Auz Burger

CrossFit Gyms have become wildly popular in recent years, leading many people to want to open their own box gym. CrossFit is an intense workout routine that combines Olympic weightlifting, aerobics, gymnastics, rowing, and more. The goal of this system is to do the maximum amount of work in as little time as possible. There is a higher monthly membership fee for CrossFit gyms, in comparison to traditional gyms, but that does not deter the thousands of Americans who have joined these box gyms. This has made CrossFit gyms a lucrative enterprise for entrepreneurs. Costs of Opening a CrossFit Gym Opening your own CrossFit gym is different than starting a traditional gym. CrossFit gyms are not franchises, but instead affiliates, which means there are not specific guidelines for opening box gyms. While this can make getting started easier in some ways, it can also make them more difficult, since there is not much support from corporate for the affiliates. Become a CrossFit Trainer The first thing you need to do to open a box gym is to become a Level 1 CrossFit trainer. Getting this certification costs $1,000 and you have to take a weekend course. There are other levels of trainers, going up to Level 4, and specialty training classes, that include coaching children in CrossFit. But to open your own box gym, all you need is the Level 1 training. This training does need to be renewed every five years. Each trainer you hire needs to undergo this training too, and many CrossFit gym owners cover the training fee for their employees. You can have apprentices who work under the CrossFit trainers in your gym, but only trainers have to be certified. Ongoing Expenses When you open your CrossFit gym, you are required to pay the corporate offices $3,000 annually for use of the CrossFit brand, logo, promotional materials, and promotion on the CrossFit website. Even if the fees rise in the future, your annual fee will not go up ever. You also have to factor in salaries for your trainers, rent for your facility, utilities, insurance, marketing, and equipment costs. These can vary depending on your location and size. One piece of advice many CrossFit owners give to those considering becoming an Affiliate is to make sure you are prepared to handle the back end, the business side of things. Keep in mind that you will be the one in charge of marketing, sales, and accounting until you can afford to hire out. Initial Costs Your startup costs are estimated to be between $20,000 and $50,000; this includes your $1,000 training and the $3,000 to corporate. CrossFit gyms do not have as much equipment as a traditional gym does, but gym equipment can still be expensive. What to Charge Members Once you have figured out your initial costs and ongoing expenses, you can determine what your membership fees should be to help you make a profit. If, for example, your ongoing monthly costs are $6,300, divide the numbers of members by the monthly membership fee to see what you should charge. The two best options are $80 per month for 79 members and $150 per month for 42 members. The monthly membership fees for a CrossFit gym is usually between $100 and $200. While this is significantly more than a traditional gym, box gyms are a specialty gym, so members will be willing to pay more to go to your gym. This will allow you to charge $150 per month and only need 42 members, in the beginning, to allow you to make a profit. The Bion CrossFit in Arizona charges $150 per month for unlimited group classes, or $175 if the member does not want a contract. They also offer personal training programs and nutrition classes, which are paid for outside of the standard monthly fee. These tactics can help your box gym turn a profit quickly. Finding the Perfect Location for Your CrossFit Gym When you are searching for the perfect location for your box gym, it is important to not let your excitement speed up the process. You need to find a location that can bring in business, and that you can afford the rent on while you are working on building up your business. While taking the premium location with the pricey rent right away may seem like the best move, it is not always recommended to do this before you have built up a clientele. Steel Building Kit General Steel offers Steel Building Kits specifically for gyms that are fully customizable. This will make your CrossFit gym fit your clientele’s needs better than renting a location in a strip mall. They research the location of the property you will be putting your gym on, to make sure the building is made to handle extreme weather. After researching your location, General Steel recommends which building kit they think will be the best one for you, and they work with you to customize your gym. When you receive your building kit from General Steel it will be ready to put together with ease. The construction time and the overall price are significantly reduced, and your center is set up exactly how you want it to be. You can save up to 50% in construction costs with a steel building kit. Space and the Building Itself You need to get a building that will be big enough to hold all of your clientele, but you also do not want to overestimate and end up with a lot of large, empty space. It is recommended to estimate you will need 10 square meters of space per person, to ensure there is enough space for everyone to work out safely. “Get a big enough space right away. There are several examples from colleagues in Finland and abroad, where the space have gotten too small already after 4-6 months from opening,” Mikko Aaltonen, from Reebok CrossFit 33100, said. You also need to take into account things like the ceiling height, since it needs to be tall enough for people to reach the pull-up bars and gymnastic rings, but not so tall that not everyone can reach them. The floor needs to be strong enough to withstand barbells being dropped on it, and the noise that comes with that. Location When looking for your locations, it is important to think about the demographics of your area. They can help you determine if where more ideal locations may be since demographics will help you pinpoint the locations in an area where your main clientele live and work. Putting a gym in the outskirts of urban areas, in the more industrial parts of a town, allows for cheaper rent, larger buildings or lots, and room to grow, you need to find the parts of the outskirts where your demographic would be willing to go. Location is a big factor people take into consideration when looking for a gym, so it needs to be key in your minds too. Network with Other CrossFit Gym Owners It is recommended by other box gym owners that you develop a network of owners of other CrossFit locations to get advice and help each other with their individual businesses. One person on Reddit who sold his CrossFit after just a few months said his biggest mistake was not talking to other enough other box gym owners: “I didn’t speak with enough others who had opened their own gyms. And I didn’t listen to what they said. I mean the basic basic advice everyone gives for a small business starting out is to keep your expenses down. I went straight-away for the prime expensive location. Everything else I could have recovered from. This is what killed me. I thought I was smarter, that I was different, that I would be the exception. Wrong wrong wrong! And I paid for it.” One couple who has had their CrossFit gym since 2007 said that they were approached by new affiliates regularly, but they would often come in unannounced and just start asking questions. “If you want to ask a current owner questions, do something for them. Don’t just drain them dry with your questions and waste their time... Take them out to eat, get them a gift certificate, clean their gym. You are more likely to learn something if you are respectful of their time,” the wife, who was unnamed in the interview, said. Other owners advise that you will be in charge of a lot of things you may not have initially accounted for, such as cleaning the gym and repairing the equipment. Putting it All to Use Once you are ready to open your CrossFit gym, the application process is set up to be completed quickly and easily on their website. Take your time getting everything prepared to set up your business and it can flourish, like other CrossFit Affiliates worldwide. Title Tag: How to open a successful CrossFit gym, and how much it should cost. Meta Description: Tips on how to open a CrossFit gym, including the estimated costs and how to build your CrossFit business.