Is opening a gym something that you’ve always wanted to do? Or has the idea of opening one suddenly piqued your interest?
Whichever the case, you are making the right decision. The fitness industry is currently worth billions of dollars. And now would be the best time to join this industry and enjoy a piece of the pie.
However, opening a gym is more than buying fancy gym equipment. You will need a plan that will guide all aspects of your decision-making.
And this is where a gym business plan comes in. A gym business plan will be your roadmap to success. It will guide you on your journey while helping you to make the right decisions for your fitness business.
Whether you are planning to open a small local gym or a large fitness center, a gym business plan will lay the foundation for running your fitness business successfully.
In this article, we will take a closer look at how to create an effective business plan for starting a gym.
1. Why You Need a Gym Business Plan
A gym business plan is a blueprint of how your fitness center is going to operate. Without it, there’s a high chance you will become sidetracked, thus losing sight of your business goals.
Also, if you don’t have a business plan for your gym, you may end up making some decisions that don’t align with your core business objectives.
So, instead of running your fitness business blindly or making hasty decisions, having a solid gym business plan will help to keep you focused. Here are some additional reasons why you need a business plan for opening and running a gym.
1.1 Visualize Your Fitness Business Idea
When it’s time to launch a new product or service on the market, most entrepreneurs will first release a few samples to see how the market will respond.
But with a gym, you cannot use such an approach. While you may feel like your fitness business idea is a winner, there’s no guarantee that it will succeed.
Hence, if you launch it and it flops, you will have wasted thousands of dollars. Fortunately, a fitness business plan can help to prevent such scenarios.
A business plan for your gym will enable you to run a feasibility test of whether your business idea can work.
As you create the business plan for opening your gym, you will undertake research, crunch the numbers, assess the competition and study your target market.
And when you are armed with this information, it will be easier to determine whether your fitness business idea will take off or not.
1.2 Secure Funding For Your Fitness Business Plan
Starting a gym costs is a cost-intensive project. Even if you decide to open a small fitness facility, you will still spend thousands of dollars.
And while you may fundraise that money from friends and family, there’s a high chance it will not be enough to get you started.
In such a situation, you will be forced to approach a lender or financier, to get a loan for your fitness business.
As you may expect, every serious lender will first request to check your health and wellness business plan, to decide whether to offer you the loan or not.
Therefore, if you don’t have a fitness center business plan, getting external funding is almost impossible.
1.3 Makes Decision Making Easier
You will be making plenty of decisions for your fitness business. For instance, you will need to decide on hiring strategies, equipment plans, and marketing strategies, among others.
And without a solid business plan in place, making all these decisions may be overwhelming, even for an experienced entrepreneur.
Furthermore, you may end up making the wrong decisions, which may derail the growth of your business.
By having a gym business plan that you can refer to, it will be easier to make the right decisions for your fitness business.
1.4 Higher Chances of Success
According to a report published in the Harvard Business Review, creating a start-up gym business plan will increase your chances of succeeding.
When you have a gym business plan in place, it will support the process of converting your business ideas into tangible actions.
Also, a fitness club business plan will also come with growth strategies, which will help to move your fitness business forward.
2. Key Elements of a Gym Business Plan
Creating a fitness center business plan is not an easy task. As earlier mentioned, it will provide a framework of how you will operationalize and run your fitness business.
Therefore, you need to take your time, do the research, analyze the competition and do financial projects. Here are key elements and features that your gym business plan should have:
2.1 Executive Summary
The executive summary is more of an overview of your entire fitness business plan. Ideally, it should provide a description of various aspects of your business like:
- Your fitness business model
- The market demand that your fitness center will fill
- Your competitive advantage
- Your financial support
- How you intend to operationalize your fitness business
This section should be brief and concise. You can even write in point form, making it easier for the reader to scan through within seconds.
If you intend to source external funding for your fitness studio, then you should ensure the executive summary is compelling enough. If it’s not compelling enough, your lenders may not bother reading the rest of the document.
2.2 Fitness Business Overview
This section will provide a detailed description of your fitness center. You will include details like the clients you intend to serve and your unique selling proposition.
You can also use this section to capture your gym’s goals and objectives. Some of the points that you can include in the gym business overview include:
Business structure and model
Purpose of your gym
Founding story
Target market research
Services that you offer
Legal structure
2.3 Fitness Market Analysis
Your fitness gym business plan should also feature a market analysis section. Here, you will include information about the fitness niche you are targeting, trends in the fitness market, as well as how your gym business fits into the current market demand.
In this section, you need to include statistics and facts about your fitness niche as well as future market projections.
If you are looking for outside funding, potential investors or lenders will use this section to assess the viability of your fitness business idea.
2.4 Competitor Analysis
As the name suggests, competitor analysis entails investigating other fitness businesses you will be competing with for clients.
And while you can also talk about your indirect competitors, it will be highly advisable to focus mainly on your direct competition.
For competitor analysis, you should include the fitness services they offer, their pricing and business model, their target clients as well as their strengths and weaknesses.
Undertaking competitor analysis will help you to identify a unique selling position for your gym business.
2.5 Services Offered
This section will feature a detailed breakdown of the services you will be offering to your fitness clients.
It should also include membership options and available exercise equipment. You should use this section to convince potential clients why your services are better than those the competition is offering.
For instance, you can mention that your gym offers childcare services for workout parents or special training classes for certain demographics.
2.6 Marketing Plan
Your fitness center will need a marketing strategy. Without a marketing strategy in place, you will struggle to attract clients to your new fitness business. This section will provide details of how you intend to go about it.
It should explain how you intend to promote your fitness business, who will be doing it, as well as the expected costs. Your marketing plan can feature strategies like:
- Social media marketing
- Email marketing
- Website promotions
- Referral programs
- Banners and flyers
- Influencer marketing
- Partnerships
- Pricing
2.7 Management and Operations
This section will provide details of how your gym will be functioning. Here, you will lay out the main members of your gym’s management team.
You will also highlight their skills, areas of expertise, as well as how they help you to achieve your gym’s goals.
It’s worth mentioning that this section is not reserved for personal trainers only. You can also include customer service attendants, maintenance crew, sales and marketing managers, storage handlers or any other person who will be playing a role in your gym’s setup.
2.8 Financial Projections
A health club business plan is not complete without a financial plan. If you are launching a new gym, this section will include projected revenue or expenses over the next three to five years.
It should also include things like start-up costs, as well as debt-repayment schedules, just to name a few.
The three-year or five-year financial projections should be further broken down into annual and monthly earnings and expenses.
3. Conclusion
A solid business will provide you with a reliable reference point to help you start, run and manage your gym business. And while you may encounter some challenges along the way, your gym business plan will help you to identify them early enough and guide you on how to solve them effectively. So, whether you are looking to start a small gym or large fitness studio, you should ensure you first have a business plan in place before anything else.