With over 180,000 fitness clubs worldwide and an estimated $84 billion in revenue from memberships alone, it’s safe to say that the health and fitness industry is booming and it’s only going up from here.

The rise of popular health movements such as veganism and CrossFit means people are getting more concerned about their health and weight. In a world where everyone is so intimately connected through the internet, people want to look and feel good, making fitness a great industry to break into.

If you’re interested in making money in fitness, however, you’ll need to get creative. Coaching is arguably one of the most popular and straightforward ways for fitness enthusiasts to make money, but it’s also a highly over-saturated market.

However, there are other proven ways from the health and fitness niche and we are going to talk more about them in this article. So, let’s get started.

• What are the 9 Sure ways to make Money from Health and Fitness Niche?
• How can you Start an Online Business in the Health Niche?
• How can you Market your Health and Fitness Business?
• What are the Most Profitable Niches?
• How much Money do I need to Start my own gym?

What are the 9 Sure ways to make Money from Health and Fitness Niche?

1. Selling workout plans

If you want to make money in fitness, selling fitness plans can be one of the most profitable ways to do so. Known as a digital product, fitness plans can be created in the form of a video or PDF and then be sold as a download through your online store.

Read Also: How You Can Make Money With Healthy Cooking as a Chef

Sellfy is a platform where fitness experts can create an online store to sell their workout plans and the potential for income is far greater than simply coaching clients. Because it is a passive income source, you are not limited by however many hours you can work. Instead, the only limit you have is how many units you can sell.

Selling a workout plan is a lucrative way to make money in fitness. Just take a look at Chris Guzman’s store! Chris became an internet celebrity after he built a following of over 700,000 subscribers and then released his signature workout plan, Summer Shredding, as a pay-what-you-want product on Sellfy with all proceeds going to various cancer organizations.

What many people don’t realize, however, is that selling a workout plan is not as simple as creating it and waiting for the money to roll in. People will only care about your product if you make them care, meaning you will have to build a solid fanbase who will be interested in your product. Half the battle of selling a workout plan is promoting it.

However, if you have an active audience who is interested in your product or you are good at promoting and marketing yourself, selling a workout plan can be one of the best ways to make money in fitness. Once you’ve done the legwork, you will continue to make a profit for as long as people buy your workout plan.

2. Create a Fitness App

In this digital age, people love to track and plan their fitness goals through their phones and apps make it quick and convenient for them to do so.

Let’s take a look at Freeletics. One of the most popular workout apps available, it has over 10 million downloads just on Google’s Play Store. The revenue you can bring in from advertisements alone through your app, never mind any paid features you might want to offer, is worth quite a bit.

When creating a fitness app, there are several different directions you can go including:

• Meal planning
• Custom workouts
• Healthy recipes
• Step tracker
• Membership forums
• Fitness goal management

You can incorporate one, some, or all of these features into your app and then use them as a way to generate income, both passive and active!

3. Selling meal plans and eBooks

Vegetarianism, the Paleolithic Diet, the Atkins Diet… With the recent surge in popularity of healthy living, people care about what they eat and they’ll pay money to make sure that what they eat is healthy. This is good news for you if you have specific culinary or fitness knowledge!

Another digital product, meal plans and eBooks are a popular staple in the fitness industry right now and there are several different topics you can cover in this genre. From the science of nutrition to diet-specific recipes, you can take your eBook in any direction or even create a whole series focusing on different aspects of fitness.

When creating meal plans and eBooks, there are 3 things you’ll need:

• The content: Whether it’s customized meal plans or a scientific look at the effectiveness of the Paleo diet, you’ll need written content for your customers. Take a look here for a step-by-step guide on how to finish an eBook in 30 days.
• Professional images: People tend to process visual information better, so it’s important that you fill your eBook with high-quality pictures and images. If you can afford it, consider hiring a professional photographer.
• A kickass eBook cover: A good eBook cover can make or break you, so make sure you come up with a good one.

