earlier, I'd say you're going to need 3-6 part timers, depending on the size of the facility and how many different types of classes you want to offer. 

Remember that for each new class/amenity you offer you're going to need someone to instruct that class. So, unless you hit the jackpot and find someone that is a yoga instructor/trainer/mma practitioner all in one, you're looking to have to hire several people to fill those niches. Payroll is one of the things that will eat you up fastest as a business owner. 

One way to offset payroll is to only hire certified trainers, and have them sell training packages on commission. They get a percentage of what they sell, so that incentivizes them to work harder to sell more training packages. The more they sell, the more they make and the busier they are. In turn, that allows you to pay them less as a base/salary, offsetting some of the massive payroll expenses that come with any gym.


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## Phoe2006 (May 26, 2014)

I think the best route is to open up a small gym orientated to the serious lifter. Now you probably won't make a lot if money but if you do it right and for the right reasons like love of the sport. I think you'll find happiness. It won't take a lot of money compared to trying to open a huge gym but you'll find happiness. 

I know me personally I'd much rather workout at a small hole in the wall gym compared to a big gym where I have little crossfit wannabes asking me stupid questions. 

Headphones in leave me the fuck alone.


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## Sully (May 26, 2014)

Phoe2006 said:


> I think the best route is to open up a small gym orientated to the serious lifter. Now you probably won't make a lot if money but if you do it right and for the right reasons like love of the sport. I think you'll find happiness. It won't take a lot of money compared to trying to open a huge gym but you'll find happiness.
> 
> I know me personally I'd much rather workout at a small hole in the wall gym compared to a big gym where I have little crossfit wannabes asking me stupid questions.
> 
> Headphones in leave me the fuck alone.



Phoe, the unfortunate reality is that those small hardcore gyms are folding one after another, all over the country. There's always going to be a few here and there, but the hardcore lifting community just isn't what it used to be. The people that keep gyms in business in this economy are actually women. Anyone that doesn't cater to the female demographic, is frankly, just waiting to go out of business. 

People want the same convenience in their gym that they get from everything else in their life. They want one stop "fitness shopping." Convenience is the new must-have accessory in this world. They want to go to one place to get everything that they need to "get in shape". They want Pilates and yoga, weights and cardio machines, tanning, sunless tanning, child care, a supplement store, and everything else that you've ever seen in a gym, all under the same roof. It's all about convenience. And then they want it all for $10, cuz that's what Planet Fatness charges. 

The fitness industry is in the middle of a race to zero, and ultimately everyone is losing because of it. It's going to do what it does to every industry, cause a massive divide and put 65% of the industry out of business. The $10 a month Planet Fatnesses of the world will be fine because they have numbers on their side. It's cheap and affordable even to the dregs of society. They're going to continue to profit just by virtue of having 15,000 paying meme red per location, half of which forgot they have a membership but haven't noticed the $10 charge on their bank statement every month. 

The part of the industry that suffers and fails the most is the "middle class" if u will. The gyms that offer a decent amount of services for $25-50 a month. Those are the ones that get decimated in the race to zero. They can't compete with the cheaper gyms on price so they'll never have the vast number of paying members that are necessary to survive. Obviously there will be a few that make it, but not many. They're operating on too tight of a budget every month, and just a few unexpected maintenance issues coupled with losing members to the $10 gyms will ultimately put most of them out of business. 

The other gyms that have the chance to thrive are the high end gyms. They survive on the fact that a certain percentage of the population always feels like they're better than the rest and they want to show it, even when they go to the gym. They want to be insulated from the dregs of society, and just by price alone their gym membership allows that. They also want the best facilities, the nicest equipment, the best trainers, the most number of different classes, and just generally have higher expectations than the rest of the gym going public. Their standards and expectations are high, and with that comes higher costs on the gym owners end. 

The numbers are not on their side either, though. The high end gyms are already folding in many places. There are just only so many people willing to pay a premium price for a gym membership, regardless of how much disposable income they have. I think the unfortunate trend is going toward turning the gym into even more of a social scene. Keep people there longer, even if they're not working out. Have lounges where they can relax and chat with people, have full service restaurants where they can eat and drink, free wifi. The longer someone stays in your building, the more money they're going to spend. Do whatever it takes to keep them there, because there's no limit to the number of other places they can go to spend their disposable income. Restaurants, bars, sports venues, theaters. You're not just competing against other gyms, you're competing against all of these other places that people can go to waste time and spend money. 

It's all about disposable income. No one HAS to go to the gym. Everyone SHOULD. But no one has to. You are fighting for a share of people's disposable income. It's your job to give them a reason to spend it with you instead of everywhere else. And people want more for their dollar now than ever before. It's a constant battle. And you're fighting with so many more businesses than you thought you were.


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## chaotichealth (Jun 25, 2014)

I just have to add this. Since I started this post I found a gym that far exceeded my expectations for any gym. It has everything I wanted to put in my gym and so much more.  To include an indoor tennis court a kids heated pool with a water slide. An ice pool 40 degrees for faster recovery time.  I have found my dream. The only thing its missing is me as the owner.


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## Ironbuilt (Jun 25, 2014)

chaotichealth said:


> I just have to add this. Since I started this post I found a gym that far exceeded my expectations for any gym. It has everything I wanted to put in my gym and so much more.  To include an indoor tennis court a kids heated pool with a water slide. An ice pool 40 degrees for faster recovery time.  I have found my dream. The only thing its missing is me as the owner.



How much a month?  Maybe post pics chaos..tks.


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## chaotichealth (Jun 25, 2014)

http://www.redlerilles.com


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## chaotichealth (Jun 25, 2014)

Family of 3. $121. Single $57 mo.


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## Phoe2006 (Jun 25, 2014)

Nice


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## Alinshop (Jun 26, 2014)

chaotichealth said:


> Thanks guys.  I was looking all over for government grants and stuff.  But no luck with that.  Yes it's a big dream.  It's going to be a lot of hard work but anything worth having is worth working for.



Funny you mention a gym with a café/meal prep place. We had a healthy food café/ meal prep place, open up a few blocks from our main gym and they are busy as hell doing meal preps. I think it would be cool if they were under the same roof. 

Good luck with your venture. Keep us informed!


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## xman78 (Nov 3, 2017)

: rolleyes:


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