Setting up a gym is not less than a floodlight playground. The necessities and risks setting up a gym can erupt as tedious to follow bonuses in this business. But what about if a company which can make the whole process look like a bunny from a hat. As Quoted by Ebenezer Kumar, Co-Founder / CEO of Gym Consultants India(GCI) that ‘Brawn + Brain = Winning Synergy’, the formula of this successful firm is indeed helping and has assisted many gyms to pump value and success. Niloy Banerjee from Sportz Business Insights gets hold off Ebenezer understanding his wield and those unknown stories behind where today the country loves to sweat. This below edited nub is worth a read for all thinking to setup its own Gym one day.
Q. What are the basic know-hows before client’s head to set up a gym?
There are a few things we keep in mind before we start out. First up, we would need to understand who the client is, their interest and so forth. Thereafter, it’s also important to gain a deeper understanding of what his or her objective is – their explicit reason for entering into the business. For instance, is it simply a business objective, or is it in fact driven by passion.
Next up, what’s the budget involved, the timeline to carry out the process, and the location? Then it’s time to drill down into some of the specifics – do the clients have their own funds or are they applying for a loan? Is the money ready for deployment or do they have to source it? What is the timeline involved for sourcing funds? After this, we will need to settle upon (in consultation with the client) what type of gym or fitness centre we will proceed with.
Beside this, we would also need to conduct a location survey or study, and also a site/property analysis to find out what the prospects and potential of the property is. That aside, it’s crucial to also carry out adequate business planning and concept planning to reduce the risk of hiccups along the way.
Q. Your offerings to help clients set up a gym?
We help clients right from the word goes, to the launch of the project. As such, we don’t simply offer advice, but actually carry out the implementation and completion of the project. Clients simply don’t come to us only for our knowledge or expertise, but in fact they do rely on the specialised services we offer as well. A quirk about the Indian mentality is that no one pays for ‘gyaan’, in fact consultation is supposed to be free. Now, that’s just one of the reasons why we carry out the implementation and execution too – a journey that may take us three or even six months, depending on the project. We have streamlined this process into 5 simple steps or stages, they are the idea stage, the concept stage, the design stage, the development stage and finally the launch stage. Each stage contains 5 sub steps or stages, for instance, the idea stage has these 5 sub-steps:
- Initial Project Discussions & the Client’s idea
- Brainstorming & Documenting
- Conceptualizing Ideas
- Location Survey
- Site/Property analysis
We ply with our clients throughout the process, and every step of the way to get the job done!
Q. How do you ensure gym equipment suiting their needs adhering to their open floor space?
When we begin our second stage, we carry out a competition analysis. Here we find out what equipment other gyms in a 1 km radius provide, and then arrive at the kind of equipment we have to have at our prospective gym to give it a competitive edge. After this, we take our prospective floor plan to our interior designers, who let us view the design of the interiors with the equipment in it – to see exactly what the gym’s going to look like even before we even begin implementation. This lets us know exactly where everything goes, and hence we can keep the customer experience at the front of our minds – from stretching to warm ups, to cardio, to upper body workouts, to lower body workouts, cool downs, to steam and change rooms, and finally the exit.
Q. GCI models and strategies to match the client’s specifications and demand?
At GCI, we don’t employ a cookie-cutter model, instead we use a custom approach and design every project right from the ground up. From its logo and interiors, to equipment, sales and marketing.
So, there is no specific set of rules we follow – we go beyond what is necessary, to give every project a competitive edge, and to deliver a different, winning experience to every fitness centre. Further, the model we then decide upon, is dependent on the location and the budget that the client has in mind. For instance is it a small, medium or premium project. Also, we make every effort to ensure there’s no overspending, and we help keep clients from making expensive mistakes.
Q. Different clients have different needs, how do you comply with it, space, cost, and best-quality products?
We take a close look at the client’s need, and study the location to find out what’s possible in that particular location, and marry this with what the client has in mind, and indeed their budget. We then proceed with a custom design and give the client three options of cost in terms of equipment and materials – low, medium and high-end. They then choose what best suits their requirements.
Q. A service-driven business ecosystem is pivotal today. How does GYM CONSULTANTS INDIA (GCI) look into after-sales and other service-driven strategies?
As you may have noticed, the service industry is very competitive, and hence we make every effort to ensure that we are constantly be in touch with clients to see if things are going the way it’s intended to. After this, we find out if they would like us to help them again. We are still working on this area, and look to improve even further in a very short period.
Q. Mobility-driven and more connected (IoT, Big Data) infused are nurturing new gym setups, helping owners and users an intuitive experience. GCI portfolio and expertise in developing next-gen gyms?
One of our key objectives is to introduce tech to the gym, – the fitness industry in India hasn’t taken to technology as much as the other industries. To this end, we are introducing it in two different ways, one is to make sure that they use CRM applications like Yoactiv that is designed to solve problems for gym owners. This application will help them automate everything from biometric access, which is connected to the CRM application, to tracking the trainers, tracking employees and even customers – as a result your BCA reports are integrated to the CRM, which also has a lot of other tech involved.
Secondly, when we design something, we don’t do it based on what has happened in the past, instead we are looking at future market trends. This approach ensures that they will be successful in the next three years. In addition, they will be updated regularly, and thus we constantly keep innovating and upgrading ourselves to leverage benefits to our clients.
Q. How do you help understand your clients as you quote, “How Fit is your fitness Business”?
When a customer joins a gym, they go through a process. The first thing is a BMI OR BCA (Body Composition Analysis). This helps the customer understand what his/her fitness level is, what they have to do to improve it, and what kind of workouts and nutrition plans are necessary to get them to the required level of fitness.
Gym owners need to answer similar questions to carry out a fitness business health check up:
- Check what’s happening with our employees. Is everything running smoothly in this regard?
- Are we following the processes in place to ensure that customer walk-ins are being followed up on? How many times are we doing this?
- What is the status of the equipment and hygiene?
- Is the business plan letting us meet our goals so that we can be successful on a monthly, quarterly and yearly basis?
So as a gym owner you need to know if your fitness business is fit at the business end and services provided if it’s up to the mark by regularly analyzing all the different aspects of the business.
Q. What are the trends you foresee shaping the GYM and Fitness industry at large?
We see that a lot of people are getting into fitness and functional fitness – which are made up of Crossfit free-weight workouts. We also see that fitness is going the digital way, and that fitness is a lot more than just going to the gym – it’s about nutrition, well-being, and a total change of lifestyle. We see that people are recognizing this and this will shape their views and habits.
Q. Your ambitions and company goals for 2020?
We want to be the team that empowers gym & fitness centre owners. To this end, we want to be able to provide them with the support system, and our expert implementation team – without having to pay the high franchisee fees and royalties. What’s more, we want to help them save money by avoiding expensive mistakes and having a proper business plan in place that will deliver the ROI on their fitness business.
We want our clients to understand and realise that Brain+Brawn+Business = Successful Fitness business!
Lift the weight with Brain+Brawn to break even on monthly operational costs!
Q. Being a young entrepreneur, few words to keep our young readers healthy from mind and health?
Healthy living and fitness is a way of life! It all starts in your head. When you start thinking about living a healthy life, you start doing things to help you with the same. It’s what you eat every day, it’s what you do every day, the habits you give up, and the habits you pick up that help you lead a healthy lifestyle in the long run. We believe in our maxim: workout, eat right, be smart and stay fit!
Disclaimer:
The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as a health advice. We would ask you to consult a qualified professional or medical expert to gain additional knowledge before you choose to consume any product or perform any exercise.
