Monetizing My Home Gym

Like many, my wife and I built a home gym during the pandemic--my old gym went out of business. It's great, we love it. It's in a detached, 400sqft garage. I can't see myself ever going back to a commercial gym.

Problem is it sits idle a lot during the week when nobody's training. I've been thinking of using it to generate money, like advertising it as a reservations-only private gym for a fee.
>many people hate commercial gyms but don't have space/funds for their own
>some are too afraid/self-conscious for a public gym
>travelers who want a good place to train
>many "private" clubs have huge membership fees and all chain gyms have add-on bs fees

inb4
>liability
>shit people/nogs

Worth it? Is there any service I could use to do this for me? We already have friends over to train in it, doesn't seem like a big stretch to take this step.

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  1. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    For such a small setup there's no way you'd make anything. The insurance itself would cost you over whatever you'd make with the four-five people you could convince to use it.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >insurance
      liability waivers?

      It'll become a part time job managing your "gym" and it's obviously isn't big enough to maintain more than 5 people. Your strategy would only work if you had some close friends who wanted a gym and was willing to pay some money. And no one is going to pay more than $20/mo for it as at best you're getting $100/mo and have to spend 1 or 2 managing it every day while dodging theft and degenerates.

      my first impression is most of these problems have already been worked out by companies like airbnb. The problem of generating sufficient income to make it worth it sounds like the biggest obstacle.

      >400sqft garage
      tfw living in a 450sqft apartment

      sorry klaus got you, bro.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        The difference between this and airbnb is you're making enough money to airbnb where it's worth it to do it part time. And you still deal with shit. The problem with gyms is the rates are relatively low so you have to work in volume. You also absolutely have to monitor the activity in your gym so you either need cameras you monitor or have a receptionist. There are simply easier and less hassle ways to make $100/mo. Also you're destroying the value of why having a home gym. I think you underestimate how much bullshit people do when it's not their stuff. Think of all the horrible ways someone can ruin your gym and it's going to happen.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Liability waivers are easily thrown out in court. They'll basically look at the waiver, say the signer had no idea the equipment was poorly maintained or something and that's how they got hurt, and you'll lose everything you own in the incoming shitstorm after.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          this isn't likely. Gym accidents are of the "slip and fall" type governed by negligence. The injured party would have to prove the equipment wasn't attended to with "reasonable care," which is a low standard in most states. Something would have to be very obviously dangerous in OP's gym. Plus, almost every homeowners' policy carries a personal injury liability insurance benefit.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            >run home gym as business
            >my homeowner's policy will cover it
            You realize that the insurance company is going to deny your claim right when it turns out you were running an under-the-table gym in your garage?

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            Reading such an uninformed post reminded me of where I am and I realized I actually not only don't care about OP or his home or family, but that I'd actually prefer someone who gets law advice online like him to get sued and lose everything. So with that in mind, go for it OP! Sounds like a pretty quick way to get $$$ tbh.

            • 2 years ago
              Anonymous

              nah bro, I'm fine, I just don't care about internet legal advice, be it positive or negative. Whatever I do, I'm going to get terrestrial, in-person advice from my lawyer. I'm just more interested in the mechanics of how this kind of venture might possibly work, like

              >those numbers
              OP I charged people 15$ an hour during the pandemic and changed my door code daily. The nest cam wanted to self destruct from all the unrecognizable faces. We made about 1440/week from 7 am-11 pm. Weekends I charged 20/ hr and had it open 10 am-4 pm. We made close to 10000 maybe a little more I'd have to check the excel sheet. It was great because during that time my barber would just come to my house and oddly enough he actually got more business cause people would ask to get their haircut after the gym too kek. Looking back on it though 10 grand is ok for not really having to do anything but I'm not sure if I'd do it again. We had some nigs came through from the city(3 of them) and I had to confront them and tell them it was 15$ per person. They looked like they wanted to ape out but I had my sig at my waist and would have dumped a full mag on the unbroken bucks. Luckily they obliged and I gave them an extra half hour cause it was the end of the night. That was one of the only times I ever had issues. Other times were small issues like insta prostitutes not knowing how to use a belt squat or people not putting back equipment properly and not wiping down after using it.

