How to Open a Fitness Studio: A Step-by-Step Guide

Opening a fitness studio can sound like a difficult task, and it can be, without the right knowledge and tools. After helping our network of studio partners (aka franchisees) open their own studios, and opening several corporate locations, we have a good grasp on what it takes. Today we will tell you how to open a fitness studio.

Decide What Kind of Fitness Studio You Want to Open

Before you just open a boutique fitness studio, it’s important that you decide what style you want to offer. Do you want to start a new concept? If so, how can you make it stand out in an already saturated market? If you’d like to open a concept that exists, what sort of franchising opportunities does the company offer? Weighing out whether to start on your own or buy into a company that offers support is a major decision!

At True40, we call our franchisees “studio partners,” because they are truly partners in our company. We want them to have autonomy but feel supported, and a part of something bigger.

Determine What Training and Certifications You Need for Your Fitness Style

Whether you go out on your own or join a franchise will impact what training and certifications you need. If you join a franchise, you typically receive all the trainings and certifications you need. You’ll get onsite and corporate headquarters training, and be given an operations manual that tells you everything you need to know to operate a successful studio.

On the flip side, if you open your own concept, you will be responsible for determining what training and certifications you need. This is a large endeavor, but if you find a business coach or mentor, they can be extremely helpful in consulting with you on the right steps to take.

Write a Business Plan

Drafting a gym business plan is a key part of planning for your studio. It helps with so many things, like:

• Cleary defining your mission and vision: It helps you define your goals, mission, and vision for the business, which is essential for guiding your decisions and actions.
• Strategic direction: The business plan outlines the strategies and steps you need to take to achieve your goals, like market analysis, competitive analysis, marketing strategies, operational plans, and financial projections.
• Understanding your market: Through the process of writing a business plan, you conduct research on your industry, target market, and competitors.
• Attracting investors or financing: If you need external funding to start your business, whether from investors or lenders, a well-written business plan is essential.
• Operational guidance: A business plan serves as a roadmap for how your business will operate on a day-to-day basis. It includes details on staffing, logistics, inventory management, and other operational aspects.
• Risk management: By identifying potential risks and challenges in advance, you can develop contingency plans to mitigate these risks.
• Measuring success: A business plan includes key performance indicators (KPIs) and milestones that allow you to track your progress and measure your success over time.
• Communication tool: A business plan helps you articulate your business idea to stakeholders such as potential partners, employees, suppliers, and customers.

At True40, we provide our potential studio partners with a sample business plan as a starting point, so you don’t have to do this alone!

Determine What Kind of Entity You Will Be

We highly recommend working with a good attorney and accountant to determine how to structure your business. Having this team in place ensures you take the right steps and avoids issues later on.

Figure Out Your Funding

“How much does it cost to open a fitness studio?” is one of the most frequent questions we hear. The cost of opening a gym varies greatly pending the gym equipment needed, franchise model, staffing structure, etc. It’s important to research this when deciding what concept to offer. Financial projections will give you a good idea of what you will need. Once you have a range, you will need to investigate funding options, whether it’s personal funding, a business loan, loan from family and friends, investors, or grants.

This is another topic that you will want your accountant to assist with. If you join a franchise network, it’s likely that the corporate team can help you identify some good options for funding, as well.

Define Your Brand

Defining your brand is more than just choosing a name and logo for your fitness studio; it’s about creating a distinct identity that resonates with your target audience. Your brand should reflect your studio’s mission, values, and unique offerings. If you’re looking to join a franchise model, it’s important to resonate with the company’s mission, and to interview the corporate team about how they stay in line with their values internally and externally. You can read more about how True40 does that here.

If opening your own studio, consider the following steps to define your brand effectively: your mission statement, core values, unique selling proposition, visual identity, and brand voice.

Determine Your Marketing Plan

Once you draft your business plan and define your plan, you’ll determine your marketing brand. If you join an existing franchise, they can do this for you, but if you open your own concept, you’ll want to research what has and hasn’t worked well for competitors. Marketing strategies are an important part of your businesses’ succcess.

Build a Website

Once again, if you join an existing franchise, this will be done for you. Easy peasy! If opening your own gym, you will determine whether to build this yourself or hire someone to help. It should be visually appealing, easy to follow, and easy to book classes.

Claim Your Social Media Handle

This is such an exciting step and makes everything feel real! Your franchise company can help you with this, or if you open your own concept, you’ll want to chose a name that has social media handles readily available.

Figure Out Where to Find Your Audience

Research, research, research! Your business plan will help you identify this information. So will polling people in your market about what they are looking for in a fitness studio.

Find a Space – Location, Location, Location

Location is everything! Noting aspects like parking avaiability, neighboring businesses, foot traffic, and street visibility and all very important. If you enter a franchise, the corporate team will help with site selection, but if you open your own concept, you’ll want to hire a real estate broker (free of charge for you) who can help identify several good fits according to your needs.

Hire Your Team

Last but certainly not least, you’ll want to hire the team of people who will support you! Managing a team is a big part of studio ownership. There are many factors to consider like: do you hire a manager, full time versus part time, how many classes do you want to teach versus other instructors, etc. A franchise company will help with this during training. If you offer your own concept, you can make all of these decisions on your own!

Phew! We know this is a lot. If the franchising model is attractive to you, we would love to chat about you becoming part of the True40 family! Just email hello@true40studio.com and we will be happy to chat.