From Blog
The terrible economics of gyms
Where gyms overspend and screw up — AC bills, all-day hours, wasted floor space, discounting, and treating coaches as a cost rather than the product — and the one number our space is built around.
Published
by Adarsh Gopal
Here are the ways I think gyms tend to overspend or screw up.
AC bills. Keeping 2,000-plus square feet cool all day with air conditioning isn’t cheap — nor is maintaining the equipment that keeps things cool. Gyms should rethink it: natural ventilation, man coolers, large fans, high ceilings, reflective roofs, and real estate that isn’t clustered.
Staying open all day. Gyms are better served attacking peak hours, or concentrating client attendance into a few hours. Keeping the gym open, lights on, staff attending and fans running for three people ambling on a treadmill is just bad business.
Dedicating floor space to nonsense or underused equipment. This calls for unapologetically believing in — and nudging clients towards — specific outcomes. A powerlifting gym will be overweight on squat racks, barbells and deadlift platforms. Spaces like mine prioritise lever squats, pull-up bars, push-up rigs and squat racks. Every equipment choice is made to help clients towards certain strength outcomes: getting better at pull-ups, deadlifts, push-ups, dips. When you unapologetically stand for something and work towards those outcomes with conviction, you will attract, over time, a loyal crowd that values them.
Selling space and variety, not outcomes. If you offer five to ten different ‘protocols’ under one roof, it is most unlikely you will attract the best coaches to teach those skills.
Seeing coaches as an indispensable expense rather than as the main product. This remains the greatest industry sin, in my opinion. The fitness business should put coaching front and centre. Not doing this has cost the industry pricing power, and failed to attract better coaching talent onto the gym floor.
Discounting. Every festive offer, every ‘two months free on an annual’, every negotiated rate for a walk-in is a statement about what you think the space and the coaching are worth. Price clearly, publish it, and hold it. A client who joined at a discount has been told the real number was never real — and a coach on the floor has been told the same thing about their time.
None of this works without a number. We work with 25 people an hour, and the entire space is built around that number. We don’t sign 75 and hope 25 show up. We give you the hour, and we make sure you use it.
That’s also why we don’t discount. When you sell access, an empty slot costs you nothing — so you sell as many as you can and price accordingly. When you sell an hour with a coach in it, the slot is the product. And those who value it will pay a premium for it.