Personal training franchise finance
Averan read the 2026 FDDs of five personal training brands.
The median brand here reports average revenue of $464,624 an unit. Percentage fees at the median brand come to 12% of sales. The median cost to open runs $259,283 to $534,417.
Find a personal training brand
5 brands in this guide, each from its own 2026 FDD. Open one, or pick two and compare them.
The brands in this group
Each brand has its own business model breakdown, with every figure set out against the brand’s disclosure document it comes from.
- Alloy Personal Training Revenue by quartile AND by tenure, members, revenue per member, month-by-month system retention, recommended pricing tiers, membership mix, and named location-level monthly revenue for every 2025 opener
- Discover Strengthaverage gross sales, labor, payroll taxes, sales per square foot and rent by two cohort, franchised and company-owned · The lease
- Fit Body Boot Camp No financial performance representation · Fixed_monthly_brand_cost
- Fitness Togethergroup averages, medians, highs and lows with visits and active clients · Everyone trains 78 times a year
- GYMGUYZmedian_and_corporate · The only income statement belongs to a corporate location 13.85x the franchised median
The figures, brand by brand
| Measure | Median | Brands | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average sales per unit | $464,624 | 4 of 5 | Median of each brand’s disclosed average |
| Median sales per unit | $480,382 | 3 of 5 | Median of each brand’s disclosed median |
| Initial franchise fee | $58,000 | 5 of 5 | |
| Royalty | 6% | 5 of 5 | Headline rate |
| Brand or advertising fund | 2% | 5 of 5 | |
| Percentage fees, all in | 12% | 5 of 5 | Royalty, funds and local marketing set as a share of sales |
| Cost to open, low | $259,283 | 5 of 5 | |
| Cost to open, high | $534,417 | 5 of 5 | |
| Profit margin | Fewer than three disclose | 1 of 5 | Each brand’s own profit line; definitions differ |
| Labor, share of revenue | Fewer than three disclose | 2 of 5 | |
| Building costs, share of revenue | Fewer than three disclose | 2 of 5 | |
| Unit growth, 2025 | 12.9% | 5 of 5 | (End − start) ÷ start |
| Customers lost, 2025 | 11.8% | 5 of 5 | Terminated, non-renewed, reacquired and ceased, ÷ opening units; transfers excluded |
Each figure is the median of the brands that disclose it, and the Brands column counts them.
How we calculated this
Revenue is each brand's own reported figure on its own unit basis, so the median describes the group and no single brand. Growth and customers lost are our calculations from each brand's outlet table. Where fewer than three brands disclose a figure, no benchmark is shown.
The model
The business model the top performers in personal training are running
What the top performers can do that others cannot
2 of the 5 brands here sell a membership. 3 of them run a recurring plan, and turning a first visit into a standing arrangement is a skill in itself. Rostering against demand is the constraint: wages run 36.8% of sales at the middle brand, more than any other line.
What the customer is buying
The customer buys a plan they pay for monthly whether they show up or not. At 1 of them the model is different: the customer buys space let to an independent professional, which asks something else of the owner. A location at the middle brand sells $464,624 a year; the top group sells $1,434,438. The offer is the same at both ends of that range, so the difference is volume rather than product.
Who the customer is, and how often they come back
This is a retention business. The money is made in the second year of a customer, not the first month, so the number that decides the year is how many stay. A median 38% of locations reach their own brand’s average, so most of the system is below the number the brand advertises, and the gap is usually a demand gap rather than an effort gap. The top group sells $1,434,438 against $203,490 at the bottom. Trade area and site set that range before an owner takes a booking.
How the money works
Opening costs $112,100 to $870,000 across the group, and inside one brand the top of the range is typically 2.0 times the bottom. At the middle brand the cost stack runs wages 36.8%, occupancy 12.0%, franchise fees 12.0% of sales. What is left runs 40.0% at the middle brand, which is $573,201 a year at the top group and $81,314 at the bottom. The percentage barely moves between them; the dollars do. 3 of these brands publish how a new location builds up, so the first year can be read out of the document instead of guessed at.
Also disclosed across this group: $0, $142,273, $32,268, $4,646, $872,951, 147.7, 7.1.
