Importance of Business Location of Fitness Clubs
The location of a fitness facility might be the most important factor to determine its success. A fitness club can be a world-class facility, but if it is not convenient for people to travel to, it is likely to fail. According to MSNBC, the best fitness clubs are located within 12 minutes of a person's home.
Other People Are Reading
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Convenience
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People do not want to waste their time. Most people who visit the gym regularly have a schedule to follow and if the location of a gym is too far, it is unlikely they will want to sign up. The fitness club must be as convenient for members as possible. They should be able to hop in and hop out whenever they please. If it is a chore to go to the gym and the drive or walk to the location takes too long, this will not only deter existing members from going regularly, but also deter new members from joining.
City Gyms
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Fitness clubs that are located in the heart of a city surrounded by high rises and office towers must also be concerned with location. Many of their members will likely walk or take public transit to the facility. Distances must be kept as short as possible in the urban community, as an extra block can be a deterring factor for a member to join a gym. The gym should ideally be surrounded by mixed commercial and residential developments as it can then attract people from the apartments and condos as well as those who work in the offices.
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Gyms in the Suburbs
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Fitness clubs in the suburbs are usually accessed by people with a car, so the distance can be further than a downtown location. Yet it still should be within a 12-minute distance if possible. Locations that are adjacent to supermarkets, malls or shopping centers generally do well as people can easily go from the store to the gym.
Niche Gyms
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Niche fitness clubs that offer services that are not offered by most other facilities can get away with not being located in a convenient location. Members are looking specifically for those features and not a generic gym. This only applies to niche industries with little competition in a given geographic area. Niche gyms offer specialized fitness programs that are not commonly found or cater to a certain client base (for example, overweight women). Some niche gyms offer exclusive MMA (mixed martial arts) training or a certain yogic discipline. For a gym to be unique and not have to worry about location, it must be one of the only, if not only, gym offering with this competitive advantage.
Marketing
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Location is often associated with prestige. A downtown fitness facility located in the financial district might want a good location to create an image of an upscale club. A good location for such a gym would mean that it is located in a nice building close to a more affluent area and the financial district.
Conversely, a discount club might want a more modest location, such as an economically depressed area, industrial park or away from other businesses or neighborhoods, to save on building rental costs and pass on those savings to members.
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References
- Photo Credit gym image by Mat Hayward from Fotolia.com
