It’s a tough world today with increased electricity costs, high inflation, an increase in the key interest rate and a bad stock market. This puts a lot of pressure on all self-employed people. If you’re a gym owner, you’re probably familiar with these challenges and you also have a large space that requires a lot of energy. Here are our top tips for cutting costs and saving energy so you can continue to run a successful gym.
- Insulate doors and windows
- Keep windows and doors closed
- Time the ventilation
- Lower the indoor temperature
- Change electric radiators to water heating, heat pumps or solar cells
- Invest in fitness equipment that does not use electricity (see our selection here)
- Turn off the sauna
- Compare and switch suppliers
- Raise the membership price
- Read our previous article on how to run a successful gym
1. Check the insulation of doors and windows in the gym. Sealing strip is e.g. an inexpensive way to improve windows that leak heat. If you own the property yourself, it may be an option to look over and replace old windows with new, well-insulated ones that retain the heat.
2. It’s common that people who work out at the gym open up windows and doors to ventilate when they get hot. This causes the heating system to run at high speed and draw a lot of electricity. Make sure windows are locked so gym members can’t open them. Also, make sure the doors close automatically, so that they don’t let in cold air.
3. Do not use the ventilation more than necessary. Set it to run at half speed during the morning when there are fewer gym members and to turn it off completely during the night when the gym is closed.
4. Lower the indoor temperature a few degrees to save electricity.
5. Review how you warm up your gym. Electric radiators are much more expensive than waterborne heating. Maybe you could install a heat pump or, if you own the property, maybe it’s time to invest in solar panels?
6. Many gyms have a large section with cardio machines that use a lot of energy. Invest and switch to fitness equipment that does not use electricity. There are both non-motorized treadmills, exercise bikes and crosstrainers which operate by generators. We at Gymleco have several high quality cardio machines that require no electricity at all.
7. Turn off the sauna completely or limit the time. An electric sauna can draw 6 kW/h, which is a high monthly cost with today’s electricity prices.
8. Review your suppliers who have variable costs such as telephony, insurance, entry systems, fruit delivery and hygiene items. Compare prices with competitors and see if you can switch to something cheaper.
9. Everything in the world has gone up in price. Dare to raise the price of your memberships to get a profitable business instead of maintaining the price and running short-term promotions.
Be sure to clearly communicate to your members about the increase and the reason behind it. Here it is important that you have created a good community in your gym as we wrote about in our previous article. Then your members know the value of working out at your gym and are loyal enough to stay after the increase in price.