This is not meant to persuade you one way or another- simply informational.

There are ways to build out a brick and mortar space and keep costs lower- of course. To keep rent low, try industrial instead of commercial, that’s what I did and it was thousands of dollars cheaper each month on the rent front.

Consider your location. I have no idea what spades will cost where you live.

I’m asked often how I feel since closing my gym. I feel great. It was a fun, exciting, and very stressful chapter of my professional and personal life & I wouldn’t trade it, but I’d never go back. If a client wants to workout at 6am, that’s on them and I no longer wish to be present for any part of that.
Same with 8pm. I left the typical trainer schedule behind along with the youth of my 20s.

My time is mine now and my profit margins are way higher- meaning I get to keep a lot more of the money I make.

As a fitness professional, working in person with human bodies is an absolute prerequisite to “making it” in the online space as a fitness professional. I became a gymnastics coach at 15, a personal trainer at 18, interned under a strength and conditioning coach for months, founded & facilitated an entire gymnastics department for a park district from the ground up & founded their personal training department, worked at a commercial gym for less than a year, then worked with bodies in person for 9 years + 10 months before being fully online. I didn’t take my first online client until I had 10 years of in person experience if we go back to gymnastics.

Your trajectory will be different. You don’t “need” half a life’s worth of in person experience to make it online but you do need some.

Keep in mind, you’ll have to add in your online expenses to your in person expenses to plan correctly. There can be some overlap which will save you some $, but remember the 6 P’s: prior planning prevents piss poor performance.

Online business isn’t for everyone and neither is brick and mortar. Lots to consider beyond the numbers. These are mine and may not be yours.