How This Female Gym Owner Built a 16-Year Old Gym by Doing Less, Not More

What’s up, Gym World?

Most gyms don’t last 16 years. Fewer still are led by a female gym owner who bought her way in, not by starting from scratch, but by proving her value inside the business first.

Jen Cho co-owns Tidal CrossFit in Toronto. She joined as general manager, bought in as a minority shareholder, and eventually became a full co-owner when the original founder stepped away.

Along the way, she rebuilt the gym’s entire model, intentionally shrinking the membership base to make room for something better.

From General Manager to Female Gym Owner

Jen didn’t set out to own a gym. She came in on the management side, learning the finances, the flow, and where the real risk lived in the business.

That groundwork mattered. When the opportunity came to buy in as a minority shareholder, it wasn’t a huge leap, since she already understood the numbers.

Becoming a full 50% owner later was a bigger decision, and by then, she’d built a team strong enough that she wasn’t the one coaching every class or mopping the floors.

Rebuilding the Business Around Value, Not Volume

Before the pandemic, Tidal ran close to 300 members and 80 classes a week. It worked, but it exhausted everyone.

COVID forced a pause, and Jen used it to rethink the whole model. Instead of chasing the same member count back, she rebuilt around something more sustainable:

• Fewer total members

• More private training and small group offerings

• Specialty “focus programs” that let coaches earn extra income

The membership number went down, and the value per member went up. Most importantly, day-to-day management got a lot easier.

What a “Focus Program” Actually Is

One of the clearest examples of Tidal’s model is what Jen calls a focus program: a specialty offering layered on top of regular class membership.

Coaches run programs like:

• Get Jacked: functional bodybuilding, capped around 16 people

• Legends: a 55+ program that pulls in a completely different demographic

• Gymnastics and Olympic lifting: smaller, more specialized groups of 4-8

Pricing is simple math. Coaches take a percentage of what the program brings in, and Jen works backward from what makes it worth a coach’s time; usually a minimum of six people before it’s profitable for everyone involved.

Retention Built on Trust, Not Tricks

Tidal’s neighborhood plays a role in retention because members in this part of Toronto tend to put down roots, buy homes nearby, and stay for years.

But Jen credits most of her retention to something simpler: taking care of her coaches so they take care of members.

That approach shows up in her hiring too. Jen looks for two things in every coach:

1. Do people on the existing team genuinely like them?

2. Do they actually do CrossFit themselves?

New external hires get a free month of membership first, so the team can see how they show up as a person before they’re ever trusted to coach.

How the Buyout Actually Worked

If you're a gym owner thinking about buying into an existing business, Jen’s path is worth paying attention to.

She didn’t rush the ownership conversation. She spent time as GM first, understanding the financial risk before ever putting money in.

TL;DR

If you’re thinking about how to scale sustainably, or how to structure a buy-in as a future co-owner, here’s what stood out from Jen’s approach:

• Shrinking your membership base can grow your revenue if you raise the value per member

• Specialty programs work best when they’re coach-led, not owner-imposed

• Understand the full financial picture before buying into a business

• Build a team strong enough that you can step away for weeks at a time

• Retention starts with taking care of your staff first

Remember, there will always be trial and error in owning your gym business; however, Tidal CrossFit has been a staple in Toronto for 16 years, and they’re definitely onto something.

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cheers,

j