Featured Listing: GymRat

About the business

Tell us a little about yourself. What’s your background? How did you start the business?

Project management professional. I enjoy designing, optimising and making websites perform! I got into GymRat because I was always into fitness and lockdown provided me with a lot of free time. I, therefore, decided to utilise my time in a productive manner and invest it into GymRat.

As an eCommerce business, where are your products made?

All our suppliers are based within the United Kingdom, they are extremely responsive and usually respond within a couple of hours via email or you can get in touch with them directly via their contact number. The products are delivered within 1-3 working days (but we advertise 2-3 working days just in case of delays).

How have you marketed the product and where are your customers originating from?

We have marketed our products via our social media platform, google shopping campaign and Facebook ads. We have spent a lot of time on SEO and can see that thousands of our visitors now come via organic routes as a result. All our customers are currently based within the United Kingdom. However, this business has the potential to be expanded to an international business.

Is the asset on your listing owner-operated, how much time does it take to run the business, who else is needed on the team, and what is automated?

You will need to dedicate around 2-3 hours per day to run this business (processing orders and responding to email queries). You are however able to outsource this effort over to virtual assistants so you can just oversee the process.

15-20 mins for social media postings (depends on how often you want to do this – I do this daily).

What does someone need to do to continue operating the business in its current form?

Continue to work on the SEO so more organic traffic comes in.
Continue to run ads.

Growing the business

Can you list a few opportunities for a potential new owner to continue growing the business?

• Start to hold stock to get higher profit margins
• Sign up onto an Affiliate network
• Create a mobile application using the Shopify app (retains customers)
• Link the products with eBay/Etsy/Amazon and many other marketplaces
• Work with influencers within the fitness market
• Focus on the search engine optimisation (SEO)
• Focus on the branded clothing line (I haven’t really paid any attention to it
• Expand the business from only United Kingdom to an international business

What has been the evolution of this asset since its launch?

The store saw massive growth in the last 12 months. Before I purchased the business, it was generating less than $5,000 in revenue per month but I was able to grow it to over $5,000 in profit per month. As the business has a dropshipping model, it can be run from anywhere in the world.

How does this business make money? What are the current revenue streams?

We are currently selling around 13,000 products ranging from Home Gym Equipment, Commercial Gym Equipment, Nutrition & Supplements, Yoga & Pilates Equipment, Boxing & MMA Equipment and GymRat branded clothing.

What marketing channels are most profitable for the business?

Our well optimised Google campaign has a ROAS of over 1000%.

How does the business currently acquire customers and what is your breakdown for marketing costs?

We spend around $3,000 on average per month on Google Campaign to get a return of around $30,000. Have worked with a Social Media Marketing Manager (a friend) who has created a profitable Facebook campaign for me. We are also acquiring customers via SEO – we have improved massively on this front also!

How big is your current team? How many people does it take to run this business?

I am the only person currently running this business. I have been the only person working on this.

What’s the reason for selling your business on Flippa?

I have another store (selling electronic gadgets, laptops, cameras, drones etc.) that I am the sole owner of. I have built a good relationship with one of my main suppliers for electronic goods and they are providing me with higher than usual discounted prices – this is extremely favourable as the profit margins are a lot higher. I have therefore decided to sell this (fitness) business and spend a lot more time on the electronic gadget store.