Do you want to start a gym business but you want to go niche and be unique? If YES, here are 50 best gym related business ideas and opportunities.
For fitness minded entrepreneurs, opening a gym or other such related activities can be profitable as well as enjoyable. Gyms and health clubs are a growing service industry sector.
People are becoming increasingly conscious of the dangers of obesity and they are looking for fitness regimes that will keep them motivated and actually help them reach their fitness goals.
There are many types of gym related businesses that suit different people. It really depends on your interests, skills and desired lifestyle.
For example, if you want to be location independent, you’ll want to look for a business that lets you work online, so you don’t need to be in a physical location.
Do you want to work with client’s one on one or in groups, or even not at all? Do you want to write books, or create courses, or teach classes?
Do you want to create a physical product to sell? Knowing what interests you is the first step to choosing the best health and wellness business to start. Here are 50 gym related business ideas.
Best Gym Business ideas
1. Start a Gym
Statistics indicate strong business growth opportunities for the gym business. Another study indicates that the 103,077 fitness businesses throughout the U.S. net more than $30 billion annually according to a 2017 record. You can start a gym with all sorts of fitness equipment which people can use for their various workouts.
To increase your gym’s chances of success, make sure to plan and properly finance your business idea. Before you start a gym business, you must research the fitness and health market in your local area and assess the competition
Franchise gyms offer significant advantages to their owners, but require a steep initial investment. Franchise fees are often beyond the financial means of most first-time business owners and franchise terms typically dictate the type of services that can be offered by franchisees.
Independent gyms, by contrast, require a somewhat smaller investment and allows more freedom to the business owners. Hours and services can be tailored to meet the specific needs of your prospective customer base, helping you to build loyalty and ensure repeat business.
2. Corporate Fitness
Corporate fitness is a well-established niche with promising growth potential for fitness professionals who enjoy working with diverse adult populations in a structured setting. Corporate fitness is a phrase used to describe physical activity and exercise related programs that are implemented by an employer.
The goal of corporate fitness programs is to increase the amount of physical activity that an employee gets. Corporate wellness programs are designed to nurture wellness in workers, regardless of the work environment. Corporate Wellness programs can be found in factories, corporate offices, large and small corporations alike.
The idea for these corporate wellness programs stemmed from several experiences, decades ago. Not only did companies want to reduce healthcare expenses they were compensating for employees, but many forward thinking companies wanted to make the work space a more inviting and relaxing environment for their employees.
More and more companies are slowly becoming aware of the fact that having healthy employees meant higher productivity, as these employees tend to show up at work more and visit the doctors less.
Through corporate wellness programs, a company can decide to establish an on-site gym with all the necessary equipment, place vending machines that stock healthier snacks, pedometers, offer physical or mental contests, as well as offer health-risk assessments.
Many companies often arrange fitness seasons for their employees. However, you must have proper networking skill to get clients in this business. You can liaise with those companies to help them install a corporate wellness facility.
3. Exercise DVD’s
Exercise videos are very popular nowadays because it helps people to get proper exercise instructions without having a trainer. You can create a video where you are training using various gym equipment and doing all sorts of exercises and sell the videos. In addition, you can sell them online from your own blog or from online marketplaces.
4. Personal Training
As a personal trainer you can work hand in hand with your clients to help them fulfill their fitness goals and still get paid for it.
Personal training is highly profitable if done correctly. Starting off, you will need to get certified. Certification helps you to build trust with both gyms you may want to work in, and clients you want to work with. These bodies all supply legitimate certifications:
- American Council on Exercise ( ACE)
- National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM )
- International Sports Sciences Association ( ISSA)
- American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM )
- National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA )
After getting certified, it’s often best to specialize in an area. Usually this will be something that you yourself are interested in, but it pays to take a look at what’s popular as well.
From that point, you can then start applying with local gyms and fitness centers to start working for them or hiring out facilities with them. Another piece of advice is to look at teaching at multiple gyms. This can help expand your network of clients and make sure that you have less risk of clients drying up.
5. Group Training
Group fitness training is quite different from a one on one personal training, but it doesn’t mean that it isn’t profitable. Certification is still required with group training, just like it was stated above. When approached at face value, it tends to look like more people should equal to more money.
However, that is not always the case; as the fees for group fitness are often much lower than personal training. However, running this sort of training has many benefits. Firstly it gets you out there in front of a lot of different people, helping you expand and refine your personal brand.
