When should you not buy a gym?

In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” host Mike Warkentin dives into this question with Nick Habich, Two-Brain mentor and owner of Shark Bite Fitness and Nutrition in Cape Coral, Florida.

Nick has bought a couple of gyms and passed on several others, and he’s acquired a few horror stories along the way.

Some of the red flags he’s learned to look out for include high expenses—such as a ridiculously costly lease—and mismatches between financial data in the gym’s billing software and its profit and loss statement (P&L).

A lot of gym owners look to acquire businesses because they want to make more money, but they can often find opportunities to generate more revenue within their existing businesses. That’s not to say you should never buy another gym, just that the best plan is to optimize your existing business first.

Nick’s biggest tip? If your gym can’t run without you, don’t even think about buying another one. Start by improving your current gym with mentorship and then pursue other endeavors from a position of strength.

Links

Gym Owners United

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0:51 - The buying-and-selling experience

6:52 - Buy a gym that’s unprofitable?

12:57 - Verify the numbers

18:46 - Rates that are too low

27:01 - Temptations and business decisions

When a gym owner sells or closes a business, it’s often because they’re burned out, broke or forced to sell for some reason.

But what does a “good exit” from gym ownership look like?

In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” Two-Brain founder Chris Cooper talks with two former gym owners who had successful exits—Taryn Dubreuil and John Franklin.

Both entrepreneurs explain why they opened gyms in the first place and detail how successful their gyms were at peak.

Then they share what helped them make the decision to exit and exactly how they sold.

Two things they had in common: knowing what their gyms were worth and having a clear next step.

Links

Gym Owners United

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3:28 - Why did Taryn open a gym?

9:05 - Selling your gym

20:02 - Was it all worth it?

22:33 - Why did John open a gym?

29:14 - What should I sell?

Using mostly unconventional marketing methods, Mike Doehla built a nutrition company that sold to Anytime Fitness for eight figures.

In today’s episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” host John Franklin chats with Mike, former owner of Stronger U Nutrition.

Prior to its sale, Stronger U had over 50,000 lifetime members, and about half of those members were in its Facebook group, where Mike focused on sharing knowledge and building community.

Outside the group, Mike’s marketing tactics ranged from sticking business cards inside nutrition books to sitting in coffee shops with a giant laptop sticker that read “Hi, I'm Mike. Ask me nutrition questions.”

If you’d like to ask Mike nutrition questions—or business questions—you can reach him on Instagram: @mikedoehla

Links

Gym Owners United

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3:30 - Creating community

9:00 - First 100 clients

23:04 - Getting traction with groups

35:12 - Generating buzz for small gyms

48:59 - Removing unnecessary boundaries