Lexington, SC Gym Business Loans: Spin Bikes, Treadmills and a Second Studio

A commercial gym is a room full of machines, and the machines wear out on a schedule the owner can see coming. Power racks, plate-loaded stations, rowers, dumbbells and plates, flooring and mirrors all come on vendor quotes, and equipment financing lets each item back its own financing.

Studio fixtures are the other half: a boutique cycling or yoga room needs a check-in desk, storage racks, mats and a sound system. Those movable items are in scope; sound treatment, lighting and other work on the leased space, structural work on the building and buying the property are outside this site.

These are staffed businesses. Of the 41 fitness and recreational sports center establishments in Lexington County, SC, 28 had five or more employees in 2023 and 13 had fewer (CBP; our arithmetic on the size count).

Sauna rooms and showers sit at the edge of what equipment financing covers. A prefabricated sauna cabin, an infrared unit or a cold plunge tub is equipment with a serial number. Shower stalls, tile and plumbing inside a leased space are building work, which stays outside this site along with the rest of the work on the space.

A request is clearer when it lists only the units that could be removed and resold, each on its own vendor quote. Those units leave equipment behind as collateral, which is what lets them back their own financing.

Spin bikes and treadmills belong with the removable list. Illustration only, invented figures: $42,000 for twelve spin bikes and four treadmills at an annual rate of 10% over 48 months means $1,065.23 each month and $51,131.04 across the term.

There is no single list of gym business loan requirements: each funding partner sets its own, and two partners can ask for different things. What a request can show is the same either way, and the request form itself asks for time in business, annual revenue and the amount requested.

• Business bank statements for recent months
• Membership counts and how they have moved over the last year
• The lease, with its remaining term
• Vendor quotes for any equipment
• The owners and their share of the business
• For a purchase, the seller's financial statements

A partner can also ask about recurring billing: how much of each month's revenue comes from memberships drafted automatically, and how much from classes, personal training and day passes.

Strength equipment lasts, and racks, benches and selectorized machines are sold used as well as new. A used item with a bill of sale can go into an equipment request; a partner can check its age and condition and finance a smaller share of the price than it would for new equipment.

Buying an existing gym is a different request. The purchase price covers the equipment, the member contracts, the brand and the lease assignment, and term financing suits it: a set amount, paid back in fixed installments. The seller's statements and the membership history carry the request. If the sale includes the building, that property purchase is outside this site.

ZIP Code Business Patterns placed 13 fitness and recreational sports center establishments at a ZIP 29072 address in 2023, a count that covers the whole ZIP, which runs beyond the town limits.

Cable machines, functional trainers and a sled push lane on artificial turf are newer pieces a floor might add. The machines are equipment; turf flooring laid inside the gym is work on the space and stays outside this site. Locker rooms need lockers and benches, which a single vendor quote can cover.

For uneven months, when renewals and new sign-ups do not line up with rent and payroll, a business line of credit can be drawn and paid back as dues come in. A second studio adds both kinds of cost at once: equipment for the new floor and payroll for coaches before the new members fill the classes.

A wider Census code holds gyms without staff: the 2024 Nonemployer Statistics list 145 establishments under Other Amusement and Recreation Industries in Lexington County, SC with no paid employees (NAICS 7139), a group that reaches well beyond gyms. More trades are on the Lexington, SC industries page, and office-town figures are on the Lexington, SC business loans page.