Introduction:
After years of building my first business from the ground up, I had reached a turning point. My company was growing, revenue was strong, and I had gained valuable experience in running a successful small business.
As any small business owner knows, growth often leads to new opportunities, and in my case, that opportunity came in the form of launching a second business—through a partnership with my competitor.
A clear market gap emerged—no gym in our area catered to the 40+ demographic. Since both my partner and I ran physical therapy practices, launching a gym tailored to this group felt like the perfect opportunity.
But launching a second venture while managing another small business wasn’t going to be easy.
In this blog, I’ll walk you through how I made the leap, the key challenges I faced, and the strategies I used to balance both businesses without burning out.
Whether you’re thinking about expanding your own small business or just curious about how to manage multiple businesses, this is my story of scaling beyond one business.
How to Start a Second Business While Scaling Your First (Gym & Small Business Growth Strategy)
With the year 2021 done and the preparations for the gym going full steam, it’s time to take a look at how I ended my year financially.
My physical therapy practice made a revenue of $330K with around $190K in total expenses and had made a profit of $140K.
My revenue had grown 35.2% in one year. But my profit had grown by 55%.
Reflecting on where I started just three years ago, this milestone felt surreal. Turning my physical therapy practice into a highly profitable business wasn’t easy, but every challenge along the way made this moment even more rewarding.
If you want to take a look at all the financials of this year, take a look at this article:
(Insert link: The profit and financials of a small physical therapy practice, year 2021).
But we had more things to do! We still had to renovate the gym to make it a successful gym opening.
How Much Does It Cost to Open a Gym? (Startup Costs & Break-Even Analysis)
The building where the gym would be located, an old elementary school, was being rebuilt by construction workers and would be operational on the 1st of March 2022. It was a big building with around 6,500 sq feet.
To rebuild the old elementary school into a gym without the equipment, we needed significant liquidity, $180K in total. With the two of us (John and myself) investing equally, that meant a $90K down payment each to fund the rebuilding.
I had been saving a lot in my company account, and at the end of 2021, there was around $150K in my account.
Now I was reaping the benefits of saving so much and spending so little because I could pay for the rebuilding out of my business account without having to borrow any money from the bank to finance the rebuilding.
Once the renovation was complete, we faced another major expense—fully equipping the gym with brand-new machines and facilities, a $350K investment.
We decided we wanted one of the best brands in the market—Technogym. This meant we had to pay a premium for our preferences, but having Technogym fitness equipment in our gym was totally worth it.
So, how did we finance our gym startup? With a perfectly written business plan, of course! We secured a $350K loan from the bank, which we needed to pay back within five years at an interest rate of 4%.
This meant that starting the gym would cost us $530K in total, requiring an investment of $265K each.
To cover these initial costs, we needed at least 500 members with active subscriptions to break even in the first few months.
Our average membership fee was $51, so with 500 members, we needed to generate $25,500 per month—just to break even in those first months.
If you want to take a look at the exact costs, break even point and profit margins please take a look at
(Insert link: How much does it cost to start your own gym, investing and working towards your break-even point)
What are the Monthly expenses of a medium, 6500 sq. feet gym?
- Salaries $11,000
- Loan repayment and interest $5,833 (repayment) + $900 (interest) =$6,733
- Rent of property and utilities $5,500
- Subscriptions, administration, accountant $1,000
- Marketing agency $1,000
- Insurances $800
- Other $367
Total: €25,500
Extra Explanation:
- Salaries: With our business coach, we had the deal that we would find a club manager. The club manager would be paid well and would be made the main responsible one for managing operations within the fitness. The other part of the staff would mostly be young students who had affinity with sport and liked to work in the gym.
- Loan repayment: Speaks for itself, we had to pay $350K in five years with a 4% interest rate. This was the amount we needed to pay back.
- Rent and utilities: Since the property was 6,500 square feet, we had to pay a lot of rent. But this was worth it, as the gym would have a max capacity for 1,250 members.
- Marketing agency: One of the most important expenses. They made a landing page on our website that was perfectly placed for the pre-sale to convert leads and possible new members.
(Insert link: The costs and financials of my first year of being a gym owner, year 2021).