Once you’ve got your eBook ready to go, you can create an online store through Sellfy to sell your product. Sellfy is already a popular platform for meal plans–check out Lauren Gleisberg’s “Eat Your Way Lean” for a neat example of a popular ebook.

4. Selling Fitness Products

Gyms aren’t the only way to get fit anymore. With so many fitness apps, online workout plans, and digital coaches, more and more people prefer to workout from the comfort of their own home, making this a great market for you to enter.

The possibilities for fitness products are endless. You can find some examples below:

• Fitness tracker
• Jump ropes
• Resistance bands
• Exercise balls
• Fit boards
• Foam rollers
• Pre-workout supplements

Just take a look at Fitbit, the tiny watch that keeps track of your activity, exercise, and diet, among other things. With over $1.6 billion in revenue from 2017 alone, it’s obvious there’s a market for fitness products.

However, creating the product is only half the battle. People will only buy your product if you can get it out there and get them interested. One of the best ways to do this is through social media, and Instagram is a particularly good platform since many of its users are a part of the healthy living community in one way or another.

5. Fitness Seminars

Fitness seminars can be an incredibly profitable way to make money in the fitness industry. You can host your own seminar at a location of your own choice or even give a presentation at popular trade shows and conferences, which can snag you a lot of publicity.

Seminars also have the added benefit of providing material for your future money-making efforts. You can record them and use them to market to future customers, raise brand awareness, or even sell them through your store Sellfy. It’s the gift that keeps on giving!

If you’re new to the idea of a fitness seminar, head over to Perform Better and check out their seminars. They offer sign-up information for a seminar near you and also have highlights from past seminars uploaded to their website, so you can get a better idea of what a well-planned seminar should look like.

6. Brand Ambassador

If you have a decent following, whether on social media or your own website, consider becoming a brand ambassador. While many people write off social media influencers as a way to make money, it can actually bring in a nice bit of income. Just take a look at Maryana Dvorska, a popular fitness Youtuber with over 270,000 subscribers who have landed sponsorships with big-name companies such as Gymshark and Women’s Best.

Brand ambassadors promote other brands in their niche on their social media pages or websites and then receive either free products, a percentage of profit from products they promote, or an agreed upon flat rate.

If you have the following to become a brand ambassador, check out Aspire IQ, an online platform that connects brand ambassadors with brands. It’s quick, convenient, and created with novices and social media veterans alike in mind.

7. Create a Blog

While not the easiest option on this list, creating a blog is one of the most lucrative. Once your blog is up and running, you can use it to make money through your personal services, paid membership forums, advertisement space, brand partnerships, affiliate marketing and more.

Be aware however that blogs are long-term business strategies. It may take a year or longer before you start seeing a profit. But, the possibilities are endless once you’re up and running. You can head over to Natalie Jill’s popular blog to get an idea of what a successful fitness blog looks like and begin planning your own!

8. Fitness Writing

Okay, maybe running a blog isn’t for you but that doesn’t mean you can’t write for one. With so many fitness websites, magazines, and journals, fitness writers are in hot demand and can command between $25-$60 an hour on average.

Fitness writing is fairly easy to get into since you can work as a freelancer and get gigs through platforms like Upwork and Fiverr. You can build a portfolio this way and then approach real companies for more high-paying work.

9. Custom Meal Plans

If you have a background in culinary, offering custom meal plans could be a great way to make money. Custom meal plans differ from selling meal plan eBooks in that they are specifically customized for each client to take into account factors like age, weight, and taste.

Custom meal plans tend to take up more time than meal plan eBooks because they have to be created weekly or monthly for each client, but this also means that you can make more money off of a single customer. It’s a nice little perk since it means you’ll always have a general idea of how much you’ll make every month.

How can you Start an Online Business in the Health Niche?

The great news is whether you’re a qualified health professional, someone with an interest in health, or don’t have any knowledge of this market at all but are interested in starting a business in this niche, there is an opportunity for you to do just that.

