How to Open a Gym Business | Part 1: First Steps

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Hey! I'm Cabel. Thanks for tuning in this week we're gonna talk about it this
would be the first of a multi-part series about how to open a gym or
fitness studio from the ground up I'm gonna teach you the same process that I
followed with each of my locations and then I coach my clients to do right from
day one we'll talk about where your location should be what it should look
like how much it's gonna cost how to get financing and what to do to plan for
that inevitable day when you finally open the door for the first time and let
customers in so if you're watching this video on YouTube please don't forget to
subscribe to my channel you'll want to check back each week as I add the
additional parts in this series other than that you'll find other great
content here that I think is gonna help you not only open but run a very
successful fitness studio or fitness business all right let's get into it so
we're gonna talk today the first things about what your studio is gonna look
like and ultimately start looking for where it might be and then we'll get
into the numbers and all of that stuff next week so where does this process
begin well it begins with a little daydreaming in case you can't see these
slides or read these slides I'll also include the link to this presentation
below this video so you can easily open it up and follow along daydreaming what
do you want your gym or studio to look like what kind of equipment would be in
it how big would it be what kind of training wheel do how many people will
be on the training floor at any given time don't forget to count additional
trainers if you're doing one-on-one or small group and would run multiple
groups at a time do you need change rooms how big a change rooms do you need
do you need showers now you don't need to know this stuff exactly because when
we get to the stage we'll hire a draftsman who's gonna lay it out for us
based on your local building codes and they'll identify some of these things
for you but for now you just need to kind of write down everything that you
could think of that would be in your perfect gym some other things do you
need meeting rooms if you need offices how many offices will you need don't
forget that you're going to need space for things like storage will you have
cardio equipment or things like rowing machines that when they're used will
take up a certain amount of space and then need to be stored and out of the
way later when you're running other training I don't know maybe you will
maybe you won't don't forget you also need to have a bit of a lunch room or
hangout area for you and your team because work isn't a fun place to hang
out if it's all about work and there's really no place for us to just chill out
regroup or relax for a few minutes this gets us in the right frame of mind to be
successful and run a great business once you got a little daydreaming done we
need to think about where you are in your city where do you
where would you want your gym to be now I know this may sound silly because it
probably in your city like many there are certain spots that you go to or
would like to see your business in that big shiny building on a certain place or
whatever but that may or may not be the right place for your business our
businesses typically don't need to be highly visible locations or at least in
my experience it's never worth paying for that visibility it's good to be one
or two blocks off the beaten path and save twenty thirty sometimes even more
twenty to thirty percent in your rent or leasing costs just by being a place that
people will go to if we're not highly visible we are a destination now there
is something to be said about being in high-traffic areas you know if you're
close to a grocery store or drugstore or major shopping center places that a lot
of people are going to on a regular basis will certainly be appeal to bring
them to your business but for the most part if we are conveniently located a
few minutes from many people's homes that will be good enough so where would
you like to be if you could be anywhere in your city where could where would you
like to be and then here's the big hint think about your own lifestyle your own
convenience because you're the person that's going to spend the most time
there especially in the early day so make sure that this is convenient for
you if it's a 1 hour commute each day or more I'm sure that it's not going to be
something that you're going to be too excited to do for many years to come and
you are the most important person so make sure that this place is going to be
conveniently located for you where would you like it to be what best suits your
lifestyle know the one of the next things to ask is how big of a space will
you need I think there's many reports out there on the internet to talk about
the most profitable spaces for personal training studios being somewhere between
one and two thousand square feet which is really a great space to start in
especially from keeping your operating cost low but the one thing I will say
about that is don't sign too long of a lease okay three years would certainly
be an ideal for a small space like that on the outside five because if things go
well chances are you're gonna outgrow it my own personal preference somewhere
between two and three thousand square feet is my favorite size of space
typically 2,500 to 2,800 is the sweet spot which also just so happens to be
many light industrial or industrial type business or off the beaten path box
places you're gonna find within that range
