Fitness centers are essential community resources. They promote health and wellness, providing people with the space and tools to look after their physical and mental health. Our well-being greatly influences our capabilities, lifestyles, and relationships. With wellness playing such a significant role in people’s lives, resources that promote and help maintain their health are in high demand.
Enrich your local community with additional wellness resources and build a gym supporting people’s fitness aspirations and needs. Learn how to open your very own fitness center and create a beneficial business for you and your community.
Establish Your Niche
Like many industries, the commercial fitness world consists of several competitors. Establishing your fitness center’s niche separates your business from others. A unique enterprise and facility stand out from competitors, bringing in clients and income.
A niche is essentially a distinct characteristic of your business, encapsulating your center’s essence and increasing its attractiveness. Niches come in many forms, from a distinctive visual look to specific client experiences. As long as you offer something different and new, your fitness center will stand out against the competitors, whether your niche is ergonomic gym equipment, highly inclusive services, or a focus on community experiences. Establishing how you want your fitness center to differ from existing like-minded businesses makes you a top competitor and an enticing choice for those looking to improve their wellness.
Cover the Business Logistics
Running any business involves some logistical aspects, from licenses to financial support. Many logistics vary per location and year. In most cases, the primary legal work required for starting a fitness center includes:
- A general business license
- Training certification for classes
- OSHA Compliance
- Financial loans
- A registered facility location
The exciting part of owning a fitness center is seeing your business’s impact on people’s lives, but you’ve got to cover the nitty gritty basics to get there.
Find an Accessible Location
Where you choose to locate your fitness center influences your business’s success and popularity. People are more likely to visit a gym down the road from them over one in the middle of nowhere. Location affects your clientele and demand.
Commuting can be a stressful extravaganza between traffic, gas prices, and unreliable public transportation schedules. Many choose which businesses they invest in depending on travel distance and commute routes to save themselves time in their schedules and added stress. The easier the commute, the greater the attraction.
Along with commutability, people also look for other qualities that make their trip to and experience at your business easy and enjoyable. Finding an accessible location for your fitness center guarantees clientele and business. Some qualities of an accessible location include:
- Close proximity to public transportation
- Nearby and cheap parking
- Ramp entryways and railed stairways
- Safe and well-lit walkways
- Nearby attractive businesses (e.g., coffee shops and grocery stores)
Find an accessible location that makes getting to and from your fitness center a breeze, streamlines clients’ commutes by allowing them to make one trip for multiple errands, and makes clients feel safe.
Choose an Aesthetic and Image
Potential clients take in many considerations when choosing the perfect gym, from location accessibility to membership fees. Two major decision influences are a fitness center’s environment and reputation. Your business’s appearance and reputable image affect your success.
Interior Design Aesthetic
A fitness center’s aesthetic appeal plays into multiple aspects of a client’s experience in that space, from comfort and safety to joy and relaxation. Room layouts, ambiance, and visual appeal affect people’s moods and contentment. An organized, well-lit, natural-colored gym space exudes calmness, making people feel at ease and safe. On the other hand, a cluttered and dark gym may spark anxiety and discomfort. All design features of a space shape a specific atmosphere and experience, from the lighting fixtures and wall colors to room layout and organization.
Choosing a specific design aesthetic for your fitness center allows you to create a more cohesive and satisfying visual appearance. Working with a set aesthetic decides all the little design detail choices, from color schemes to décor. Some of the most popular aesthetics gyms choose include:
- Modern
- Industrial
- Biophilic
- Zen
- Luxury
Reputation and Self-Image
Your fitness center’s reputable image is often one of the first initial encounters people have with your business. Any form of reputation can affect a person’s decision and opinion of your business, even without visiting your facilities, whether they hear from a friend or see you on social media.
Making sure your fitness center forms positive first impressions and represents itself professionally and appealingly guarantees better success and client attraction. Enhance your reputation by creating user-friendly and aesthetic social media pages and websites, highlighting positive testimonials, and avoiding bad publicity.
Consider Your Potential Services
Your fitness center’s services are your business’s income source. What you offer influences your demand, clientele, and long-term sustainability. Most fitness centers’ leading service is their selection of gym equipment and types of workouts available, from cardio to strength training. Some gyms like to specialize in a particular area, whether that’s a specific machine selection or physical activity. Businesses specializing in cardio only offer cardio equipment, like ellipticals and treadmills, in their gym. They cater their services to that specific experience.
Other fitness centers offer broader services and exercise opportunities. Their facilities offer a variety of gym equipment, from weights to climbers, providing a diverse selection of workouts for clients to choose from.
Aside from equipment access, fitness center services can also include:
- Workout classes
- Private and group training sessions
- Swimming pool access
- Saunas
- Boot camps
- Special events
Create a Diverse Equipment Selection
Although specializing in a specific type of workout experience forms a business niche, it limits your client pool. Opting for multifaceted, multiple experiences and a diverse equipment selection expands your audience reach and increases potential clients and income. The more options you provide, the greater the possibilities.
A basic yet diverse gym selection typically includes:
- Treadmills
- Basic dumbells
- Exercise mats
- Standing bikes
- Medicine balls
- Benches
Octane’s commercial spin bike, the Surge, is a great, technologically advanced gym basic. The Surge provides standing bike exercises with added luxury features like an enhanced console with a calorie meter, magnetic resistance engineering, and biomechanical seat positioning. You should also consider our commercial fan bike, the ADX, for individuals looking for an intense yet beginner-friendly workout.
Pro Tip: Opt for multi-purpose equipment that provides two-in-one workout opportunities to further diversify your fitness center’s equipment selection.
Market Your Fitness Center
Marketing your fitness center spreads the word about your business and brings in the clientele. Any marketing strategy that gets the word out about your center increases business, whether you advertise in the local papers or news channels or build up an online presence using social media. Marketing your fitness center allows you to open your business with eager clients lining up and ready to improve their lifestyle and wellness with you.
Open your very own fitness center with this guide and equipment from Octane Fitness. Our selection of ellipticals, rowers, and bikes includes modern and efficient commercial exercise machines built to last through the years and enhance workout experiences. Check out our inventory of gym equipment and open your thriving fitness center.
