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Anyone own a gym franchise?

tkav1980

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Im beginning some preliminary research on fitness franchises. Is anyone here involved with anytime or world gym?
And before anyone hops in with it sucks and you'll make no money, im just looking for owner experiences from this community if anyone would share.
The FDD provided by each gives me a list of owners with contact information who I am setting up calls with, but I was hoping to connect with some not listed as well.
 
I wonder, are the gyms offering special deals with things such as lower franchise fees now because of the whole covid-19 problem? You'd think it's harder than ever for them to find new franchises. Might be nice to take advantage of that if it's there , one benefit. I'd want any contract deal to last a number of years before it runs out.
 
I wonder, are the gyms offering special deals with things such as lower franchise fees now because of the whole covid-19 problem? You'd think it's harder than ever for them to find new franchises. Might be nice to take advantage of that if it's there , one benefit. I'd want any contract deal to last a number of years before it runs out.
From what I've gathered, the agreements are 10 years. Franchise fees haven't reduced.
 
From what I've gathered, the agreements are 10 years. Franchise fees haven't reduced.
Can't hurt to ask them about it. I wonder how the cost of leases has been impacted. Might be some give there. Just trying to find some benefit from the covid-19 situation. It's got to be tough for a new gym to get members during this.
 
I have a rather nice Anytime near me that had terrible ownership/management that looks to be belly up after Covid. I've thought about contacting corporate to get more info as it's a pretty damn good location but ownership ran it into the ground. I'd be interested to hear what your preliminary research has turned up.

I know a gym franchise is fool's gold but I wouldn't mind not waking up and hating what I do for a living.... Plus there is a younger guy that owns one a town away and he has it decked out pretty nice w specialty bars and a few nice pieces from Rogue, titan, etc. Shit, I'm actually looking into it just to have a decent gym to train at after relocating
 
I have a rather nice Anytime near me that had terrible ownership/management that looks to be belly up after Covid. I've thought about contacting corporate to get more info as it's a pretty damn good location but ownership ran it into the ground. I'd be interested to hear what your preliminary research has turned up.

I know a gym franchise is fool's gold but I wouldn't mind not waking up and hating what I do for a living.... Plus there is a younger guy that owns one a town away and he has it decked out pretty nice w specialty bars and a few nice pieces from Rogue, titan, etc. Shit, I'm actually looking into it just to have a decent gym to train at after relocating
Well, I had calls with 5 owners. Heres what I learned for anyone interested:
You'll be taking an sba loan or spending between 400 and 500k to open up.
You'll pay 60k a year in franchise fees
You'll overpay for equipment, outdated systems that are overpriced because the franchise company charges you 7% over retail to make money on it.
$100 in advertising costs to gain 1 new member is the average spend due to how you're forced to advertise.
2 owners did some testing with Facebook and Instagram ads and found this number to be $3 in advertising for 1 new member. And they found it to be much more effective in driving memberships. So again, potential savings.
Overpay for security system by roughly 6000%
The short story is, a gym with 941 members will make you 159000 in your pocket every year.
If you did it yourself, you could open for 250k and at the same membership prices make an extra 80k a year. this is for a similarly equipped 5000 sq foot facility.

One thing that stuck out for me was 5 out of 5 in 5 different states all said, they'd do it themselvs and save half while making more if they were to do it again and all plan to do just that when their franchise agreement ends.

3 mentioned they would increase takehom to 200k and continue to invest the difference in growing their business and opening new locations. They agreed that after the first one, it would be feasible to open 1 new location every 2 years by reinvesting rather than taking a larger salary.

I have 15 pages of notes but this is the general gist and what I believe are the key take aways.
I'll be doing some homework into doing it on my own.
If anyone is interested, I can keep a log in the business section of the process, costs, and anything else I can think of.
 
The franchise fee's will reduce more and more, most of the corporate outfits are trying to pivot and be ready for whatever is coming.
If it was me, and I wanted a gym franchise I would be looking for any kind of small footprint gyms you can stick in a strip mall and teach classes etc. If guy could get half a dozen of those producing, you'd prob do really well.. Minimal weights, or maybe a station rotation type of thing orange theory does.
I helped a group of guys run some fitness centers a while back they bought into. It was hard to compete with the bigger gyms that were getting into he area the time, they had better amenities, and more value for the $. These fellows ended up turing their gyms into personal training studio exclusively + a Buch fo cheap fitness classes to get people in the door and sell them training.
 
I feel bad for these gym owners. They really took a beating after COVID hit. I saw a video of one guy who just had this beautiful state of the art gym that was set to open right around COVID. He couldn’t even open. I’m in NJ and my gym seems pretty crowded - I figured more people might not come back after falling into laziness but it’s busy.
 
