As you probably already know, the opening of a professional gym It presents a significant challenge in its initial stages, which, although exciting, are tough. Equally exciting is the next stage, which involves the day-to-day management of your sports center: attracting clients, maintaining the facilities, attending to your members…
In that hustle and bustle of daily life, there will be a series of Monthly gym expenses that you'll need to cover . We're talking about those expenses that will be constant month after month, or year after year, and that you'll have to take into account when balancing your gym's results.
Gym expense analysis
In this post we want to tell you about all of them. If Are you thinking of opening your own gym ? These are the ones Monthly expenses you'll have to face . Many of them are common to virtually any business; others, you'll see, are specific to a fitness business. Let's take a look.
Rent or mortgage expenses
The premises will be one of the biggest expenses you'll have to face. in your fitness business. Perhaps you're lucky enough to already have a commercial space; in that case, making your business profitable won't be difficult. If not, You'll have to consider whether to buy or rent the premises . This, of course, involves adapting the space to the business activity, which usually increases the investment amount.
In the end, unless you were able to pay it off all at once with savings, The conventional approach is to start with fixed expenses, which are usually: rent or mortgage, and perhaps a loan for renovations.
It's difficult to determine the cost of this item. It depends on factors such as the country, city, and neighborhood where the gym will be located; the size of the premises, its initial condition… To give you an idea of the price of renting or buying a commercial space, We recommend you take a look at the main real estate portals and check the price of premises in the area where you plan to open and make an estimate of the price per square meter.
Monthly expenses for electricity, water and gas
The Electricity and water expenses are the most conventional and common expenses. to any establishment. In the case of a gym's electricity costs, you'll need to provide sufficient lighting to ensure your members' comfort, and maintain a healthy temperature and air circulation. In both cases, there are currently options available. energy-efficient lighting and cooling systems Although more expensive initially, they ultimately prove profitable. Similarly, when choosing a location, those with a better energy rating may be more cost-effective, as maintaining the ideal temperature will be cheaper.
The Water consumption costs will be particularly relevant . As you will likely have showers, we recommend installing automatic tap shut-off systems.
One likely high expense will be the A boiler will provide you with hot water for showers . It's likely that your water bill will increase significantly in winter, so it's a good idea to set aside a supplementary budget for winter expenses, like a savings account for the months with higher costs.
Machinery, maintenance and repairs
When opening your gym, you will need to Equip it with fitness equipment necessary to offer a complete service to your members. This involves the initial investment in sports equipment, which you can cover all at once or through a financing system for gym equipment.
After, to maintain a renewed and perfectly functioning team This has some implications. This initial investment may be accompanied by the recurring payment of a machine maintenance fee (a kind of flat rate) or the specific repairs that these require.
There is a system that can solve the problem of making excessively large payments all at once. It is called... Gym equipment rental system , which offers the possibility of rent the machines long-term by paying only a monthly fee. This monthly fee allows you to forgo the large initial investment in machinery, avoid unexpected repair costs, and always have a maintenance service.
How to get funding for your future gym
Open a gym with no initial investment using the Renting service
Personnel expenses
Perhaps if your gym is very small and you have a sports license, you can manage it yourself. However, in most cases you will end up needing help from some employee who can cover aspects that you won't be able to handle. If so, you'll need to allocate funds for two separate budgets: one for your own salary as CEO of your company, and another for your employees. Salaries will vary depending on their roles and, therefore, their professional profiles: gym instructors, fitness instructors, reception staff, cleaning staff, nutritionists, physiotherapists, and so on.
Since each professional sector operates within different salary ranges, we recommend that Take a look at the job postings in each sector on employment websites ; this will give you an idea of the salaries for each employee. You will need to... Add to that the social expenses .
Suppliers
At your gym, you may also end up dealing with some suppliers: Cleaning company, vending machine and restocking services, facility maintenance company… This entire section, as well as the other issues covered in this post, must be reflected in the your gym's business plan.
Supplies and small appliances
If you have certain suppliers like those mentioned above, they will provide everything necessary to fulfill their services. If not, you will need to provide the gym with All the products necessary for daily operation : cleaning products, bathroom and shower supplies, office supplies for reception and administration, tools for the maintenance and repair of the facilities... As these are expenses that are, in many cases, occasional and sudden (although generally of small amount), you can dedicate an annual budget to them.
Spending on technology and software
You might need a small computer and some kind of software to Manage member registrations, payments, and access to your facilities . Many of these software programs, if they are of good quality, usually require a monthly fee. You will need to factor this into your budget.
At Bodytone we recommend our partner Trainingym, a gym management software with which we work hand in hand for the development of the connectivity of our products.
Monthly insurance expenses
Finally, the taking out liability insurance It's mandatory when opening a gym in Spain. You'll also need to factor in this expense, which can be paid monthly or annually. Additionally, as we explained in this post about gym insurance, you can take out other types of insurance to cover any additional issues you might be concerned about.
Additional expenses at your gym
This is a list of standard expenses, most of which are common to a large number of gyms. From here, you should assess your fitness business and determine if you need to consider additional expenses not included in this post. Only by understanding each and every expense will you be able to determine if your gym can be profitable .


