In any town or city, you’re bound to find at least one, if not more, commercial gyms that can cost only $25 per month, or even less!
How do they do it? And how do smaller private gyms that cost $200-300+ per month compete?
To answer the first question, it’s simple.
Big box commercial gyms usually have hundreds & hundreds of members (sometimes up to 1,000+). Yet, their facilities are designed to accommodate only 100-200 members at best.
And they never run into issues because only 25% or less of their members ever show up.
If all of the members came regularly, they’d all need to pay at least 4x more. So that cheap membership easily turns into the gym netting $100 each month per member that actually shows up.
The gyms are obviously aware of this, and have no problem with it. To enforce this very profitable way of running things, they do the following:
- Have no accountability system. If you don’t come to the gym, no one’s going to call you up to see how you’re doing. The less people they have coming in, the better.
- Lock you into contracts. Most people join a gym, go for a few weeks, then never come back. Contracts force these people to keep paying for an entire year.
So, let’s move on to our second question… how do more expensive private gyms compete?
The answer is threefold:
- Private gyms expect all of their members to show. This is very simple. You won’t have 3 or 4 other people not showing up and eating up your costs. Because of this, the private gyms are usually smaller, but have are more personable and “community-like”.
- Private gyms usually have an accountability system. They not only expect you to come, but will check in with you if you haven’t been coming in. These folks actually care about your fitness!
- MOST IMPORTANT: Many private gyms use a small-group personal training format. At a commercial gym, you just do your own thing. If you need help, you’ve got to pay extra for a personal trainer, which can cost $50-100+ per hour. At the small private gym, you’re getting the personal training experience in small groups. That means you’ve got a trainer giving you the workout, teaching you how to do exercises, and handling all the nitty gritty stuff, at a fraction of the cost of regular personal training.
The only people who’d really benefit from commercial gyms would be the fitness addicts who know exactly what to do and will always hold themselves accountable.
For everyone else, the small private gym will deliver your results, help you lose weight, and put your hard-earned money to good use.