              is talking about. To me, the daily effort and logistics of making it work vs. the return is what matters most.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                Your lawyer is going to tell you it's a shit idea and that you wasted your time even considering it.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                I am surprised that a home owner like you is so moronic. I've heard time and time again from lolbertarians that property owners are high IQ then I see shit like this where you're ignoring every rational piece of advice in favor for the /misc/ larper and debating the profit margins when you can probably fit 3 people in there at a time and they're not going to pay more than a commercial gym so you're under $10 a month.

                ok, hi, actual OP here. I am enjoying this thread.

                >you're ignoring every rational piece of advice
                I'm not ignoring anything. Rather, I weigh advice against evidence, probabilities, etc. That takes more than 5 secs and I'll be thinking about all of it in the near future. Also, whatever legal advice I get will be from my lawyer, not internet dilettantes. Wtf cares if he tells me it's a non-starter? Nothing explored, nothing found. Stop being a doomer.

                Most of the criticisms itt are the same shit they said about airbnb 15 yrs ago.
                >hotels are better
                >you'll get sued
                >too costly
                They did ok, and considering what I'm proposing is far less ambitious, I think it's worth exploring.

                >lolbertarian
                lol redditgay

                You're just opening yourself to lawsuits. What you should do instead is make friends interested in bodybuilding or powerlifting, work out together in the gym while accumulating equipment then branch into a real location and go public with a real business.

                Your current plan makes no sense. People "too shy" for a public gym aren't going to be tracking someone down to use their garage gym and pay for it when commercial gyms are also like $10 a month to use the weights. Travelers use the day passes which are $12 at most or their hotel gyms. The hardcore people will go to the $45 a month hardcore gym that has 10x the space.

                If you can fit 5 people in there, which is probably too much, and charge a competetive rate like $8 congrats on the $40 a month I get $50 that for donating plasma for two total hours a week and I don't have strangers making noise in my house. Then they break something and you're in the hole.

                these are fair and good criticisms, thank you. I'll think on it.

                Not as often as you would think but again I think this was d/t 70% of people coming in i knew, whereas the 30% of people I didn't know were through people I did know. My wife and kids were at home during this time so they picked up alot of slack. All I did was restock my minifridge for gatorade and water that my kids charged the goers money for kek. I did do a big cleanup like take apart all my barbells, oiled them up again and cleaned them replaced the cables for my lat pulldown tower etc prior to the scamdemic so most of the equipment was maintained except for my belt squat cause I had just bought it 2 months prior. I'm pretty sure somewhere on reddit some homosexual tried to get me doxxed saying i was endangering people’s lives but i didn't really give a frick and kept on doing it. I'm pretty sure it was some gay who lived down the street whose wife is a nurse or some shit, but like I said I have a gate to get to the backyard where my garage is and this homosexual had to have trekked 200 yards up my neighbors and my driveway to have taken pictures. In terms of wrecked equipment I never had any issues other than a piece of shit cap barbell my son had gotten off amazon or something getting destroyed from somebody deadlifting it. All of my plates were good, bars weren’t abused and other than the odd thing being put somewhere it shouldn’t that's all I had to deal with.

                good info, thanks.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                OP anyone telling you about liability, insurance and zoning is a fricking homosexual and a loser and probably a poorgay who lives in some shitbox apartment in the city. If you live rurally nobody will give a frick about any of that shit. i can't speak for the suburbs though.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                The "frick it" approach is certainly one route to take, but you should know the risk before you decide to go down that road.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                I am surprised that a home owner like you is so moronic. I've heard time and time again from lolbertarians that property owners are high IQ then I see shit like this where you're ignoring every rational piece of advice in favor for the /misc/ larper and debating the profit margins when you can probably fit 3 people in there at a time and they're not going to pay more than a commercial gym so you're under $10 a month.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                >during the pandemic
                This was the only time renting out a home gym was a good idea. There is literally no reason to do it now.