Top performers
These are the things that separate top performers in personal training
At the typical personal training brand, the best group of locations sells $1,434,438 a year. The worst group sells $203,490. That is $1,230,948 more a year, 7.0 times over, for the same brand on the same agreement. Across these brands, a median of 38% of locations reach their own brand’s average. The average describes the top of a system, not the middle. 4 of the 5 brands here publish bands; the rest disclose no spread at all.
Decided before you open
- What it costs to open.Opening costs run $112,100 to $870,000 across the group, and the top of a single brand’s range is typically 2.0 times its bottom. The top group sells $1,434,438 a year against a build that tops out at $870,000, so at the heavy end of the range a location sells $1.65 for every dollar it cost to open. That build is recovered inside a year or two of sales at that end of the system.
- What a location sells.Average sales run $464,624 at the middle brand and $1,434,438 at the top group. Format and site decide most of that before an owner does anything, which is why the same operator produces different results in different trade areas.
- Rent is one number, and it lands twice.Occupancy runs 12.0% of sales at the middle brand, which on median sales of $464,624 is $55,755 of rent a year. That same $55,755 is 3.9% of sales at the top group and 27.4% at the bottom. Nobody negotiated a worse lease. The top performers move this line by putting more sales through the same square footage: longer earning hours, a second daypart, and a site picked for traffic rather than for the rate.
Live operating levers
- 3 of the 5 brands here publish how a new location builds up.Where a brand shows its first year month by month, an owner can see when sales finally cover the costs and how much cash has to be put in before that point arrives. Where a brand does not show it, that curve has to be guessed at, and the guess is usually optimistic. They are Alloy Personal Training, Discover Strength, Fitness Together.
- 3 of the 5 brands here run a recurring plan.A plan turns a business that waits for the phone to ring into one that knows roughly what next month looks like, and that predictability is what lets an owner staff properly. It is built by asking the customer to book the next visit before they walk out, not by spending more on marketing afterwards. They are Discover Strength, Fitness Together, GYMGUYZ.
- 2 of the 5 brands here sell a membership.The owner watches three things. How many people join in a month. How many cancel. What a member spends on top of the plan. The top performers work the cancellations as hard as the joins, because a member who leaves in month four has cost a year of revenue that was already counted. They are Alloy Personal Training, Fit Body Boot Camp.
- Wages. Same labor market, different result.Wages run 36.8% of sales at the middle brand and 29.8% to 43.7% across the 2 that disclose it. These brands hire from the same pool at the same rates, so a 14-point spread is not a pay-rate gap. It is scheduling and productivity: rostering against booked demand hour by hour, managing sales per paid hour as the number, and keeping enough of the pay variable that the line falls when the week is quiet. On the top group’s $1,434,438 of sales, a point of wages is $14,344 a year; on the bottom group’s $203,490 it is $2,035. The same discipline is worth more where the volume already is.
- What is left at the end. Where the gap comes from.Of the 1 brands that publish a profit line, the middle one keeps 40.0% of sales, from 40.0% to 40.0%. The cost lines above move by a few points between the best and worst locations while sales move by multiples, so the top performers are not running a cheaper business. They are running the same cost base over more revenue. Hold that 40.0% margin steady and the top group earns $573,201 against $81,314 at the bottom, a difference of $491,887 a year that comes from volume alone.
- What the brand charges. The line that works backwards.Fees run a median 12.0% of sales across 5 brands, from 9.0% to 47.9%. Where a minimum sits underneath the percentage, the weakest location pays the highest effective rate, so the fee line costs most exactly where it can least be afforded. The top performers clear the minimum early and stop thinking about it. At $1,434,438 the fees cost $172,132 a year; at $203,490 they cost $24,419. The percentage is the same and the burden is not.
Context you underwrite around
- How many brands show a ramp.3 of 5 filings in this group show how a new location builds up. For the rest the first year has to be assumed, and the assumption is usually wrong in the same direction.
- What is not banded.1 brands publish no bands at all, so their spread is unknown rather than narrow. Read a single average as the upper-middle of a distribution you cannot see.
