How to Start a Fitness Business in 9 Steps

By Sean Davis

Starting any business at all can be a daunting task, there’s paperwork, logistics, bank accounts, and a litany of other forms and factors that need to be in place before you can really get the ball rolling but it all starts with an idea. Luckily for you, you know what type of business you want to start, and that’s a fitness business, but how exactly do you start a fitness business? Below we’ll dive into how to start a fitness business online or on-premise.

Steps to Starting a Fitness Business

Though there is no specific way to workout how you should start your fitness business, here are some general steps you should go through when starting your fitness business.

1. Identify Your Products or Services

By knowing yourself and what you want your clientele to be, you can better pinpoint the offerings you’d like to bring to market. For example, if you’re a people person you may want to start with personal training, then possibly move to group training opportunities like boot camps, and yoga classes. These real-world fitness business ideas can all expand to online fitness businesses like coaching, nutrition programs, and more. You can also ask yourself what you value most in your offerings, such as client results or your own personal gains.

Knowing what you’re passionate about, or simply what you’re better at than your competitors or industry is a crucial step in starting a successful fitness business.

2. Create a Brand and Logo

Once all of the monotonous paperwork is done, minus your articles of incorporation, it’s time to hone in on what your brand is and what the brand guidelines are for your fitness business. What is your color story, what logomark reinforces what your business is about, and what type of fitness business you are starting? At PBS we’ve been in the printing business for over 60 years, and with this much time spent in the printing space we truly understand branding, and moreover can help you with yours.  

3. Identify Your Target Audience

It’s important to identify who your target audience is when starting a fitness business. Knowing who your ideal customer is for your services will help you craft marketing strategies, choose locations, and outlets to use for innovative ways to promote yourself and your business. Knowing your target audience and your brand will help you when creating marketing collateral, whether it be distributed online or in person at events. Print Bind Ship’s Mail Genius can also help you with flyers, postcards, and other freebies while also physically targeting your target market.

4. Invest in the Necessary Equipment

Because the fitness industry contains many multi-verticals within it, knowing what equipment is necessary for your to start your fitness business is important. When choosing the equipment you need, it’s not only important for you to do research to make sure you’re getting the best bang for your buck, but also equipment that is strong enough to stand the wear and tear that exercise brings with it. 

Though any brick-and-mortar fitness location will have its own set of needs, it’s also important to build your studio or gym as it grows. Buying equipment that is both versatile and meets the needs of your clientele is of the utmost importance.

5. Secure a Location

In the same vein as choosing the right equipment, a bad location can kill a business just as easily as bad service. If your business can’t be easily found, it poses a serious issue. When choosing your location you should consider the cost, space, and most of all your clientele. Your customers should feel both safe getting to your location and at peace while working out in it. Depending on your general clientele you should also keep accessibility in mind, not just for the sake of the legal ramifications but to make sure everyone who can use your space has access to it without a hassle.

6. Develop a Pricing Structure

There are countless business strategy books that can go into this far more in-depth. Still, the general idea of figuring out your pricing structure comes from ensuring that your offerings are competitive and your company remains in the green. Figuring out the run rate by calculating your cost of goods, overhead, advertising, and staffing costs is a great place to start with figuring out your recurring expenses, while also knowing what can be streamlined or offloaded completely. All of these things will affect your pricing structure, but once you know them 

7. Establish Your Online Presence

Today, a company’s success is heavily influenced by its branding and online presence, so it’s crucial that you launch your website as soon as possible. In addition to helping you get a leg up on the SEO terms in your industry and enhancing your online presence, it can help you showcase your services and products to prospective clients. If you don’t have a website, it may be difficult for customers to find you, and make it easier for competitors to poach clients that should be yours simply because you’re not visible.

Building your social media following is something you can do before or after establishing your website, but definitely, something that must be done to reinforce your brand. Social media allows you to interact with your prospective clients while sharing useful content that can position you as a market leader or expert. With the right brand notoriety and online presence, you can even work with well-known influencers to promote your services, which can attract even more new customers.

8. Promote Your New Fitness Business

Once your website is operational, and your online presence has begun, you should begin promoting your fitness business online, outside of social efforts, to boost traffic and sales. Marketing your online fitness business is the key to reaching new audiences and your target market. Though social media can do this effectively, a personal touch can help move the needle.

Another excellent way to get your foot in the door and draw in customers who are already interested is through affiliate marketing linked to a fitness brand or influencer. Advertising on search engines like Google and Bing is an effective way to get your services in front of not only potential new customers but also targeted customers in your demographic. You can drive more traffic to your website and turn more leads into paying customers if you create an efficient marketing plan for your goods.

9. Consider Additional Ways to Monetize Your Fitness Business

Now that you know how to start your fitness business, it’s time to exploit the brand that you’ve built in the best way possible. One of the most straightforward ideas is merch, and that’s our specialty. Not only do we print marketing materials at PBS we can also print custom tanktops, and workbooks, and we could even print you branded yoga mats. Whatever your printing needs may be, we can help.

Start Your Fitness Business

Now that you’ve done the heavy lifting, let us do the rest of the monotonous routine and help you make more money with your fitness business. Though there are limitless opportunities available in the online fitness space, when working with local customers or one-on-one clients, sometimes the personal touch of physical mail can help you convert. Even if you don’t provide intrapersonal services, direct mail campaigns can extend your reach in a targeted way.

To help you with that, Print Bind Ship’s Mail Genius is available. We can track our direct mail campaign’s return on investment (ROI) while also taking care of any other sourcing, printing, and shipping requirements you might have for your fitness business thanks to our in-house tracking system. Whatever your printing needs may be, PBS is here to help.

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