How to find personnel for your gym
Since we were setting up a brand-new gym and had limited time to take on extra work ourselves, we knew we had to approach this business differently from our physical therapy practices.
With guidance from our business consultant, we developed a strategy that allowed us to step away from daily operations and avoid being directly involved in managing the gym during work hours. To achieve this, we needed to hire a competent gym manager. Someone who could manage day-to-day operations, manage staff, and ensure everything ran smoothly in our absence.
Hiring Fitness Trainers: Leveraging Social Media to Build Our Team
In addition to finding a strong manager, we also needed around six fitness trainers to cover all shifts during our gym’s opening hours. Fortunately, this was a much easier hiring process compared to finding a manager.
Most of our trainers were young students with a passion for sports, they were eager to gain experience in the fitness industry. Within just three weeks, we had a full roster of qualified candidates. Surprisingly, Instagram played a huge role in our recruitment. After posting the job vacancy online, many applicants messaged us directly. They were following our gym’s journey from the beginning and became interested!
By building an engaged audience on social media before opening, we would not only secure early memberships but we also attracted motivated trainers who wanted to work at the gym that we promoted so much!
The approach of building a team before opening allowed us to focus on scaling both businesses without being tied to the gym floor every day. Otherwise we would be working 100+ hours per week and that isn’t healthy in the long run.
Finding the Right Manager: Like Searching for a Needle in a Haystack
Finding a great manager is like searching for a needle in a haystack. The most experienced candidates already have well paying jobs and most of them are satisfied with where they are. For the first two months, we actively searched for a manager with the skills we needed but had little success. We conducted five job interviews but none of the candidates had the right experience in managing a new gym from the start.
Then, through one of our business connections, we got a promising lead. A highly skilled gym manager with over 20 years of experience was unhappy in his current role at a nearby gym. Since this was a rare opportunity, John immediately reached out to him.
We invited him for a tour in our new gym, shared our vision, and asked if he’d be interested in being the manager of a gym. We could see the reaction from his facial expressions, he was very enthusiastic!
One week later, he signed the contract. To make sure he was staying, we offered him a 25% salary increase compared to his other job. Why? Because we knew that without a competent manager, we’d end up working 100-hour weeks.
Read our full article (How to find right employees for your business)
How a Strong Team Helped Me Escape the Entrepreneurial Rat Race
At this stage in my entrepreneurial journey, I had a major breakthrough in how I would run my business and get out of the rat race called entrepreneurship: it was entirely possible to manage multiple businesses at once, even without being involved in every single detail. I didn’t have to micromanage everything myself; instead, I could trust my managers and employees to handle all the things around the gym.
This shift in mindset was a game-changer. Since the start of my career, I had been used to doing everything myself, convinced that no one else could do the tasks i did as well as I could. Giving responsibilities away felt uncomfortable, and giving up control was a challenge.
However, as our team grew and our businesses expanded, I quickly learned that building a strong team and empowering employees wasn’t just necessary, it was the key to long-term success. You can only do so much work yourself. I think it is at this point in being a business owner, most get stuck and end up working 80 hours a week and being a slave to their own company.
This experience completely transformed my perspective on how a business should be run.
Best Ways to Promote Your Gym and Sell Memberships Before Opening
When launching our gym, we knew that achieving 500 members (our break-even point) as quickly as possible was crucial to long-term success. Rather than waiting until opening day to start acquiring members, we implemented a gym pre-sale membership strategy designed to maximize gym memberships before the doors even opened.
How We Built Hype and Sold 380 Memberships Before Opening, creating an Small business owner success story
1. Leveraging an Existing Audience
We tapped into an existing audience by utilizing our physical therapy practice’s newsletter list, which contained 2,500 email addresses. These were highly relevant potential members, as many of them were already focused on health and fitness. We:
✅ Announced the gym opening via email, encouraging people to follow our journey.
✅ Sent exclusive early-access offers to subscribers.
✅ Provided behind-the-scenes updates to build excitement.
2. Social Media Growth Before Opening
We launched Instagram and Facebook accounts dedicated to the gym and implemented a strategic follower-building strategy:
✅ Followed people who were engaging with other gyms in the area (high-interest potential customers).
✅ Our Instagram account gained 1,200 followers before we even posted a second time!
