Funding for your situation
What opening a gym franchise really takes in cash and how a funding request is built around it.
✓ Checking what you qualify for does not affect your credit score.
A franchise comes with a playbook and a bill. For a gym franchise, the franchise fee, the build-out and the opening inventory all come due before the first sale. The class schedule is full and members are asking for earlier and later slots than the floor can hold.
Merchant Fund Express is a funding marketplace: you apply once, and the file is matched to the structure that fits it. The sections below show what this situation usually costs, how a funder reads it, and what to prepare.
A gym file is read through recurring revenue and churn visible in deposits, how billing-platform settlements look in the bank and equipment already financed or leased.
Membership billing produces recurring monthly deposits, often via a billing platform that settles on a schedule. A reviewer sees that pattern in the statements before reading a word of the application.
Equipment is part of the picture. A failure such as a treadmill motor and belt or a sound and lighting can run $3,200 to $6,800 and interrupt revenue while it is down.
The documents that usually matter most for a gym are an equipment quote or lease and membership billing reports if available, alongside the bank statements.
People are paid on a schedule that does not wait for new revenue to ramp.
Paid to a contractor before opening, often in draws that start before any revenue.
A fixed purchase with a quote you can put in front of a funder.
A real cost of the move that is easy to leave out of the first estimate.
A real cost of the move that is easy to leave out of the first estimate.
| Cost item | Illustrative amount |
|---|---|
| Franchise fee and training (illustrative) | $85,500 |
| Build-out and flooring | $60,000 |
| Equipment | $85,000 |
| Locker rooms and plumbing | $35,000 |
| Working capital for the opening runway | $49,000 |
| Cushion for overruns and slow early weeks (about 10%) | $31,500 |
| Total to open | $346,000 |
Sizing check. If the full repayment shown in an offer were $450,000 over about 26 weeks, the weekly debit would be about $17,308. Against illustrative monthly deposits of $415,000 (about $95,769 a week), that is roughly 18% of weekly deposits. Your own offer states the real repayment amount in dollars; run your numbers on the factor rate calculator before you accept anything.
Source: worksheet by Merchant Fund Express. Illustrative only: these figures are not an offer, and real amounts depend on your file and the funder.
These are the same factors described on revenue and deposit requirements and time in business. Merchant Fund Express walks you through how your own file reads before you apply.
A complete file is what makes a same-day decision possible. If something is missing, tell us and we will work around it.
Funding is sized on your own file, not the franchise brand. A term loan or working capital may fit depending on the pieces.
Some do. Whatever they provide goes into the plan; the rest is what a funder reviews.
Application and three months of business bank statements, plus the franchise agreement and the site lease once you have them.
The minimum FICO is 500, and better credit means better products and terms. See credit score requirements for how the tiers work.
Merchant Fund Express gives a same-day decision on a complete file. Applying takes a few minutes and will not affect your credit score.
