Looking to start a gym, help a punker kid become a business man.

[Tramirezmma]

Update: Logistics

I've figured a couple things out, utting it here mostly to get my thoughts together.

1. Rents gonna be about $700/month for a 900sqft building, all open space, which is perfect.

2. Wrestling Mats for a decent sized grappling area (10x12, enough for 3 rolling pairs) is gonna be $400 to $550 (I'm also going to have a similar sized area coverd in puzzle mats. The wrestling mats I think will be more for take down drills, then use ALL the space for just rolling)

3. Utils + Insurance is gonna be about $400/month, assuming it's snowing and the building is drafty.

4. I'm assuming I have at least $250 a month in current student earnings from a 30% percentage of my teachers current classes, with a lot of rounding down of anything that makes the bottom line look better, cuz I always start from a almost worst-case scenario.


So expenses (x) - default income (y) = (z) True Starting Expense.

x= $1200

y= $250

z= $950 a month I need the place to make to stay even. Which comes out to 8 to 10 students of mine, or 27 students exclusively though my teacher.

Did I miss anything?

[Res Judicata]

Update: Logistics

I've figured a couple things out, utting it here mostly to get my thoughts together.

1. Rents gonna be about $700/month for a 900sqft building, all open space, which is perfect.

2. Wrestling Mats for a decent sized grappling area (10x12, enough for 3 rolling pairs) is gonna be $400 to $550 (I'm also going to have a similar sized area coverd in puzzle mats. The wrestling mats I think will be more for take down drills, then use ALL the space for just rolling)

3. Utils + Insurance is gonna be about $400/month, assuming it's snowing and the building is drafty.

4. I'm assuming I have at least $250 a month in current student earnings from a 30% percentage of my teachers current classes, with a lot of rounding down of anything that makes the bottom line look better, cuz I always start from a almost worst-case scenario.


So expenses (x) - default income (y) = (z) True Starting Expense.

x= $1200

y= $250

z= $950 a month I need the place to make to stay even. Which comes out to 8 to 10 students of mine, or 27 students exclusively though my teacher.

Did I miss anything?

First, I'd drop the few bucks for the supporting membership.

Second, pick up some small business books.

Third, ask yourself why you're doing this? Are you looking to make money or are you just trying to turn a hobby into a job? Hint: kids are where the money is.

I'm not a business guy, but you need think of things in terms of sunk costs (your startup costs), your monthly fixed costs (e.g. rent) and then your variable costs (~advertising).

Off the top of my head:

Deposits. Labor/installation. Painting. Telephone (unless that included in utilities).

You'll need to do something for bookkeeping. Do you want to take credit cards? There's a fee for that.

Marketing expenses--you'll at least want a website.

Are you going to structure this as a sole proprietorship or are you going to do something like an LLC?

Some locales may require inspection and you should find out about taxes (some locales have a service tax, although most don't.) If you're ever planning on selling any goods (t-shirts, say), you'll have to deal with sales tax.

Are you sure about the wrestling mats and the puzzle mats? Judo-style tatami mats are so much better and more professional looking all around.

[dwkfym]

What about paying yourself or your coach, especially if he is going to have way more students.

[Tramirezmma]

First, I'd drop the few bucks for the supporting membership.

Second, pick up some small business books.

Third, ask yourself why you're doing this? Are you looking to make money or are you just trying to turn a hobby into a job? Hint: kids are where the money is.

I'm not a business guy, but you need think of things in terms of sunk costs (your startup costs), your monthly fixed costs (e.g. rent) and then your variable costs (~advertising).

Off the top of my head:

Deposits. Labor/installation. Painting. Telephone (unless that included in utilities).

You'll need to do something for bookkeeping. Do you want to take credit cards? There's a fee for that.

Marketing expenses--you'll at least want a website.

Are you going to structure this as a sole proprietorship or are you going to do something like an LLC?

Some locales may require inspection and you should find out about taxes (some locales have a service tax, although most don't.) If you're ever planning on selling any goods (t-shirts, say), you'll have to deal with sales tax.

Are you sure about the wrestling mats and the puzzle mats? Judo-style tatami mats are so much better and more professional looking all around.

First, ok, I just hate paypal. Scammers all over that service, and they aren't nearly as invested in recovering funds from fraudulent transactions as a credit card company would be.

Second, on my way to the library today, also meeting with a guy who built a big gym from the ground up several towns over. Still doing homework for sure, at least as far as my obligations to the town in forms of taxes, fees etc. We're a small town, so things appear to be pretty straightforward. We'll see.

Both. My ideal vision right now is to have a simple, but not super gritty, place for myself and everyone around interested in MMA to train. And I want that place to pay for it's own operating expenses. For the nonce, I exect to continue working a full time job and doing this at night. We figure we are going to need at least 6 months to recover a respectable portion of the 80 or so students who didnt keep up with privates when the gym went under before.

