Gym Owners

[Armageddon]

I want to pick the brains of everyone here about there gyms. I've worked in several over the years and ran 2 power house gyms for alittle over a year for each. Here's the deal, my football coach is building this large sports complex, 3 domes indoor football, baseball, soccer, resturant, bar, the whole 9 yards and I talked him into putting a gym in this place. Let me rephrase that, more of a health facility than a gym. He's incurring every cost and I'll just have 1 monthly bill to him for the most part. He's using investors from all over the place for this. The guy who owns the bluejays is buying into it so they can come and have camps, practice and what not. So the money is there.
He gave me 20,000 sq. ft. to work with so this is the rough idea of what I came up with so far.
8,000 workout floor
2,000 (2 rooms x 1,000) for aerobics, spinning, yoga, pilates and so on
3,000 cardio theatre
2,000 tanning
1,000 office space, juice bar, storage
1,000 plyo metrics, spped training
1,000 supplement store
800 hair studio/nail tech
600 day care
400 sauna, steam, eucalyptus (4 x 100) men and women
200 massage therapy (2 x 100)
This is all with the idea of not needing locker rooms as he said that he was taking care of that due to the fact of the nature of this being a sports facility
*I don't plan on running all these places, I've already put forth the time to see about these places being rented out. I've seen some gyms run everything, but I'd rather be a landlord type.
The other thing is I might actually end up with more space than this as he is entertaining the idea of giving me 2 floors.
I'm waiting for emails back from companies on the equipment. This is where I'm needing the most advice as I've never had to purchase equipment for any of the gyms I've been at. I've talked with the Dabish's before when working at power house but never truely bought anything. I've heard things like hammer strength does a lease and at the end of the lease you buy the equipment for $1. Nebulla Fitness is pushing to outfit the entire thing, but I've only ever seen there leg equipment in person, nothing else. My opinion is flyers don't do the equipment any good, I want to see it and actuall feel the range of motion and the mechanics of it.
What software do your gyms use, it's been 2+yrs since I worked at the gym, but I think we were using Aphileon. Does that sound right. I know there's several others out there.
Thanks for looking at this, I have alot of work ahead of me but I pray that I can pull this off!

 

[ag-guys]

I want to pick the brains of everyone here about there gyms. I've worked in several over the years and ran 2 power house gyms for alittle over a year for each. Here's the deal, my football coach is building this large sports complex, 3 domes indoor football, baseball, soccer, resturant, bar, the whole 9 yards and I talked him into putting a gym in this place. Let me rephrase that, more of a health facility than a gym. He's incurring every cost and I'll just have 1 monthly bill to him for the most part. He's using investors from all over the place for this. The guy who owns the bluejays is buying into it so they can come and have camps, practice and what not. So the money is there.
He gave me 20,000 sq. ft. to work with so this is the rough idea of what I came up with so far.
7,450 workout floor
3,000 (2 rooms x 1,500) for aerobics, spinning, yoga, pilates and so on
2,000 cardio theatre
2,000 tanning
1,000 office space, juice bar, storage
1,000 plyo metrics, spped training
1,000 supplement store
900 hair studio/nail tech
700 day care
600 sauna, steam, eucalyptus (6 x 100) men and women
200 massage therapy (2 x 100)
150 posing room for my meathead friends and fitness chicks lol
This is all with the idea of not needing locker rooms as he said that he was taking care of that due to the fact of the nature of this being a sports facility
*I don't plan on running all these places, I've already put forth the time to see about these places being rented out. I've seen some gyms run everything, but I'd rather be a landlord type.
The other thing is I might actually end up with more space than this as he is entertaining the idea of giving me 2 floors.
I'm waiting for emails back from companies on the equipment. This is where I'm needing the most advice as I've never had to purchase equipment for any of the gyms I've been at. I've talked with the Dabish's before when working at power house but never truely bought anything. I've heard things like hammer strength does a lease and at the end of the lease you buy the equipment for $1. Nebulla Fitness is pushing to outfit the entire thing, but I've only ever seen there leg equipment in person, nothing else. My opinion is flyers don't do the equipment any good, I want to see it and actuall feel the range of motion and the mechanics of it.
What software do your gyms use, it's been 2+yrs since I worked at the gym, but I think we were using Aphileon. Does that sound right. I know there's several others out there.
Thanks for looking at this, I have alot of work ahead of me but I pray that I can pull this off!

A few things off the top of my head, your daycare only needs about 500sq. ft. Since aerobic classes are not 24x7, it is possible to cut the posing room and use the space for the main workout floor, let people pose in the cardio room - especially 2.

I'd have more tips, but I have to look this over more.

AG
www.ag-guys.com
**broken link removed**

 

[Armageddon]

Your right I never even thought about that!