just happens to be my favorite footprint so we'll talk more about that later but
where would you want it to be and how big of a space would you like now we can
actually start filling in some of the gaps in getting a sense of what is it
going to be like to actually open the studio sites like Luke Netcom and I
forget what the Canadian one is actually I think Luke net has both property
listings for both US and Canada and probably other places as well I believe
they're international a local call to a commercial realtor will probably direct
you to another site I think actually in Canada Canada the realtor.ca app does
show commercial properties but the bottom line is just use sites like
loopnet to get a sense of what spaces the size that we've picked in your city
might cost not what they're gonna cost but what they might cost okay Luke net
you might get lucky and find a space and within your kind of area that you're
looking for and you know you might be able to find some suitable spaces on
there but most importantly what we're really looking for right now is just a
basic frame of reference of if I'm looking for a space roughly one to two
thousand square feet or up to three thousand for this type of business what
are some of the cost or desired listing amounts out there in your city okay my
favorite sweet spot is typically in North America about 15 to 25 dollars a
square foot that's speaking in annual terms including cam or triple net higher
prices totally can work just you know that's kind of what I find the average
to be that is a really really successful kind of I don't like successful range to
be in so that 15 to 25 all-in that's based on annual listing so if you're in
places like California I know you guys think monthly which is more like a
dollar fifty to two dollars and fifty cents a square foot I believe so
Luke Donette we're just gonna look for sizes and kind of basic cost and then
here's the next task I want you to do you're gonna go to your friend Google
and we're gonna search for a variety of businesses dance studios martial arts
studios personal training studios fitness studios like yoga Pilates spin
classes Jazzercise not so popular anymore kids gyms look for these
businesses and look to see if any of them are kind of located in your desired
region are there any addresses that kind of fall within that bubble of where you
would like your business to be a couple of things about these types of
businesses number one where they you can typically afford to be because
they have a similar footprint and business uses us and similar in terms of
operating costs their footprint works well for us so there's quite often
wherever they are you can afford to be quite commonly where they are there is
other vacant space that you might be interested in and unfortunately quite
frequently many of these types of businesses are going out of business so
you may have an opportunity to save even more money by assuming a current
location not necessarily the business but the location itself that will be in
essence partially renovated saving on some of your opening costs and even
negotiating a better deal than would probably otherwise be available in that
region so making a list of all of these places and see how many of them are
close to your ideal location is a really really great way to get a jump on where
you would want your business to be once we have those addresses is time to go
for a drive it's good to visit some addresses of the studios that you found
on Google even some of the ones that you found on loop net because it's just
different to see them and like I said there's almost always space around these
other businesses that's available that you're not gonna find listed anywhere so
the only way you'll find them is to go for a drive visit some of these
addresses and just spend a little time there if you can if there's other
Fitness's businesses even attend a class or camp or training session or whatever
it is there to get a feel for what the community is like look around
are there vacant spaces that you might be able to lease or rent is the access
good meaning is there good access to freeways and main roads that allow
people to get there during bad traffic times reasonably easy okay and the
better the access is the farther people will come which means the broader reach
that you have the ability to track customers from this is a really
important one because we typically do like those places that are a little bit
off the beaten path is how does it feel right does it you know I personally like
places with at least a nine-foot ceiling I like to have at least one side of the
building with big windows to let in some natural light those things are very very
important to me but that feeling of does it just feel right when you stand in it
it also translates to how does it feel before and after before sunrise and
after dark does it feel safe what I let my wife attend there without me
attending with her would you let your kids go there you know ask yourself how
comfortable you feel with that and does it feel like a safe are the other name
reasonably clean does it look okay it doesn't need to be a brand-new building
it can absolutely be an old building some of the best deals are but as a
general rule does it look at least clean and somewhat welcoming and or can it
appear to be that way with very little investment on your behalf is parking
ample is there usually at least 25 empty stalls at any especially the busiest
times is there ample parking during the busiest times 25 to 30 stalls is
something that we usually kind of look for now guys when you get to the point
where you have to apply for permits with the city the city is going to force you
