Question: I'm looking at a space with approximately 1800-2000 square feet of workable space. I want to limit the membership to 100-150 members to keep it from being too crowded and offer semi private training as well.
Is there a formula to determine how many members/clients a gym can support?
What about equipment spacing? Is there a standard distance for this?
Thanks for the help! - Adam
Adam,
There are formulas but I have found they are not 100% accurate. I have used a few and sometimes I am in the $$ and sometimes not. It depends on your fixed costs and other factors.
You need to pick the right one for your situation.Cosgrove is much better at that stuff than me.
This business is all about revenue per square foot when determining profitability. You need to figure out all of your fixed costs, incidentals, etc and then see how much revenue you need to bring in.
You should sit down and do this exercise:
Add up all of your monthly costs,that's your break even point.Do some cypering and figure out what you'll need to charge for a membership based on the number you want to keep it at.
I think 150-200 is low for 2000 square feet, especially if you are doing groups. This is dependent on your market demographics as well. In NYC you will get more people to draw from than in East Overshoe.
If you need to bring in $10g a month to break even and you have 200 members you need to charge $50 a month to break even. This could be as basic dues with more charged for premium services. That's your profit (premium services).
If you have 100 members paying $50 to use the gym, and 100 members paying the $50 as basic dues + another $100 a month for semi private training you are at an additional $10g in revenue which is potentially $10g's in profit per month.
Get it?
Try and get all of you costs covered by the lowest price point so all additional revenues are profit.
As far as equipment spacing, this is usually up to your local building codes.
Some places have regulations and some don't.
When running a facility like this space is at a premium, and you'll need to get the most bang for your buck and square footage.
A great starting point is an Erect-A-Rack. You can fit a lot of people in a small footprint and maximize profit with one.
It is one of the best investments we have ever made for our PT section.
Let me know if I can be of more help.