 

[flexmaster]

talk with BBA, i believe he owns a gym.

i totally agree with ag, especially since you have 2 rooms for those classes. the place i work at caters more towards the average person rather than bb'ers...we have 2 rooms we use for yoga/spinning/hip hop dance/stretching classes/karate/pilates/and so many more i dont even know them all. one of the rooms is always vacant...perfect for posing.

 

[mung]

Armageddon,

I used to own a gym a few years back, and it was the garden variety meathead place with an aerobics studio and I have but a few thoughts.

I agree with ag-guys, you will want to maximize your square footage and you want to make sure, relative to your local market, you do not commit excessive amounts of space to areas/amenities not utilized during all business hours. Make sure your market will support 2, 1500 sqft studios. If it will, then that is great, if not commit it elsewhere.

Bringing me to my next point, increase your cardio area or theatre. I am assuming, right or wrong, your "cardio theatre" is your entire cardio area. This always seems to bring in the "household disposable income", read female of the house.

I don't know where you live, but do you need 2000sqft of tanning?

Your juice bar and supplement store should be the same IMO. Make sure you have many POS items strategically located around the check-in area, as this can eliminate the need for extra space in the juice bar area that can be commited to the "maximum dollar square footage".

I don't know about the steam and eucalyptus, but it always seemed to represent such a small percentage of the contingency, are they worth it. Again, this is relative to your market.

The equipment used to be readily available by leasing, but this decision needs to be made jointly by your tax attorney and accountant. It will depend in part on your business structure, ie LLC, LP, sub-chapter S, C corp etc. And once you establish this format you cannot change it without losing tax benefits or suffering consequences...and I am speaking from experience. Will you take losses against your personal income? Are you submitting gains as personal income or business? If the owner of the Blue Jays is involved, I would look there first for financing options as he/she will have a wealth, so to speak, of resources to draw from. Either financial or personal connections. Bankers love to know people with this level of wealth and you could easily use his/her name to get you some very creative and profitable financing for equipment or otherwise.

Just some brief thoughts. It would help if you could give some demongraphic info on your community/market area. Or shoot me a zip code and I can gather most local info. Unemployment rate, mdian household income, population etc.

Sounds like a very good opportunity if you are given the support and latitude to make decisions. I wish you the very best in business!

Learn how to make a killer business plan, it will serve you well now, and in the future.

Take care and keep us posted!

 

[Armageddon]

Zip is 49022 highest unemployeement in the state. Average income isn't high. Now you cross the bridge and everything changes. Are goal is to pull people from the neighboring town, which is extremely possible. What kind of business license should I look into. The last place I worked at was an LLC, but to be honest I don't know much about that. I know what needs to be done, but terminology and what not isn't my strong point yet. The reason the supplement store and juice bar are seperate is there's someone that wants to open a supplement store but doesn't want to deal with the juice bar, maybe she'll change her mind. The tanning could probably be smaller but it's a rough estamit. But tanning is big in this area, I have talked to the people that are interested in that about how much space they wanted. The people interested just expressed the idea about several different types of beds and whatnot.
I appreciate all the advice as I like to soak it all in. It seems like alot more work and stress when it's your ass on the line!

 

[Steak Helmet]

I want to pick the brains of everyone here about there gyms. I've worked in several over the years and ran 2 power house gyms for alittle over a year for each. Here's the deal, my football coach is building this large sports complex, 3 domes indoor football, baseball, soccer, resturant, bar, the whole 9 yards and I talked him into putting a gym in this place. Let me rephrase that, more of a health facility than a gym. He's incurring every cost and I'll just have 1 monthly bill to him for the most part. He's using investors from all over the place for this. The guy who owns the bluejays is buying into it so they can come and have camps, practice and what not. So the money is there.
He gave me 20,000 sq. ft. to work with so this is the rough idea of what I came up with so far.
7,450 workout floor *add to 8,000
3,000 (2 rooms x 1,500) for aerobics, spinning, yoga, pilates and so on *cut to 2,000sq. ft.
2,000 cardio theatre *add to 3,000
2,000 tanning
1,000 office space, juice bar, storage
1,000 plyo metrics, spped training
1,000 supplement store
900 hair studio/nail tech *cut to 800sq ft
700 day care *cut to 600 sq ft
600 sauna, steam, eucalyptus (6 x 100) men and women *cut euc rooms now 400 sq ft
200 massage therapy (2 x 100)
150 posing room for my meathead friends and fitness chicks lol *cut this out
This is all with the idea of not needing locker rooms as he said that he was taking care of that due to the fact of the nature of this being a sports facility
*I don't plan on running all these places, I've already put forth the time to see about these places being rented out. I've seen some gyms run everything, but I'd rather be a landlord type.
The other thing is I might actually end up with more space than this as he is entertaining the idea of giving me 2 floors.
I'm waiting for emails back from companies on the equipment. This is where I'm needing the most advice as I've never had to purchase equipment for any of the gyms I've been at. I've talked with the Dabish's before when working at power house but never truely bought anything. I've heard things like hammer strength does a lease and at the end of the lease you buy the equipment for $1. Nebulla Fitness is pushing to outfit the entire thing, but I've only ever seen there leg equipment in person, nothing else. My opinion is flyers don't do the equipment any good, I want to see it and actuall feel the range of motion and the mechanics of it.
What software do your gyms use, it's been 2+yrs since I worked at the gym, but I think we were using Aphileon. Does that sound right. I know there's several others out there.
Thanks for looking at this, I have alot of work ahead of me but I pray that I can pull this off!

