Why start a parkour gym?
Perhaps you are a parkour athlete and deeply care about developing this sport. Maybe you discovered that you have a passion for coaching others and the experience of seeing parkour improve someone's life sets your spirit on fire. Maybe you recognize parkour as a rapidly growing sport and a growing investment opportunity.
Whatever your reason(s), a well-run parkour gym with a sound business model can simultaneously massively contribute to the parkour community while providing a great income stream for gym owners and business leaders.
In this article, you'll discover a brief overview of the major steps and considerations when planning and ultimately opening your own parkour gym.
About the author
This article is written by Jimmy Davidson (hello!) the founder of Freedom in Motion one of the world's largest chain of parkour gyms. FiM at the time of this writing, has built four parkour gym locations, and a 5th is only a few months away. I'll do my best to lay out the initial best practices for launching your parkour gym, while also giving tips, advice, and warnings for you to consider on your journey. Let's jump in.
Begin Building an Audience 👨👩👧👦
To powerfully kick-start your journey toward opening a parkour gym, it's highly recommended that you establish yourself as a local parkour coach and authority on the topic. Begin by offering private or small group outdoor parkour lessons, typically in public parks with suitable structures. Be sure to research local laws around using public spaces for profitable use. You'll need to acquire liability waivers and insurance for protection, god forbid someone is injured under your coaching and come after you 🇺🇸. Building a local following and growing your student base through outdoor lessons will provide essential cash flow and potential future gym members.
Ideally, you develop a strong student base now while your overhead expenses are zero. this will allow you to build a cash reserve and you'll then be able to transfer your student base to your parkour gym, opening with members on day 1. Set a goal for 30 - 50 students.
Legally Form Your Company ⚖️
As you begin to acquire students on your own, the cash flow from those lessons will enable you to form your company's legal entity. The corporation will serve as a vital defense separating you personally from the inherent liability of teaching parkour. Ensuring your business is legally structured is crucial. Depending on your preferences, you need to set up an LLC or an S-corp. Begin by researching the availability of your preferred business name. Check to see if an appropriate website domain is also available. A quick Google search, such as "form an LLC in [your state & county]," will guide you through the necessary steps. Once you have your name, file a fictitious business name with your state and county. This claims your name and declares that you intend to do business soon in the area. this is a legally required step in many states. You can create all the entities you need at the state and county level on Legalzoom or most other self-service legal platforms. Before you open for business, you'll also need to acquire a business license, through your local city. This can often be done in 15 minutes or less via your city's main website.
Launch a website 🌐
Use sights like wix.com or squarepsace.com to design and build your website.
Make it clear what you offer
Make it easy for people to contact you
Create a "funnel", collecting leads for your outdoor program and for your soon-to-be fundraising campaigns.
the book "Marketing Made Simple" can help guide your design choices.
Raising Capital 💵
It's time to secure funding for your physical gym space, which typically costs between $30,000 to $75,000 for a small to medium-sized facility. Freedom in Motion's first successful location was 4,500 sq ft. That was a great size for our new parkour business, any bigger and you risk having unused space driving up our monthly rent costs.
Crowd Funding for your parkour gym
Using sights like Kickstarter or Indiegogo can offer a platform to raise money and tell your story. Here is a link to Freedom in Motion's initial crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo.com.
Create a Business Plan for your parkour gym
Creating a detailed business plan will allow you to approach banks and investors. For bank loans, if you're pre-revenue a business plan is an essential document in order to convey your opportunity to a lender. However, try and keep your business plan short and sweet. No one wants to read your 79-page plan, or at least no one wants to read mine. Keep your plan to 10 pages or less and try and include only these vital elements
What is your business and what problem does it solve?
Who are you and why are you qualified to run this business profitably?
Who else is on your team helping you run this business?
Who is the target audience, and what's the SAM (serviceable addressable market), or how many people in your 15-mile radius qualify as your target audience?
Has parkour been growing, or is it just a fad? Make the argument.
What are your specific offerings and their prices?
What's your expected overhead expense monthly?
What's your expected monthly revenue?
What's your expected monthly profit?
Why are you so sure about numbers 5-8?
Friends and family lending
Show your friends and family your business plan and directly ask for their investments. Create an actual written agreement detailing their loan and your repayment terms.
