Jow Forums owned gym

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Any user here who opened up his own gym?
No matter how big or small or if it was with weights or just yoga classes.


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bump, come on no one?

Yes I had my own gym in my 20s, I was building a gym/kinesiology career but it went nowhere and I changed my direction in life

If there is anyone here who actually went the kinesiology route in life fucking tell me how is it and what do you do? Its too late for me but I would like to know how that field is for you

I helped put together a powerlifting gym a bit. I happened to find out about it by chance and the owners let me lift there for free while it was still opening (they were still getting supplies and licenses for the business and PT/coaching). It had 2 squat racks, 3 bars, plates and a cheap bench. As the year went by they got another two power racks and two deadlift play forms as well as a proper bench and a bunch of bars (Texas, Ohio, etc.) and dumbbells 10-60lbs as well as some bands and other equipments like a hyper extension machine. Everything was mostly brand new rogue. When it officially opened they only charged me like $30/month for having been a founding member and recruiting a few people, the monthly cost for everyone else was like $50/month. After I left I came back a few times, and I still do every now and again. They don’t even charge me the one day pass. Now they have a ton of shit including atlas stones and a bunch of female powerlifters, they host meets and go to them as a team.

Sorry for the blog post, I got a little nostalgic. It was only a few years ago but I really loved that place. I kiss those days, hit all my first major PRs there. I’ll never forget it or the owners.

>kinesiology
interesting, nothing I am interested in but as far as I can tell, this may work better today in the right area.

What exactly was your problem? No customers? Too much competition?

That sounds awesome!

I want to open something like what you described.
Not specially for powerlifters but equipment wise.

a nice rack
10/20kg bar, safety bar, hex bar, strong DL bar
1-50kg dumbbells
flat bench / adjustable bench
height adjustable cable machine
some other small equipment (landmine press thingy for the floor, bands, sling trainer, stability things...)

Not much but everything you need for beginners and intermediate lifters.

Every thought opening something yourself in an area with only cheap crowded chains?

LOL, I'm gonna pin test in your gym while I jerk off my malfunctioning dick

gyms are for money laundering

I have this fantasy of cleaning put tje garge and putting together a small basic gym that me and my friends can use

Actually a pretty good idea.

Gym memberships don't really have costs associated with them the way traditional businesses who provide services do.

And since it's quite common for people to get a gym membership and go basically never, a nearly empty gym that's still making lots of money is not inherently suspicious.

You could make up names of people, or simply claim actual members bought and received more training sessions to funnel in dirty money.

Nothing would be inherently suspicious from casual inspection of the gym or finances. Even if you drill down, members who bought a number of sessions a year ago won't remember if they bought 8 or 12.

only if I can use you as advertisement and decoration in the entrance :^)

That is part of my motivation, having my own clean and neat place.

In my target region there only exists overcrowded chain gyms with ~80% pakis/turks or whatever they are from, behaving like retards not re-racking weights and making a fucking mess.
Having a place that is tiday, people behave normaly, clean and racked equipment, hell people will pay for that.


I just joked today about that.
Getting self employed as PT to launder money. I am not gonna do that but it is fitting.

Yeah I have, I might do it for both the passions and side income (or atleast to make enough to keep it going as a hobby and pay for itself). I’m the age of one of the three owners from when I started there (23) now I just have other priorities I need to sort out. Maybe in 3-5 years I’ll be able to open one and start a small team/family of lifters and people looking to better themselves like my old gym.

Kommst du auf Deutschland?

If one can get a cheap space, this might be a great side income since the basic equipment is not that expensive (besides cardio machines).
The biggest pain in the ass is the bureaucratic shit, legal things and incurance stuff.

Austria

Currently planning on it. Have business plan ready, and all the details figured out. Now just saving money so I can subsidize whatever loan I need.

Hopefully will be opening in a year or two.

Nice, what kind of gym/how big will it be?
Anything you need help with / want to know?

I hope I can start with it next year.
Until then I will just work as a normal PT and keep planing.

The plan right now is to open up a specialty strength gym, catering to strength athletes: powerlifters, strongmen, oly lifters. I live in a State capital in a Southern state, which is a pretty major metro area, and I've only been able to find one log press in the entire area, and it's in the middle of down town. That said, rents super fucking high here, so I'm leaning towards opening up around the outskirts of the city.

Most of the questions I have will revolve around dealing with the bank: how receptive will the bank be? What type of start up costs do they expect? I know what I think I'll need, but I'm sure some bean pusher will have a different opinion.

I'm hoping I can get away with starting with 10k-20k cash on hand, with maybe another 40k from the bank.

I'm not a PT, but have several friends in that space, and will be offering them killer rates to bring their clients in, so that will help. I'm also a search marketer in my professional life, so I don't think getting the word out will be a problem. That said, I'm eyeing charging $50 a month for 24/7 access with one of those scan key lock things. I'll be around in my off hours and will do a lot off the maintenance on my own at first, and will not be hiring anyone officially until it's profitable. First year goal would be to get 250 concurrent members, and I would definitely have a max upper limit, so the gym would be semi-private, and the maximum members I'll allow will depend on the size, how full it is at peak times, etc.

Is it worth purchasing some good cardio equipment to help capture non-strength athletes? I think the area I'm in can support the numbers I'm thinking of, but in case it doesn't I'm open to the idea of making it slightly less hardcore and bringing in some cardio equipment to attract some boomers.

If anyone here has ever opened a gym, what were some of the big surprises in the first year? What were your hardships?

Alan Thrall actually made a video on when he first opened a gym on youtube recently.

'How Much Money Did I Save Up Before Opening My Own Gym?'

OP here, hitting the bed now.
I hope this thread can survive the night.


That sounds cool. Too bad I can't give a full response now so in short:

>have a max upper limit, so the gym would be semi-private, and the maximum members I'll allow will depend on the size, how full it is at peak times, etc.
offer something like "8am to 4pm access only but cheaper price" so you still have more customer but not at peak time around 5pm-8pm.
Besides that it sounds like my idea.

A threadmill, a bike/spinning bike, row machine on the cheaper side for basic cardio might be good.
Maybe cheaper 1-2k$ home products instead of the 10-25k$ technogym machines.

>If anyone here has ever opened a gym, what were some of the big surprises in the first year? What were your hardships?
This is the most interesting thing I also want to know.

Yep, he has a few nice gym related videos.


k good night!

Yeah I saw that. Pretty good vid. I'd like to know what his financial reports look like now, and what they looked like at the end of each year he was open. Active members, inactive (but paying) members, dues, etc.

I have a well paying job, but don't come from money. Frankly my biggest fear is putting all this time and money into it and being forced to close the doors just because I couldn't make rent. I imagine I would need roughly 50 members or so to make rent, and maybe pay some utilities.

>offer something like "8am to 4pm access only but cheaper price" so you still have more customer but not at peak time around 5pm-8pm.

I imagine I'll probably do something like that. Also will offer discounts to military, medical personnel, law enforcement, firefighters, etc.

Would also be super fucking cool if we can attract some high school football players. Obviously running a gym with underaged kids changes logistics quite a bit, but that's where I started, and I know their momma and daddy have money.

M C F I T
wien ?

no, but if i ever won the lotto or something, my dream is to open up a gym right by the beach. old 70s style gym with garage doors and shit.