Secondly it allows you to promote additional services such as one on one training sessions, dietary and nutrition plans, your own products and so on. Thirdly, it allows you to broaden your skill set by offering a variety of classes, to a variety of people. You could do classes for kids or older people and other short classes for busy professionals and so on.
6. Custom Training & Nutrition Plans
some people are in need of additional guidance with diet. Offering custom training and nutrition packages is a great way to supplement your income. These packages can even be based on a standard template and can be tweaked with little to no work to fit the needs of the client.
7. Online Coaching
Not everyone has the luxury of having a personal trainer who they can speak to a one on one basis. However, with the rise of high speed internet, they don’t need to! You could offer online coaching via email, and video chat that combines discussion of nutrition and workout plans, along with live video demonstrations. With two-way video feeds, you can even offer feedback as the customer works out.
It’s not ideal from a fitness training point of view, but think of it as a middle ground between a fitness DVD and actually personal training. What’s more, people will pay for this service.
8. Social Media Brand Ambassador
Social media is an incredible tool for fitness instructors that want to get themselves out there. By showing people how to get fit via YouTube, Instagram and Facebook, it’s easy to get a large following. With a large following you can then apply to become a brand ambassador for a new gym equipment, or a new supplement.
A brand ambassador is a modern jargon for having a sponsor. You can do shout outs, reviews and generally promote a brand in return for payment, affiliate commissions and free swag.
9. Create a Product
This one is for people who are creative in nature. If you are able to create the right product, it has the potential of being a real money spinner. Some of the easiest products to start creating are e–books. This can consist of written instructions, diagrams, nutrition charts and so on.
This type of book can be easily sold on your own website or via a service like Amazon Kindle Books. While they are quite cheap to make, you should always remember that production value matters. Think of them like an extension of yourself, your brand and your business (unless you use a pseudonym of course).
Creating something like a DVD or online video course is another option. These will take more time and money to make sure they are right; from quality video equipment to hiring someone to professionally edit them. You need to have a strong following both on and offline to reap the rewards.
You could also make other products such as dietary supplements, etc. but you will really need a strong following and brand to make this type of thing work.
10. Create a fitness Blog
Writing a fitness blog is certainly not the quickest way to make money from fitness and gyming. Firstly you will need a site and a love for writing about fitness (at least until you can afford to hire other writers to write for you).
Writing about the how to use various gym equipment to get the best results as well as the trials and tribulations of attaining a healthy body, can attract not only newbies but even those already on their journey but are looking for more ideas, tips and tricks.
A fitness blog can make money in a variety of ways. A direct way you can make money is by placing adverts on the site, using affiliate marketing to promote products you trust, selling your own e-books, videos and courses and even though the sale of the site if it becomes popular.
Indirectly, the site can garner more real life customers for you and your gym. It can also help you to find sponsors and brands interested in what you have to offer. The cost of setting up a blog is a fraction of other methods and you don’t even need to be certified to offer this advice, you could simply be a fitness fan showcasing your own journey in the world of fitness.
11. Aerobics center
This business is very lucrative in the fitness industry. An aerobics center is simply a leased location that has been specifically set up to operate as an aerobics training center.
The center can have multiple training rooms that are fully equipped and rented on a short- or long-term basis by qualified aerobics instructors to conduct their classes. Additional income can be earned by locating a refreshment booth in the aerobics center, as well as selling related products such as sportswear, books and videos on aerobics training.
12. Selling gym apparels
According to a report published in 2011 by Global Industry Analysts, the sports and fitness clothing market is flourishing. Projected to reach $126.3 billion by 2015, sports clothing sales are being driven by a high demand for stylish, versatile and functional garments, particularly from women and seniors embracing healthy physical lifestyles.
You can make it as a novice in this field, but if you have a background in sports clothing retailing, you’ll start with a very big advantage. The trend of online fitness clothing market is upwards now. You can sell from your gym, marketplaces, from your own online store or from your blog.
Workout enthusiasts always need new clothing to support their practice – and you could provide it! You can either partner with an existing brand to sell their products, or you could manufacture your own (that is if you are skilled enough) and sell them.
13. Selling gym equipment
If you will notice, exercise equipment are in huge demand these days. Since more and more people are now going to gyms to work out, gym owners are constantly purchasing fitness equipment to cater for the needs of their growing customers.
