We Nearly Wasted £600k+ On a Brand New Gym

Estimated read time: 2 minutes 49 seconds.

Dear Fitpreneurs,

There are moments in business where you feel like Elon Musk.

And there are moments where you lay on the floor, stare at the ceiling and wonder, “What am I doing?”

A few weeks ago, we experienced the latter.

This newsletter (and new podcast episode) reveals all…

Let’s Start at The Beginning

Since launching Revamp last October, we’ve grown it quicker than we ever imagined.

We’re full to brim with members and can no longer take many new customers on.

The question that always crosses our lips is: “How do we expand this thing?”

The obvious answer is: “Open more sites, rinse and repeat”.

But we loved the idea of scaling into a bigger site.

A place we could have as our own HQ.

More classes. More facilities. More room.

Fast forward a month ago, that “bigger site” came up…

The Investment

This place was 8 minutes down the road and was 5x bigger than what we have now.

Obviously, this was a huge leap forward.

We were about to take on this big new facility in a rural area, totalling £650k+ over a 10 year lease.

But here's the thing...

To cash-flow right away, we’d need all members to move 5 miles down the road with us. Surely, they would?

Viewing The Space

We arranged a viewing and our minds were racing with what we could do.

“We can offer large group PT”

“We could have our own podcast studio”

“What about a reformer pilates room?”

As is often the case, we got excited.

After negotiating the terms, we shook hands and put together a plan.

Operation "Move Revamp" was in in motion.

But to make this happen, we needed to ask members.

The Emergency Meeting

With everything agreed in principal, we asked the landlord to let us in the building for a few hours.

This was so we could host an online meeting for all members to see what they thought.

So when the time came, we logged onto Zoom and over 70 members rocked up (not knowing what this was for).

We spent the next 30 mins showing them the facility and explaining what this new space was going to offer.

What happened next was a bit of a blur...

The Outcome

During the meeting, we noticed a few messages pop up with disagreements.

“I won’t be able to drive there”

“Don’t think I continue if we move…”

What we thought would be a formality turned into a lot of members voicing their concerns.

5 minutes after logging off Zoom, the first votes came in.

And they weren’t good.

The ones after that? They weren’t great either.

We wrapped everything up with over 70% of members being against the move to a bigger space.

Wow.

After finding out the outcome, we had one more thing left to do.

We called the agent and pulled out of the move.

2 weeks of plans, meetings, drawings, projections. Gone.

What Did It Teach Us?

Firstly, bigger isn’t always better.

Secondly, our members love our intimate little 900 sq ft studio.

And finally, where we thought they want more space, more equipment and more room…

They actually want convenience, less people and a close-knit community.

They want somewhere they could call home.

They want a gym that doesn't "feel like a gym".

So whilst the vote went against what we expected, we’re happy with the outcome.

Because we're now in position where we can keep serving our awesome members with what they value most.

Final Words…

Since we launched Revamp over 6 months ago, we’ve always put emphasis on our “community”.

And we wouldn’t be a community if we went against what they wanted.

So that's why we didn’t.

It was a bitter pill to swallow and a misjudgement on our part.

But it’s nice to know how a small 900 sq ft studio on a high street can make such a difference in people’s lives.

Note to self: Don’t change a winning formula.

That’s it from us. Reply any time…

Cardy Brothers

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