It was late 2021 and the county was still under mask mandates. The economy was unreliable and people in the California Bay Area near Silicon Valley were still reluctant to go inside, even for masked 1-on-1 services like personal training and massage. Gyms and fitness studios were springing up everywhere, remodeling and pushing “membership presales” in anticipation of everything “opening up” again any minute. I felt people were wary of memberships, after their gyms had been shut down for months, jobs had been quit or lost, many people had moved and may have had to  negotiate cancellations of 12-month membership commitments with reluctant small business owners who in turn may have still been paying rent, even through long government shutdowns. 
The area I was looking at is very fitness-centered, where appearances (and health) matter. I intended to open Daring Gray in an upscale “village” area of the Silicon Valley, heavily weighted toward an older, affluent population. The business would need to differentiate toward “anti-aging” more than an about-to-be overcrowded “fitness” industry to remain “different, not better.”
But with the iffy economy and a covid-cautious population, I decided (in a rare moment of caution in my controlled-risk lifetime) to buy a going concern and convert it to a Daring Gray. There was a small gym for sale, on a main boulevard, with employees, and renters and members and clients… it had good signage, lots of windows, a bunch of serviceable gym equipment, two-and-a-half treatment rooms and was operating at almost breakeven… Perfect; an inexpensive foundation. If things got to a slow start, it wouldn’t lose money.

Daring Gray and The Change Foundry can help you set up a new Daring Gray Movement Center or revitalize and rebrand an existing business near you that is for sale.