Little Gym, Big Heart with Devin Gage
Oct 13, 2026 · 1 hr 1 min · 15 segments
Learn exactly how to run great gyms in 2027. Mark Fisher shares the specific strategies needed to lead your facility. Mark Fisher breaks down the shifting landscape of the fitness business. We discuss…
Devin GageHost
My goal is every episode you can leave and like actually apply something to your business.
The first thing I want to get clear on, cause you know, you lead hundreds of people, gyms in this business for unicorns model.
What should a gym, cause there's a lot of, I think there's a lot of BS out there about people talking about business numbers and attention should be, where your revenue should be.
Based on what you're seeing, what should a business, a training gym, strive to hit in revenue and profits? What is a realistic, not a pie in the sky number, not a freak market, freak person number? What should they be really aiming for to be living a pretty good life?
So, you know, the obligatory throat clearing to start is, of course, it all depends because really the question we're asking is, is the amount of income, freedom, emotional gratification that you get worth the financial risk, the emotional cost, the labor, the places where you don't have freedom, where your ass is on the line? Is that worth it to you? And different people will come down there differently.
However, just to answer the question, I think if you work full time in a single unit group strength training gym of some kind as the owner, I think we should be able to make about 120K kind of in any market.
I think in total, what we call total owner compensation, which would be a compensation, and it depends on how you're paid too, right? Because that's the other thing too.
People often talk about profitability, owner pay, but it's often hard to understand like, because the various people that do what I do talk about like differently.
So when we talk about total owner compensation for me, that is a combination of your, any W2 pay plus any profit distributions plus expenses run through the business that you benefit from.
Cause you're like, well, is that before or after taxes for the profit? You know, like, or like, is that pays for my cell phone? Is that, do I take that as a perk? Like, Like even perks, this is like too granular, but I often have a model of like, it's kind of a spectrum of like super defensible to total owner hoo-ha.
Like when you do the, like the, you know, I'm hiring my kid and I'm falsifying records to max out their Roth IRA and take money that I pay them that I then use to pay for their pony lessons because they have a lower tax rate than I do.
My goal is every episode you can leave and like actually apply something to your business.
The first thing I want to get clear on, cause you know, you lead hundreds of people, gyms in this business for unicorns model.
What should a gym, cause there's a lot of, I think there's a lot of BS out there about people talking about business numbers and attention should be, where your revenue should be.
Based on what you're seeing, what should a business, a training gym, strive to hit in revenue and profits? What is a realistic, not a pie in the sky number, not a freak market, freak person number? What should they be really aiming for to be living a pretty good life?
So, you know, the obligatory throat clearing to start is, of course, it all depends because really the question we're asking is, is the amount of income, freedom, emotional gratification that you get worth the financial risk, the emotional cost, the labor, the places where you don't have freedom, where your ass is on the line? Is that worth it to you? And different people will come down there differently.
However, just to answer the question, I think if you work full time in a single unit group strength training gym of some kind as the owner, I think we should be able to make about 120K kind of in any market.
I think in total, what we call total owner compensation, which would be a compensation, and it depends on how you're paid too, right? Because that's the other thing too.
People often talk about profitability, owner pay, but it's often hard to understand like, because the various people that do what I do talk about like differently.
So when we talk about total owner compensation for me, that is a combination of your, any W2 pay plus any profit distributions plus expenses run through the business that you benefit from.
Cause you're like, well, is that before or after taxes for the profit? You know, like, or like, is that pays for my cell phone? Is that, do I take that as a perk? Like, Like even perks, this is like too granular, but I often have a model of like, it's kind of a spectrum of like super defensible to total owner hoo-ha.
Like when you do the, like the, you know, I'm hiring my kid and I'm falsifying records to max out their Roth IRA and take money that I pay them that I then use to pay for their pony lessons because they have a lower tax rate than I do.
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