✅ Our first post: “New gym incoming! Stay tuned!” with the gym address – simple but effective.
3. Building Excitement with Behind-the-Scenes Content
From day one of renovations, we engaged our growing audience by:
Sharing renovation updates, showing progress and transformation.
Running Instagram Live Q&As, answering questions about pricing, showing the equipment from Technogym, and membership options.
Letting followers vote on equipment placement and gym features to make them feel involved.
Creating 3D walk-throughs with our architect and fitness equipment supplier (Technogym) to visualize the final gym design.
4. A Strong Pre-Sale Membership Offer
We knew that offering significant early-bird discounts would encourage people to commit before opening. We structured the presale into three rounds of 100 people each, this created scarcity because everyone would want to get the most discount.
5. An open day before the official opening of the gym
Before officially opening, we hosted an open day to let visitors explore our new gym, see the equipment, and ask questions about memberships. We extended the final Pre-Sale Opportunity resulting in 30 extra sign-ups.
🔹 Presale Round 1:
Fit Membership – $39.90/month (instead of $44.90).
No startup fee (normally $50).
Total savings: $110 per year
🔹 Presale Round 2:
Fit Membership – $39.90/month (instead of $44.90).
Startup fee: $25 (instead of $50).
Total savings: $85 per year
🔹 Presale Round 3:
Regular Membership – $44.90/month
Startup fee: $25 (instead of $50).
Total savings: $25 per year
Every pre-sale membership was a 12-month commitment, ensuring we had a solid financial base before launch. That way, we knew all the new members would be paying for 12 months.
As you can see the average price is way below 51$, that’s because we also had other premium subscriptions where people could upgrade to if they wanted, that’s how I came up with the 51$ average subscription price.
5. Local Marketing and Awareness
We supplemented our digital efforts with offline marketing to reach a broader audience:
– Local newspaper features – sharing the story of our gym’s launch.
– Billboard ads in high-traffic areas promoting our presale.
– Word-of-mouth campaigns – encouraging people to tag friends in our social media content.
Gym Presale – How We Sold 380 Yearly Subscriptions Before Opening Our Doors
Two weeks before the official opening of our gym, we launched our highly anticipated presale membership campaign. Our goal was simple: sell as many memberships as possible before opening day. We had spent weeks hyping up the presale, emphasizing that the first round would offer the biggest discount ($110 off) and that only 100 spots were available per round.
To maximize conversions, we strategically launched Presale Round 1 at 8:00 PM on a Friday evening—a time when we knew most people would be relaxed at home and ready to take
The Website Crash: A Sign of Insane Demand
At 7:55 PM, just minutes before we opened Presale Round 1, I received an urgent call from my website developer:
“Hey man, I think we’ll be having problems… There are already 90 people waiting and they’re constantly refreshing. I think the website will blow out!”
Sure enough, as soon as we opened at 8:00 PM, our website crashed. The flood of visitors refreshing the page overloaded our server, and the presale came to a stop in the first minute.
Immediate Response: Going Live on Social Media
Realizing we had to act fast, we immediately jumped onto Facebook and Instagram Live, reassuring everyone that:
✅ The website would be back up in 15 minutes.
✅ Their exclusive discount would still be available.
✅ They should stay tuned and not leave!
This impromptu social media intervention worked like magic. Not only did it keep our audience engaged, but it also increased the sense of urgency—because now, they had to fight for their spot in the presale even harder!
The Website Reopens – And Presale Round 1 Sells Out in 8 Minutes!
Behind the scenes, our website developer upgraded our hosting package to handle the unexpected surge in traffic. When the website finally went back online, we were shocked to see that:
130+ people were still waiting to buy their membership.
Within 8 minutes, all 100 memberships in Presale Round 1 were SOLD OUT.
Hundreds more people were messaging us, asking when the next round would open.
🔥 This was the ultimate proof that our pre-launch marketing strategy had worked.
The Hidden Strategy That Boosted Our Presale Sign-Ups
Selling 100 memberships in just 8 minutes was already a massive success, but behind the scenes, we made a strategic decision that took our presale even further.
When we checked the backend, we noticed something crucial:
🔹 There were still 130+ people online, actively trying to purchase a membership.