Let’s take a look at some of the steps to starting your own online business in the health niche.

Identify the Top Health Niches — Market Research

When it comes to your business’s niche, it should be in an in-demand profitable niche market so you know you’ll sell. Ideally, you’ll find a niche you’re passionate about too. Perhaps a condition you suffer from. Or an issue one of your family members has faced.

Remember, you don’t have to be an expert or professional in order to make profits in a market. You can share your own personal experience, do research and publish the information you curate from other sources, and/or interview other experts to provide content and information for your market.

But remember that you want there to be demand. So study industry trends, study the best-seller lists on sites like Amazon, see what’s selling on late night infomercials and on store shelves. What’s on daytime TV talk shows? What are people talking about on Facebook? This should give you a long list of products that are trending right now for you to center your business around.

Let me give you a shortcut. Here are some of the top niches in the health market today:

• Digestive health/healthy gut
• Weight loss
• Anti-aging
• Diabetes
• Arthritis
• Back and neck pain
• Hair loss
• Skincare
• Heartburn
• Fatigue
• Reproductive health
• Healthy eating

One thing you’ll probably notice is that these are all topics that aren’t going away anytime soon. One mistake a lot of people make when entering the health and wellness market is that they’ll jump onto a fad trend (like a fad diet).

You want to be sure that what you’re doing is an “evergreen” topic, one that will have staying power and stand the test of time.

This doesn’t mean that you can tackle, address, and profit from fad trends as they come and go, you just don’t want your entire business to be based around a fad or trend.

Finding Products to Sell in the Health Niche

The great thing about having an online business in the health niche, or really any e-commerce niche really, is that you don’t have to create your own products. In fact, you don’t want to, especially as a newcomer to the industry, because of the time, money, expense, and risk involved. Instead, you’re going to leverage the work and expertise of others. And don’t worry — it’s a good thing.

You have a couple of options when it comes to making money online in the health niche without creating your own products.

Drop Shipping

With an online drop shipping business model, you promote products through your website and marketing efforts. You take orders from customers. Then you contact your dropshipping partner or partners, usually a manufacturer, wholesaler, or retailer and order the product at a lower price. They send the product to your customer for a fee. And you keep the difference.

In most cases this is completely automated. You just need to market and advertise the products and generate a sale and the rest of the order and delivery process is handled by the drop shipping company.

The big advantages here are that you don’t have to get involved with storing a big inventory of product or shipping orders to customers. You hand off that responsibility to your partners. This has several advantages of not having to carry the risk of investing in product creation, inventory, and all of other hassles and expenses of creating your own products.

Once you find an offer that is working well then you may consider looking into creating the product yourself if you’re able to make more money than going through a third party.

In the meantime, there are plenty of drop shipping companies that offer products in this space. Doing a simple Google search with “product type” and “drop shipping” will give you plenty of options to review.

Affiliate Marketing

Like drop shipping, with affiliate marketing, you hand off the “grunt” work of selling online to others. But there are some crucial differences. In this business model, you market and sell products through your website, blog, Facebook page, email list, or whatever online property you have. But when it comes to making the sale… you’re done – it’s completely hands off for you.

Every click on the “buy” link for a product leads your customer to your affiliate partner’s page to complete the transaction. Each link is unique to you. That way, your affiliate partner can give you a commission (usually between 5 percent and 25 percent) for every completed sale. The affiliate partner takes care of order processing, delivery, and customer service, and every single aspect of the transaction. Perfect.

An easy way to think of this is looking at Amazon.com as an example, which is one of the first affiliate networks on the internet.

With Amazon, you can find any product on their website (a book, a health supplement, a fitness gadget) and write a review on your website or run a paid ad to it. Amazon gives you a unique link to track where the sale comes from and if anyone makes a purchase from your link you get credit for the sale and a commission.

In addition to Amazon there are dozens of affiliate networks and thousands of companies that offer their own affiliate programs in this market.

