staffy

Good luck with it Paul!!!

Nine Pack

I've put your house on the market James & you can buy our entire street with the proceeds, I knew you would'nt mind.... Thanks guys, I hope it all goes to plan.

Today was one of many tedious days spent trawling round looking at seven properties I found on the commercial property agents websites & not one half as nice as they look on the website. I am beginning to develop a healthy dislike for the commercial agents. The way I see it, thier job is to sell, and let out properties, am I right? So why is it when you approach them about one, they say they'll get such a body to call you to arrange a viewing & then promptly go & sit on their thumb?!!:gun: Not that it's driving me mad or anything. Case in point, we found a brilliant one in Bredbury, I'll even go so far as to name it, Steroplast House. It is a 15,000 square feet building with plenty of parking & a nice surrounding area with little competition. The lease terms are a bit steep but we could negotiate when the time comes. I e mailed the agent on this one following a preliminary viewing three weeks ago, and having spoken to them on the phone. They were supposed to be asking the owner if they had any objection to the use we were proposing. Five e mails since & not so much as a peep. This part of the process is easily the most frustrating & can be quite demoralising but I absolutely will not quit till we find the right one. Woe betide the estate agent who tries to fcuk me about then! (no offence James, I know you were a nice estate agent )

As this is a journal, I thought I should share with you the good side, and the frustrations so you can see it's not all plain sailing. I am now back in front of the PC (obviously) ready to trawl another set of websites.

Here's an opportunity I discussed with 'Lil' Paul today after our fruitless search. I know it's a long shot, but if anyone on the UK Muscle board can tip us off about a suitable property that results in us signing a lease, we'll give them a free years peak membership, or if they are out of area, a generous selection of CNP supplements by way of a thankyou, no catch. Our requirements are on paper quite simple:

A modern business unit, or nice quality building needing little or no renovation
(i.e. not a bomb site!) One that has previously been a gym/leisure facility would be fantastic as it cuts down on red tape.
Good parking space available
We'll consider anything 5-15,000 square feet with reasonable lease terms of £15-30,000 per annum plus vat.

Hundreds of eyes are better than four! We have already scoured the Stockport, Sale & Altrincham areas but anywhere in greater manchester will be considered providing it's not in the middle of the roughest estate in town!

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LEWIS

The changing areas are going to be where we will spend a lot of money. Nice lockers, island seating, slate tiled floors etc.

remember slate is porus mate, ive got it through my house and you have too keep sealing it. In a locker room with showers could be a nightmare

LEWIS

how do you guy's quote and have a name at the top cant seem to do it

ah24

Just click the 'quote' button lol then it will take you into a message window. Just type anywhere out of the beginning ' [ ' and the end one.

Nine Pack

Plus you can mess with the quote! Sorry bud :love:

Lewis, we have some tiles that I am told don't need re sealing, but I'll see what's on offer when we are fitting the changing areas out. May even have underfloor heating in there too if costs permit.

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''I reject your reality and substitute my own''
Adam Savage.

LEWIS

thatl be nice

Nine Pack

Ok then, more on the plans. One of the first things I thought I would need to decide before I laid any plans down were what type of gym/club I was going to open. Most assumed I’d be opening a bodybuilders gym, very hardcore and in truth, business needs aside, I’d love to. The truth of the matter is that if we want to succeed, we need to cater for the more mainstream gym users so I decided it will have a real quality feel to the place, but with the emphasis on proper training & not posing.

So I started to lay plans for what I’ll call plan ‘A’. Plan ‘A’ had a main gym area set out with machines & free weights arranged in such a way as to have areas dedicated to particular parts of the body i.e. all leg equipment together etc. As well as this there would be 20 or 30 pieces of cardio equipment, and even 20 spin bikes. I’m not a big fan of spin classes & would most likely die if I did one, but I know they are popular. There would be two studios for class based exercise & we’d have two or three instructors doing classes every day. In the studios will be the usual array of mats, body bars, swiss balls, small dumb bells and also, a full set of kettle bells as these are a great tool for training sports specific athletes needing explosive power & strength. Plan ‘A’ also has a injury therapy clinic on site which is sub let to a qualified therapist who we know that does all types, including the Reiki healing etc. There will also be a protein ‘Bar’ where we will do all sorts of things. I was inspired by the protein bars in the U.S when I used Gold’s in Vegas, they have a massive menu of drinks made to order & far tastier than the normal choc, vanilla or strawberry we have here.

We will also have a sauna in each changing room, and some sunbeds that look like bl**dy time machines, very funky.

There would be self employed PT’s working there on license, much the same as I did at LA Fitness, but at a far more reasonable rent, less than half to be more precise. This would allow them to make a decent income, and more importantly, not feel the need to quit & have me replacing them every five minutes which is not good for the clients continuity. It also can mean the clients, our members, will be more likely to reach their goals & remain members at the gym. This is a win-win between the gym, the PT’s and the members. The PT rates will be set by the club & make it far more affordable for everyone, not a luxury, but with the lower rent the PT’s pay the gym, they can still earn a good wage. This is a win-win in my eyes. I did not like being bled dry by LA fitness when I was there. I paid £612.50 a month just for the pleasure of being there so had to do 18 sessions before I started to earn anything. I think this is a lose-lose for everyone except the club so I wanted no part of that culture. I am told that LA PT's now pay at least £800 a month just to operate in the club, this is extortion IMO.

