The risks are real.  You are making an all-in bet that you'll generate an ongoing profit that meets your needs (and those of your employees), year after year.  You're low on capital, light on experience, unproven as an operator, and relatively unconnected.  The deck is stacked against you, and if you fail, financial disaster looms.  

Fortunately, there are many ways to mitigate the risks of becoming an entrepreneur, staying solvent amid the uncertainty.  What follows is a guide to making the leap successfully, confronting the dangers head-on while taking full advantage of the benefits of being your own boss.  

This isn't theory, but rather the path I followed to progress from a low-level bank employee (making less than $40k a year) to the CEO of a multi-million dollar multinational.  This process works, and it will get you there.

Creating a steady stream of new clients requires mastery of inbound marketing.  

This is the process by which you create interest in your gym via new content, drive people to that content, capture their contact information, and (eventually) get them to sign up for membership.  

Inbound marketing is incredibly effective, requires very little money, establishes trust with prospects, builds your brand, and helps you retain the clients you already have.  Done correctly, it is a magic bullet.

Let's start with the obvious: your revenue comes from your clients.  They buy memberships, apparel, clinic spots, event entries, and supplements.  They are your top line.

When you want to grow, the money will come from them.  

All gym owners realize this, but many fail to realize that all clients are not created equal.  Some contribute more to the top line that others, while some are a drag, bringing your overall business down while placing the same burden on your asset base.  

Regardless of top-line contribution, every client needs equipment, space, and time.  You have limited amounts of all of these; you would do well to determine where you allocate them and which type of client populates the gym.

To help my consulting clients do this, we introduce a metric called ARCM.  ARCM is an acronym: average revenue per client per month.  At the AF Project, we live and die by ARCM.  It is our bellweather, the number that we focus on every month.

Currently on the CrossFit.com Message Boards: an Affiliate for sale in Dearborn, Michigan. 

I won’t speculate as to the reasons for the sale; there are a thousand reasons to divest ownership.  Still, it would be worthwhile for that seller (and the rest like her) to understand a little bit about business valuation prior to pulling the trigger.

Here’s the harsh truth: 99% of gyms are not set up properly for sale.