Another attractive option with affiliate marketing is to promote digital information products, which offer much higher commissions, ranging from 25% to 50% or more.

White Labeling

We recommend white labeling only when you have some experience in your business. In this model, you work with manufacturers who already have a supplement (sometimes you can work with them to create a custom formulation for private label supplements), for example, and put your own label on it.

They’ve done the scientific research to make sure it’s effective. You study their work. And if you feel comfortable, you put your company’s name on it and sell it as your own. White labeling is a great option because it allows you to create a brand and differentiate yourself from everyone else in the marketplace.

How can you Market your Health and Fitness Business?

You have a variety of options available to you. And most are low cost or free ways to drive traffic to your website.

Content Marketing

Getting high rankings in the Google search results is key to success in online business these days. Back in the old days, you could “stuff” your site full of relevant keywords and get this “organic” traffic.

But now Google wants to see genuinely useful content full of solid information. That means to engage in effective content marketing you have to ad useful advice, tips, and more related to your niche on a regular basis through your website and/or blog.

The content should be closely related to your niche and can be written. But video is also very highly-regarded by Google today too. No matter what type of content you publish, you could offer health tips, review types of supplements, suggest cures for certain conditions… there’s really no limit to what you can produce. They key is to create good quality content on a regular basis to see results.

Facebook Marketing

Social media is huge these days. Your customers are there on Facebook and other social networking sites, so you have to be there, too. You should definitely have a Facebook page for your business. Post regularly about your products, link to related news, link back to your website (when you post a new blog entry, for example), videos, comments on trends, and even personal stories. Let people get to know you and your company. It’ll speed up the process of them coming to know, like, and trust you.

Make sure you post regularly and engage with your customers through comments. And comment on the pages of other companies and organizations in your niche too. Start a conversation!

Pay-Per-Click Marketing

If you want to drive traffic to your health website faster, and you have some money to spend, you can try the paid advertising route. But I would suggest doing this only when you have your business in place and systems running smoothly, so you can convert as much of that traffic into sales as possible.

With pay-per-click, or PPC, ads you sign up through a search engine; Google has the biggest reach. You write very short text ads that appear on the search results page, as well on the websites of people, known as publishers, who have signed up through Google AdSense. The idea is that your ads appear in the right context based on keywords. So when people are searching for health information related to your specific niche, your ads pop up. You pay every time somebody clicks on the ad.

When the person clicks it should take them to your website, a landing page to collect their email address, or something like that. And be sure to track the origin of each click so you know which marketing channel is getting the best return on investment.

Again, advertising in the health space is extremely competitive and can be extremely costly; so only pursue this route once you have a solid sales funnel and a good converting offer.

What are the Most Profitable Niches?

The internet provides almost endless ways to start businesses of all shapes and sizes and make money.

Start using the World Wide Web for financial gain. And take a look at the following 20 most profitable online niche markets. They’ll help you determine which online sector would be best for you.

Self-Improvement

You’ll find courses, ebooks, coaching, videos and more that offer self-improvement advice and training online. Do you possess experience in overcoming fears or improving aspects of your own life or those of others? This might include increasing confidence, self-esteem or assertiveness. Then consider tapping into this $10-billion-a-year industry. It could prove a lucrative and rewarding venture to start.

Online Dating

Forecasts place the worth of the online dating industry at $12 billion by 2021. And so this burgeoning industry presents ample opportunities to make money.

Many dating sites offer commissions to marketers for signing up new leads. So this could provide one way to profit off this niche online sector. And if you’re feeling brave and ambitious, start your own online dating website?

Languages

The increasingly globalized world provides another opportunity. Because learning another language has become an extremely desirable skill. And the internet offers opportunities to learn a new language conveniently, efficiently and inexpensively.

So more and more people turn to the internet to learn other languages. And teaching English, Spanish or other languages online could prove to be a profitable, enjoyable and rewarding venture.

Pets

The pet industry has experienced tremendous growth in recent years. And this fact from the American Pet Products Association makes the point. Americans now spend around $72 billion on pets. And this represents the most profitable the industry has ever been.

