If you’re looking for a business that can make good money without turning Big Ambitions into a constant headache, I’d definitely consider opening a gym. Gyms are fairly simple to run, especially compared with businesses that need complicated stock chains or a lot of different products.
In this Big Ambitions gym guide, I’ll explain everything you need to know to get one running properly in the 1.0 full release. We’ll go through the equipment you need, customer capacity, trainers, cleaners, opening hours, pricing, marketing, and how you can eventually turn one gym into a whole chain.
I’ve also included some of the mistakes that can make a gym look unprofitable. If you’ve already tried opening one and wondered why you were barely making money, there’s a good chance you’re missing one of the things covered below.
Big Ambitions 1.0 Gym Guide – Requirements, Earn Money
Gyms weren’t always considered one of the best businesses in Big Ambitions. During Early Access, I remember seeing plenty of players say that gyms weren’t worth the investment.
There were a couple of reasons for that. Some players weren’t using the gym system efficiently, while the game itself was still being developed and balanced.
With the 1.0 release, though, gyms have become a much more attractive option.
One of the biggest reasons I like gyms is the low ongoing cost. Your main source of income is the cover charge, and you don’t have to constantly deal with a complicated list of products.
You mainly need to worry about things like energy drinks and soda for your customers.
Logistics are also much easier compared with businesses that need a large variety of products. Once you have your supply system set up, keeping a gym stocked is pretty straightforward.
Another nice bonus is that you can actually use your own gym. Working out in your own business can give your character a happiness boost, which means your gym can help you personally as well as make money.
Gyms aren’t necessarily going to be the most profitable business forever, especially once you’ve built a massive empire, but they’re excellent starter businesses and can work extremely well as a chain.
Minimum Requirements to Open a Gym
Before you can open a gym, you’ll need a few basic pieces of equipment.
The minimum requirements are:
- Fitness Planning Board – $375
- Public Shower – $2,600
- Gym Lockers – $2,350
- At least one workout machine
The Fitness Planning Board is particularly important because this is where your Gym Trainers work.
You can purchase most of the equipment you need from Essentials Appliances and similar appliance stores. Some gym equipment, such as the treadmill, can also be found at IKA BOHAG.
That’s enough to technically get your gym open, but I wouldn’t stop at the minimum requirements.
In practice, you’ll also want a Cleaning Station and a cleaner. A drinks fridge is another useful addition because energy drinks can sell very well.
As your gym gets busier, you’ll also want additional showers and lockers so your facilities can keep up with the number of customers.
Workout Machines and Customer Capacity
This is one of the most important things to understand if you want your gym to actually make money.
Every workout machine gives your gym 2 customer capacity.
Your building’s customer capacity works as a maximum limit, but the machines determine how much of that capacity you can actually use.
For example, imagine you rent a building with a customer capacity of 30. If your machines only provide 12 capacity, your gym can effectively handle only 12 customers.
That’s why simply renting a large building isn’t enough.
You need to fill the gym with enough workout equipment to take advantage of its available space.
Workout Machines You Can Buy
Here are some common machines and their prices:
- Treadmill – $5,250
- Turnstile Arm – $4,700
- Workout Bench – $3,500
- Decorative Barbell – $250
- Gym Mat – $150
- Boxing Bag – $450
- Fitness Trampoline – $525
- Bench – $180
- Fitball – $60
Each of these adds 2 customer capacity.
When you’re starting out, I’d recommend buying around 4–6 machines and expanding from there.
Don’t spend too much money decorating the gym early on. Your priority should be increasing customer capacity and getting enough equipment to serve the people coming through the door.
Once your gym is making consistent money, you can start spending more on decoration and improving the overall look.
Staffing Your Big Ambitions Gym
There are two main staff roles you need to think about when running a gym: Gym Trainers and Cleaners.
Both are important, but they handle completely different parts of the business.
Gym Trainers
Gym Trainers are responsible for actually running the gym and working at the Fitness Planning Board.
Their skill level affects the quality of customer service, so I wouldn’t ignore training.
When you’re just starting, one full-time trainer can usually handle things. As you increase your opening hours and customer capacity, you’ll need additional trainers to cover the shifts.
You can recruit trainers through recruitment agencies, and later you can also use headhunters.
Once you’ve hired someone, you can improve their skills by unassigning them from the gym and sending them to training. When the training is finished, assign them back to the gym.
It takes some time to get employees to high skill levels, but better employees are worth having once your business starts getting busy.
Cleaners
Don’t underestimate how quickly dirt builds up in a gym.
A dirty gym can hurt your customer satisfaction, so you need someone responsible for keeping the place clean.
Early on, you can usually get away with a part-time cleaner who comes in toward the end of the day.
As your gym becomes busier or you start running it for longer hours, you’ll need more cleaning coverage.
