So, you are a successful Personal Trainer – living the dream, with a loyal following of regular clients who are paying the bills and singing your praises, so you even have a waiting list.

But what is next for you? There is no set career progression for a Personal Trainer, but if you have reached the pinnacle of achievement, you might be thinking of the next step for you – and that might be opening your own gym.

Things to Consider.

Running a business is tough – and as a self-employed Personal Trainer, you might already have some experience of this through marketing and keeping your accounts straight. Moving from that rather simple business model to managing your own gym is a bigger change than you might have considered.

Some of the things that you will need to think about before you leap into gym ownership include:

• A business plan: You may have already completed one of these for your PT work, but a business plan for a brick-and-mortar establishment is going to be much different. You might want to consider working with a specialist to get advice so that you include all the information that you will need to provide – especially if you need to approach the bank for a business loan to get started.
• Budget: There is likely to be two separate budgets that you will need to consider. Firstly, the launch budget. This will include getting the right location for your studio, as well as all the equipment you will need. Initial costs will include things like marketing, recruiting, fitouts and decorating, maybe building work too. There will then be the ongoing costs of the project, like staff wages, heating and lighting, rent, client management systems, marketing, staff training, consumables like toilet roll… so many variables that need to be considered.
• Location: Opening a gym right next door to another one will cause extra competition that could be avoided – and the location of your studio will have an effect on the clients you attract as well as the cost of the lease or purchase. Think about what type of studio you want to be in charge of – and where the best place for it would be.
• Clients: How are you going to get clients, and how are you going to keep them? Are you going to offer Pay as You Go options or just memberships? How are you going to price memberships, and what will your clients get for their monthly subscription?
• Staff: Running your own gym means that you are going to need to hire staff – from manning the reception to teaching classes and training. Even if you are still planning on looking after clients personally, there might not be enough hours in the day for you to do everything, so the likelihood is that you are going to need to find the right staff to help. You will need a strong recruitment strategy to ensure that you are finding the most suitable trainers and instructors to inspire clients.

Business Knowledge

As part of your Level 3 Personal Trainer Course from The Fitness Group UK, you will have access to a number of business-related learning possibilities that could help you make the right choices if you decide to take the leap and open your own gym.

Through the Professionalism and Business Acumen portion of the PT curriculum, you will get a grounding in the basics of running a business that should set you in good stead. Remember that there are additional Continuous Professional Development (CPD) units that will help you learn more, and your support team from The Fitness Group UK are a well-qualified source of knowledge too.

Opening your own gym is a great achievement, but there are a lot of things that need serious consideration before you make the leap.

The Fitness Group UK also owns our own 7 thousand square foot gym, unlike other training providers who have no experience in operating their own gym and work out of other venues.