So, I set out doing revenue & expenditure projections based on plan 'A' which involved many tedious hours setting up spreadsheets & calculating an approximate income for each revenue stream as the membership base grew. It is vital that we have a model to measure our progress against as we go along so I used data from my CNP supplement sales business to accurately project a successful gym’s sales as I have a few gyms on my customer list. In reality, we’ll be selling more than they do as we have the knowledge on the products that is sometimes lacking in these places as no doubt you will have encountered on occasion. We will sell supplements, really nice workout clothing, accessories, as well as the protein bar which also will do coffee, tea & smoothies. I have to have a monstrous coffee machine as I am a self confessed caffeine fiend.

Anyway, to cut a long, boring story short, we are now on plan ‘C’ which has the financial projections set with slightly lower membership prices, and does not include the sub let of the injury clinic, or PT licenses. It is still commercially viable, but will take a little longer to see it in profit, but it's still worth it.

The reason for this is that you can plan all you like what type of gym you want, kit it out as nice as you like, decorate it beautifully & make it a really nice place, but until you have your membership built up, it’s almost impossible to tell what type of gym it will actually be, your customers are the business so they make it what it is. It may well fill up with wealthy gym users who want a more upmarket type of place, it may also fill up with normal gym users like you & me who have different needs. I decided it best we build the gym infrastructure with a view to expanding & adding these services as we go along, subject to demand. This I feel is far better than spending £30k getting the studios kitted out & never using them. If there is no demand for that type of thing, we will invest in even more of the stuff that is being used. So in essence, what I am saying is that the plans we have laid down are calculated meticulously, but also flexible so we can adapt to demands. The customer base will ultimately dictate what services we offer so we will see where it takes us. This place may well end up being a more upmarket BBers gym but only time will tell. Either way, it’s going to be kitted out to the highest standard & well presented. We have researched the areas we are looking at extensively so we can make a fairly accurate prediction about the customer base, but it does not do to be inflexible.

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''I reject your reality and substitute my own''
Adam Savage.

leeston

i like the sound of it so far. I also like the fact that it is going to be on the south side of manchester. Could you make it as far south as Birmingham!!!!

One thing that comes to mind is the supps side of things. Could you include supps behind the desk. My old gym was just round the corner from tropicana's warehouse. The gym still made more sales from the gym members than tropicana. I think it was the convenience more than anything as the prices were the same!!!!

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Nine Pack

I think south Manchesters borders may not quite extend to Birmingham :( , sorry bud.

We will be having a big supplement concession in the gym, more of a small shop in itself. Admittedly, it will be primarily CNP but I have access to most makes so will keep stock of a wide range of stuff, even some nice clothing. I like the Explosive Fibres stuff, Gasp, Better Bodies (they make some really nice female workout clothes), and maybe even some Uncle Sam. If anyone here has been to Gold's in Venice, you'll have seen the shop they have on site there, we'll have something similar.

The search for property is still ongoing, but I am chasing up the agent on theBredbury site on monday as I think it's easily the best we have seen to date so we are going to push for that one. Just gotta get the estate agent to pull thier finger out, easier said than done it would seem.

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''I reject your reality and substitute my own''
Adam Savage.

SCJP

You're the expert, but do you really need all that gear? A front squat machine, seated side lateral machine, etc. - I'm sure you could halve the amount of equipment, thus saving a small fortune & it would have no detrimental impact on the venture.

Listen to what Lewis says as well (perhaps you could get a shoelace tieing machine?). You can get plenty of cheaper, lower maintenance materials than slate, that would give the same feel of quality. Don't get conned by a poncy architect singing & dancing about some high end spec. that you don't need.

Finally, how are you going to manage the situation in respect of 'other' supps? Zero tolerance? I'm not into this side of training, but given the nature of the business, I should imagine you could get some nasty (not that you're nice & fluffy, but I think you get my point) or stupid folk trying to extort a little extra cash from you.

Interesting thread, by the way.

Nine Pack

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''I reject your reality and substitute my own''
Adam Savage.

Littleluke

Dude the gym is going to be amazing.. Can't you open it in Portsmouth!! lol

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Nine Pack

If you can move Portsmouth to Manchester, then sure!

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''I reject your reality and substitute my own''
Adam Savage.

Nine Pack

I had planned on not starting the journal till we had secured premises, but there you go. Got a very promising lead on the go so won't jinx it & I'll keep my neck shut till we have it.

We'll be making a trip to Birmingham next week to have a good ol' play on the Gym80 machines. The company has recently done a large installation at a club down there & they use it as a sort of showroom. I need to make sure all the stuff on the list is how I would like it to be. I have no worries though as the equipment I have used of thiers up to now is great.
Otherwise we are in a bit of a strange limbo at the moment. There has been months of endless planning & financial forecasting & now everything is in place, but no place to put it all in yet. B*gger. :bored:

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''I reject your reality and substitute my own''
Adam Savage.