The 11 fatal flaws that owners make when opening a new gym

1.Fitness industry ignorance
Many people dream of opening a fitness club. And why not? A gym business changes lives and helps others in a positive way. You can leverage a high feel good factor being involved in something worthwhile like a fitness centre as opposed to opening a fast food or selling donuts. However, your gym dream can quickly turn into a nightmare before you even open the doors. All because you failed to get specific fitness industry information and use it to guide you through your business planning stages. Each industry has key success factors that are necessary to know in order to set a solid foundation for business. So it pays to get the right information from industry experts.

Check out some online fitness industry association sites for resources, information, and details on companies that can help you. They can guide you through the potential pitfalls and will save time and money.

2.Building a club to cater for everyone
One of the biggest mistakes new entrants make is trying to build a club that will appeal to everyone. You cannot be all things to all people. Instead pick a market segment that is not being serviced in your community and go after it. We live in an age of specialization. For example, look at professional services such as lawyers. They will choose a specialist field like tax, property, or contracts. As a professional service provider, you’ll be able to focus your attention and activity to owning a specific fitness market in your area. You’ll have much more success by deciding not to try and be all things to all people.

3.Location and access
Convenience and ease of access are vital to the success of a new club. Make sure you wait for the right location than settling for the first available building. It must be located close enough to where your target market lives. Identify your 12-minute during peak traffic. So when you’re assessing possible locations, drive 12 minutes from that site along each of those main routes. Mark these points on a map and assess your market using these reference points. If you have enough of you market living in this area, then it ticks one of the location boxes. Be careful of old industrial buildings. The problem some rookie club owners and first timers make is to choose some cheap industrial building on the outskirts of town. Don’t make this mistake. Often the attraction of a cheap lease or rent holiday can hurt you long term because it located in a place that is inconvenient for members to get to. It may also need additional work to make it look like a great place to work out. It is better to utilize high visibility roads so that signage can attract potential members to the club rather than hidden in a back block.
Don’t underestimate the need for adequate car parks. Members need to find a place to park inconvenience is the key to making it easier for them to make a decision to join.

4.No clearly defined gym concept

Again, do your homework. Assess your target market and build a whole concept around that market. Defining your target market and thinking about their needs will bring focus to your decision-making. It will help you answer simple key questions such as; types of equipment for that market, type of training programs, colour schemes, amenities and programs that will be offered in the club. All of the decisions you make about the club will be based on your target market and a clear concept that you can easily appeal to the market you’re trying to attract.

If you build it they will come. But you need to decide who you want to attract and then build a club that clearly attracts that market.

5.Lack of strong pre-sales and pre-opening promotional hype
It’s amazing how many new clubs open without signing up a single member. The key success factor for all new clubs is to sell as many memberships by the time the club opens it’s doors. Pre sales could start early as 6 months from opening, and foundation memberships sold in stages. Create urgency by selling the most attractive options using a time limit at each stage. Get the word out that a new club is opening soon. Send out teasers. Direct people to the website which will give updates and progress on the development of the club. Aim to capture details so people can be notified of the pre sales dates. Click here for more info about creating pre sales promotional hype

6.Poor operational systems
All businesses need operational systems. Gyms are no different. Systems for staffing, systems for training, programming, retention, administration, sales. Without these you will struggle. Visit out these online club system products

7.Too much focus on fitness equipment and layout
New club owners spend way too much time worrying about what pieces of equipment they are going to have in their gym. Also, new owners spend too much time listening to equipment suppliers for advice about how to open a club. Remember, the equipment supplier is trying to add value to you by offering assistance, but ultimately they are trying to fill your club with as much equipment of theirs as possible. So use them as a basic information resource, but also make sure to get independent industry expertise.

8.No provision for profit centre income
Opening a new club is about also providing a range of complimentary products and services to members looking to achieve their health and fitness goals. Areas to consider for profit centers such as supplements, juice bar, drinks, bars, towels and merchandise are just a few to consider. These areas need to be considered and decided at the planning stage.

9.Internal billing of membership dues

A big mistake is to assume that the collection function for processing member dues will be handled internally. I strongly recommend using a nationally recognized 3rd party billing company. You are in the business of changing lives and helping people achieve their goals, not chasing money. Let a billing company do what they do best, which is to manage membership dues. You might pay fees, but you save yourself the additional hassles. Outsource this function unless you have a strong backgroud in collections or looking to build a multiple club chain. Try to negotiate the best terms and rates. Everything is negotiable and they all want your business.

10. Lack of working capital

Like any new business, you need to have a budget with enough working capital to survive the first few months. You need at least of 3 months cash reserves equivalent to your monthly budgeted expense set aside to cover costs that do occur during the initial stages of the club opening. It will easily be needed for all the small things that you would not have thought of no matter how rigorous your plans. New stock, more chairs, lights, cleaning equipment, tools, parts, uniforms, printing, stationery, legal fees are just a few of the things that will place greater pressure on the business at start up. Think of it like this. Opening a new business is a lot like having a newborn baby. You will need to give it all of your time and attention at the critical early stages. If it’s your first time it will be a huge learning curve. Long days and long nights, coupled with lots of unexpected costs and unanticipated headaches. All new businesses need a lot of nurturing and resources. Do not underestimate the need of the cash reserves during your first 3-6 months.

11. Hiring the wrong people

Gyms are a service business. This means a lot of what we offer is intangible. In order to provide effective service we need to hire the right people. The right kinds of people in our business are those that have great people skills and can communicate clearly. Ideally you want to match the type of people with those that are similar to your target market. In this way they can identify readily with those members in the club. Get the right people on board.