                Also probably a larp with your little fantasy story about pwning some nigs with your sig. You kids are all future school shooters not property owners. You're probably fat and you're rambling like a child.

                Liability, insurance, and zoning will be an issue for you I believe. The zoning might not be an issue depending on where you live though. But yeah the liability and insurance stuff I don't see another way around.

                I mean you can always just say frick it and hope nothing goes wrong, but if someone wants to sue you over an accident in the gym it could get pretty messy.

                >itt poorgay cidiots who can't afford their own gym equipment and don't have the space for it

                Hope that p90x and what other gay shit you bought during the pandemic worked out for you.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                ITT moronic roiding “home owner” who can’t pay his mortgage

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                >ITT moronic roiding “home owner” who can’t pay his mortgage
                Have to love this type of cope. My wife and I put 35% down on our property when we bought it 8 years ago, and have never missed a payment ever. You're either projecting or seething or both. What's it like being a poorgay living paycheck to paycheck with 4 credit cards maxxed out and a pile of student debt only to validate that you will never be a woman? Hopefully Biden will give out free dilators just as his admin did with free crack pipes.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                >moronic idea
                >still paying off mortgage
                >this butthurt
                Insecure roiding homosexual with 90 IQ

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                >throws shit at the wall to see what sticks
                >paying more than 5% despite being with an A lender is a bad idea
                >has no understand of how equity works

                My house will be paid off before 15 years of owning it kek. Only semites and ad hominids with smaller neocortex's on average care about IQ you filthy mutt. I can't even imagine what it's like to be dyel, a poorgay and have no understanding of how finances work in a free market. At least you have these posts to reference whenever you're feeling down poorgay.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                **understanding

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                >that seethe
                wut a frickin loser lmao. anon has a home gym and actually lifts and all you can do is cope lol

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            I don't know what state you are in but a part-time home-gym-business accident sounds like a fricking field day for any ambulance chaser.

  2. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    My thought would be to put up flyers around your neighborhood advertising it. Also how would it work if you had a membership? Would you like give members a key to your house or something? If you have a separate door to your garage you could change the lock on it then keep the door that goes into your house locked at all times

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >Would you like give members a key to your house or something?
      no, garage is completely detached and has a security door with programmable keypad from previous owner

  3. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    It'll become a part time job managing your "gym" and it's obviously isn't big enough to maintain more than 5 people. Your strategy would only work if you had some close friends who wanted a gym and was willing to pay some money. And no one is going to pay more than $20/mo for it as at best you're getting $100/mo and have to spend 1 or 2 managing it every day while dodging theft and degenerates.

  4. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >400sqft garage
    tfw living in a 450sqft apartment

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Wait until you see the size of my 3 car garage.

  5. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >I buy your gym pass
    >no insurance
    >cum and piss on your floor
    >sweat over everything
    >before leaving, flick a ciggie
    >turn 360 degrees and walk away

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      lol it's a risk. I'd be more worried about meth addicts stripping the metals from my outdoor ac unit.

  6. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Liability and sketchy shitty people will make you regret your decision.
    >hey bro I need to take a shit, I am going to need to know where your commode is?
    You will make more money(and have more fun) having your wife start up an only friends and release gym related porn content. IE naked squats/jerking off with barbell, naked jumping jacks/etc.
    You can also crosspost content to the hub for extra cash.

