[quote]jp_dubya wrote:
malonetd wrote:
kevinm1 wrote:
Sad to say it there is no profit in a gym built for people like me and others on this site
That’s the thing. Am I running this gym to be a profitable, successful business or am I building what I think would be the perfect gym?
If it was to be a profit gym, I would run it similar to most of the commercial chains across America with a few tweaks.
I’d like to wait for the people to open these dream gyms described, only for hard core (gaff) lifters with heavy metal music, wait for them to fail financially and pick them up for pennies on the dollar.[/quote]
There are some out there that succeed. There’s just a fine line that has to be walked.
My gym is at least hardcore friendly. It’s borderline hole in the wall with plenty to attract both the serious strength athletes and machine and treadmill junkies. It has chains, bands, bumper plates, and various strongman implements, and it also has stairmasters, ellipticals, and tanning beds. The owner also runs a powerlifting meet and a strongman competition (both non-sanctioned) once a year, and he also is a competitive bodybuilder.
I guess if I were to open and run a gym, I would try to follow his lead, but there’s still much, much more money to be had in Bally’s and other commercial chains.
It’s been said already on this thread, but there’s really no shot of making a profit with a hardcore gym. Personally, my dream is to open Jamie’s Gym, aimed solely at powerlifters, strongmen, and athletes of the like. However, there just arent’ that many of us. If there were:
Forza Benches
Oly platforms as far as the eye can see
Monolifts also as far as the eye can see
Bumper Plates
100 lb plates
Dumbells up to 200 lbs and then a few plate loaded dumbell handles so we can go heavier then 200
A Ford F150 right in the middle of the gym so we can pull it, push it, and put plates in the bed and pick that shit up
Farmer’s walk implements
A super yolk
Atlas stones
A ginormous leg press that can hold 3000 lbs
Several GHR machines
An ammonia station
A deer piss station for people that are more hardcore then the ammonia people
Chalk all the fuck over the place
Oh, and a vomit trough in the corner
I’m sure I’m leaving a few ideas I’ve had over the years out…
I think I’d paint a rack pink, maybe some glitter, wrap a bunch of feather boa’s around it, and put a big motivational poster of a giant schlong on the wall behind it, and then make a “Curl Rack” sign to hang above it.
[/quote]
this could backfire though. you might attract a lot of new members…
I’d run my gym as a business with the main goal being netting as much money possible.
To do this, I’d set up an environment that would attract the greatest number of dues paying people and would probably use the yuppie gyms as a business model.
There would be pop on the radio, lots of colors, lots of space and many other minor details creating a “feel good” environment.
Then i’d make a home gym with a power rack, a bench, a dead lift station, a chin up bar and lots of weights and dumbells for myself.
I’d still play pop music, but it would be of the 80’s variety.
What is weird is I know this is all fantasy talk. Talk about gyms and “how it’d be so perfect…” are the same discussions that are had about bars and pubs. Every regular customer at a bar knows that they could make a HUGE amount of cash if “this were my place…”
Damn im glad i workout in this old school gym and not a shitty fitness center. In this gym i can listen to my own music, shout as much as i want to, drop the weight if i felt to and go there whenever i want to, because we have keycards. No retarted supermodern machines, but we have a few treadmills though
[quote]jp_dubya wrote:
What is weird is I know this is all fantasy talk. Talk about gyms and “how it’d be so perfect…” are the same discussions that are had about bars and pubs. Every regular customer at a bar knows that they could make a HUGE amount of cash if “this were my place…”[/quote]
Nice analogy. I actually know two people who tried to do this. One opened a bar and failed miserably. The other had a moderately successful restaurant, but decided the amount of time and effort he put into running it wasn’t worth it. He decided to go back to managing a corporate restaurant chain.
I actually have my own garage gym. My friends garage and mostly my stuff thats worth well over 2000. We can play are own music, all the equipment is ours to use when we want e.g: i can bench for two hours solid without someone waiting to use the bench.
Or if a few of us workout together we can superset upto 4 exercises together and not have to worry about waiting to use the equipment, we just do it like a circuit to get extreme pumps. The sense of community is great, friends and family can use whenever they like. Now if i had this on a bigger scale, well…
[quote]jp_dubya wrote:
What is weird is I know this is all fantasy talk. Talk about gyms and “how it’d be so perfect…” are the same discussions that are had about bars and pubs. Every regular customer at a bar knows that they could make a HUGE amount of cash if “this were my place…”[/quote]
and bar owners are pretty profitable so long as the market they target is large enough to bring in enough patrons.
[quote]texasguy1 wrote:
jp_dubya wrote:
What is weird is I know this is all fantasy talk. Talk about gyms and “how it’d be so perfect…” are the same discussions that are had about bars and pubs. Every regular customer at a bar knows that they could make a HUGE amount of cash if “this were my place…”
and bar owners are pretty profitable so long as the market they target is large enough to bring in enough patrons. [/quote]
[quote]jp_dubya wrote:
texasguy1 wrote:
jp_dubya wrote:
What is weird is I know this is all fantasy talk. Talk about gyms and “how it’d be so perfect…” are the same discussions that are had about bars and pubs. Every regular customer at a bar knows that they could make a HUGE amount of cash if “this were my place…”
and bar owners are pretty profitable so long as the market they target is large enough to bring in enough patrons.
Some are. The vast majority aren’t though. [/quote]
I suppose. But if you open a bar on some side road behind a newspaper printing warehouse, you can’t expect much.
A bar with a good business plan, and a gym too, will be profitable for sure.
Some people just start businesses with no thought, and of course they fail.
I’d have a Men’s locker room a Women’s locker room and a coed locker room:)
One real idea I would do would be to put up a board and then I would take pictures of people who are doing well and put them up. Call it the wall of fame. Hit a new PR, get an athletic scholarship etc…you get to go up on the wall.
[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:
It isn’t very exciting, but my gym will be set up us a compliment to my chiropractic clinic, and will be predominantly rehab based, but with a ‘special’ room, with a lifting platform, power rack, bars, dumbell handles, GHR, video camera and other performance related stuff.
In the ‘special area’, I will work with athletes, and dedicated gym-goers, etc who need to focus on technique, etc as part of a sports rehab program.
However this will also be the place where I train, so there will be some other ‘stuff’ as well. No, not steroids, lol.
Bushy[/quote]
Mine would follow very similar lines, just swap the chiro for massage…
Ironic about the earlier analogy with a bar; gyms, bars, and restaurants are the businesses most likely to fail within their first years.
It is really hard to make money off of just ONE gym.
I want to open a gym one day when i get the money, it would be just like every other gym you see around now adays, but there would be a special section in the back that no one could see or just walk into, it would be invite only, it would have all the strongman stuff along with all the pl/oly stuff ya need and it would be by invite only and you would have to prove yourself to get back there.