That would be sweet to have the 2 floors....maybe he would let you move the office space into his area???? that would free up another 1,000sq/ft for your gym area. What kind of traffic will be going through this place??? 1,000 members a day??? 10,000 members a day???

 

[Coopie]

You will need to consider incorporating unless you plan on personally signing for (and being liable for) equipment as well as other expenses. An LLC allows you to have several owners, each with differing levels of liability in case of default or bankrupcy. State laws vary, so any Small Business Administration within your state should be able to refer you to a competent attorney for your corporate needs.

By the way, incorporating may take several weeks, so plan ahead.

 

[Armageddon]

I meet with the coach this week, from what we talked about last night he's asking for enough money from the investors to buy the equipment and everything out right and then I just pay him back.

As far as traffic aday I don't know what it will be. I know what it can/could be once everything is at full force. The powerhouse will be less than 4 miles away and should close shortly after we open. It's a dive, not very clean and the owners SUCK! They own 2 assisted living centers and use the gym as a tax right off. The laws around here allow you to claim a loss on a business for the first 7 years and there coming up on that. There's rumors that it's for sale, but there trying to get way more than what it's worth.

This is what are place is going to be. It's 3 in door domes set up to look like a triangle. Within the middle of this triangle is going to be the gym, a resturant/bar, office space, locker rooms and someother stuff that I'm not sure about as it's not my deal. Plus out door baseball and socceer fields. We're bringing our semi-pro team here to play indoors ( only one of it's kind) with a possible out door stadium to come later. The indoor football field will hold 25,000 people. The city of Grand Rapids is contemplating letting there Arena team go as there not making money and not winning championships anymore. We're working on bringing them down here or starting there own team. There's a motorcross track here that national are held at "RedBud track & trail" The owner of that is already lobbying for us to allow him to start an indoor nationals here. He has a contract with wide world of sports, so they televise the nationals. Wide world of sports is a product of abc which I believe is a subsiderary of ESPN so there's been talk about getting the Xgames. He's got alot of baseball and softball clinics already setup, as he's also a softball pitching coach. So we can run football clinics, practices, the ideas are limitless. This is why I'm not getting my hopes up, just incase things don't pan out. I was thinking about getting something set up with the hospital for the outpatient rehabilitation.

 

[Armageddon]

What software if any are you guys using? Phil, BBA, others...

 

[Armageddon]

Not to say that I don't appreciate the reply's that I've gotten so far cause I have but I thought there would be alot more input on this subject from people

 

[bigbadasian]

Reply

|--[\\\]>-------- Sorry it took so long for me to respond to this. congrats first of all on your possible biz. venture. I have been in the fitness industry for 6 years now so i think i have some good experiences, i've done both the 'gym' side of things and also the personal training side. First and for most, customer service will be your #1 priority, that goes without saying, but you wont believe all the yahoo's that work/manage a gym and once you walk in they are complete idiots to you. Get yourself a nice looking staff, dress them professionally and make sure it's not a 'hang out to them' As for your club, sounds like you got so decent size space, they club i'm at now is about 38K sq ft./dry club (no pool) so you can imagine how big it is. we also have aerobics, and a woman's only weight room equiped with cardio, wgts, and machines...this is a must IMO, you want to appeal to EVERYONE...dont try and make it a 'fitness gym' and dont try and make it just a 'bber's gym' you CAN cater to both sides and how you do it is have a TON of variety in wgts and cardio..selection and variety! and also some little stuff like childcare, aerobics, spinning and stuff like that. That way you expand your horizons and allow many more dif. types of ppl to join your gym. Are you doing contracts or mth to mth? we do 12 mth agreements, that way you have a solid year of EFT coming out for every memeber that you sign up, hopfully building some re-occuring dues for you for the following year. Mth to mth makes it VERY hard to forcast for the next year b/c you dont know who is going to drop off and when...at least this way, you sign up Mrs. Jones today you know you will be recieving on avg. $30 a mth for 12 mths. The software we use is called Aphellion..they are based out of Texas...the shit is AWSOME a MUST have if yuo ask me, it tracks everything, you can pull your daily reports and even get so nit picky to the point where you can see how many towels your front desk staff sold b/t 6-7pm! you can manage your time clock on there, your members' profiles, sales screen, guest passes, daily member check in, EVERYTHING..it's all on there...i could go on and on, if you would like to email me specific questions or pm me, feel free to do so.

