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Building a Commercial Gym: Dungeon Dreams
Seems like such a great dream – noble even – to build a dungeon where heavy iron hits the floor and bumper plates are heaved smoothly overhead. Instead… I look in the crystal and see a three-year nightmare that ends with you and your best-bud training partner feuding, your back account empty (or worse, owing borrowed money), and the IRS hounding you for unpaid payroll taxes. It’s a heartbreaker.
We hear from people weekly, either by email or in the forum, writing of their amazing plans to build their dream gym. They write to share their excitement, or perhaps to get a tip or two from someone who built and ran a couple of gyms over a fifteen-year period.
Each time we have the opportunity, both Dave and I do our best to talk the planner down from the lofty heights and back to reality. In only one instance do I know of a person who stuck with the plans after our badgering, and who’s truly made a go of it in the health club business. All others had everything going against them, aside from their immeasurable enthusiasm. Unfortunately, in a business that can be compared in difficulty with the restaurant industry, enthusiasm simply isn’t enough.
Your gym business, odd as this may sound, will be competing with every outdoor fitness activity… running… walking… biking… swimming. If your community enjoys good weather, this is a negative in your business plan.
- My first goal in jotting these notes is to talk you out of it.
- My second is to convince you you don’t have enough money set aside for it to work.
- Failing both of my real goals, my final goal is to get you to a Thomas Plummer workshop before you sign a building lease, and certainly before opening day.
It’s true you can build a dungeon-like gym on a shoestring, some tenant improvement money and an equipment lease. But you can’t make it run on that, and the reality will become real, real clear about three months after opening day. The joy of building and opening the gym will fade as you discover the rent’s due, the checkbook’s short, and all those guys from the foofoo gym who said they’d be over on Day One are still back at 24/7 waiting either for the rest of their eighteen-month membership to run out, or for you to find the money for the bumper plates you promised.
When’s that reverse hyper going to be delivered, anyway? Oh, right. You borrowed enough money from your home mortgage payment for the equipment, but still don’t have enough to cover the freight.
And you know what? That’s exactly how it’s going to go for most enthusiastic independent gym owners. Here’s what happens: We have great passion for our gyms, and we know – just know – we can run ours better than the gym where we currently train. A few training buds get together, jabbering about a bunch of great-sounding ideas, and they’re off, cruising the town looking for an empty warehouse to hold a huge pile of iron.
None of the chatterers have a lick of business experience; no one even knows which permits need to be purchased, let alone what city, county or state department issues said permits. This isn’t uncommon, this enthusiasm coupled with a lack of business acumen, but in our industry it’s rampant. Add in lack of free capital and we’re hearing a death rattle; it’s a killer.
If you find yourself reflected in the above paragraphs, opening a gym is likely to wipe out your retirement savings — assuming you have any, big assumption in today’s economy – or it’ll ruin your friendships and possibly your marriage.
I know you’re enthusiastic, excited, eager and can barely temper your glee, and that’s why I scratched out all this negativity. You need to hear it.
Late edit for those who can’t contain their gym-building excitement: Here’s Zach EvenEsh on how to run a successful gym.
on March 26th, 2009 at 11:31 am
I think the days of the huge corporate gyms are starting to be numbered.
The cool part is that with just a handful of equipment–bar, used free weights, KBs, sandbags, etc you can have an extreme successful training session almost anywhere. It is HOW to use them that is key.
Rock on!
Mike T Nelson, PhD(c)
on April 5th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Laree
ha ha, wow, thanks for the props.
When I was 13 I started lifting.
I asked my Dad to take me to every gym just so I could see it. Deep down, by age 15, all I wanted to do was own a hard core gym!
I loved looking at all the black & white pics from Arnold’s original Encyclopedia – I would stay up past midnight reading, re-reading and wishing I was out on Venice Beach pumping iron w/the blonde bomber and the crew
This is such a sad post though Laree :(
I wish hardcore gyms could exist, but, truth be told, if you wanna kick butt, you gotta run a service oriented facilty, where clients are trained in groups, boot camps, etc.
Ironically, I was just thinking the other day that I would snag a small warehouse and put that “Dungeon” here on the east coast
I have some crazy stories of gyms I almost bought, gyms “burnt” down, shut down w/out notice, etc.
Crazy stories – and these were from hard core gyms which were doing great as hardcore gyms, but when they tried to change theur died.
Dave Tate told me (before the economic crisis) that they were setting up garage and basement gyms every day for people.
Those were the people “raging against the machines” and going solo after these posh health clubs took over.
This is truly a shame that this post had to come to fruition.
I do RESPECT your honesty Laree, and, I have this funny feeling that this blog post hurt Dave’s heart, I just have that feeling :(
–Z–
on April 6th, 2009 at 4:26 am
This article does make it sound scary but it can be done. I have done it and have been in business for 14 years with bumpers dropping all day long not far from people doing cardio and using machines. Its takes every ounce of energy I have, lots of hours, sacrifice and commitment. Some gym owners aren’t prepared to go through that.
Steve Pulcinella
http://www.ironsport.com
on April 6th, 2009 at 8:33 am
Its a shame. Where I live 90% of the gyms here are those pansy gyms where people go to socialize in the latest under armour or nike clothes. the gym i go to now is concidered by most to be the “have not” gym in town because it doesnt have a sauna or a big screen tv for every third tread mill. However my gym is still far from hard core but its as close as it comes up here in nova scotia. you have no idea how many times I think of going out and starting up my own place. its just not feasable for this type of population tho where only like 10% of the people would be interested in a gym like that. The rest you couldnt drag away from the lure of a flatscreen tv.
PS: why the hell do you need a tv at the gym? your there to work. if you wanna watch tv STAY HOME!
on April 18th, 2009 at 12:15 am
This used to be a dream of mine. I bought a bunch of “how to” books on opening gyms (even though they were catered to the pansy types) and in the end the profit margins that were possible weren’t worth the headaches it would have caused. Insurance for a place like my vision would have been an absolute nightmare and chances are people would have been absolutely clueless how to do the exercises the right way anyways. Fitness Boot Camps are excellent and I do enjoy instructing them but the lack of being able to have them do deadlifts is a bummer. A personal training studio out of a garage would probably be the best way to go. That and these kinds of gyms aren’t for everybody since that is not what seems to be popular. Well if it is in your garage you can fill it only with the people you want to train or train with.
Eric Moss RKC