Fitness Centers
A Guide for Business Owners

119 North Commercial Street, Suite 195 Bellingham, WA 98225-4455 phone: (360) 733-4014 fax: (360) 733-5092 www.cevforbusiness.com

Success Factors
Fitness Trends In order to maintain clients and attract new customers, the business must stay current with exercise trends. The following list includes some recent fitness center trends. • • • • • • Short, yet efficient workouts Mind-body exercise, such as tai chi or yoga Workouts that promote core strength Diet counseling Exercise for the whole family Routines that are gentle on joints1

Location Customers will typically drive no more than 15 minutes from their home or work to a fitness center.2 Please feel free to contact the CEV and we can provide you with a ring study that includes the population within a 15 minute drive of a particular location. Space and Equipment Fitness centers frequently lease their equipment. A 25,000 square foot gym will typically lease about $400,000 of equipment. Equal space is often given to aerobic machines, weight training equipment, and rooms for classes.3

Customer Demographics
The following demographic information is from The Lifestyle Market Analyst 2007, a book that indexes and ranks popular lifestyle choices based on an individual’s interests.4 The index reflects how likely a consumer is to express an interest in a particular lifestyle attribute relative to the average U.S. consumer. An index of 100 means the likelihood of participating in an activity is the same as the average American household. Values greater than 100 indicate that someone is more likely to participate in an activity and values less than 100 indicate that someone is less likely to participate in that activity. For example, a person who enjoys physical fitness/exercise is 8% (100-92) less likely to be a single male, but is 2.00 times more likely to be