Strategy
Courtesy Hollie Weinheim
Gym-owner Hollie Weinheim moved her Anytime Fitness franchise location and boosted membership by 40%.
- Hollie Weinheim has owned a franchise of the 24-hour gym, Anytime Fitness, in Tarpon Springs, FL for over 6 years. Business was good, but the original 4,000-square-foot facility was constricting potential growth.
- Weinheim found a new location and worked with her staff and contractors to move into the new space and keep down-time to just one Sunday. Instead of losing customers, the gym now has 40% more members.
- In addition to support from Anytime Fitness' corporate management, Weinheim says that local expertise and supports, including city representatives who happened to be gym members, were essential to keeping costs down and customer satisfaction up.
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Sooner or later a growing brick-and-mortar business begins to run out of space, and the transition to a larger one can be a nerve-wracking process.
That moment came two years ago for Hollie Weinheim, owner of an Anytime Fitness franchise in Tarpon Springs, Florida. Her outpost of the world's fastest-growing gym brand was bursting at the seams - the 4,000 square feet she'd had for four years was putting a lid on her growth.
And in an industry tracking toward $106 billion in 2020, growth is imperative.
So she sought to move.
Yet, as she soon discovered, moving is not without complication. According to relocation management company 300 Decisions, a successful transition requires at least 9 months of lead time.
In addition to the monetary costs, which can vary widely depending on business type, hidden costs can start to add up in terms of lost productivity, marketing expenses, and equipment disposal fees.
Weinheim says her careful preparation paid off with a 40% increase her membership in the year since the relocation and expansion, doubling to 8000 square feet.
How Weinheim went about planning and executing a coordinated move is a lesson for other entrepreneurs looking to business' physical footprint and avoid expensive mistakes that drive customers away.
Let's dig in.
Making the decision
"It felt like were weren't the new place in Tarpon, and we were losing members to bigger clubs," she said in an interview with Business Insider.
The original location, which was 13 years old, was small and broken up into separate rooms - not the open floor-plan that has become more popular among gym-goers in recent years.
"I saw potential for growth," Weinheim said. "I knew we could be so much more if we had room for it."
With no experience designing or building out a new gym, she enlisted the help of her community, including city representatives who happened to be gym members, and the team at Anytime Fitness's national offices.
Luckily a former Dollar General store was available just a half-mile away with twice as much floor area, so Weinheim bought it and began transforming it into the new home for her business.
Courtesy Hollie Weinheim
The new location has twice the floor space of the old one (inset).
Out from the old and into the new
In addition to needing more room to grow, the gym's aging equipment was in need of reinvestment. After renovating the new facility, she bought new weights and machines and had them delivered and installed there.
To build excitement, she printed posters to hang in the original gym's lobby with concept images to highlight the new features and shared videos on her social media channels to keep members informed about the progress.
Even so, she says, "no one saw the vision like I did."
When everything was finally ready to go, Weinheim made one last round of online and in-person announcements to members and managed to make the final move on one Sunday in May.
Choreographing the move to happen within 24 hours was essential, she says, because many of her clients are accustomed to having unfettered access around the clock.
"People don't usually like change, but they were blown away with the upgrade," she said. "Looking back on the old space, I can only imagine what people thought of that location."
Courtesy Hollie Weinheim
In addition to a new building, Weinheim upgraded the equipment too.
Don't go with the lowest bidder
From the Anytime Fitness corporate parent office to other local gym-owners, Weinheim says she sought and received critical support.
"The whole thing could have been a disaster without the right people," she said.
Weinheim also asked other local business owners for their preferred movers and installers to make sure her business was in the hands of reputable professionals.
"I got three quotes for everything, and I didn't always choose the lowest one," she said. "Some were a lot less, and I could only wonder why they were so much less."
Experienced contractors like builders, plumbers, and electricians who were familiar with local regulations were worth their premium price, but Weinheim says quality work can still go over budget. The cost of renovations alone on the former retail building ran to more than $300,000.
"You're going to need more money," she cautions. "Whatever they quote you is going to expand."
Weinheim refers to her gym as a family, and says that the family can keep growing thanks to the move. In addition to retaining her team from the original location, she has hired two new trainers and expanded membership by 40%.
Now, everyone has a bit more elbow room to work. And work out.