Selling your gym?
Your membership base is the asset. Price it that way.

The honest version

What gyms and studios actually sell for

Most single-location gyms and studios sell for roughly 2–3.5x seller’s discretionary earnings (SDE), with multi-location and manager-run operations reaching 3.5–6x adjusted EBITDA. Recurring membership revenue is what buyers are paying for, and the durability of that revenue — retention, billing terms, and how tied it is to you personally — sets where in the range you land.

The range is wide because the same business is worth different amounts to different buyers. In this sector you are usually looking at three:

• Fitness platforms and franchise consolidators — active acquirers of profitable locations and territories that fit their brand or model.
• Regional multi-location operators — established owners adding sites in their market. They know your economics and often move fastest.
• Individual buyers — the usual market for single studios, typically financing-dependent and priced on SDE.

Which of those is at your table changes your number far more than your square footage or your equipment list.

What moves the number

The four things buyers actually underwrite

• Membership retention and churn. Monthly attrition is the first number sophisticated buyers ask for. A book of long-tenured members on recurring billing is a fundamentally different asset from one that must be re-sold every year.
• Owner dependence. If members are really buying you — your coaching, your classes, your personality — the buyer discounts accordingly. Studios that run on a team of coaches and documented programming price far better.
• The lease and the fit-out. Term, assignability and rent load are underwritten early, and the age of your equipment matters: buyers price in the refresh cycle before they price in anything else.
• Revenue mix. Recurring memberships price above class packs and drop-ins, and ancillary revenue with margin — personal training, semi-private — helps most when it is delivered by staff rather than by the owner.

A note on the model that costs owners real money: growth bought with heavy discounting and founder-rate memberships can inflate the member count while suppressing the revenue per member a buyer will actually inherit. Raising rates and letting the weakest cohorts churn in the year or two before a sale often does more for the price than any renovation.

The process

Why a quiet, competitive process beats the first offer

Most gym owners who sell are approached by a franchisee group or a local competitor, or quietly ask around their network. Either way there is usually exactly one buyer at the table, and a buyer negotiating against nobody has no reason to move on price or on terms.

We run the opposite process. Buyers are qualified and under confidentiality agreement before they learn whose business it is. Nothing is listed, advertised, or published. Your staff, your customers, and your competitors learn nothing until you decide they should — and several credible buyers are considering the same opportunity at the same time.

The result is not only a better number. It is better terms: what happens to your team, how long you stay, how the earn-out is structured, and what happens to any real estate.

Common questions

Gym and studio owners ask us these first

What is my gym worth?

Most single-location gyms and studios sell for roughly 2 to 3.5 times seller’s discretionary earnings, with multi-location and manager-run operations reaching 3.5 to 6 times adjusted EBITDA. Retention, recurring billing and how much of the member experience depends on you personally decide where in the range you land. A confidential valuation will give you a written range based on real transactions.

Who buys gyms and fitness studios?

Fitness platforms and franchise consolidators, regional multi-location operators, and individual buyers for single studios. Each underwrites the same membership base differently, which is exactly why competition among them matters.

Will my members find out the gym is for sale?

Not from us. We run a confidential process in which qualified buyers sign confidentiality agreements before they learn which business is for sale. Nothing is advertised, and members and staff are told when you decide they should be — normally once the transition plan is settled.