Here are the 4 biggest mistakes PT’s and boutique clubs make when starting their business
and how to avoid them ✅:
1. Thinking people will come to their facility to sit at a huge bar or lobby to have protein shakes and coffee.
You’re not a bar. You specialize in training. When people want to have drinks, they have better places to go to that are more special and specialized than your training club…
Focus on training and use that space to get more members in. Keep the square meters profitable. Don’t try to be 2 businesses at once.
2. Oversizing the dressing rooms.
Dressing rooms have to be heated and need to be the cleanest space in your facility at all time.
That means they also cost a lot and keep costing after your initial investment.
Keep dressing rooms very small and preferably make single person unisex dressing rooms that have a shower and small dressing space in one cabin.
3. Thinking everybody will take a shower and investing loads of money in boilers that can wash an army and shower spaces that can fit a truck.
We know out of research that only 30% of your clients will take a shower once in a while.
Out of that 30%, 10% will take a daily shower.
Showers cost a lot to install and require constant maintenance.
Install max 2 showers and make them unisex in a small space that’s easy to heat and clean.
4. Spending all of the budget onto expensive training gear and machines, and thereby having to save on flooring.
This is probably the worst mistake one can make when starting a club or studio.
In Belgium we have a saying:
“Even when the monkey weares a golden ring, it stays and is an ugly thing.”
Your clients most often don’t know the difference between a €150 budget barbell or a €400 elite olympic barbell. Only you as a professional know that difference. Granted: some clients do have and need that luxury touch.
But you can be damn sure everybody recognises an ugly cheap floor.
A club with an ugly floor and the most expensive training gear on the planet… is still an ugly club!
Don’t save on flooring, it’s probably the most important investment of your total budget.
You don’t want to/can’t renew your floor every 5 years so make it nice.
You can however buy a new piece of equipment every few months and actually make that a nice experience for customers, by showing them their membership money is used for improving the club.
Looking for a good partner and advice to start your club or physio practice? We're here ;-)