Host a "Founders Club"
A founders club is a marketing campaign where you offer unique benefits to those who purchase one of your fundraising packages, much like the ones you created in the crowdfunding section. You could also sign up folks for your founder's club by allowing them to register for a free tour of your gym. During this free tour, you promised tons of amazing rewards if they purchase a membership on or before day-1 of your initial opening.
Freedom in Motion opened our Riverside, CA location with 122 members on day 1 thanks to our successful founders club. Check out the webpage, video, and perks we offered.
Loan from a bank or Small Business Association
Loans from the SBA can be slow and have strict terms, however, they could potentially fully fund your business and can be worth looking into. Oftentimes, local lenders specialize in connecting with the SBA and will work with you as a middleman to help get you your loan.
Loans from a bank can be much faster than an SBA loan, however typically have much worse terms and a shorter repayment window. Both are options if you tried all of the above and are still coming up short. Note: It's essential to have a good credit score. You must have a personal strategy to continually improve your financial footing.
Find Your Parkour Gym's location 📍
Call up your local commercial real estate broker's office and let them know you want to find a building for your parkour gym. Brokers will work for you FOR FREE. They get paid by the future landlord on commission. Leverage their resources and industry knowledge. You do not need to do this part alone.
Things to consider when reviewing buildings.
Is the building properly zoned for your use?
Would the city agree that your building has enough parking for your use?
Is your location convenient for your target audience to find and drive to?
Does the shape of the building suit your needs? Avoid strangely shaped spaces.
Is the ceiling height tall enough? 18 feet is a safe minimum.
Is the building's electrical, plumbing, and HVAC up to code?
Always ask a lawyer to review your lease and have them point out any red flags they see that tip the overall lease contract in the landlord's favor. Check out gymlawyers.com
Note that a landlord will need to see these in place for you, a new business owner, to be taken seriously
Proper business liability insurance
A business legal entity such as an LLC or S corp.
Can you show any financial history and pre-existing profits? (good thing you have been hosting outdoor sessions and already have revenue!)
Are you able to pay the security deposit and the first month's rent? (in California, is reliably close to $20,000 or more) Typically it's double the price of the monthly rent.
A great personal credit score. Even know this is for your business, your own credit may be checked.
Design Your Parkour Training Space
The fun part, now you may begin designing your training space!
3D molding software like sketchup.com can be extremely helpful. Things to consider if you want a profitable parkour gym
Where will the parents sit?
Where will sales be made?
does your design have enough open space for warm-ups and obstacle course creation?
Can parents see their child in class no matter where in the gym they are, from the parent viewing area?
does each "zone" of your gym allow for a full and complete parkour lesson or do some zones lack access to some parkour movements and structures?
What percentage of your gym's equipment is fixed in place and what percentage is movable by coaches?
Who is going to build it? Do you have the skill to build your design or do you need to hire more skilled workers?
Keep it simple.
Designing a gym is fun, but can be very challenging and a mistake here can result in massive revenue losses. At even this stage alone we recommend contacting us at Motion Mentors for a design consultation.
Build Your Parkour Gym 🏗
Assemble your team, order a ton of wood, rent all your tools, and get to work!
Money-saving tips we have learned over the years
A local foam company & vinyl can create any mats or foam pit cubes for you at a fraction of the cost of purchasing directly from a gymnastic supply co.
Shop around for rubber gym flooring. We found a supplier across the country at a great price, but shipping costs were expensive. We ultimately discovered that a local rubber production company could supply us, or even a local tractor supply co, so we purchased farm-style horse stall mats for our gyms!
Time is money. Money is also money. Be efficient.
Document the journey
You building your local parkour gym is an epic story. Create your social media channels and post frequent updates to generate a buzz and grow your following. Ask those interested to join your email list so you can send them all future marketing emails and updates about the build!
As an example, check out this blog article here from when Freedom in Motion was opening their Riverside location. This blog article was emailed out to their list and shared on social media.
Launch Your Gym with Powerful Operating Systems 🥂
Partnering with Motion Mentors can provide you with the essential tools for a successful gym launch. We at Motion Mentors offer templates for vital standard operating procedures, gym curricula, cash management systems, proper pricing structures, and effective marketing methods. With these resources, you can confidently open your new parkour gym profitably on day one and continue to grow your business in the months and years ahead.
Following these steps, you can turn your passion for parkour into a thriving business. For more personalized guidance and support, book a call with Motion Mentors at motionmentors.org today.
Good Luck!
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