Given our growing love for pets, setting up an online pet-focussed business, such as selling pet products or writing pet ebooks, could be a profitable online niche to get into.

Beauty

The beauty and cosmetics industry is growing at a rapid rate, providing a wealth of opportunity for beauty-savvy entrepreneurs to start their own online beauty business such as anti-aging clinics, online makeup tutorials and beauty product e-commerce stores, to name just several.

Many of the large beauty product manufacturers offer network marketing opportunities that offer financial rewards for selling their products.

Home Décor and DIY

If you’re something of a DIY expert or home décor enthusiast, you could capitalize on your skills by offering DIY and home décor advice and support online in the way of online tutorials, ebooks, blogs and more.

Baby Products and Services

If you adore babies, selling baby products or offering baby-focussed services online, such as assistance in organizing baby showers or offering advice related to babies, could be one of the most profitable online niche markets to get involved in.

Music Instrument Tuition

If you’re an ace guitarist, drummer, pianist or any other type of musician, teach your skills to others online and earn a tidy profit in the process. You could even start your own YouTube channel teaching your musical instrument to others.

Hobbies

Got a hobby you can call yourself an expert in such as fishing, golfing or dancing? If so, tap into the profitable niche of offering online hobby support and assistance by launching your own instructional courses.

Cooking

If you’re a stickler for cooking, a huge online audience is waiting to hear your tips, recipes and cooking advice. Tap into the massive online cooking niche by starting your own cooking YouTube channel, writing a cooking blog or sharing your recipes online.

Tech and Gadgets

Data from the Pew Research Center shows that 95 percent of Americans now own a cell phone of some form.

As society becomes increasingly tech-orientated, buying and selling tech gadgets such as mobile phone cases and tablet chargers can be a profitable niche to get into.

Real Estate

Real estate has long been a potentially profitable business to be involved in. If you’ve not got the funds to purchase and develop property, you can still make money from the online property market by working for real estate agencies earning commission for referrals, displaying property ads on your website, writing property-related articles, and more.

Travel

If you’re a seasoned traveler, why not share your love for travel and make a profit in the process by getting involved in this popular online niche market. From writing a travel blog to publishing inspiring travel photos on Instagram, there’s plenty of ways to start a profitable travel-orientated online venture.

Social Media Marketing

If you consider yourself as a social marketing guru, then why not capitalize on your knowledge and skills by offering social media marketing services to businesses and individuals or don’t have the time, knowledge or resources to make their social media campaigns a success?

Loans and Financing

Getting involved in affiliate marketing for the loans and financing niche can pay well and earn you a decent income online.

Making Money Online

The internet might be laden with get rich quick promises but there are legitimate ways to make money online. In this niche there are opportunities to make money through the make money online products and courses you promote via affiliate networks.

Alcohol

If you consider yourself to be a wine, beer, spirits or any type of alcohol connoisseur, getting involved in affiliate marketing programs for wine and beer clubs or for online stores, can be a fun and enjoyable way to share your knowledge of your favorite tipple with others, and make an income in the process.

Weight Loss

In 2017, the weight loss industry in the US was estimated to be worth $68.2 billion. With obesity levels continuing to rise in the US, there is a huge market for helping people lose weight and live healthier lifestyles.

From writing weight loss ebooks to posting fitness videos on YouTube, if you’re a keep fit fanatic, providing weight loss advice and support to others could be the right online niche for you.

Sports

If you’re a sports fanatic with expertise in a particular sport or several, share your love and knowledge of the sport to others in this profitable online niche through the likes of videos, ebooks, selling sports apparel and more.

Entertainment

When it comes to entertainment, we simply can’t get enough! With billions of dollars being spent on entertainment every year, developing your own niche around this topic such as reviewing movies and video games, is likely to prove a profitable venture.

How much Money do I need to Start my own gym?

