Venture Concept No. 2

People as a whole have a need for a better CrossFit gym, and so do many college students who want to play sports for their college, or further enhance their physical condition. Customers can range from college students to stay at home moms who want to improve their overall fitness level. Gainesville currently has what I consider tier 3 CrossFit gyms and they are essentially no good in my opinion. Currently customers are going to what they think are good Crossfit gyms but they are lead by people with little talent, who are solely after the money or trainers who don’t know what they are talking about. I used to train at a few of these facilities and I think they only stay open currently because new students come in every 4 months.

Customers would switch so quickly if the location was close to campus and big enough to accompany 50 people at once (Nearly 2x the current average).

I will have a decent amount of competitors, but my location will be prime, priced better, and trainers who actually know what they are talking about. Customer service will play a vital role in the business as people will want o be treated very well as they should. The appearance of this product (location) will also have to be good to distinguish myself from other competitors.

I could see this place operating with 3 full time trainers and perhaps 2 part time trainers if needed.

What will you have that will make it hard for competitors to copy your success?

The size of the location will be almost 2x the size of any other location in town, and that is so difficult to replicate.  The only options another gym might be able to perform is to move, and that is costly, so my competition will have no choice.

 What’s next for the venture?

Developing an athletes guide to get students on path to join college sport teams. There are a lot of college want-to-be athletes who never made the official college team, but still have the same dream. I would like to fuel that dream with a program that would enable these athletes to train over the course of a year, and then be able to walk on a UF Athletics team! I think in the begging phase I would have to have a specialty program for just track athletes, and then expand into baseball, and then football, and then the next sport.  This would take a lot of upfront work, but after a few success stories this would explode! So this would be the most fun part of the business, but in the start up phase will not pay for itself. The regular class that teaches regular students CrossFit will be the prime money maker in the beginning phase.

What’s next for me?

After success with this venture, I think the goal would be to expand into new territory.  There are colleges all around the country filled with students who are not satisfied with their CrossFit gyms. Gainesville being a prime location and having what I consider tier 3 gyms is an eye opener. If Gainesville has this type of opportunity I believe other college towns would as well. The trick is to cater to the right customers, and understand their unique goals, and get them on the right track.

Five Years- Expand into at least one new location such as Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Sarasota, orTampa. The goal would be to set up the Gainesville location and have such success that athletes all over the country would want an opportunity like this. I think developing the proper program for athletes is going to be the toughest aspect of this venture. A football player, and a gymnast will have very different needs as far as training goes, and I am going to need coaches with expertise in both! I realize this will be tough to solve, but all problems are fixable.

Ten Years- Have several locations, and expand outside the sunshine state to increase territory. At this point I would think other competitors would see my plan and try making their own version of my product. That will happen, but not in every single market.  The goal would be to have locations in several markets and take care of them for long run business opportunity.  After 10 years I would imagine hiring outside management to take care of individual locations while I focus on new ventures. I think this idea is unique, and I do not see others doing it..YET!

Everyone who reviewed my last post only gave me positive advise, so that was a good thing. Although I noticed some people had no idea about how bad the Crossfit gyms are in Gainesville and how bad I think of them. So now I know the Market I will be working in is not as educated in this area, or maybe customers do not see it the way I see it.  I imagine my product will be very very different than anything else ever seen in Gainesville and it will take the town by storm!   I only changed my concept, by adding a bigger time estimate to it. Perhaps 10 years will not be long enough, and instead I should aim for 15 or so.  The first establishment will take a very long time to nurture and grow.