through all of this stuff anyways but these are things that you can do
preliminary to start thinking about your business and I know you're probably
thinking hey this is way down the line I don't even know if I can afford to do
this yet just trust me this is part of the process to familiarize yourself with
that whole vision before we even plan out the number so you really know what
you're getting into all right and Facebook wins so this is going to be the
final thing that we're going to talk about this week next week we're going to
dive all into the numbers in terms of how do you create an initial business
plan and forecast the numbers to understand what it would cost you to
open and how to run that business but the final step for you this week is any
addresses that you find that are kind of appealing what I want to do is some
basic demographic research and one of the fastest best ways to do demographic
research this way this these days is Facebook so if you don't already have an
advertising account now it's time to create one go to Facebook set up an ad
account and start creating your first ad no we're not going to publish the ad no
we're not going to spend a single penny on it but what you are going to do is
create an ad using the address of any of the locations that you found to be
interesting potentially for your type of business
you drop a pin on the map or put in an address and then we can adjust the
radius based on miles we can set it for men women and a certain age range that
we can find okay so I like to look at men alone I like to look at women alone
in most cases our audience is mostly women I'd love to look at the age range
from around 22 to 49 or 22 to 55 and think about like what is the drive
radius during heavy traffic times a day so around 20-30 minutes I find is the
furthest that most people want to travel from their homes so that could be
anywhere is from 2 to 5 miles typically we look three to five miles from our
location would be a good bubble don't forget to adjust it to people that
live in this location and you know if only English speaking might be relevant
you know check these settings the point is is that instantly Facebook will spit
out an audience size they will tell you approximately how many men or women in
that age range are within that geographic radius which is a really
great indication for the viability of our business most Studios between 1,000
and 3,000 square feet really only need a couple hundred customers to be very
successful okay so we don't actually need a lot of people in an ideal range
if you've got thirty thousand people in that three to five mile radius your
facility can likely be successful so these are one of the things that I look
for on Facebook once we look at Facebook now if you live in a small city people
will come further so 30,000 isn't the end-all be-all it's just a benchmark to
kind of give you an idea of what can be a good size for when you're shopping for
your business now go back to Google and search for city demographic data I think
that actually is a website in the US called City data
but pretty much every city will have census information where you can look at
typically different neighborhoods and it will tell you household income and
religion and ethnicity and all kinds of things so this data can be helpful for
us to think like are these people likely to be our customers now years ago we
would have said get very hung up on this in terms of household income but these
days not so much okay I one of my locations was in a very depressed
neighborhood it was very successful one of my other locations was in one of the
wealthiest neighborhoods of the city and it was very slow to catch on by
comparison to the other so it's not the end-all be-all but it certainly is worth
considering you know if it's a lot of depressed neighborhoods might not be the
best choice from a safety and ultimately a success standpoint if it's a very
wealthy neighborhood that certainly can be favorable but also those people might
be harder to access and gain market share in that neighborhood before I wrap
up this week like I said next week we're going to dive into planning out the
numbers and business planning and financial forecasting and all of that
fun stuff but the last thing I will say this week
is when you are looking at space don't assume because there's other fitness
facilities in that region that that's a bad thing you know competition isn't
necessarily something that should scare you away because we're gonna strive to
be the best and when there is similar or direct or indirect competitors in the
same region it does tell us one variant thing people are willing to travel to
that location for your type of service one of my very first a my probably my
most successful studio I think we had something like 12 direct and indirect
competitors in a four-block radius so you can certainly be successful with
other similar businesses like yours in the neighborhood and that can actually
sometimes be a great reason to look further at those locations okay
hopefully this video was a helpful starting place for you in opening your
fitness studio or gym business I do hope you'll subscribe please feel free to
comment below ask questions next week will be part two we'll dive into
financial forecasting figuring out your build out cause and those kinds of
things as we get further into this journey of how to start your own gym or
fitness business alright thank you I'm cable I'll talk to you next week

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How to Open a Gym Business | Part 1: First Steps

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