How Much We Spend On Our Fitness Studio: Cost Breakdown

A Detailed Look at Our Monthly Budget and Spending

Cardy Brothers
April 14, 2024

Estimated read time: 1 minute 59 seconds.

Dear Fitpreneurs,

If you’re opening a fitness studio, you need to know the costs involved.

In this newsletter, we’re breaking down everything we spend money on for our 900 sqf location.

Disclaimer: We’ve decided to be transparent to help our readers. Please repay the favour and subscribe to our new Youtube channel. ;)

Let’s dive in:

We dive into how we launched our fitness studio and skyrocketed it to a six-figure business in just four months.

In this episode you’ll learn:

The backstory of our transition from online personal training to owning a fitness studio.
How we used a pre-sale model to secure members before we opened.
The method behind our first public offer and the strategies that led to a high retention rate.
The details on our simplified membership options (most studio owners miss this).
Insight into our fulfilment process and how we measure client success.

Before we opened the doors to the public, there were initial costs to meet.

These included legal fees, lease deposits, equipment etc.

At the end of the day, the start-up costs for us totalled £41,620. (See our ledger here).

It's worth noting this figure was on the high end as we were keen to invest in premium equipment.

(Plus there was a fair bit of cosmetic work needed on the building).

We also negotiated a 2-month rent free period at the start of our contract...

...meaning we could pre-sell memberships and cash-flow faster.

How You Can Open a Fitness Studio for Under £10k

Discover the Blueprint We'd Follow to Open a Fitness Studio for Under £10k...

fitnessentrepreneur.beehiiv.com/p/can-open-fitness-studio-10k

Our two biggest ongoing costs are:

In Suffolk, the going rate for commercial rent is £9/10 per square foot. So our lease comes to £1,133 per month.

This includes a service charge — which is pretty standard. But we pay buildings insurance ourselves.

As for coaches, we have 40 sessions running per week on our timetable.

Between the two of us, we only take 1 of them.

For this reason, staff costs are higher than most studios.

We currently pay our coaches £25 per session (totalling £3,780 across the board)

When you add our monthly costs together, it sits at around £6,000.

Our gyms/studios are in the South East of England. The further north you go, the cheaper commercial rent tends to be.
We are on a high street and our studio is around 900 square feet.
Always negotiate your lease with the landlord before signing: "Monthly rent? Rent free period? Length of the lease? Article 54? Breakpoints for you? Rent reviews?" We'll write another newsletter on this topic.
Always factor in a remedial plan. This is extra cash waiting on the sidelines in case you need it. Most new studio owners get shiny object syndrome and end up needing more.
Create a profit & loss spreadsheet and budget for the project.
Keep a ledger so you have a note on when you spent it, who you spent it with and how much you spent.

All this might sound overwhelming.

(Especially for someone about to dive into the world of fitpreneurship).

But I can’t stress enough the importance of knowing your numbers.

“What gets measured, gets managed” — Peter Drucker

That said, feel free to shoot us an email if you want our support with your studio.

That’s it from us. Reply any time…

Cardy Brothers

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