Inside a Small Group Training Gym That Packed 200 Members Into 1,700 Sq Ft

What's up, Gym World?

Most gym owners running small group training gyms chase square footage. More space, more equipment, more room to grow, but Greg Morrone did the opposite.

His gym, The FIT Lab in Hoboken, NJ, sits on 2,300 square feet, and once you account for the weird, amoeba-shaped footprint, only about 1,600-1,700 of that is actually usable.

And yet, 13 years in, Greg is approaching 200 members.

Watch the full interview below, or keep reading for how he did it.

A hospitality guy in a gym owner's body

Before Fit Lab, Greg spent years in the nightlife industry. He also took a business course at the French Culinary Institute, taught by Cornell professors, back when he was flirting with culinary school.

It shaped how he thinks about the member experience.

His take: high-end hospitality is nearly impossible to fully replicate in a gym. Someone eats at a nice restaurant once a decade; however, they're in your gym two or three times a week. You'd love to roll out the red carpet every single time, but at scale, that becomes a logistics problem instead of a delight.

So instead of trying to manufacture magic moments at scale, Greg built something steadier: a model where every member gets seen, every time, by name.

The small group training model behind The FIT Lab's success

Fit Lab runs on what Greg calls a PT-first approach, and he's upfront that most fitness consultants would tell you not to do it.

Here's how it works:

New members complete six one-on-one sessions before ever stepping into a small-group class. It's priced at $400, deliberately matched dollar-for-dollar to what eight small group sessions would cost.

That six-session runway gives coaches:

• Time to build a real rapport with a new member

• A chance to build detailed notes on movement, goals, and limitations

• A running start once that person joins a small group, so nobody feels lost on day one

Pricing PT and small group at the same rate removes the price jump that normally creates friction between an intro offer and the real membership. If someone can't afford the $400 onboarding, Greg already knows they're not a long-term fit.

It's a small mechanical fix, but it's part of why Fit Lab can run at its current membership level. Every member who joins a small group already knows the coaches, the format, and what's expected of them. Nothing about the small-group experience has to be "figured out" in real time, which is what lets Greg keep classes tight and personal rather than loose and chaotic.

Small group training coaches who stick around for a decade

A gym is only as successful as its coaches, and Fit Lab's coaching staff has been remarkably stable.

Greg's explanation is simple: he pays for it. Fit Lab runs on a 6% rent factor, well below what he says other scaling New Jersey gym owners are willing to pay (some as high as 20%). Where Greg is stingy on real estate, he's generous on payroll.

Coaches are paid hourly and per head for small groups, not the flat rate you'll see at many gyms. It's a structure that rewards experienced coaches for filling rooms, not just showing up.

That trade-off is exactly why Greg is cautious about opening a second location.

More space means more rent, more debt service, and a payroll structure he'd have to fight harder to protect. For now, he's choosing to stay dense rather than dilute what's working.

How The FIT Lab built a gym community with small group training

Ask Greg what he's most proud of, and he doesn't lead with revenue or member count.

He points to Fit Lab's 13th-anniversary party and admits it gets him a little choked up.

Nobody searches "gym with nice members."

People search for weight-loss, strength-training, and gyms near them.

Community doesn't show up in the SEO.

But Greg thinks the pendulum is swinging back toward in-person connection anyway.

Run clubs are booming. Hyrox is filling gyms with people who show up in pairs, not because the workout is unique, but because it's something to do together.

Letting the members do the marketing

Fit Lab still runs paid Meta ads, though Greg admits they don't always justify the cost on their own. What's actually driving growth is closer to word of mouth: people searching Google while already motivated to work out, and finding roughly 250 testimonials across platforms (185-190 of them on Google Business alone).

TL;DR

The FIT Lab isn't growing by adding square footage. It's growing by:

• Running a PT-first onboarding model that gets members results-ready before they hit a small group

• Paying coaches enough to keep them for a decade or more, even at the cost of a leaner real estate footprint

• Treating gym community as something to protect, not something to advertise

• Letting nearly 200 members' worth of testimonials do the marketing his ads can't

Opening a gym is an amazing accomplishment, but creating a strong community that continues to grow your business is no small feat.

Don't hesitate to invest in your coaches and members because there's a big payoff in the long run.

cheers,

j