Even hotels, corporate buildings, and companies are utilizing various exercise equipment to offer fitness benefits to their staff and clients. But not only that, people who are struggling to find the time to go to gym are setting up their own gym at home and purchasing the best home exercise equipment to stay healthy.
The constantly increasing demand has made the manufacturing and selling of exercise equipment a lucrative business option. Today, exercise equipment business is a $4.49 billion industry, and it is growing stronger each year.
If you are an aspiring entrepreneur with a passion in health and have lots of workout experience, then you can sell exercise equipment such as treadmill, elliptical machine, leg press, stationary bikes, cable pulley machines, abdominal crunchers, rowing machines, weights et al and make money from it.
14. Massage therapist
It is not uncommon for people who have done vigorous exercises to have one form of body pain or the other. Starting your career as a massage therapist is an excellent idea; you can attach yourself to a gym and work with them. However, you must have proper skill and passion about the job. Any individual can initiate this business as home based and mobile.
15. Health and Wellness Coach
A health coach helps their clients to make sustainable, healthy changes in their life, based on that client’s personal goals and lifestyle. Health Coaching is a really popular business, because it can easily be complementary to other modalities or products.
For example, many wellness coaches are yoga teachers, gym instructors and health coaches. Another benefit of health coaching is that it’s quite flexible. You can work in-person or online, one on one or in groups, or package up your programs into online courses or books.
16. Yoga instructor
If you’re a passionate yogi who wants to teach others how to do yoga safely and regularly, you could consider training as a yoga teacher. In today’s world, a lot of people are faced with the challenge of a very tight schedule, which leaves them with little or no time to relax and unwind. You can start a yoga class to take care of this issue.
Here, you will instruct people on deep breathing relaxation techniques and other various techniques that are aimed at exercising the body and reducing stress. To accommodate people with different work schedules, you will need to be flexible with the hours of your session.
17. Weight Loss Coach
Weight Loss is the main motivation for many people to get serious about their health and fitness, so working with clients to lose weight never goes out of style. There are many certifications you can get do to help with weight loss, from personal training to health coaching to nutrition and more.
It is estimated that about 160 million Americans are either obese or overweight. Nearly three-quarters of American men and more than 60% of women are obese or overweight. This just goes to show that a lot of money can be made from this niche if you market yourself properly.
18. Wellness Retreats
Running health and wellness retreats is a huge trend this year – and growing! At a retreat, you invite a group of people for a multi-day experience which often includes their housing, delicious healthy meals, classes, workshops, workout, treatments, tours, experiences and more.
As a retreat leader, you can choose to run your retreat at a center around the world, giving you the opportunity to travel while you’re working.
19. Weight Loss Product
There is always a need for weight loss products which will go along with exercise. Many people get interested in health and wellness solely to lose weight, so they are always looking for products to support their weight loss. You could manufacture your own product or sell an existing one to a new market.
20. Health and Wellness Podcast
If you love to interview people and don’t mind the sound of your own voice, consider starting a health and wellness podcast. While the podcast alone doesn’t generate revenue, once you have an established audience you can sell sponsorships or advertising, recommend affiliate products, or even sell your own products and services through your podcast.
21. Boutique gym
Some gyms are massive buildings that try to provide lots of different exercise options for customers, from swimming to spin classes to a weight room. Boutique gyms are the opposite, and focus on one specific area of fitness. They tend to be small and more exclusive than regular gyms, with a cachet to membership and a less anonymous feel to the workout.
Boutique gyms tend to offer small exercise classes, and one of the benefits of a small class is that the instructor and the rest of the gym staff can get to know the participants better.
The personal knowledge helps the gym staff to recommend specific workouts that benefit the customer most, and the small classes can foster a friendlier, more community-like atmosphere in the group than might otherwise be the case in a large, anonymous group. Private classes may also be on offer in the gym for people who prefer one-on-one training.
As boutique gyms specialize in a specific area of fitness, their trainers or instructors must be very knowledgeable about their area, and some gyms even have celebrity trainers. The workouts vary widely between gyms, so customers may have to visit more than one boutique gym if they want to get more variety in their weekly exercise regimen.
Some gyms focus on cycling classes, whereas others have their own weight machine routines. Some offer dance-based classes such as ballet barre or cheerleading-based classes, and others provide classes that are a fusion of various skills such as kickboxing and yoga.
