So you want to open your own gym - Part 3 ( Model & Service)

Jul 20 / Nik Hanley
Part three of “So you're thinking about opening a gym? 🤘

And today I wanted to address and talk about the different types of models 

i.e services that are possible when opening your own facility. 

If we look at it across a spectrum and we go from the most personalised boutique one-to-one personal training studio all the way down to almost a larger to medium-sized box format (see pic below) Looking at this general spectrum we go from one-to-one studio based very specialised service and depending on the size of the facility and the business model in my opinion you're either charging a big premium on that service because it is specific and personalised and specialised, or you're moving into your own small studio based facility with a client base training one-to-one or even two-to-one and you're renting then to other personal trainers which is to be honest where you're going to probably make your revenue up. 


Then we go one step across to a bigger space we're talking small group personal training (and give some boundaries in my opinion on that small group training model would be anything from four to six people paying a premium price again but for obviously small group personal training.

In my opinion if I was to open a gym tomorrow it would be between small group PT and medium-sized group PT 

The ballpark numbers in this service would be between four to eight/ten people training at one time. 

Now obviously the way that you set up your gym and when we come to the next few parts of the process we'll talk about financials 💰in these different models and we'll also talk about equipment and space considerations for these different models as well and they'll be the following emails coming up.

But for SGPT (Small group PT) four people the great thing about that is that you can still

Number one charge a premium price point for this service
Number two you can generate a larger membership base and so effectively you're not so reliant on one client at a time and that client having a big revenue implication if they leave or when they leave let's say because people you know you've got an actual journey in your business.
Number three is its a very scalable model.

The different ways you can set that up is, for example, having even depend again, depending on the space you could have two to three different pods of four people working at the same time. Obviously, that means more coaches, potentially, that you have a coach for each pod. But very productive and effective way of modelling your business. 

Now we will talk about price points in the next email, so make sure you keep your eyes on your inbox next week.

The next model you have is, medium group size. So what you're talking here is probably anywhere from eight to 15 clients in a session. 

Much of a Crossfit box/team format. The considerations behind this model are, you're probably going to need more equipment, probably going to need more space. But saying that you can run that as a larger or medium sized group personal training session, where you're leading from the front. 

The programming side of things has got to be very specific, it's got to be very organised. How you manage the group is a huge factor and balancing act. 

Also, things like making sure that you have adequate foundation courses, maybe to bring the skill set up or a beginner's course to build people up to the level they need to drop into those sessions. So there's multiple ways of using that. But again, as the kind of numbers go up, then the price point would probably reflect in that and start to go down. For example, if you are positioning a one to one service around three to 500 pounds a month, in a personal training studio, then you go down a level in price points and up a level in numbers in small groups, probably be anywhere from 150 to 250 pounds a month. And again, when we go up a level in numbers, we go down a level in price points. So you're probably talking around the 100 pound, 80 to 100 pound mark medium and larger group formats. That's very similar to a CrossFit box. And again, when you go then down a level on price point and up a level on, let's be honest, you're creeping into more group exercise there when you get to that point, which again, which is fine. But the price point reflect the attention and the numbers in the sessions. 

This is no different to a personal training business working out of a commercial facility or online coaching is the more premium it is, the more specific attention they've got. As the numbers go up, the price point slightly starts to go down on a sliding scale. So that is the first thing on the different models. 

Now, in addition to that, you've got all different types of services that you can add on to this in essence. So the first thing would and probably want more of the obvious things would be.

Measurement of success and tracking their progress, whether that's performance-based, whether that's body composition-based, and obviously you want to have a system in place where people can either take some accountability around that. Obviously with the larger numbers it's going to be hard for you to keep track and to be able to do that for people on a manual basis, so a system/software behind that will be needed. (and again that will come in another email) 

The nutritional support that you provide your clients/members, that can come in the form of check-ins and self-accountability. Other great ways generating more revenue/adding more to the proposition are workshops, subject experts getting mobility experts in, yoga teachers in, pilates, etc.

Other elements are adding on online or distance coaching into the service. 

Competitions you can put on, you have lots of kind of local relevant businesses can bring to the table, you could have meal prep, you can have auxiliary spend, so forth and so forth. 

Model-wise I've got a very big preference around this, which would be small to medium group training. Personally I think it's the most beneficial, but then you also have all the way down on the other end of the scale where it's literally you're opening a box where it's very much an open gym format, the equipment investment is a lot higher because obviously it's more of a commercial style of gym with lots of equipment in there, maybe some group ex going on, so forth and so forth. But realistically our expertise and our preference to coach people, personal trainers would be more of a personaliSed bespoke service. So guys I hope you have given you some food for thought, the next session along as I said we'll dip into equipment, we'll dip into some financials as well and some tips on how to generate the revenue from it.