Opening your first gym is hard. Scaling to two sites and beyond presents a whole other level of difficulty. Because now you’re not just running a gym; you’re building a business.
The first site usually grows off the back of your own sweat equity. You know the clients, and coach the sessions. You patch the walls, order the toilet roll, fire off the social posts, and make the sales calls. The business is you.
Your second site forces a different game. One where systems, structure, and delegation aren’t nice-to-haves – they’re the only way you stay afloat.
And most gym owners aren’t ready for the challenges this brings.
Before you jump
If you’re thinking about a second site, start by asking yourself: what’s the worst-case scenario?
Can your business — and your personal finances — absorb it?
Your Plan A might look like this:
- Second site opens
- Core team in place
- 50 members signed up pre-launch
- Break-even by month 6
- Profitable by month 12
Your Plan B might be:
- Slower ramp-up
- Pull resources from your first site
- Cashflow dip for 6-12 months
- Still viable, just tighter margins
But your Worst Case?
- You burn through your reserves
- Both sites underperform
- You’re over-leveraged, overworked, and can’t recover
Unless you know – and can live with – the worst-case scenario, you’re not ready to open a second site. You need to have understand what’s at risk if you fail (not just what you stand to gain) and measure that against your appetite for risk.
Lay the foundations
Your first site isn’t just a test bed – it’s the prototype. It should already be a tight, replicable system with:
- A product that delivers consistent results for your members
- A staff team that doesn’t rely on your presence to do their job well
- Systems for ops, sales, marketing, and member experience
- Strong margins and clean numbers
If the first gym only works because you’re in it, the second one won’t work at all.
Don’t scale chaos
A second site doesn’t solve your problems — it magnifies them.
Hiring headaches will be doubled.
Retention issues will compound.
And a lack of clear lead pipeline and sales process will nix your growth before it even gets going.
Before you commit, get ruthless about systemising everything from onboarding to stock control. Standardise the member journey. Document your sales process. Build your training delivery system so any coach can step in.
You need a business model, not a personality brand.
Start with the numbers
It’s easy to get carried away with logos, lighting, and layouts. But if the numbers don’t work, none of that matters.
Start with a solid financial model, prepared with the help of an expert in this area:
- What’s your break-even headcount at each pricing tier?
- What will it cost to open: fit out, kit, staffing, rent, utilities, reserves?
- How much cash do you need to hold back to sleep at night?
- What’s your growth curve, month by month, and what will it take to get there?
Don’t open your second site on a hunch. Build the spreadsheet, then the strategy, then the gym.
Be ready for your job to change
With two gyms, you’re not just a coach or a manager; you’re the business owner. That means your time goes into:
- Managing people, not just sessions
- Reading P&Ls, not just PT logs
- Making hiring decisions, not programming tweaks
- Setting the strategy, not mopping the floor
If that shift doesn’t excite you, ask yourself why you want to scale.
There’s nothing wrong with a great single-site business. But if you do want to go multi-site, commit to becoming the leader your business needs next.
Thinking about a second site?
We’ve successfully opened seven of them – and helped hundreds of owner-operators do the same.
Book a 1:1 coaching call with JC here to talk through your plans (and how to avoid common mistakes); or join the waiting list for the Gym Owner’s Collective to learn from others on the same journey as you.