Buying a gym or fitness studio in South Florida
South Florida has 57 established gyms and fitness studios by our count: companies in business at least 15 years that still file with the state every year and aren't part of a larger group. Of those, 40% have been in business 20 years or more. Most will never be listed for sale, and many of their owners have never been asked.
What it takes to own one
Gyms and fitness studios in South Florida come in every size. Here's what owning one could look like at three levels, from a solid company to one of the leaders, with a small business loan covering most of the price.
- Earns about
- $31,000 a year
- Price about
- $74,000
- Your cash
- $10,000
- Could pay you
- up to $18,000 a year
- Earns about
- $106,000 a year
- Price about
- $256,000
- Your cash
- $36,000
- Could pay you
- up to $60,000 a year
- Earns about
- $237,000 a year
- Price about
- $570,000
- Your cash
- $80,000
- Could pay you
- up to $135,000 a year
Earnings are owner earnings: profit plus what the owner pays themselves, before loan payments and taxes. They and the prices are our estimates from public records, not the owners' figures, and we value companies like these at about 2.4 times a year's owner earnings. Your cash covers the down payment and closing costs, and what the business could pay you is what's left after the loan payments and the cushion lenders require. The more cash you bring, the further up you can go.
Age, size and location
Revenue is our estimate from public records, grouped into wide ranges.
| In business | Companies |
|---|---|
| Under 20 years | 34 |
| 20 to 29 years | 18 |
| 30 to 39 years | 5 |
| 40 years or more | 0 |
| Estimated yearly revenue | Companies |
|---|---|
| Under $1M | 29 |
| $1M to $2M | 5 |
| $2M to $4M | 1 |
| County | Companies |
|---|---|
| Miami-Dade | 23 |
| Palm Beach | 18 |
| Broward | 15 |
| Other counties | 1 |
| Town | Companies |
|---|---|
| Miami | 14 |
| Boca Raton | 6 |
What the best gyms and fitness studios have in common
- Steady membership with few monthly cancellations and a long average stay.
- A community: members who come often, refer friends and know the coaches by name. Members who rarely show up are the first to cancel.
- Instructors and trainers loyal to the studio, not just to their own clients.
- Prices that have held up without constant discounting, or January promotions that bring members who leave by spring.
- A class schedule that fills at several times of day, not just two peak hours.
- A lease with years left, at a rent the membership comfortably covers.
- Equipment in good condition, with no big replacement due.
- A manager who runs sales, scheduling and staff without the owner.
- Billing and membership software with clean, exportable data.
What to check before you buy
- Membership data from the billing system: active members, joins and cancellations by month for two years, and the average stay.
- Revenue by type: memberships, packs, personal training, retail.
- Prepaid memberships and packages: service you'll owe after closing for money the seller collected.
- FDACS registration, bond or exemption (a change of owner ends the five-year exemption), and consumer complaints.
- Trainers and instructors: employees or contractors, any agreements not to solicit members, and who the clients really belong to.
- The lease: its term, landlord consent to a sale, and any exclusive-use clause that bars a competing tenant.
- Equipment list, age, and whether it's owned or leased.
- Payment processor agreements and chargeback history (disputed card charges).
- Attendance data, if the check-in system records it. Members who stop coming are about to cancel.
Questions to ask the owner
- How many active members do you have, and how many cancel each month?
- How long do members usually stay?
- Who sells memberships and handles cancellations?
- Which coaches have the biggest followings, and how long have they been with you?
- Is the studio registered with FDACS, and are you bonded or exempt?
- How much have members paid ahead for months or sessions they haven't used yet?
- What's left on the lease, and what would the landlord need to approve a sale?
To learn what these companies do, which licenses they need and how ownership works, read our full guide to buying a gym or fitness studio in Florida.
Owning a company in South Florida
The local economy
South Florida covers Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties: Miami, Hialeah, Doral, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Pompano Beach, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Jupiter, and the Florida Keys down to Key West. It's the state's largest metro area and its most international. PortMiami, Port Everglades and Miami International Airport tie the region to Latin America and the Caribbean, which supports a deep base of wholesalers, freight forwarders and logistics firms, many of them near the airport. Tourism and cruises, finance and wealth management, health care, real estate and construction carry much of the rest. Palm Beach County adds wealthy seasonal residents and, out west near Lake Okeechobee, sugarcane and vegetable farms. In the Keys, nearly everything turns on visitors, fishing and boating.
Companies that serve homes, condo buildings and other businesses do well here: the building trades, property services, insurance agencies, medical and dental practices, and professional firms.
What's different about owning a company here
Costs run high: commercial rent, wages and, above all, property and windstorm insurance. Price the insurance before you make an offer, not after. Miami-Dade and Broward make up the Florida Building Code's High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, with stricter rules for roofs, windows and structures. That raises building costs, and it also gives steady work to the contractors who know those rules well.
Much of the workforce and many customers speak Spanish as well as English, and a company that works well in both languages has an edge. The winter season matters more in Palm Beach County and the Keys than in Miami. In the Keys, the cost of housing makes hiring and keeping staff one of the hardest parts of running a company. Ask any seller there how they find workers and where those workers live.