Before we begin, one of the first things you need to know about owning a gym is that you first need to be passionate about it. If you love and enjoy motivating your clients to reach optimum levels of health and wellbeing, then starting a fitness centre might be a good fit for you.
The fitness industry in Nigeria:
Starting a fitness centre in a country like Nigeria is not easy, but it can be extremely rewarding if you’re willing to put in the hard work. Many Nigerians go to the gym on a daily basis to work out and keep physically fit.
The fitness industry has in recent years, recorded a stable growth in Nigeria. It has also attracted a lot of media attention, thanks to the internet. Fitness trainers are being treated in the same light as preachers.
Many of them on Instagram have garnered hundreds of thousands of followers, with the ladies forming a good percentage of these. This is not unrelated to their contents on the social media platforms espousing the success of their fitness routines.
For example, you'd see a celebrity fitness trainer sharing an info on how he successfully transformed someone from size 15 to size 10 in a matter of weeks and how you too can if you join the train. They're more like a combination of motivational speakers and role models in one.
Hence one won't be a bit surprised with the enormous respect they command withing the fit-fam community with their successful business models.
How To Start A Fitness Centre In Nigeria
In this section, we'd be listing out the things you need to know about launching a gym house in Nigeria. from creating your business plan to choosing a good location and even the estimated cost plus more.Let's get going...
• Get trained
First of all, you need to pass through the proper training and experience that will qualify you to start your own gym. As you should already know, your clients won't just be counting on you to look great, but to also keep their bodies healthy and safe using their services.There are different personal training you can choose from, and they all come with their own certifications. The choice of training to pass through should depend on certain factors like your locality and target market.
• Carry out a market survey/feasibility study
Things you should pen down include the notably dominant class, gender and even age grade in the region. A region with a large concentration of youths will be very ideal for setting up a gym house.
• Choose a brand name
In choosing a name for your business, you can start by considering the nature of the business. Your choice name will act like an extension of your brand, representing you in your absence.In choosing a name for your business, you can decide to explore any of the following options:
- Use your (the founder's) name ie 20th Century Fox (William Fox)
- Describe what you do ie Skype (originally the idea was 'Sky peer to peer')
- Make up a word ie Google (derived from 'googol' which means 1 followed by 100 zeros)
- Take a word out of context ie Apple (according to Steve Jobs, he had just come back from an apple farm, and thought the name sounded “fun, spirited and not intimidating.”)
- You can also describe an experience or image • Register your business name
After creating your brand's name, the next thing in line will be to register it the the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). The CAC was formed in 1990 as an autonomous body in charge of regulating the formation and management of companies in NigeriaTheir services include registration of business names and incorporation of companies. Registering your business with name has many benefits especially in building a reputation with your customers. It'll also be useful if in the future, you want to access any government contracts or loans from the various financial institutions.
• Prepare your business plan
Your business plan is a written description of your business's future. It will contain what your plans and the methods you intend carrying out plans.For example, a business plan for your gym business should contain your business goals (both long term and short term), capital ( and how you intend raising them), equipment, location, how you intend earning (ie membership fee), miscellaneous costs among others.
• Get financed
Depending on your scale, you will be needing between ₦1 million to ₦5 million to get started. A good percentage of the money will go into renting a space. You'll also need to acquire (or rent) some equipment and advertise your new business.Different ways of raising capital for your business include personal funds (ie savings) and loans from financial institutions. You can also borrow from your friends and relatives who'd be interested in helping you set up the business.
• Rent a space
The space will be taking a good cut from your budget. You won't just be going for any room, a standard gym house should be around 30m by 20m or more. If you'll be launching your business in developed cities like Abuja and Lagos, you might have to budget between ₦500,000 to ₦1,000,000 per annum.You can go for a spacious room, with if possible, small sections for offices and private gym sections. In addition to these, a standard gym house should also have a rest room (British English), where trainers can rest in-between and after sections.
• Acquire the necessary equipment
Some necessary equipment that you'd be needing in your gym house include:- Dumbbells
- Motorized & Manual Treadmills
- Ski machine
- Exercise mats
- Weight pile
- Stepper boards
- Indoor cycles
- Ellipticals
- Ankle weight
- Skip-rope
- Rowers
These equipment come at different prices, and if you intend purchasing all, you will have to budget more than ₦2 million. Check the prices of the equipment on Jumia, it'd help you in estimating the actual market costs and you can also purchase them there too.
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Also note that the equipment can be hired on lease at more affordable prices. If you don't have enough funds, I'd suggest you go for his option and upgrade in the later run.
• Hire professionals
Your scale will determine the number employees you'd be hiring in the early stage of your business. Your employee should already have an experience in fitness training and in addition, be passionate about the job.You can also consider hiring someone to take on the marketing role, the person will be in charge of managing the release and spread of information between your business and your customers.
• Promote your business
Thanks to the internet, you don't need to spend millions in promoting your business via the various social media platforms and other platforms. You can target your locality with Google and Facebook ads at very affordable rates.Alternatively, you can promote your business offline by printing ans sharing banners and flyers around your business location.
Cost of Gym Membership in Nigeria
The prices of gym membership varies across the country. In the developed parts like Lagos and Abuja, you might pay as much as ₦20,000 per month or ₦240,000 per annum.In places like Ilorin and Ibadan, the prices are relatively low and you can see people charging as low as ₦10,000 per month.
When you move to Orlu, Mgbidi and other less popular towns, you'd even get it at lower rates of ₦5,000 per month.
So in summary, your charges will be dependent on your location and the standard of your gym house.
Before you leave, also check out our article on 5 HOTTEST secrets on how to make money from Facebook. It was written by Clifford and he listed some eye-opening tips on how you can start making money legitimately from your personal social media accounts.
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