Anyone own a gym franchise?

[tkav1980]

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

The fees are high. Compared to other franchises, not high but compared to revenue they are. If you make 600k in revenue, you'll keep 150 for yourself after you pay the bills.
75k of that 600k is franchise fees.

 

[tkav1980]

What happened to starting a YouTube channel?

I have 2. Youtube takes a long time to build up an audience if you work full time and have a family. And things pop up.
For example, I filmed 8 hours of video the past week for 5 or 6 different videos, put the SD card in my laptop. Theres no sound. Long story short, I need a new camera and thats going to run me $800. And before anyone asks, filming won't work with either of my phones because I can't get decent sound. The usb-c port on both phones is shot so my external shotgun mic doesn't work. Thank God for wireless charging.
Youtube will take me another year at least to monetize. Then investing everything I make back into it to grow, will take another 4 or 5 years to make the $200k per year i need to replace my income.
This is based off of me being successful through hard work and not luck. Slowly building a loyal community.

 

[Bio]

Hey Tkav, unfortunately you're haven't got any responses from first hand experience, including myself. Hopefully someone will chime in soon! Back in 1991, 30 years ago, I looked into franchising a Gold's, Worlds, or possibly Powerhouse gym. The gym scene was extremely different back then. It doesn't resemble anything like today. Gold's was $12k a year in franchise fee's but it still had the old and best owners!! I don't remember what World or Powerhouse was. $12k a year was a lot back then especially considering the fitness aspect was beginning to make waves which made it hard for the old guard, like myself, to be comfortable with. Where I live Gold's has failed several times over. The last time it was here, the owner built up membership and then dropped the Gold's franchise and turned it into a Planet Fitness. Back in '88 or '89 a World Gym was supposed to open up but it never saw the light of day. I guess the owner ran out of funds.

It sounds like you've done your research. It will be interesting to see which way you go. Keep us posted!

 

[tkav1980]

Hey Tkav, unfortunately you're haven't got any responses from first hand experience, including myself. Hopefully someone will chime in soon! Back in 1991, 30 years ago, I looked into franchising a Gold's, Worlds, or possibly Powerhouse gym. The gym scene was extremely different back then. It doesn't resemble anything like today. Gold's was $12k a year in franchise fee's but it still had the old and best owners!! I don't remember what World or Powerhouse was. $12k a year was a lot back then especially considering the fitness aspect was beginning to make waves which made it hard for the old guard, like myself, to be comfortable with. Where I live Gold's has failed several times over. The last time it was here, the owner built up membership and then dropped the Gold's franchise and turned it into a Planet Fitness. Back in '88 or '89 a World Gym was supposed to open up but it never saw the light of day. I guess the owner ran out of funds.

It sounds like you've done your research. It will be interesting to see which way you go. Keep us posted!

Thanks Bio. Im really in the infant stages of research.
The reality is that fitness in general is experiencing massive growth due to the availability of information on the benefits and frankly, for the average person, there are so many different way they can reach their goals, its a great time for the industry.
The challenge is finding something I can make a profit on with the smallest investment vs. Return.
Im by no means wealthy and this would be a massive risk. Im trying to understand how to mitigate as much of that risk as possible and finally be able to work for myself.
If im going to put in 100 hours a week at any job, i just want it to be work I enjoy.

 

[Bio]

Thanks Bio. Im really in the infant stages of research.
The reality is that fitness in general is experiencing massive growth due to the availability of information on the benefits and frankly, for the average person, there are so many different way they can reach their goals, its a great time for the industry.
The challenge is finding something I can make a profit on with the smallest investment vs. Return.
Im by no means wealthy and this would be a massive risk. Im trying to understand how to mitigate as much of that risk as possible and finally be able to work for myself.
If im going to put in 100 hours a week at any job, i just want it to be work I enjoy.

As a business man, you need to build a gym business that will bring you the most return on your investment versus building a gym that you would personally like to train at, unless those two happen to be the same.