There’s a temptation to cut corners when running a Texas gym to save money. And, when you own multiple locations, there’s an incentive to avoid duplication of effort and expenses.
Yet you’re creating legal dangers if you try to treat all your locations as one under the Texas Health Spa Act. Because the law requires separate registrations (and compliance) for each location. In fact, the government will issue separate registration numbers for each gym.
For some things, this may make sense. For example, using the same employee policy for all gyms you own (but be careful not to misclassify employees as independent contractors).
You may also be tempted to have members at all locations sign the exact same membership agreement. However, there are changes that must be made based upon each location.
For example, each gym membership contract will have the unique Health Spa Act registration number for the location where the new member joins. Also, addresses will change based on location.
And, the content of the membership agreement can vary based on the operational stage each location is at. For instance, the Health Spa Act requires specific legal language for some membership contracts being signed pre-opening that is never included in an agreement for a location that has been open for a while.
Of course, there are other legal dangers with consolidating to save time or money. For example, combining your media releases and liability waivers into the membership agreement will likely invalidate the releases and waivers so they’re useless instead of protecting your gyms. Similarly, you’ll probably want two types of liability waivers — one for members and one for guests.
Now if you own one or more Texas gyms, pickleball courts, or martial arts studios, you probably will need professional legal help to comply with federal and state laws that govern your business. Set up a phone consultation with Texas Business Lawyer Mike Young.
