Fitness centre business plan: Push your business to the next level

If you are looking for funding for your fitness studio from financial institutions, individual lenders, or established investors, then having a solid business plan is essential. A business plan is a fundamental document that sets out the goals of an organisation, available resources, and how specified objectives should be achieved. The document also highlights various strategies employed to achieve business objectives and the timeline within which they should be met. If you have intentions to push your fitness centre to the next level, you must understand the various components that will define your business plan. This article captures details of everything that you should know when drafting a business plan.

Defining a business plan

A business plan is defined as a formal document that acts as the roadmap for an organisation. Fundamentally, a business plan shows how your company operates, its success path, and predictions on the future of the business. In most cases, a business plan will comprise of the following elements:

• Company description
• Executive summary
• Products and services
• Financing
• Market analysis
• Organisational structure and staffing
• Marketing plan

Benefits of having a business plan for a fitness studio

Essentially, there is no problem working without a business plan. However, for a fitness studio, with a business plan, you stand an opportunity to leverage the benefits that come with such a plan. Here is an overview of some of the benefits of working with a fitness centre business plan.

1. Awards

While this might not be the most sought-after benefit of a business plan, entrepreneurial awards have become quite popular across the globe. Such awards include investment capital, grants, and mentorships. Whether you are awarded for being the best entrepreneur or the best innovation, you will need a business plan as part of the requirements in the application process.

2. Planning

Having the clarity of ideas for your fitness centre put in writing is one of the key advantages of having a business plan. The plan helps you to understand the scope of operation of your gym as well as knowing the resources and workforce you need to keep your business on the move. This will also help you in your gym brand future expansion plans. You can refer to your written plan each time you want to make progress to your fitness centre.

3. Draft of ideas

When planning to improve your fitness and gym services, you are likely to have a pool of ideas. This is why you need a business plan, which enables you to have rough drafts of all your ideas under one document. With these rough drafts, you can manage to identify the ideas with the highest likelihood of success.

4. Enhanced research

A fitness centre business plan outlines the essential factors necessary for the success of the business. These factors include the source of funding, market analysis, resources needed, cost of facilities, and the existing market competitors. A business plan enables you to run effective research on these factors, giving you informed insights on the best approaches to adopt for the success of your fitness centre.

Elements of a business plan for a fitness studio

This guide gives an overview of some of the fundamental features of a business plan.

Company description

This element of the business plan highlights why you have chosen to be in the business of fitness, and the solutions the company offers to its clients. The company description of your fitness centre will include the organisation’s history, core values, objectives, and strengths. If you are new in the fitness industry, then you might want to address your professional achievements in this section.

Executive summary

The executive summary is the initial thing that readers of your business plan interact with before perusing through the entire document. An executive summary is basically a brief overview of your fitness centre business plan. It must be brief and concise, outlining a description of your business, market needs for the fitness industry, and how your gym will address those needs. The fitness studio’s mission statement is also highlighted here. When writing this section, you must have the reader in mind. Avoid using fitness jargon here, unless you are giving definitions for used terms.

The essence of the Executive Summary section is to outline every element captured throughout the business plan that will be sufficient to create an appealing first impression. Other elements to indicate in your Executive Summary may include the following:

• Description of your fitness centre.
• A brief outline of your company’s history, location, staff, and organisation structure.
• Fitness services and related products offered by your fitness centre.
• Financial goals achieved by your business.
• Financial projections for the next three to five years.
• Goals that your fitness studio intends to achieve and the resources needed to achieve them.
• Future growth plans for your business.

Market analysis

The market analysis section highlights the research of key elements that contribute to the success of your fitness centre. These factors include your competition, market, and industry.

Competition

Your fitness centre operates in an environment controlled by other fitness players. It is essential to highlight who your competitors are and how your business stands out from the competition. How are your products and services different from those offered by your competitors? How do you intend to leverage the predicted growth in the industry against the increasing number of fitness service providers?

Market

This section is also to address the fitness studio’s target market. How will your business meet the needs of the growing demand in the expanding fitness industry? Is your company offering solutions to your local market? If you are using Facebook to market your fitness centre, how are the Facebook Audiences Insights playing along?

Industry

Your business plan must address the industry within which your fitness studio is operating, as well as show demand for your business in line with the industry’s characteristics.

Products and services

This section of your fitness centre business plan is where you indicate the services and products that your business is selling to its clients. Here you can talk about your membership plans, personal training, yoga training, pilates training sessions, and other gym services. You can also address your courses, packages, and offers.

Financing

The financing section comes towards the end of the business plan. However, if you are looking for funds to start or expand your fitness studio, then this is one of the most critical sections of the document. You will need to capture your documents that show your financial status as a fitness centre, including balance sheets, cash flow statements, income statements, and cost analysis. In this section is where you also address your financial projections for the next three to five years. This section enables financiers to have a snapshot of financial goals that your fitness centre intends to achieve.

Organisational structure and workforce

This section shows how people involved in your fitness studio are organised, including shareholders, stakeholders, managers, directors, and the subordinate staff. You will also need to indicate the type of employees your business will be hiring to enhance your expansion and their designated roles towards the success of your fitness studio.

Marketing plan

This is a critical section. It addresses how you intend to get your brand to the target market. You will be increasing your brand visibility through your marketing plan. The only way customers will come to you is when they know where you are and what you do. In this section, you will indicate all the traditional and modern marketing methods your fitness centre will adopt to reach out to potential customers. Market experts recommend a highlight of the following elements in your market plan:

1. Product – These are the items your fitness centre sells to its clients, including memberships, classes, personal training sessions, and other courses.
2. Place – Your business will only attract more customers if more people know where you are situated. This aspect of the marketing plan captures details of the location of your fitness centre. This also involves highlighting how you will create an online presence for your business.
3. Promotion – You will need various marketing strategies to attract online and physical traffic to your fitness centre. These strategies should be well outlined in your marketing plan.
4. Price – The cost of the services and products featured in your fitness studio must be clear to your customers. Make your prices available for the various fitness packages in your fitness centre. This is the best way to beat the competition in the industry.

Appendix

This is typically the final section of a business plan. The appendix captures the essential documents and data that support your business plan. Such documents include and are not limited to the following:

• Permits and lease documents for your fitness centre.
• Market research reports.
• Your CVs and resumes, as well as those of your staff and trainers.
• Credit reports.
• Business contracts and agreements with your fitness clients or vendors.
• Licenses that support your fitness business.
• Contact details for advisors, accountants, attorneys, and other third parties.
• Graphs, charts, and tables that support information captured in other sections of your fitness centre business plan.
• Product packaging samples and illustrations of services offered by your fitness studio.

Beat your competition

A mix of the right tools and a competitive business plan are key determinants in the success of your fitness centre. If you are looking for the right tools to manage your fitness centre, connect with your customers, and facilitate bookings or payments, then Gymcatch is your ideal partner.

For more information on Gymcatch yoga studio software and how it can help with your booking, admin and marketing. Get in contact to book a demo or start a free trial.