 

[bigbadasian]

Reply

|--[\\\]>--------- Oh yeah, i just wanted to say it again, congrats and def. go with this opportunity! The fitness industry can only grow from here on out. my best friend is building a million dollar club out in NC right now and it's scheduled to open in Jan, after a bit, he is expanding out west here and i'm goihng to go in with him on his next project (owner/operator type thing) so i am just learning as much as i can now so i can make the club a huge success out here.

 

[flexmaster]

idea?

an idea i had for you was to talk with the local hospitals or whatnot to somehow advertize with them. so many people are being told by thier doctors they need to get healthy and into a gym...i see a huge market there. i dont know if you can strike some kind of deal somehow, or just let them know you are available...maybe you could make some sort or pamphlet to give to the doc's so they can give it to thier patients?

i definately agree with bba on dressing your staff professionaly, and hiring clean cut, guys and girls.

one thing our club recently got more of is individual dvd/mp3/cd players with cable tv for each elliptical machine and recumbant bike. people LOVE them...everyone takes those cardio machines first. maybe thats not aspractical for your place, but you cant have too many ideas im sure.

 

[Armageddon]

Bump for more ideas...can never learn to much!

 

[flexmaster]

you will sell more food/beverages at your juice bar/snack shop if there is something for people to do while they eat...we have a big screen tv in the lobby, with a bunch of tables and couches...its actually not a bad place to hang out and chat...and i always end up buying a few things to eat while im there...or ill go in to work a 1/2 hr early and eat right before my shift.

also, i dont know if you get over to www.intensemuscle.com but dante and doug have a thread there called "let us make you a millionare" where they talk about how a few guys have started making custom protien powders for various supp shops in their local area...i guess they(doug and dante) give them a discount on the bulk orders...so you could start selling your own custom version of protien powder from your shops...and you would make all the profit because you're not the middleman...you are the seller...i think you should really look into doing this, especially if you are considering selling other protien powders there. get on over to intense muscle and email dante about quotes and stuff, and check out that thread...

will you have a basketball court? we have 2 at our gym and they run basketball and volleyball leagues there...along with dodgeball tournaments, pickleball tournaments, ect...

i didnt read anything about a pool, and i assume that would be pretty hard at this time...but what about hot tubs?

i'll think of some more ideas and post them too

 

[Armageddon]

I already had an idea about the protein powder like that but I had no idea that dante was already doing that. Thanks for the input as I haven't been over to intense muscle in some time. I do want a small lounge area around the juice bar. I thought about seeing if superior and some other sponsors wanted to put somethings together.
As far as basketball and all that goes, there will be some as this is going to be a 150 acre sports complex! Mostly around soccer and baseball but many other things. Thanks for keeping up with the advice cause I want to have my bases covered as much as possible once this gets started. I want to find someone who is good at writing grant proposals. I've tried to read up on it to see if I can do it myself, but all I seem to find are the types of grants and no actual examples. Again THANKS

 

[Armageddon]

This is getting to the point of being almost unbelievable! I really don't want to jinx myself with too much talk of it. LOL But we met up last night for alittle but and chatted. He now feels that 20,000 isn't big enough and wants me to go somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 sq. ft. He wants the daycare and salon big enough to be there own complete entities under out roof. He's covering every start up cost from computers and software to survelance (sp) to advertising. I'm just doing the leg work and collecting the check. The more we talk it seems like the more this is going to be my entire facility to run, not just the gym. MTV/X-Games here we come. We'll put together a summer P-Muscle get together on the beach here in Michigan if all pans out. Everyone keep your fingers crossed.
I've been brain storming all kinds of ideas for things. See how some states have 2 NFL teams, I wonder if 10-12yrs down the road if I could get an expansion team somewhere between here and G-Rapids. There are so many possibilities. Maybe we could field a team that could win in the MLB and not always feel bad for the Tigers! lol My new goal is to rebuild the shit hole of a town one small brick at a time and then sell and run away to my OWN ISLAND. LOL

 

[Armageddon]

What are your thoughts about climbing walls in gyms. What is liability on something like this?

 

[flexmaster]

thats great that things are possibly going to be opening up even more for you!!!!! congrats!

climbing walls.....if there is a demand for it, yeah it could work...but we have one here at my college in the sports facility and no one uses it...and it's a really good one too. i used to climb a little for a while, mostly just indoors so i kind of have an idea of the quality/costs...if there's a demand for it then definately, if it would only be used sparatically, i would put the money elsewhere. it wouldnt be terribly expensiive to build though...