[roybarberuk]

I’m a full time developer but own a gym. By accident! I went to take over a building as office space that was a liquidated gym. Signed the lease and the day before we moved in the owner called and said we can’t remove the equipment as it was all put in before the stairs. I asked a lot of questions about why the gym didn’t work, had already seen the equipment in there and did some negotiating on purchasing the kit, knowing I could still convert an area to offices. The gyms main failure was due to the cost of staff. So I fully automated everything, door access, lights, aircon, TVs etc etc. Built a membership system. Making it a fully automated unmanned gym! We then recruited a freelance personal trainer who does all the inductions in return for advertising and doing PT in our facility with no charge. 2 years in and it’s making £4,000 profit a month with minimal costs. Now looking to buy the building. Gym: https://180fitness.co.uk Me: https://roybarber.com

[jimmydddd]

Congrats. I generally understand that you made lemons from lemonade. But am confused about the machines problem. Was it a misunderstanding by the owner, who thought you wanted to run a gym? Was he trying to scam you? Does that mean you can't bring equipement into the building also? So you can never, say, replace an outdated treadmill with a newer treadmill?

[roybarberuk]

If you go in the website and look at the gallery you will see a U shaped staircase. That was fitted after the equipment was hoisted up there. Replacement removal is possible but not without removing the staircase. Luckily the Technogym kit was only 4 months old. So we won’t be replacing anytime soon. Most of the kit upstairs are weight stacks anyway so require little maintenance.

[schappim]

I've been to one of these automated gyms in Australia and always wanted how they deal with insurance/liability/duty of care?

Could you please tell us how you went about writing the gym membership contract? Did you just rock up to your solicitor and say "Hey, I need a gym membership contact for my automated gym?"

[roybarberuk]

We pay a bit more than a ‘regular’ gym for liability insurance. We have emergency buttons and our CCTV (nest) screenshots entry/exit against the logs. The contract is simple. There isn’t a payment contract just a set of rules and a detailed PARQ questionnaire where a doctors sign off is required on any medical conditions that are serious.

[duxup]

>the day before we moved in the owner called and said we can’t remove the equipment as it was all put in before the stairs

Kinda weird to take over a building and the owner then says you can't ... use some of it / move stuff...

You certainly made a great choice in the long run though.

Do you have someone come in and clean each day? Can't imagine you can automate that (roombas aren't that good yet...), granted as far as costs goes that is probabbly pretty low for a regular gig like that.

[roybarberuk]

Exactly. It was a bank holiday weekend here in the U.K. we moved out of our previous office on the Friday and had the call on the Sunday when the removal work was scheduled. We have a cleaner that comes in twice a week. Members keep the place tidy surprisingly.

[duxup]

I wonder if in a smaller place like that people keep things cleaner.... their mess would be near them.

[chrischoy]

Thank you so much for your sharing. I am curious that how much money you invested to set up the automation and how to prevent non-members getting in.

[EvanKRob]

Late to the party but this is awesome. I'd love to have something like this near me. That facility and price are perfect.

[saluki]

great story, congrats.