I ended up pulling the trigger on this opportunity (previous post) and wanted to followup with everyone on how its been going. Might keep reporting back quarterly.

Quick summary:

A couple years ago I was in contact with a big box gym manager to open a smoothie bar inside of the gym. I ended up declining that location and opened in another location this year. Went in on it with my good friend and business partner, mainly because I wanted him to talk me out of it but he loved it too so we went in on it. (this is our second venture together)

Some details:

• This took us 3 weeks to build out and about $35k (I was estimating $70k)
• We tried to make our own recipes, but turns out it’s a lot harder when making them to sell with consistency and pricing in mind. (also taste testing so many protein shakes had me on the toilet for EXTENDED PERIODS)
  • Ended up buying 12 proven recipes from another smoothie shop for $1k
• We hired out staff to 100% support the business from day 1. (I have yet to make a single smoothie for a customer)
• We are 2 weeks into it and we’re just under break even.
• We’re on track to bring in ~$7k this month (this is the slowest season), I’ve been told it can hit $17k-$20k in peak season.
• We just ran our first payroll 🎉

Coming soon:

• We have QR codes figured out so customers can order from the locker room and have their goods ready when they walk out
• We’ll be launching a paid subscription service for $10/mo, you get a free smoothie, a punch card, 10% off everything and a prize when you complete the punch card
• Monthly specials (like egg nog and ginger bread this month) and keep rotating a couple specials every month for a small upcharge
• Also going to test an influencer model when we get on Grubhub/Uber eats soon. Chosen fitness influencers in the area will create their own smoothie and get paid a % of ea sale. They’ll also have to promote it x amount of times, but I haven’t fleshed out exactly how that will look yet.

Anyways, I’m happy to answer any questions or feedback you might have. (I’m going to hold off on sharing the name of the biz and gym for now but may in the future.)

I would love to build a community of smoothie bar owners, if you’re doing it, dm me!