🔹 If we closed the first presale round at exactly 100 sign-ups, we risked losing 30 highly interested customers.
💡 The Secret Move: We decided to quietly extend the round to 130 memberships—but without informing buyers. Each person who signed up still believed they were securing one of the original 100 spots. This was one of our best gym marketing strategies of the whole plan we had laid out.
Why We Kept It a Secret
Maintained Scarcity: The urgency remained real—each buyer still believed they had just barely made it in time.
Maximized Conversions: Instead of turning people away, we locked in 30 additional paying members instantly.
Created a Marketing Power Play: For the next presale round, we could now truthfully promote:
“Our first presale round SOLD OUT in just 8 minutes! Spots are extremely limited—don’t miss out on Round 2!”
If you want to read our full presale gym marketing guide and how we did it. It’s available for free, you can read it here (Insert link)
How to manage multiple businesses at once.
Meanwhile, I had less time to dedicate to my physical therapy practice than before. Every spare moment was put into preparing for the opening of our first gym. I spent days, nights, and even weekends preparing for the gym opening. Thankfully, I had a supportive girlfriend who understood the demands of entrepreneurship. Not once did she complain, even when my schedule became really busy and I had to cancel our appointments.
From February 2022 to June 2022, I was working around 90 hours a week. Yet, despite all the hours at the job, I never felt truly exhausted. Starting new projects fuels me with energy, and seeing the gym being worked on made every hour worth it. The saying “If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life” couldn’t be more true.
By the end of February, the job was done! Three days before our official opening, we completed the final touches of our gym.
On the Sunday before opening week, we hosted a massive open house—a final opportunity for the community to see the gym, experience the facilities, and sign up before launch.
The Open House Turnout & Last-Minute Membership Boost
✅ Between 700–800 people visited the gym that day!
✅ We extended the final round of our presale during the event, allowing walk-ins to grab the last available spots.
✅ By the end of the day, we secured 30 more memberships—a last-minute win before our grand opening.
Our final membership count before opening day.
- 380 paying members signed up before we officially opened our doors!
- A gym marketing success story.
Curious about what happened next?
We didn’t just open strong, we broke even in just two months while running another business on the side.
Read the full breakdown of how we scaled, retained members, and hit profitability fast in our next article:
(Insert link: How We Broke Even in Just Two Months—While Running Another Business!)
7 Key Takeaways from My Journey of Opening a Gym While Running a Profitable Business
1️⃣ Scaling a Business Requires Smart Delegation
- Managing multiple businesses doesn’t mean working 100+ hours a week—it means hiring the right people and trusting them to run operations effectively. Finding an experienced gym manager allowed us to step back and focus on growth instead of daily tasks.
2️⃣ Pre-Sale Marketing is a Game-Changer for a Gym Launch
- By implementing a pre-sale membership strategy, leveraging social media, and offering exclusive discounts, we secured 380 paying members before the gym even opened. This guaranteed steady cash flow and minimized financial risk.
3️⃣ Leveraging an Existing Audience Can Boost Early Success
- Using our physical therapy practice’s email list (2,500 subscribers), we were able to convert loyal clients into gym members. If you already have a business, use your existing customer base as a launchpad for your new venture.
4️⃣ Scarcity & Urgency Drive Membership Sales
- Structuring our pre-sale in limited rounds created fear of missing out (FOMO), which encouraged faster sign-ups. The first round sold out in just 8 minutes, proving that exclusivity and limited-time offers are powerful sales tools.
5️⃣ Hosting an Open Day Builds Community Engagement & Converts More Members
- Our open day event brought in 700-800 visitors, creating a buzz around the gym. It also helped us sign up an extra 30 members on the spot by extending the last round of our pre-sale.
6️⃣ Social Media is a Powerful Tool for Both Marketing & Hiring
- Instagram and Facebook played a crucial role in building an audience before opening AND in hiring gym trainers. By consistently posting updates, we attracted engaged followers who later applied for jobs and became our first members.
7️⃣ Growth as a business owner comes from Mindset Shifts
- I initially struggled to give up control and delegate responsibilities, believing I had to do everything myself. But this journey completely changed my perspective—scaling a business isn’t about working harder, it’s about building the right team and systemizing operations for long-term success.
