After a meteoric increase in new Indoor Cycling studios and other forms of boutique fitness businesses, it makes sense that a few of them will be sold. I've recently received a number of inquires from studio owners, asking for help selling their business – and I went ahead and posted them. Here's a cycling studio in Magnolia, TX and another studio in Marietta, GA for sale.
Our mission here at ICI/PRO is to provide quality information, for all aspects of Indoor Cycling. Wanting to be helpful, while not having any personal experience selling a fitness business, I did what I always do – I found (and vetted) an expert at brokering fitness businesses.
In this episode of the podcast you can meet fitness business broker Shane Massey. Shane explained to me that there are multiple mistakes studio owners tend to make, when selling their business. We decided to focus on these five that he felt were the most important.
AVOID THESE 5 MISTAKES WHEN SELLING YOUR FITNESS BUSINESS
WITH FITNESS CLUB BUSINESS BROKER, SHANE MASSEY
1. THEY DON’T HAVE A LEGITIMATE REASON FOR SELLING THE BUSINESS
2. THEIR BUSINESS VALUATION / SELLING PRICE IS WRONG
3. THEY DIDN’T PLAN (PROPERLY) FOR THE SALE
4. THEY IGNORED POTENTIAL DEAL KILLERS
5. THEY DIDN’T SEEK PROFESSIONAL ADVICE
Listen to our discussion below.
Shane is prepared to assist an owner, regardless of where you're located. He has agreed to provide an initial consultation at no cost for our readers and listeners.
Studio owner Karina Belli is offering what she describes as a “Business in a box – 360 Indoor Cycling Studio” that someone could purchase and move to their own location… or assume her lease and continue at it's current location in Marietta, GA .
I hope this email finds you well. As I mentioned in my FB message, I am looking at selling my studio. The concept is selling everything that is needed to start a studio (EVERYTHING), thus the name “Business in a box”.
I need to cut my losses and be able to move on. Unfortunately, things did not work out as I had hoped for. I am pretty much giving everything away… Here is what is included for $36,000:
21 Bikes – Freemotion 11.9 with console with power sensor
PIQ – Bike reservation
Sound Equipment Website/Signage/Branding/Furniture/Dispensers (wet towels, hand sanitizer, bathroom towels, soap)/Smart TV/ Front Desk MAC Computer/ HeartRate monitors/printer/fans/ washer & dryer
And much much more
I am also open to selling things separately, but would prefer to sell everything to one party.
Please let me know if you have any questions. And thanks for posting this for me!
Looks like a beautiful city. Image from paxgaea.com
Helping prospective Indoor Cycling studio owners with their business planning is part of my Instructor Employment Initiative – encouraging the formation of new studios… which creates more places for Instructors to teach and will (at least I'm hearing) create upwards pressure on class pay rates!
ICI/PRO member Rowan Platel contacted me recently with questions about a future cycling studio he is planning.
Thanks John.
I am looking for as much help and guidance as I can get, so I will let you know my plans and see if you have any words of wisdom (outside of all of the information I will be reading from ICI.
Basically, Indoor cycling centres in Perth WA don't exist yet, but the spinning community is there through fitness centres, and the cycling community is large. My goal is to open an indoor cycling centre that is funky, but very up to date from a technology standpoint, and bringing in the best instructors/coaches I can. I want to give the users the ability to set and exceed their goals through data driven results, combining the best instructors, with the best principles and training methodologies, and the best technology.
There are a few good examples on the east coast of Australia, but none here.
I really want to cater for all indoor cyclists, whether they are “spinners” looking at more fitness goals, or cyclists looking at performance goals.
Absolute key for me is User Experience. I think your website will help a lot there. I want to make this addictive, fun, yet high performance.
Currently, I am looking at Wattbikes and using their group software and user App based software for real-time data.
I suppose what I am asking for is any guidance or thoughts you have on this. If this isn't the right forum to ask this, please feel free to ignore this email.
I am very keen on finalising the tech specs, so I can start to plan a fitout and get cracking!!!
Cheers
Rowan
When time allows, I try to be available for a call to discuss whenever I get well thought out questions from ICI/PRO members. My response:
I've done a fair bit of consulting with new cycling studio owners – often acting as a sounding board to bounce ideas off + I can be helpful by questioning your assumptions, so you don't end up with an empty studio.
Skype sometime?
John
Rowan and I connected via Skype. Turns out that Perth WA is on the exact opposite side of the earth, so my 8:30am was his 8:30pm 🙂 With his permission I recorded our call to share with you!
