Gym and fitness centre

About the business

Renting a floor, filling it with machines, and enrolling members on a monthly or yearly fee. In this business the money comes first and the service afterwards - the member pays for the month or the year at the start. That sounds good, and it is exactly where the danger lies: cash in hand feels like profit, but against that money you have to keep paying rent, electricity, trainers' wages and machine repairs for the whole period. The equipment prices are knowable. On 16 September 2026 Daraz listed motorised treadmills at Tk 28,000-48,000, manual treadmills at Tk 12,000-15,000, a one-station multi gym at Tk 42,000-65,000, a five-station multi gym at Tk 130,000, a pull-up and dip station at Tk 17,500-21,590 and a 5 kg hex dumbbell at Tk 1,090, from sellers including Sports Vision, Fitness Mart and Sports 360. The number nobody publishes is retention. Whether a gym makes money or loses it is decided by how many of the people who join are still turning up three months later - and no published Bangladeshi figure for that rate could be found. So this page gives no membership fee and no margin. It gives the equipment prices, because that is the part that could be verified.

Unit economics

What you need to start

• Cardio and weight equipment. Prices listed on Daraz Bangladesh on 16-09-2026: motorised treadmill 2 HP Tk 28,000 and 3 HP walking pad Tk 29,000 (Sports Vision), T600C treadmill Tk 48,000, DK-40AA treadmill Tk 35,000-39,500, manual treadmill Tk 12,000-15,000; one-station multi gym Tk 42,000 (Sports Vision) and Tk 50,000-65,000 (Fitness Mart); five-station multi gym Tk 130,000 (Sports Vision); chin-up and dip power tower Tk 17,500-21,590 (Citizen Sports, Sports 360); 5 kg hex dumbbell Tk 1,090 and 2.5 kg Tk 540-1,088; a 10 kg plate and 3-foot barbell combo Tk 1,917.Equipment
• Trade licence from the city corporation or municipality: form Tk 10, licence book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, stamp Tk 150-300, licence fee Tk 100-60,000 by trade type, plus VAT and signboard fee. Issued in 3-5 working days. No separate government licence for a gym, and no trainer certification regime, was found in this research.Licence
• A trained instructor. Members themselves say the two things that decide their choice of gym are good cardio and weight machines and supervised group classes. Members over sixty come with diabetes, arthritis and hormonal problems, so knowing who may do what matters.Skill
• An equipment seller and a repairer. Sellers such as Sports Vision, Fitness Mart, Citizen Sports, Sports 360 and Sports-House list gym equipment regularly on Daraz. Find out where belts, cables and pulleys come from before you buy, not after.Supplier
• At least 800-1,200 square feet of solid floor with a high ceiling, mirrors, fans or air conditioning, a changing room and a toilet. To take women members you need a separate section or separate hours - Adonize Fitness Centre at Bashundhara Shopping Mall in Dhaka runs two separate sections. No rent or advance figure was obtained in this research.Workspace

How the work is done

1. 1Look for premises within walking distance of a college, an office area or dense housing - people go to a distant gym for two weeks and then stop.
2. 2Measure the floor and check it. Weight machines are heavy so the floor must take the load, and a low ceiling makes a treadmill unusable.
3. 3Take the trade licence from the city corporation or municipality and get the building owner's written permission - noise and vibration draw complaints in residential buildings.
4. 4Buy equipment in stages. Start with cardio - a treadmill and a bike - plus one multi-station, dumbbells and plates. On Daraz on 16-09-2026 a motorised treadmill was Tk 28,000, a one-station multi gym Tk 42,000-50,000 and a five-station Tk 130,000.
5. 5Put in mirrors, fans or air conditioning, a changing room and water. A separate women's section, or separate hours, brings in more members - that is how the big Dhaka gyms do it.
6. 6Hire a trainer and check his certification. A member made to lift with the wrong form gets hurt and never comes back.
7. 7Set the fee packages - joining fee, monthly, three-month, six-month and annual. Put every condition in writing; hidden charges are a leading reason members leave.
8. 8Offer a free trial session. It is a familiar practice in Bangladeshi gyms, and letting someone look around before joining is what changes their mind.
9. 9Keep an attendance register, every day. Who joined matters less than who is still coming after three months. That register is the real account of this business, and you have to build it yourself because nobody publishes it.
10. 10Set money aside every month for maintenance. Treadmill belts and motors, cables and pulleys need replacing, and a broken machine means members leaving.

Sources

• সিটি কর্পোরেশন থেকে ট্রেড লাইসেন্স প্রাপ্তির ধাপ সমূহ

  Collected: 16 Sept 2026

  Supports: Starting capital · বাংলাদেশ

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