So, how much does it cost to start a gym? To answer that, you’ll have to start by envisioning the ultimate version of a gym you have in mind. For example, a modest studio gym could cost $65,000, while a mid-size gym could cost $115,000. You could also open a simple cycling studio for as little as $50,000, but even within that framework, costs can vary drastically. The bottom line is that it’s possible to spend anywhere from $50,000 for a budget facility to upwards of $1,000,000 for a colossal mega-gym with all the amenities.

And how much does it cost to build a gym from the ground up? For that, you’ll have to raise the financial estimates by a wide margin. Take into consideration such factors as square footage, location, and whether or not you’ll rent or own the gym you’re building and your costs can range from several hundreds of thousands of dollars—all the way up to several million dollars in some cases.

Read Also: Earn Income Providing Health and Fitness Tips on Life and Style

Regardless of your particular business path, it’s helpful to break down the costs into two categories: one-time costs and recurring costs.

One-time costs

Make no mistake, the initial costs of opening a gym aren’t cheap. However, your wellness venture may or may not need to consider every item on this list, so feel free to pick and choose the applicable items and add them to your worksheet.

• Physical location – this cost will vary greatly depending on desired size and location of your gym, as well as your decision to rent or purchase the building. Aside from space for weights and machines, you may wish to include space for cardio, yoga or spin classes. Additionally, you might provide locker rooms, showers or a sauna. You can easily spend up to $800,000 if you want to own the space outright. As a rule, always do thorough comparative research on commercial spaces in your desired area.
• Gym equipment – this cost similarly has a large range, depending on the amount and type of equipment you want. Think somewhere between $10,000 for a personal studio to $50,000 for a fully-equipped commercial gym. Be sure to shop around—and keep in mind you can often get a discount if you purchase the equipment in sets as a complete package.
• Certifications – having a professional, certified staff is a big plus. Accreditations for personal trainers can range from $500 to $800 per certification. Some certifications to explore include: American Council on Exercise (ACE), National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA), American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA).
• Licenses and permits – individual localities define the standards for which licenses and permits you’ll need. Be sure to look into a business license and any required health and safety compliance permits as well. Costs will vary across the board, but keep in mind that proper licenses and permits are necessary.
• Legal and processing fees – you may need professional help negotiating your lease, closing the property sale, or just muddling through the necessary licenses and permits for your gym. Expect to pay around $200 per hour for these services. Fees vary depending on which legal documents you’ll need (Certificate of Incorporation, Business License, Business Plan, Non-disclosure Agreement, Memorandum of Understanding, Employment Agreement, Operating Agreement, etc.), but expect to pay an average of $9,000 to get everything squared away.
• Insurance – insurance is a legal necessity, especially important for a gym. You’ll need general liability, workers’ compensation and a surety bond as a bare minimum. Expect to have around $12,000 in premiums here to start, though rates will vary based on different factors (such as franchise situations).
• Building improvements and remodeling – this cost may or may not be necessary for you and varies on an individual basis. You’ll at least need to do what it takes to get the building up to code if it isn’t already. Just keep in mind that remodeling costs add up quick, so don’t get carried away.
• Computer network and POS system – you’ll need to be set up with an Internet network and a point-of-sale system to accept modern forms of payment, as well as proper gym management software to ensure things go smoothly. Depending on which provider and level of hardware you choose, you’ll need to spend $550 to $2,300 annually and typically twice that amount to get started.
• Signage – Here’s an opportunity to get creative. Proper gym signage can be provided for as low as $20, though you could easily spend much more.
• Employee uniforms – this is another cost that is entirely up to you. You generally want some uniformity across staff wardrobe, but for a gym, simple workout clothes and company logo shirts are typically the norm.
• Miscellaneous gym supplies – customers will expect the availability of some basic supplies, so you should have towels, chairs, etc. on hand. Expect about $500 to get set up.
• Merchandise – don’t overlook a great opportunity to offer customers supplies and Apex Fitness merchandise.
• Think t-shirts, supplements, protein shakes and powders, water, etc. Make sure you budget in the cost of the initial stock.
• Advertising – you’ll want to announce your arrival to attract potential customers. You could spend $5,000 to run a robust, more traditional ad campaign or go guerilla and plaster signs in high-traffic areas to recruit.
• Responsive website – every modern business needs a web presence. Expect to pay $300 to $700 for the initial build.
• Operating cash – you’ll want some working capital and cash reserves for normal business operations. We suggest having at least $1,000 on hand.

