Thinking about setting up a home gym to cater for your personal training clients?
If you have, we thought we would share some thoughts and information with you.
It’s not uncommon for people to choose to convert an existing room or garage into a business space, such as a home gym. Consider whether the room in your house is suitable for this purpose. For example if you are creating a Personal Training space, is there enough space or light, and what about air conditioning or air circulation? Alternatively, if you do not have enough space to free up inside your house, you can opt to add an outbuilding or even a garden shed.
Will I need planning permission to run PT sessions out of my home?
You do not necessarily need planning permission to work from home, that is true, but the key test is whether the overall character or dwelling will change as a result of the business.
Here are four questions to ask yourself before setting up a home gym for business:
- Will your home no longer be used mainly as a private residence?
- Will your business result in a marked rise in traffic or people calling?
- Will your business involve any activities unusual in a residential area?
- Will your business disturb your neighbours at unreasonable hours or create other forms of nuisance such as noise?
If you answered ‘YES’ to any of the above, it’s likely you’ll need planning permission before you go ahead.
What about insurance when it comes to my home gym business?
After you have tackled the planning permission questions, you may also want to factor in these other considerations:
- Does my business activity alter my home insurance?
- Does my personal and public liability insurance cover me for working at home?
- What are the Health and Safety implications for my home business?
There are a few obstacles, but the same can be said for starting any type of business, and with that in mind, do your research and ask some questions if you are unsure.
Choosing equipment for your home gym set up:
There are a number of things to consider when setting up a space for your personal training business at home. The size and layout of your space may dictate what pieces of commercial gym equipment you can include, but you should also think about:
- Your main type of clients (are you targeting younger, already active individuals, semi-professional athletes, seniors, injured workers rehabilitation, mums and bubs etc?)
- What style of training do you specialise in? Functional fitness, technical Olympic lifting, group or individual sessions etc.
- If your training area includes an outdoor space, you should consider how the equipment will withstand the environment. Will it get wet? is it going to get dropped onto a concrete floor?
- Following on from the last point – what sort of flooring surface are you looking at? If your space is not on a ground floor, consider how equipment noise may affect people downstairs and also whether it could damage the existing flooring.
- Budget constraints. If you’re just starting out, leasing some of the more expensive pieces of equipment could be a better option.
We love this comprehensive guide that explains individual items of gym equipment. Trawling through numerous websites and catalogues from equipment suppliers can be overwhelming, so it’s good to have a really clear idea of what you want your equipment to be able to provide before you start browsing.
Compound Fitness is an Australian-owned business specialising in pin and plate-loaded equipment for functional fitness training. They offer high-quality equipment at competitive prices and manage your entire fit out from design, flooring, and selecting the best equipment to suit your needs. The Compound Fitness power cage is an excellent option for maximising the use of a smaller space.
Chat with the friendly team at Compound Fitness about their product line and how their finance options can help you get started sooner than you think.
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