I feel bad for these gym owners. They really took a beating after COVID hit. I saw a video of one guy who just had this beautiful state of the art gym that was set to open right around COVID. He couldn’t even open. I’m in NJ and my gym seems pretty crowded - I figured more people might not come back after falling into laziness but it’s busy.
I saw Jay post about a crazy new huge facility in vegas opening up shortly
 
i def say do it on your own. There is a locally owned gym here in my city that competes (and is winning it seems like) against Golds (they went out of business) and Planet Fitness. He has been kicking ass for past 10 years w a personal training studio on roids and group classes. he saved up got a lloan and bought the failed gym that was connected to his training studio he put near $1 million of a facelift on that failed gym and now its nicest gym in town. so nice he can charge $40 a month and people pay it!
-F
 
The franchise fee's will reduce more and more, most of the corporate outfits are trying to pivot and be ready for whatever is coming.
If it was me, and I wanted a gym franchise I would be looking for any kind of small footprint gyms you can stick in a strip mall and teach classes etc. If guy could get half a dozen of those producing, you'd prob do really well.. Minimal weights, or maybe a station rotation type of thing orange theory does.
I helped a group of guys run some fitness centers a while back they bought into. It was hard to compete with the bigger gyms that were getting into he area the time, they had better amenities, and more value for the $. These fellows ended up turing their gyms into personal training studio exclusively + a Buch fo cheap fitness classes to get people in the door and sell them training.
This seems like where the money is these days. Group classes and minimal weights/machines. My wife was doing something like that before covid-19. The guy built his own brand new building and it is very very nice. He still has classes now but I think attendance is limited a bit. He also has classes remotely too. The membership rate is expensive too. Ladies really like it because of the social factor, making friends there etc. It is very popular and they guy is making great money. He has contests about 3 or 4x a year for weight loss. The members pay a fee in the beginning and then the winner takes the pot.
 
i def say do it on your own. There is a locally owned gym here in my city that competes (and is winning it seems like) against Golds (they went out of business) and Planet Fitness. He has been kicking ass for past 10 years w a personal training studio on roids and group classes. he saved up got a lloan and bought the failed gym that was connected to his training studio he put near $1 million of a facelift on that failed gym and now its nicest gym in town. so nice he can charge $40 a month and people pay it!
-F
We had a successful chain in my area awhile ago. The guy owned about 4 big gyms and they were all Golds. Once he was really well established he dropped the franchise and ran it all on his own. Maybe that was once the 10 year agreement was up. I can see how having the franchise name would help you start up, and then you could go it alone, but 10 years is a long long time.
 
I would be wary myself to invest in a gym seeing how we now know anything can be shut down for any reason at anytime. Good luck definitely do your research.
 
So after further research it seems SBA is out according to the person I spoke with. SBA is currently not funding start ups.
So back to the drawing board for financing or I bite the bullet and go franchise. SBA will fund a franchise because its considered established.
 
What happened to starting a YouTube channel?
 
Right now with the way things are and the way the franchises were going even before covid I would look into buying an existing one rather than opening a new location I bet you could pick one up for the equipment costs alone or a very favorable land contract....that would also solve your SBA issue.
 
I feel bad for these gym owners. They really took a beating after COVID hit. I saw a video of one guy who just had this beautiful state of the art gym that was set to open right around COVID. He couldn’t even open. I’m in NJ and my gym seems pretty crowded - I figured more people might not come back after falling into laziness but it’s busy.
my gym in NJ as well bro
 
The guys I know who owned a franchise hated it. Until, like Maldorf said, dropped the franchise. The most successful guy who dropped it was a smallish gym. Large store in a strip mall set up (Only three fronts I believe, next to a large dentist).

I know, between gyms (regular, boxing, MMA, Martial Arts, classes mainly, yoga) the fundamentals still matter more than gym owners realize. Location, near busy street with windows to see inside, is huge.

Women love classes. Women are on social media more. Women love going to the gym with a friend. Bring a friend to a class is great to advertise on social media and cheap.

The small gyms I know largely survive due to long-term clients and word of mouth. Covid killed a lot of those. They are super risky.

Franchise's are great for recognition and internet searches but like tkav1980 said (great post), you need a lot of capital. The owners of franchises I knew either branched off after their first term, or owned multiple.

In my area franchises tended to survive COVID because of shitty contracts locking people in. The worse the company, the better they did. The amount of people I know who were forced to pay for memberships during lockdown wad staggering. That is what your national franchise fee goes to - lawyers who write up contracts.

If you dont have the money to survive a year of fee's after buying in I wouldn't open a franchise right now. Even expensive places with amenities (pools with fresh towel service) has empty parking lots in my area. The name recognition doesnt matter when your target audience prefers classes.

Any year of my lifetime I would take a small, non franchise gym with classes in a great location over a franchise. The money is in women, classes, and people who go to the gym once a week. I always cost my gyms money as I dont pay for the $100 + places, and bring a partner to boxing / martial arts gyms or regularly go to regular gyms and shower. But I am not the target demographic. My wife who attends two classes a week is.
 
I don’t go to commercial gyms and I don’t have any advice on this. But I do have one glaring observation that has stuck with me in the last few months.

my area has a shit load of gyms, 3 of which were anytime fitness. My area didn’t stay under lockdown long..it was pretty much business as usual after a month..none of the anytime fitness doors ever opened again during that time, all three are very much out of business.

this really made me wonder what kind of fees and operations cost those franchises subject to since they went under so fast while every one else was able to reopen
 

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