Someday I want to turn it into something I can do without any supplemental work, but I'm looking at this as like a "starter gym" for me to learn what I'm getting into with minimal chance of losing my ass.

Startup money: I've got most safety and training equipment covered. First, last, and deposit is going to be from $1500 to $2300 depending on the location. Phone is probably going to be my phone for now, don't see a compelling reason to get a land line.

The bookkeeping I have covered, and I already have a square device I can activate for credit cards when thew time comes. That's less than $10 a month if I rocess in the area of $500 to $1500. Thats the easy part, I've been involved in the sales and service side of financial/business services, so that landscae at the very least I can navigate.

I'm thinking LLC, the work involved in getting that done isn't too onerous in CO.

Re: Mats....yes, they are also a good way to sink $6000 into the place. I'm not sure that's wise, considering my demographic. I'm going after the latino demographic and the working class demographic, as I'm going to be the only place in the area to train peole to FIGHT, not pajama dance (Too much competition there anyhow, lots of McDojos in the area). Working class people care about cost, which I've got covered. I figure as long as everything is super clean and organized, that will be more than enough.

For example, I've been doing MMA for 6 years or so on just the puzzle mats, so adding a wrestling mat area for training of takedowns is really going to be an imrovement.

[Tramirezmma]

What about paying yourself or your coach, especially if he is going to have way more students.

A few ideas we've had:

He teaches ALL the classes, I run the office and business side of things. We split 50/50 all revenues left after paying expenses.

OR

He has his classes, I take 30% of his revenue for that and he keeps the rest. I would then also be doing my own classes and take the full amount from those. (After operating expenses are paid)

[downtime]

First, ok, I just hate paypal. Scammers all over that service, and they aren't nearly as invested in recovering funds from fraudulent transactions as a credit card company would be.

Second, on my way to the library today, also meeting with a guy who built a big gym from the ground up several towns over. Still doing homework for sure, at least as far as my obligations to the town in forms of taxes, fees etc. We're a small town, so things appear to be pretty straightforward. We'll see.

Both. My ideal vision right now is to have a simple, but not super gritty, place for myself and everyone around interested in MMA to train. And I want that place to pay for it's own operating expenses. For the nonce, I exect to continue working a full time job and doing this at night. We figure we are going to need at least 6 months to recover a respectable portion of the 80 or so students who didnt keep up with privates when the gym went under before.

Someday I want to turn it into something I can do without any supplemental work, but I'm looking at this as like a "starter gym" for me to learn what I'm getting into with minimal chance of losing my ass.

Startup money: I've got most safety and training equipment covered. First, last, and deposit is going to be from $1500 to $2300 depending on the location. Phone is probably going to be my phone for now, don't see a compelling reason to get a land line.

The bookkeeping I have covered, and I already have a square device I can activate for credit cards when thew time comes. That's less than $10 a month if I rocess in the area of $500 to $1500. Thats the easy part, I've been involved in the sales and service side of financial/business services, so that landscae at the very least I can navigate.

I'm thinking LLC, the work involved in getting that done isn't too onerous in CO.

Re: Mats....yes, they are also a good way to sink $6000 into the place. I'm not sure that's wise, considering my demographic. I'm going after the latino demographic and the working class demographic, as I'm going to be the only place in the area to train peole to FIGHT, not pajama dance (Too much competition there anyhow, lots of McDojos in the area). Working class people care about cost, which I've got covered. I figure as long as everything is super clean and organized, that will be more than enough.

For example, I've been doing MMA for 6 years or so on just the puzzle mats, so adding a wrestling mat area for training of takedowns is really going to be an imrovement.

Check legal zoom .com for LLC packets. These are like 20$ and If your running a gym your going to want that extra protection that an LLC gives you compared to a sole proprietorship You can probably find some waiver templates there as well.

[Omega Supreme]

Membership billing company.....~$100 per month.

[Tramirezmma]

Membership billing company.....~$100 per month.

Worth it? I wasn't sure, but I suppose then I don't have to deal with any akward collections issues myself.

[Omega Supreme]

Worth it? I wasn't sure, but I suppose then I don't have to deal with any akward collections issues myself.

Yes, completely worth it.

[itwasntme]

My MMA coach was actually just talking about some marketing ideas last night after practice that are along the same lines as Res was talking about.

Kids are essential, but how do you attract them? Attract the moms. Idk what types of classes you want to offer, but I would recommend a separate Judo class and a Cardio Kickboxing class. You draw the women in with the CK class, which you conveniently schedule directly after Judo so after the women see it, they will start to think "hey I can do that too."

Having said that, women are probably more essential than the kids because women will attract more women which will in turn attract more guys. Just make sure to keep the guys in check.

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