WAG How Much Should I expect Opening up A Gymnastics Gym To Cost

[flipdoctor]

now obviously there are a lot of different variable to take in to account on how much opening up a gym should cost... as of now i am thinking mostly rec gym if team low level team at best see how the concept works and if it does grow from there and expand with that building probably being around 1500 square ft (not the actual gym area but the entire building)... and with all this being said is there any location that you guys know of in need of this im sure rec gyms are a dime a dozen but i was thinking in the NC area

 

[AwesomeSauce]

1,500 seems awfully small. Thats smaller than 1 full size spring floor. Our starter gym was 7,000 sq ft and we outgrew it in 5 years. Equipment loan was about $80k and another $20k in buildout (we were the first tenant). Not sure if that helps or not.

 

[flipdoctor]

1,500 seems awfully small. Thats smaller than 1 full size spring floor. Our starter gym was 7,000 sq ft and we outgrew it in 5 years. Equipment loan was about $80k and another $20k in buildout (we were the first tenant). Not sure if that helps or not.

Yea that is very small I missed a 0 by accident I'll edit that now pol

 

[flipdoctor]

now obviously there are a lot of different variable to take in to account on how much opening up a gym should cost... as of now i am thinking mostly rec gym if team low level team at best see how the concept works and if it does grow from there and expand with that building probably being around 1500 square ft (not the actual gym area but the entire building)... and with all this being said is there any location that you guys know of in need of this im sure rec gyms are a dime a dozen but i was thinking in the NC area

Edit... 15,000 square feet

 

[Aussie_coach]

I’m not going to give any financial figures, because Australia is quite different. But I can say it will cost a lot more than you expect. You can probably safely double what you expect.

But it can also cost a lot more emotionally than is does financially. Owing your own gym is amazing but hard and stressful. Are you prepared to devote almost all your waking hours to the pursuit of the growth of your business, being aware that it will be running at a loss until it grows.

 

[AwesomeSauce]

15,000 square feet

That makes more sense Based on our experience, if we had started with a gym that size I would have expected to have at least a $200k equipment loan and $50k in working capital. That doesn't include any building modifications or pits since that would depend heavily on the particular building and landlord. i.e. how much the landlord will pay for to get you as a tenant (if anything), or if they would make you pay for that up front or finance it over the course of your lease.

As for pits, we have 2 now... 1 small and 1 large. They were built into the initial construction for us so I'm not sure what the cost would be to dig and pour them, but as for everything else... it would have cost $50k to have our AAI rep do it all for us but we chose to source everything and install it ourselves which saved us about $15-$20k (That was ALOT of work though. Like, ALOT.)

Our gym became self-sustaining (paying its own bills) in about 6 months but I'm not sure if thats typical and our first location was smaller than what you're planning.

 

[flipdoctor]

That makes more sense Based on our experience, if we had started with a gym that size I would have expected to have at least a $200k equipment loan and $50k in working capital. That doesn't include any building modifications or pits since that would depend heavily on the particular building and landlord. i.e. how much the landlord will pay for to get you as a tenant (if anything), or if they would make you pay for that up front or finance it over the course of your lease.

As for pits, we have 2 now... 1 small and 1 large. They were built into the initial construction for us so I'm not sure what the cost would be to dig and pour them, but as for everything else... it would have cost $50k to have our AAI rep do it all for us but we chose to source everything and install it ourselves which saved us about $15-$20k (That was ALOT of work though. Like, ALOT.)

Our gym became self-sustaining (paying its own bills) in about 6 months but I'm not sure if thats typical and our first location was smaller than what you're planning.

And where is your gym located if you dont mind me asking... and my next question is what steps should I take to open up my own gym

 

[AwesomeSauce]

And where is your gym located if you dont mind me asking... and my next question is what steps should I take to open up my own gym

We're in the Mountain West. I would start putting together a comprehensive business plan. They are alot of work but it does help you get a clearer idea of everything involved and will result in less surprises down the road. Plus, every bank we talked to required one in order to start talking loans since we were a new startup.

There are tons of resources out there to help with forming business plans. Ours included our company vision and personal/work history, an analysis of the market in our area (things like city demographics and analysis of competitors), projected enrollment, forecasted financials (income statements, cash flow, etc.), a description of products & services, pricing models, equipment purchase lists, building and equipment layouts. It really made us research the data surrounding all our decisions and ground them in reality, totally worth it. I think without it we would have had a much rougher start.

There are consulting companies like 3rd Level Consulting that help with this sort of thing. We just did it on our own but I spoke with a few people at 3rd level that seemed knowledgeable. Two of them were even past gym owners. I'm just a DIY kind of person.