Operating levers
What each brand’s top performers actually work on
The levers the filing supports, brand by brand. Three to five each, read from that brand’s own 2026 FDD. Filter by type of business, or open a brand for the figures underneath.
5 brands
Alloy Personal Training
Personal training
- Members, the operating driver. This model bills on members. The owner watches how many people join, how many cancel, and what a member spends beyond the plan. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 12.8% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
- The first year. This filing shows how a new location builds up, so the ramp can be underwritten from the document rather than assumed. Read two things out of it: the month sales cross the point where costs are covered, and how much cash you fund before that month arrives. Everything before break-even is paid for by you.
Discover Strength
Personal training
- Wages, the dominant line. Wages take 43.7% of sales. Staff productivity, scheduling against demand hour by hour, and the balance of base pay to commission are where this is won.
- Occupancy, the line that does not flex. Rent and building costs take 12.0% of sales here. Sales per square foot and the hours the space is earning are the only two ways to move it, because the rent itself is fixed at signing.
- Suites rented, the operating driver. This model bills on suites rented. The suites are built once and then let, so the business is how many are occupied and how long each tenant stays. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Membership and rebooking. A recurring plan turns a high-fixed-cost business from an appointment book into a subscription, which smooths the utilisation that drives the wage line. Rebooking before the customer leaves is what builds it, not marketing spend afterwards.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 10.8% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
Fit Body Boot Camp
Personal training
- Members, the operating driver. This model bills on members. The owner watches how many people join, how many cancel, and what a member spends beyond the plan. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 12.0% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
Fitness Together
Personal training
- Visits, the operating driver. This model bills on visits. The owner watches how many visits happen, what each one is worth, and how many customers book the next one before they leave. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Membership and rebooking. A recurring plan turns a high-fixed-cost business from an appointment book into a subscription, which smooths the utilisation that drives the wage line. Rebooking before the customer leaves is what builds it, not marketing spend afterwards.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 9.0% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
- The first year. This filing shows how a new location builds up, so the ramp can be underwritten from the document rather than assumed. Read two things out of it: the month sales cross the point where costs are covered, and how much cash you fund before that month arrives. Everything before break-even is paid for by you.
GYMGUYZ
Personal training
- Wages, the dominant line. Wages take 29.8% of sales, against 40.0% kept at the end. Staff productivity, scheduling against demand hour by hour, and the balance of base pay to commission are where this is won. Small movements here move the result more than anything else, because nothing else in the structure is that large.
- Customers, the operating driver. This model bills on customers. The owner works on how many customers are won, how many are lost, and what each spends in a year. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Membership and rebooking. A recurring plan turns a high-fixed-cost business from an appointment book into a subscription, which smooths the utilisation that drives the wage line. Rebooking before the customer leaves is what builds it, not marketing spend afterwards.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 47.9% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
Questions owners ask next
The figures above raise these, and each one is answered on its own page.
- At what level of sales does a minimum fee stop costing me more than the percentage?How royalty, ad fund and minimums actually work on a monthly statement.
- How much cash do I fund before a new location covers its own costs?A 13-week forecast for the months before break-even.
- My payroll percentage keeps climbing. Is that a payroll problem?Usually it is a revenue problem wearing a payroll costume.
- How much of Item 19 can I rely on?What a financial performance representation does and does not tell you.
- What should I be looking at every week?The handful of numbers that move before the P&L does.
Run your own numbers.
The Franchise Finance Diagnostic runs the same checks on your own numbers. It scores where you stand and compares you with Item 19 of your brand’s FDD. It works out what one location earns and spends, and builds a 13-week cash forecast. Checks whether you are ready to open another one. It is free and it runs in your browser.
Launch the diagnostic →Where do your numbers sit against your brand's?
A structured review of your unit economics, cash forecast, and reporting, benchmarked against your own brand’s filed numbers.
Request the reviewWhere these figures come from
Every figure here comes from the brands' 2026 FDDs and is unaudited by us. We are unaffiliated with the brands. The medians, growth and customers lost figures are our own calculations. The figures describe past performance at other businesses. They are not a projection of your results. This page is an educational summary and is not an offer to sell a franchise or financial, legal or tax advice. All trademarks belong to their owners. How Averan reads a Franchise Disclosure Document.