22. Fitness for kids
Kids in America today don’t get the freedom to run around as they would in decades past. With school activity cutbacks, fast food served up by overworked parents, kids aren’t as active as they once were, and parents are right to worry.
Factor in the obsessive culture of video games and all the other digital distractions and you’ve got an argument to help kids burn off energy and grow up fit and confident. If you have a knack for working with children and a vision of how to make fitness fun for them, this could be a chance to fill the niche.
23. YouTube gym Vlogger
These days, you can own a video production studio with minimal software and equipment. There’s a whole industry that supports YouTubers with content ideas, management, and funding. Put your training skills and small gym business resources in fitness videos to do whatever works to attract an audience.
24. Diet planner
Diet is a very important part of fitness. Without the right food, it’s difficult to achieve perfect results. You could develop a meal timetable and sell to people who are interested in knowing the right foods to eat to keep fit.
25. Design exercise equipment
You could choose to design and produce your very own exercise equipment. You could start from little equipment like dumbbells, skippers, sit-up bench and then gradually, you could start manufacturing the bigger equipment.
26. Become a Nutritionist
Demand for nutritionists has skyrocketed in recent years. It’s a fantastic profession with a whole lot of scope for development and expansion. Similar to physical therapy, it takes quite a bit of training in order to become a nutritionist. First, you’ll be expected to earn a Bachelor’s Degree in clinical nutrition, dietetics or a similar field.
You’ll then need to pass a competency exam, complete a Dietetic Internship Program and earn a relevant credential. After that, you’ll be required to apply for a state license. You can affiliate yourself with s gym and offer nutritional advice to people who want to lose weight or stay in shape.
27. Start a Juice Bar
You don’t have to get all hot and sweaty in order to launch a successful gym related business. Opening a juice bar is also a fantastic way to get plugged in to a vibrant fitness community. Better yet, you won’t need to bother with intensive physical training or strenuous accreditations.
In order to start a juice bar, you’ll need to decide whether you’re more interested in opening one from scratch or taking on a franchise. There are a few major chains across the globe that are always looking for new franchisees. A vast proportion of gyms are willing to lease space for in-house operations, too.
28. Selling weight loss supplements
There are several nutritional supplements in the market that aids weight loss, build muscles or reduce food cravings. You can start selling similar products too.
29. Writing fitness books
If you are gifted with writing, you could make money from writing and selling fitness books. Even if you don’t know how to write, you could still employ a ghost writer who would write it for you and then transfer all rights to you.
30. Gymnastics coach
Athletes usually need help with training. You could look out for such athletes and work with them on a one-on-one basis to help them with their training regimen.
31. Fitness for the elderly
Everyone needs exercise including the elderly. But at times, they may not have the appropriate motivation to work out or exercise as some exercises can be too strenuous for them. With your skills, you can offer them an exercise regimen that is modified to help them workout without straining themselves.
If you have a knack for working with the elderly and a vision of how to make it enjoyable and fun for them, this could be a chance to fill the niche.
32. Start a Powerlifting Gym
Those interested in something a bit heavier may want to think about starting their own powerlifting gym. You don’t necessarily need to obtain a professional fitness qualification before starting your own gym. Still, accreditation from groups like The American Council on Exercise may bolster your credibility and make it easier to obtain a business loan.
Just like any other business, you’ll need to apply for a whole lot of permits and licenses. Because the exercise that patrons will be doing at your business will be considered risky, you’ll also need extensive insurance coverage. Certain states will also require other precautions.
For example, in California you’d be expected to have automated external defibrillators, staff trained in CPR and AED and a written emergency plan developed by physicians.
33. Develop a gym and wellness software
There are a lot of mobile apps and computer software that either teaches people how to maintain optimum health or help them monitor their health such as blood sugar monitoring apps, ovulation and fertility monitoring apps etc.
You can also create apps that remind the user to use the gym at a specified time or how to use some gym equipment. Such apps and software developers make a lot of money from advert placements or subscriptions.
34. Spa
The spa industry is well-established and popular. You could create a spa which provides hydrotherapy as well as treatment rooms where other practitioners can provide their wellness services. People often need somewhere to relax and pamper themselves from time to time.
You can set up a Spa with state-of-the-art facilities and sufficient relaxation space. You could also set up a mobile spa and take your services to people instead.
35. Pilates instructor
Pilates is a type of exercise routine that focuses on strengthening your core muscles, which include the muscles of your abdomen, back and torso, also known as your powerhouse.
