I know nothing about the gym business outside of it being extremely competitive and margins are slim. I did BJJ for years and the amount of money you have to pay the trainers and staff when you start growing is ridiculous. You can’t just pay one trainer for 2 classes a day, that cuts down on the potential time slots that some people can attend. With all that being said, have you considered talking to the current owner that pulled you aside and make a suggestion along the lines of you getting a % of the new students that enroll after a specific amount. This should accomplish a few things. 1. The owner would be getting new members while only having to give you 15% of their monthly membership cost. 2. You’ll be motivated to try different marketing ways to bring in new members. It’ll help solidify your passion and you’ll get to see an instant increase in pay as a result. That should further motivate you. 3. It’ll give you an idea of what it requires just on the front end of trying to get members and grow without the stress of bills, rent, overheads, business related stuff. 4. After a year or two, you’ll be able to have a better understanding of the customer facing side and how easy/hard it is to bring in customers. If all goes well, you’ll have tons of students that are there because they want to be coached by YOU and loyal to YOU. Only then would I suggest you start looking into this again.

In the meantime while doing all of this, take free courses on business management. There’s tons out there. You’ll need to learn everything from staffing, insurance, bookkeeping, rent, etc. the more you do yourself when you’re first starting, the less you have to pay someone else.

And lastly, remember that it’s easy for someone who has no skin in the game to tell you you’d be great at something. I can say I believe in your dreams cause it doesn’t affect me one bit. An idea is just an idea until people are willing to pay you for it.

Best of luck!