Personal Care · Seller's Guide

How to Sell a Gym or Studio

Gyms and studios sell on recurring memberships more than anything else. Here is how membership revenue, equipment, and leases set the price.

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Why It's Different

What makes selling a gym different

A gym or studio's value is driven above all by recurring membership revenue, active members, monthly recurring revenue, and churn. Clean, well-documented membership data showing durable, low-churn revenue is the single biggest thing a buyer pays for.

The equipment and the lease are the other pillars. Equipment condition and remaining life, the size and terms of your lease, and any prepaid membership liabilities all shape the deal. Boutique studios (yoga, Pilates, cycling) lean even more on community and instructors.

How It's Valued

What is a gym worth?

Most buyers value a gym on a multiple of Seller's Discretionary Earnings (SDE), your profit plus the owner's salary and the personal expenses run through the business.

Gyms and studios are typically valued at about 2 to 3.5 times SDE, with strong, low-churn recurring memberships supporting the higher end. Prepaid memberships are treated as a liability. I help you present membership metrics and rebuild SDE with proper add-backs.

A broker's job is to rebuild your SDE with the right add-backs so your true earning power, not just the tax-return bottom line, sets the price. Get a free, confidential valuation →

Confidentiality

Selling without your staff or competitors finding out

Selling a gym works best when no one finds out until the right moment. Employees, competitors, customers, and suppliers learning early is the number-one fear owners have, and for good reason, it can cost you staff and revenue mid-sale. I market every business with a blind profile: a teaser that describes the opportunity, the numbers, and the area only in general terms, and never names your business. Every buyer is screened and signs a non-disclosure agreement before they learn which business is for sale. Your team keeps working, your customers keep coming, and your sale stays private until it closes.

What's your gym actually worth?

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Frequently Asked Questions

Selling a gym, answered

A great deal, more than equipment. Buyers and lenders want to see active member counts, monthly recurring revenue, and churn, so we document those clearly to show durable revenue.

Prepaid and annual memberships are a liability the buyer inherits, so they are accounted for in the deal terms, usually as a credit at closing. We make the treatment clear so there are no surprises.

Yes. We market with a blind profile and NDAs, protecting your members and instructors, and time the transition so the community and staff stay intact.

About Your Broker

Martin Navarro, Business Broker

Martin Navarro is a California business broker, DRE #02372118, and a U.S. Marine Corps veteran. He is bilingual in English and Spanish and a member of the California Association of Business Brokers (CABB), the International Business Brokers Association (IBBA), ACG Los Angeles (Association for Corporate Growth), and the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce. Gas stations, car washes, self-storage, and other businesses with real estate are a specialty within his full-service brokerage practice. Martin serves business owners across Los Angeles, the Inland Empire, Ventura, and Orange County, and throughout Southern California.

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