This becomes especially important if you eventually decide to operate 24/7.
You should also remember to assign uniforms to your employees. Without the appropriate uniforms, your staff may not look or operate the way you expect.
Choosing Your Opening Hours
One mistake I see with gyms is assuming that you should immediately run them 24/7.
You really don’t need to do that.
Customer demand drops significantly after midnight, so staying open all night can sometimes mean you’re paying employees while barely getting enough customers to justify the cost.
When starting out, I’d rather run a gym for around 8–10 hours and expand the schedule once the business can support additional staff.
As you hire more trainers and cleaners, you can gradually extend the opening hours.
Eventually, running a gym 24/7 can make sense, but I’d only do it when you have enough customer demand and enough staff to cover the entire schedule.
There’s no reason to pay extra wages just to keep an empty gym open at 3 AM.
Pricing, Marketing and Drinks
Once your gym is running, there are several ways you can improve its income.
The first thing I’d look at is the cover charge.
Don’t leave your pricing at the default forever. As your gym becomes more popular and customer satisfaction improves, you can experiment with increasing the cover charge.
You also want to have a drinks fridge.
Energy drinks can sell particularly well in gyms, while soda is less impressive but can still provide some additional income.
You don’t necessarily need to overcomplicate your selection. Keeping energy drinks available can be enough to start with.
Marketing is another useful tool.
Once your gym is already operating properly, marketing campaigns can help bring more customers through the door. Larger campaigns can become more useful as your character’s skills improve.
Just remember that marketing can’t fix a poorly managed gym.
If you’re short on machines, understaffed, or constantly dealing with dirt, bringing in more customers can actually make those problems worse.
Automate Your Gym’s Supplies
Once you start getting serious about your gym business, you should stop manually driving around the city to restock everything.
Set up a wholesale contract and use automatic deliveries instead.
This becomes particularly useful when you have multiple gyms because you don’t want to spend your entire day transporting drinks between businesses.
Once your warehouse and logistics system are established, your gyms can largely take care of their own supply needs.
Scaling Gyms and Building a Chain
One gym is a good start, but things get much more interesting when you open several.
The great thing about gyms is that their logistics requirements are relatively simple.
You mainly need to keep drinks supplied, so a single warehouse with a few drivers and Purchasing Agents can potentially support several locations.
As you expand into different neighborhoods, Pricing Managers can also become useful.
They allow you to manage pricing across a district rather than manually adjusting prices at every individual location.
Once your first gym is consistently profitable and properly staffed, you can start looking at opening another one.
Don’t rush this part, though.
It’s much better to have one excellent gym that is clean, properly staffed, and operating at a good capacity than two struggling gyms that are both losing money.
You can also buy out rival gyms once you have enough money. This can give you another location without having to build everything from scratch, and the game can automatically fill in much of the basic furniture.
Personal Happiness Tip
There’s another reason I like having a gym in my business empire: you can actually use it yourself.
Put on your workout clothes and use the machines inside your own gym.
Many pieces of gym equipment provide a useful happiness boost, so this can be an easy way to keep your character in a good mood without having to travel to another public gym.
It’s a small feature, but once you’re spending most of your time managing businesses, having a gym you can use yourself is surprisingly convenient.
Why Gyms Are Not Profitable for Some Players
If you open a gym, place two machines in a random building, hire one tired trainer, and leave it running, don’t be surprised when the business barely makes any money.
The first major problem is usually customer capacity.
Remember that every workout machine provides 2 capacity. If you don’t have enough machines, your gym simply can’t serve enough customers to generate serious income.
The second major problem is cleanliness.
Dirt can build up quickly, especially when you have a busy gym. If you don’t have a cleaner, customer satisfaction can drop and your business can start suffering.
Another common mistake is opening for 24 hours too early.
If your gym doesn’t have enough customers during the late-night hours, you’re basically paying employees to sit around while your revenue stays low.
You should also avoid expanding too quickly.
Don’t open your second gym just because the first one had a good day. Make sure the first location has enough machines, trained employees, proper cleaning coverage, and consistent profits before you move on.
The basic formula is pretty simple: capacity + good staff + cleanliness + sensible opening hours = profitable gym.
Once you get those things right, gyms can become one of the easier businesses to manage in Big Ambitions 1.0.
Final Thoughts
I think gyms are one of the better choices for players who want a business that’s relatively simple to manage while still having plenty of room to grow.
You don’t need a huge collection of products, the logistics are easy, and you can eventually run multiple gyms from a centralized warehouse.
Just don’t make the mistake of treating your first gym as a completely hands-off business.
Start with enough machines to create decent customer capacity, hire and train your trainers, keep the place clean, choose reasonable opening hours, and slowly increase your prices as the business improves.
Once you have that foundation working, you can start expanding into more neighborhoods and turn your first small gym into an entire fitness business empire.