  7. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >those numbers
    OP I charged people 15$ an hour during the pandemic and changed my door code daily. The nest cam wanted to self destruct from all the unrecognizable faces. We made about 1440/week from 7 am-11 pm. Weekends I charged 20/ hr and had it open 10 am-4 pm. We made close to 10000 maybe a little more I'd have to check the excel sheet. It was great because during that time my barber would just come to my house and oddly enough he actually got more business cause people would ask to get their haircut after the gym too kek. Looking back on it though 10 grand is ok for not really having to do anything but I'm not sure if I'd do it again. We had some nigs came through from the city(3 of them) and I had to confront them and tell them it was 15$ per person. They looked like they wanted to ape out but I had my sig at my waist and would have dumped a full mag on the unbroken bucks. Luckily they obliged and I gave them an extra half hour cause it was the end of the night. That was one of the only times I ever had issues. Other times were small issues like insta prostitutes not knowing how to use a belt squat or people not putting back equipment properly and not wiping down after using it.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Oh and also OP, everything I did was under the table and completely illegal, it's probably the only way to do it to be jonest because claiming it as an income for taxes it isn't worth it and getting people to sign liability waivers I geuss in hind sight would have been a good idea but at the time gyms were illegal and if someone fricked their shit up on my gym equipment(they never did) the onus was on them. I have a similar setup to you but I live rurally and my detached garage has a gate you have to go through first. Closest neighbor is about 100-200 feet bit they're bros that I go hunting with so it's not like anyone is going to snitch.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      You made $10k under the table and the IRS didn’t investigate shit? Was it all paper money?

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        >You made $10k under the table and the IRS didn’t investigate shit? Was it all paper money?
        Yes. Some people were e-transferring the first week, but I decided to switch to cash only. I sell wood as well and run a pretty similar system but for that I do claim for taxes and have been doing so for 5 or 6 years now, but when I started it I didn't and IRS never said a word.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Oh and also OP, everything I did was under the table and completely illegal, it's probably the only way to do it to be jonest because claiming it as an income for taxes it isn't worth it and getting people to sign liability waivers I geuss in hind sight would have been a good idea but at the time gyms were illegal and if someone fricked their shit up on my gym equipment(they never did) the onus was on them. I have a similar setup to you but I live rurally and my detached garage has a gate you have to go through first. Closest neighbor is about 100-200 feet bit they're bros that I go hunting with so it's not like anyone is going to snitch.

      >You made $10k under the table and the IRS didn’t investigate shit? Was it all paper money?
      Yes. Some people were e-transferring the first week, but I decided to switch to cash only. I sell wood as well and run a pretty similar system but for that I do claim for taxes and have been doing so for 5 or 6 years now, but when I started it I didn't and IRS never said a word.

      OP here. Thanks for the info, that's really cool how you pulled that off, that's mostly how I was envisioning doing it. How much time do you estimate you spent dealing with the types of housekeeping/maintenance/shitty people issues brought up itt? Generally, how much of a hassle was it?

      Business idea: airbnb for home gyms

      >airbnb for home gyms
      could be a cool idea, especially since I can't find any service out there that helps you do what I'm wanting to do. Thanks!

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Not as often as you would think but again I think this was d/t 70% of people coming in i knew, whereas the 30% of people I didn't know were through people I did know. My wife and kids were at home during this time so they picked up alot of slack. All I did was restock my minifridge for gatorade and water that my kids charged the goers money for kek. I did do a big cleanup like take apart all my barbells, oiled them up again and cleaned them replaced the cables for my lat pulldown tower etc prior to the scamdemic so most of the equipment was maintained except for my belt squat cause I had just bought it 2 months prior. I'm pretty sure somewhere on reddit some homosexual tried to get me doxxed saying i was endangering people’s lives but i didn't really give a frick and kept on doing it. I'm pretty sure it was some gay who lived down the street whose wife is a nurse or some shit, but like I said I have a gate to get to the backyard where my garage is and this homosexual had to have trekked 200 yards up my neighbors and my driveway to have taken pictures. In terms of wrecked equipment I never had any issues other than a piece of shit cap barbell my son had gotten off amazon or something getting destroyed from somebody deadlifting it. All of my plates were good, bars weren’t abused and other than the odd thing being put somewhere it shouldn’t that's all I had to deal with.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Jason Blaha tier LARP

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        >Jason Blaha tier LARP
        Obviously i wouldn't shoot 3 nigs whom know me through acquaintances for no reason or over a dispute of 45$. Of course I'm going to settle the matter with diplomacy first rather than going in with my weapons drawn and in their face. It was concealed and they never saw it.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >during the pandemic
      This was the only time renting out a home gym was a good idea. There is literally no reason to do it now.

