I ended up pulling the trigger on this opportunity (previous post) and wanted to followup with everyone on how its been going. Might keep reporting back quarterly.
Quick summary:
A couple years ago I was in contact with a big box gym manager to open a smoothie bar inside of the gym. I ended up declining that location and opened in another location this year. Went in on it with my good friend and business partner, mainly because I wanted him to talk me out of it but he loved it too so we went in on it. (this is our second venture together)
Some details:
- This took us 3 weeks to build out and about $35k (I was estimating $70k)
- We tried to make our own recipes, but turns out it’s a lot harder when making them to sell with consistency and pricing in mind. (also taste testing so many protein shakes had me on the toilet for EXTENDED PERIODS)
- Ended up buying 12 proven recipes from another smoothie shop for $1k
- We hired out staff to 100% support the business from day 1. (I have yet to make a single smoothie for a customer)
- We are 2 weeks into it and we’re just under break even.
- We’re on track to bring in ~$7k this month (this is the slowest season), I’ve been told it can hit $17k-$20k in peak season.
- We just ran our first payroll 🎉
Coming soon:
- We have QR codes figured out so customers can order from the locker room and have their goods ready when they walk out
- We’ll be launching a paid subscription service for $10/mo, you get a free smoothie, a punch card, 10% off everything and a prize when you complete the punch card
- Monthly specials (like egg nog and ginger bread this month) and keep rotating a couple specials every month for a small upcharge
- Also going to test an influencer model when we get on Grubhub/Uber eats soon. Chosen fitness influencers in the area will create their own smoothie and get paid a % of ea sale. They’ll also have to promote it x amount of times, but I haven’t fleshed out exactly how that will look yet.
Anyways, I’m happy to answer any questions or feedback you might have. (I’m going to hold off on sharing the name of the biz and gym for now but may in the future.)
I would love to build a community of smoothie bar owners, if you’re doing it, dm me!
You must log in or register to comment.
What’s your lease / agreement like with the gym?
- Do you pay rent?
- Do they take a % of sales?
How’d you find your first couple hires?
The gym takes 10% gross. We don’t pay rent or utilities
As for hires we pay pretty well, $17/hr with tips and had almost 100 applicants
That’s really cool. Congratulation man. The smoothie business has always been a venture I wanted to get involved in. LA is really saturated. For a similar situation someone was selling it for 80k or something like this. I didn’t see the point of investing. It would be better off doing a food truck here I think.
It’s the only way I’d get back in the food business. If the customer base was built in
The location in the gym makes sense for immediate access. But is there a market for getting protein shakes and smoothies delivered at home? I guess it is a cheap enough experiment so worth doing.
Have you talked to the owner of the gym for splitting the cost of the ads? Each customer you bring in is more likely to bring in money for them than you.
Well done. I remember reading your previous post. I have a business in the sports and fitness space so it was interesting to see.
What have been the biggest mistakes or bullets you doged in the process? Other than the smoothy recipes :)
So far everything has been really smooth. If I had to nitpick something it would be I wish I would’ve done a little more research on the POS we’re using. Finding some early constraints with square. Mainly doing a paid membership via the POS
Woah, great. I wish you good fortune.