Listen below or subscribe to our free Podcast with iTunes or Stitcher
During the call I mentioned that we have two excellent Podcasts that deal with the introduction of Power/Technology.
Meet Stephanie (Steph) Cohen – owner of Ride Revolution Cycling Studios in Northvale, NJ!
Steph is a member of our Cycling Studio Owners Advisory Group. In this episode of the Podcast, we discuss some of her most valuable lessons learned from running her successful studio for three years.
Name of Studio: Ride Revolution Cycling Studios, LLC Location of Studio: Northvale, NJ Phone: 201-259-7221 email: Steph@Ride-Revolution.com Owner Name: Steph Cohen Owner Title: Owner Years in Operation: 3 Years Size of studio: 2,000 Sq. Feet Number of members/clients: 2,400 Unique Visitors since opening
If you were advising somebody whose dream is to open a fitness studio — what would be your primary nuggets of advice?
Make sure the financial picture makes sense. The market where you are may not actually be able to hold your initial price per session. What are your earning projections if the price per session is a lower amount than originally offered?
Ensure you have a strong marketing budget. Too many studios forget this part or put it last on their budget list. While you are building your new place you need to begin the online and print advertising so that once you open locals will already recognize your name.
Have a clear mission — the “why” you opened your studio — and have that set the tone for all of your marketing and outreach. Make sure that your employees have the same vision in mind at all times as well.
In addition to having great instructors playing fabulous music, learn your client’s names and remember their unique stories. That is what will make them want to come back again and again.
Be prepared to do EVERYTHING yourself for the first few years. I am the front desk, marketing coordinator, instructor manager AND I wash the towels every few days! No task is too big or too small for the owner to actually do for the studio.
Download all 16 of Steph Cohen's Most Valuable Lessons Learned here – right click > save as.
The three Moms who run Wheel Power Studio; Stephanie Rubinstein, Tracy Chutnow and Donnie Stutland
Here's a fun studio pre-launch story you'll enjoy hearing – especially if you're planning a new studio yourself.
Former Flywheel Sports Instructor Tracy Chutnow partnered with former participants Donnie Stutland and Stephanie Rubinstein to launch Wheel Power Studio in Deerfield, IL.
During our interview, Tracy and Donnie explain how exciting it was to pre-sell class packages – generating profits long before their Zingfit website was completed or studio was open. These early purchases helped to reinforce their commitment to opening an Indoor Cycling studio + resulted in full classes from day one!
They both credited Charlie Green website design for creating an effective website landing page, that they promoted on social media. You can click the image below to request information.
You can hear their story below – or – you'll find this Podcast in our iTunes feed. You can subscribe for free .
Here's an excellent chance for you to help shape the future of Indoor Cycling – as a member of the new Studio Owner's Advisory Group we're forming as a part of AFS – the Association of Fitness Studios.
After receiving some favorable responses from our Studio Owner's Facebook Group to this question, Josh Leve (founder of AFS) and I came up with a basic criteria for inclusion to this advisory group:
You have over two years experience in the business of fitness – as an owner or manager of a studio.
You own a cycling studio that has solid, demonstrable growth
You excel in a variety of areas including: business ethics, community involvement, and making an impact on your members/clients
You will commit to participating in the group for one year.
You're an AFS member – advisory group members will receive a free one year premium subscription.
You may have business related education and/or experience in; accounting, legal, HR, finance, real estate, construction, etc… any would be helpful, but not mandatory.
I feel it's important for you to understand that this will be a group made up exclusively of 6 – 10 Cycling Studio Owners – we're not including anyone else.
My role will be to act as the liaison between the group's leadership and AFS, where I have an advisory position.
What are you committing to?
We're anticipating that group members will meet via Skype or Google Hangouts 3-4 times a year and communicate via Facebook and email as needed. The group might decide to form a private group on Facebook… or possibly hold meetup at a fitness conference like IDEA 🙂
Group Leadership
Every group needs a leader, in this case we feel there should be two to share the load + someone who can act as Secretary to take minutes of the meetings.
For the first year we're looking for volunteers for these three roles. Once the group is firmly established, it would probably make sense for there to be elections to select the leaders.
You're a bunch of really smart, passionate people. AFS would like to tap your collective knowledge on important issues and solicit your help and direction; in the types of educational content they (AFS) develop and distribute to benefit others, forms of advocacy they should pursue and other ideas/needs as they arise.
Beyond that we're thinking it's your group and hopefully the group's mission/scope will develop organically over time.
