A second location doesn’t double your work; it quadruples it.
Is it worth opening a second gym? What about buying another local gym in town? The answer is “sometimes, yes!”
Sometimes a second location IS a great opportunity. Sometimes it’s a polished-up turd. And sometimes we’re just not ready for the opportunity when it does arise. In these cases, we don’t rise to the occasion; we fall to the level of our preparation.
Before you buy someone else’s mistakes–or duplicate your own–here’s the checklist we use with TwoBrain clients to determine whether they’re ready to open a second location:
- Is your first location generating at least 33% gross profit margin, including your pay?
- Could your business run without you–without ANY contact from you–for at least two weeks?
- Are you already maximizing your revenue in your current space (3 core revenue streams, including group, PT and nutrition)?
- How will the second location impact your Perfect Day?
- Do you need this second location to get those clients? If another gym is closing, will you probably get them ANYWAY? And if you’re opening a second location from scratch, will your current clients split?
- Will this opportunity be available a year from now? In other words, do you have to do it right NOW?
If the answer to the first question is “no”, then you’re still in Farmer Phase. You can be ready for another location within a few months, but jumping in NOW will hurt your core business and probably your personal relationships. The Incubator will get you ready.
If the answer to the second question is “no”, see above. The Incubator solves that problem, too.
If the answer to the third question is “no”, ditto. Incubator.
The fourth question is trickier. Sometimes we want to seize every opportunity. Sometimes we want to stop others from having opportunities. And sometimes we confuse two gyms with being successful.
The answers to #5 and #6 might tell you that you don’t have to do anything as drastic as open a second location; maybe you can buy the owner’s equipment and pay him something for each client who joins your gym. Or they might tell you that you CAN do it…but not right now.
If all of those are satisfied, then let’s roll: build duplicatable processes; avoid the mistakes you made the first time; and start with the Gold Standards being used by the best gyms in the world!
I really want you to help more people. But I don’t want you to martyr yourself to do it. The good news: you don’t have to, and your influence can be more than the sum of your parts.