      Also probably a larp with your little fantasy story about pwning some nigs with your sig. You kids are all future school shooters not property owners. You're probably fat and you're rambling like a child.

  8. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Business idea: airbnb for home gyms

  9. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Doesn't sound like it's particularly viable as a business, as others have mentioned there is a huge issue of liability. Further, even if no one gets hurt you'd be surprised at how much depreciation you might incur in because of user error since there's no supervision. Not to mention only a tiny niche of people would actually be interested in training with a barbell/free weight setup by themselves as opposed to a normal globogym. Best case scenario, you could make a few bucks on the side renting it out to friends/close acquaintances who are interested in serious resistance training and who you know not to be morons. If you already have friends who train at the gym, the easiest step I can see would be setting up a "donation box" for maintenance/new equipment etc - if people actually donate(which may be stretch), you deduct an administrative fee from the fund every once in a while.

  10. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Rent it to amateur porn producers for gym props, more varbie and gym bunny material for us.

  11. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    This is like that idea with Swimply and renting out your swimming pool to strangers. No way I want any weirdos using my gym or pool. They are both very nice and they're mine. No way would any amount of money be worth letting randos use my shit.

  12. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Just train with the garage door open and every time someone looks at you talk to that person for a minute. You will instantaneously know if you want to offer your services.

  13. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Liability, insurance, and zoning will be an issue for you I believe. The zoning might not be an issue depending on where you live though. But yeah the liability and insurance stuff I don't see another way around.

    I mean you can always just say frick it and hope nothing goes wrong, but if someone wants to sue you over an accident in the gym it could get pretty messy.

  14. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Commercial gym
    >more machines and equipment
    >costs the same
    >more thots
    >yearly and monthly fee
    You
    >daily or monthly fee
    >enough to get 1 or if you’re lucky 2 people at a time
    No traveler is gonna go out of their way to see your shitty gym, hotels have one. Not sure if you are moronic or out of touch with reality (maybe you don’t travel or remember traveling before covid), when was the last time you traveled and didn’t like the gym at the hotel so you decided to drive around a random neighborhood looking for an autistic man and his wife’s garage that wasn’t advertised or looks at ads on poles of the local area?

  15. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    All it takes is one idiot going there unsupervised and benching without a spotter to sue you for damages when he inevitably fricks himself up

  16. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    You're just opening yourself to lawsuits. What you should do instead is make friends interested in bodybuilding or powerlifting, work out together in the gym while accumulating equipment then branch into a real location and go public with a real business.

    Your current plan makes no sense. People "too shy" for a public gym aren't going to be tracking someone down to use their garage gym and pay for it when commercial gyms are also like $10 a month to use the weights. Travelers use the day passes which are $12 at most or their hotel gyms. The hardcore people will go to the $45 a month hardcore gym that has 10x the space.

    If you can fit 5 people in there, which is probably too much, and charge a competetive rate like $8 congrats on the $40 a month I get $50 that for donating plasma for two total hours a week and I don't have strangers making noise in my house. Then they break something and you're in the hole.

  17. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    tfw my friends lets me lift at his place for free
    i put a lil bit of cash away every week, gonna surprise him with it for new stuffs

  18. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >making yourself liable for morons
    There's a reason hotel gyms fon't have free weights.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      I stay in a lot of hotels while traveling for business, and just about every one of them has free weights. They usually top out at 40/50s.

  19. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    yeah i do this all the time. I go and slam shit and drop weights on my feet and sue the owner.

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