Working with a trained instructor provides you with a chance to lengthen and tone your body, increase your balance and improve your flexibility. Instructing Pilates does not technically require special certification, but your licensing can greatly influence your salary.
Higher degrees of licensing offered by organizations such as the American Council on Exercise or American Fitness Professionals and Associates increase the odds of becoming employed, in addition to increasing your salary potential. Advanced certifications such as in weight management or personal training also increase earning possibilities.
36. Gym equipment repairs and servicing
Like every other equipment, gym equipment get damaged and worn out with constant usage. As a result, these equipment have to be serviced from time to time or be repaired when they go bad. If you are knowledgeable in the repair of gym equipment, then you can offer this service.
37. Start a Wellness Magazine
If you have what it takes to be a good host, you can make a lot of advert revenues from starting your own health talk show or publishing a health magazine.
38. Affiliate Marketer
You can become an affiliate marketer who earns commission from selling health, fitness equipment and wellness products online.
39. Fitness Product Reviewing Service
Without a doubt, most of the weight loss and fitness products that are available today are fake; you can’t really blame people who are skeptical about buying these products. You can set up a website or blog that specializes in reviewing fitness, wellness and weight loss products so that people can know which ones are suitable and which ones to stay away from.
40. Start a Multilevel Marketing Program
You can manufacture your own brand of health, wellness and fitness equipment and set up a multilevel marketing program that will allow you to make more sales, profit and get your business to an international level.
41. Herbalist
Herbalists help their patients improve their health using medicinal herbs and foods. This career also requires extensive schooling, so if you’re passionate about plants and health, it is a great option. Typically herbalists would work in person with their patients, but it’s also possible to create online courses or write books.
42. Essential Oils
Essential Oils are hugely popular to support natural health. You can join a popular essential oil company and sell these oils either as your full business, or as a complement to your other health and wellness work. Selling essential oils is especially popular for health and wellness coaches and massage therapists.
43. Dietary Supplements
If there’s a dietary supplement which has personally helped you to achieve your health and wellness goals, you might be able to sell it to others as well. Each company has their own way of handling this, from a multi-level marketing approach, to being a reseller or distributor. You could also partner with a company or scientist to create your own supplement brand.
44. Health Vending Machine
A vending machine business is one business that not only requires no special skills, but can also be done on a part time basis and also as a home based business. In fact, statistics has shown that healthier snacks outsell traditional snack food by over 300 percent.
This creates a very lucrative and viable business opportunity for entrepreneurs who own, service and stock vending machines. You can liaise with a gym or any other such fitness center to locate your health vending machine within their premises.
45. Software to support Wellpreneurs
As the wellness industry grows, so do the need of wellness practitioners. Consider creating a software product to support wellpreneurs in growing their businesses – for example, software for working with coaching clients, managing an email list, or creating amazing meal plans are just a few ideas.
46. Media Hub for fitness
You could create a media site that becomes the ultimate source for a specific type of fitness or gym related information. With a media site, you might work with other experts as guest writers to create authoritative content for your site.
Like the other Online business ideas above, your revenue potential starts when you’ve built a big enough audience for your site. Then you can sell advertising or affiliate products, run online courses, workshops or seminars, or branch out into books and other products to expand your online brand.
47. Physical Therapist
People who have been in accidents, sustained injuries or aged people who have challenges with their bones often need the services of physical therapists to help them revive their bone muscles and make use of their limbs, hands and bodies effectively again. You may need specialized training and certifications to be able to set up a physical therapy business however.
48. Bodybuilding coaching
There are a lot of people who desire to become buff and muscular. If you have the necessary skills to motivate and tech them, you can become a bodybuilding coach.
49. Specialized Chef
You can become a chef who cooks for people on special diets such as Ketogenic diets, low-calorie diets, low-fat diets and so on. It is easier for such people to stick to their diets if they can have easy stress-free access to compliant meals. You may need to throw in food delivery services for them as well.
50. Gym/fitness center advertising and promotion
The united states of America is home to a lot of gyms and other fitness centers that need promotion so as to increase their visibility to the teaming populace of the city. With this service, you can help them to create captivating adverts and thus help them promote their business.
Whether you are already a professional fitness instructor or you just simply love keeping in shape, there are many ways to make money from gym related business ideas. Hopefully one or more of these 50 tips will spark an idea to help you make more money in the gym related business niche.