Starting your own gym requires many long, hard hours of work, but if you follow the appropriate steps, it can be a rewarding venture. Your love of fitness, helping people, and community has already fueled you this far to start the process of building your own gym, but there are still a lot of hurdles for you to leap.
In this guide, we want to cover some of the key steps to help you along your journey to opening a gym. PT Academy has been certifying personal trainers and fitness professionals for years, helping them to enter and succeed in the world of fitness, health, and wellness. Many of our clients go on to have successful careers as personal trainers, gym owners, and so on, and we are proud to be one of the first resources to fitness professionals around the world.
Get Certified
First and foremost, you will need to ensure you are fully equipped with the proper certifications. At PT Academy, we offer a variety of certification courses to help you start or continue your journey as a fitness professional. We offer courses in Certificates III and IV, and offer continuing education courses for already certified trainers looking to expand their knowledge and client base.
Certificates III and IV are a requirement for working both in private and public fitness settings and will be a valuable asset to you as you work towards opening a gym. Getting certified will help you gain a deeper knowledge of the industry, and will help you gain interest from potential investors, team members, and clients. Carrying the proper certifications not only helps you be more prepared, but also adds intrinsic value to your venture and will help reassure investors of your potential for success.
Find Your Fitness Niche
Before you look for a location, talk to investors, or start spreading the word about your new gym, you will need to decide some of the specifics of what your gym will offer. Opening a generic gym independently can be quite difficult, with large gym chains essentially monopolizing that corner of the fitness industry. To ensure the success of your business, try to identify the fitness niche your gym will be filling.
Perhaps you have a personal background in nutrition, and plan to partner with local nutritionists to provide clients with added healthy eating plans. Perhaps you are interested in creating a space specifically for Olympic weight lifting, or one that caters to a specific demographic of athletes. No matter what kind of gym you plan to open, be sure there is a real need for your particular services so you won’t be left floundering in an oversaturated market.
Create a Budget
Opening a gym is a pricey endeavor, one that will require you to carefully examine and track finances throughout the process. Creating a budget from the very beginning will not only help you prevent over-spending but will also help you attract investors. Unless you have a significant pile of seed money just lying around, you are going to need financial backing, whether that be from friends, family, and local supporters or banks and private investors. Creating a detailed budget will show potential investors that you are qualified and prepared for the challenge of opening your own fitness studio, helping to instill confidence in the likelihood of the venture succeeding.
Choose a Strategic Location
Choosing the perfect location for your gym requires a little bit of research and a whole lot of strategy. Before you begin the process, identify your key demographic of customers. Knowing who it is you hope to attract to your gym will help you choose an optimal location, and will help you concentrate on meeting their needs when exploring different facilities. Choose a building in a location consistent with your target demographic. This will include things like age, sex, and socioeconomic class, all key factors in setting up a successful gym.
Amenities are also a key factor to consider when selecting a gym location. Is the building you are choosing already connected to the necessary amenities? Does the building have a parking lot or convenient street parking? Is the building large enough to comfortably accommodate equipment, clients, and employees? Is the building small enough to be manageable? All these questions and more are ones you should consider when choosing the perfect location.
Buy the Right Equipment
Once you have selected a space, it is time to start filling it with equipment. The type of equipment you purchase will largely be determined by the type of gym you plan to open, and the kinds of workouts/amenities you plan to provide. In general, you’ll need to spend a fair amount of time researching and choosing the right equipment for the needs of your gym, and it won’t come cheap, so be sure to budget up to this point.
From free weights to spin bikes, you’ll be individually selecting each and every piece of equipment that comes through your doors. Not only will you need to choose the kind of equipment you purchase, but you will also have to settle on specific brands and line up repair services in case of trouble with machines.
Want to become a professional in the fitness industry? Visit PT Academy to learn more about our personal trainer certification programs, or check out our blog to stay up to date on the latest and greatest in the world of health and fitness.
