Gym Owners: 3 Things to Consider When Expanding to a New Location
For business owners, the goal of any successful venture is long-term growth and success. For gym owners specifically, success usually means scaling your gym to new communities by opening up multiple locations. While this is an ideal situation for many gym owners, opening a second (or third, or twentieth…) location is an exciting time. After all, it means that your gym has withstood the initial small business growing pains and that you have found your ideal audience. On the other hand, expanding to another location also comes with its fair share of challenges.
Here are 3 things to consider when thinking about opening a new gym location:
- The local community
First and foremost, you need to consider the type of people who live in the area you’re thinking of. While they don’t have to fit your ideal consumer profile, they need to have at least a few things in common with your current members. Does the demographics of this new area fit your gym? Does the median income work well with the cost of memberships at your gym? Are potential members from this area already commuting to your current location? Will this mean you’ll lose members at your original location? Ask these questions and work with your team members to determine if this area is the best for your growth plans.
- The competition
It’s great that your gym is doing so well that it can expand. Opening another location, however, is like starting from scratch. No matter how well-loved your original location is, you’ll need to work from the ground-up to attract new members and set yourself apart from the competition in your new area. Before deciding on where to move, do some serious market research. If there are a ton of yoga studios in this new area, opening a new one might not be the best strategy. But if your team can offer CrossFit, however, that is a whole different story.
- Your service offerings
Which brings us to the final consideration – your services and membership offerings. It’s not uncommon for gym owners to want to stick with what they know best. After all, these services are what made people fall in love with your gym in the first place. Although you’ll want to keep your core services intact, it’s not a bad idea to tailor some new offerings to your new space. Whether that means adding different kinds of classes to stand out from the competition or introducing a new type of workout to fit your space, it’s okay to mix it up a bit! Also, opening a new gym location is the perfect opportunity to test out new ideas. If there’s something your team has been talking about doing for a while, now is the time to try it out new ideas on a willing audience.
Thinking about expanding?
Opening a new gym location may seem overwhelming, but it’s an exciting time for you and your team. Let Paramount help with the hard stuff – call us today to talk to a gym management specialist to learn more!
