Over the last several decades, the fitness and exercise industries have exploded. From fitness equipment to home fitness videos, millions of consumers have put their money towards better physical health. It’s no surprise that since the global boom of smartphones, fitness apps have led the market as one of the most popular app categories. However, successful apps take funds to develop and launch. If you are going to attract investors to your exercise tech startup, you’ll need a strong fitness app business plan.

Writing a business plan for an app is much different than writing for other businesses, like a brick & mortar store or even a web startup. Furthermore, fitness apps are quite different from other types of apps and special considerations must be made when writing a fitness app startup plan.

The State of Fitness Apps & Software

Today, there are thousands of apps that fall into the exercise and fitness categories. With the introduction of smart hardware like the Apple Watch, FitBit, and even smart workout equipment, smart tech has taken the fitness industry to new heights that were never imagined before.

Some of the most popular categories of fitness apps include:

  • Workout/Exercise Apps: These include training apps that showcase different workouts, workout scheduling apps, weight tracking apps, and more.
  • Activity Tracking Apps: These are fitness apps that allow users to track their daily activity, such as the number of steps taken, number of laps swam, miles biked, and etc.
  • Nutrition Apps: These include apps such as meal planning apps, calorie-tracking apps, diet apps, and more.

Fitness App Business Plan Tips

A fitness app business plan shares many similarities with other app business plans, but there are a few special considerations that need to be made. Consider the following tips as you begin to develop your business plan.

Fitness Customers Behave Differently

When writing a fitness app business plan, it’s important to understand that customers in this industry behave much differently than in other industries.

Unfortunately, the majority of people who commit to a fitness regiment, fitness product, diet, or fitness app, only stay committed for a short amount of time. This means that your app metrics may be less attractive for fitness apps than for other apps.

For instance, retention will likely be lower than other types of apps on average since consumers may only stick to their objectives for a limited amount of time. Although a handful of consumers may remain loyal to your fitness app, many will go from one app to another – hoping to find a ‘magic pill’ for their fitness success.

As you are writing your exercise app business plan, be sure to research how fitness consumers behave. Use this research as you develop your marketing plan, operational strategy, and financial model.

Hardware Integrations & Partnerships Are Key

The fitness industry has transformed since the introduction of mobile apps. With so many hardware options, from the Fitbit (fitness tracking hardware) to Apple Health (integrated device software) – fitness app startups have the opportunity to integrate and partner with many third-party solutions to strengthen their offering.

Not every fitness app will need to integrate with other software or hardware apps. A diet app may not benefit at all from integrating with a Fitbit, for example. However, it may be able to integrate with a third-party nutritional value database to help consumers track their calories.

Detail the partnerships you’ve developed and the integrations that you’ve selected to make your app more effective for the user. These partnerships will help align your startup with well-known fitness brands, which will help propel your fitness app business plan forward.

You Can’t Compete Without An Advantage

There are thousands of fitness apps on the market today. However, only a handful are successful and growing.

Far too many fitness apps are simply clones and copies of other apps with no real unique selling proposition. Investors don’t want to see another MyFitnessPal or Strava. They want to invest in new ideas that carve new lanes and offer new abilities.

Ensure that your competitive advantage is substantial enough to make a difference. If your business plan can easily represent another app that’s already on the market, it will fail to impress investors.

Ready to Write Your Fitness App Business Plan?

If you’re ready to write a winning business plan for your fitness app startup, we’d love to help! At ThinkLions, we have written business plans for dozens of awesome fitness app startups – helping them raise millions of dollars in seed money. Contact us today and speak with one of our app startup experts!