Recurring and ongoing costs

Since the ongoing cost of owning a gym varies so significantly between gym types and sizes, we’ve made a list of potential costs you’ll need to consider in your venture with average cost estimates. Exact figures may be more or less for your operation, but these gym operating cost categories should be on your mind.

• Mortgage or lease payments – regardless of whether you rent or purchase your location, you’ll have a monthly expense in the form of a mortgage or lease payment. Costs will vary significantly depending on the factors outlined above and the final cost of the building or loan amount.
• Insurance – the $12,000 premiums to start will have to be kept up to date and paid annually, so be sure to factor them into your ongoing budget costs.
• Permits – compliance permits often have renewal fees. Be sure to check with your locality for specifics.
• Equipment lease payments – if you choose to go the leasing route for your equipment, make sure to budget in those payments. Average cost ranges from $3,934 to $8,067, but that will vary depending on what kind and how many pieces of equipment you’re leasing.
• Utilities – a gym uses a lot of electricity, especially if it’s open 24 hours a day. Larger-scale operations pay an average of $63,465 to $68,413 annually.
• Equipment repairs and maintenance – gym equipment takes a beating day in and day out. Make sure you factor in frequent repair and maintenance costs. This could cost you $25,040 annually.
• Cleaning supplies – cleanliness and sanitation is a must for a gym. You’ll need mops, vacuums, toilet paper, bleach, wipes, laundry service, etc. Expect an average of $150 monthly for smaller operations. Larger gyms may spend from $12,609 to $29,980 annually.
• HVAC maintenance – this is your heating and air conditioning, and it’s pretty important upkeep for a fitness center. Average cost is $500 annually for routine maintenance.
• Phone and Internet service – your customers will appreciate free Wi-Fi. Expect to spend $75 per month, or $900 per year here.
• Employee wages – employees will earn varying salaries depending on their skills and experience levels. Make sure you have payroll for the first few months on hand before opening—it may take some time to turn a profit.
• Payroll taxes or self-employment taxes – this cost goes alongside your wage expenses and will vary similarly, according to your business model. Make sure you consider your employees’ and your own particular situation to determine the taxes you’ll owe. Keep in mind they often need to be paid quarterly. If applicable, self-employment taxes will amount to around 7.6% of individual income.
• Credit card processing fees – standard industry rates for swipe transactions shouldn’t exceed 3.25% on the high end, so shop around for your service provider. You’ll also have to consider mandatory PCI compliance fees, which typically start at $5 per month. Many gyms reduce the amount of transactional fees they pay by reducing the number of transactions they make—since members pay monthly costs, retail items can be bundled into their membership costs as they occur.
• Marketing – it’s up to you if you want to make your marketing efforts an ongoing cost. You’ll have to consider your individual business model and measure the return on investment of different marketing strategies.
• Legal and professional fees – this is a fluctuating expense, as it depends on your particular business model and situation. Just keep in mind that professional services, such as accounting or legal, typically run about $200 per hour.
• Miscellaneous expenses – even with the most meticulous planning, you never know what problems may arise. It’s always a smart idea to budget in some funds for miscellaneous expenses. We suggest at least $1,000 per month.

Finally

If you’re passionate about health and fitness, this niche could be right up your alley. You know the topic, you know the products as a consumer… and now you can use that expertise to create a booming online business.

Even if you don’t have a personal interest in this niche, that shouldn’t be a barrier. You can become familiar enough to make it work… and there’s plenty of money to go around.