I don't want to steer you in the wrong direction by any means, but I am providing some food for thought.
As a preface, I live in a town with lots of very physically active individuals. It is often voted as a top city in the state (possibly country) for bike riders; the University in town has been ranked top 10 fittest campuses in the country; and the city has a very expansive outdoors community.
Now that that's said, there are lots of gyms around, and almost all of them are the same type of gym - 24 hour whatever gyms, a Gold's, a Crossfit gym, a couple of small group gyms that focus on pilates and cycling and other possibly dumb shít. There are also a few specialty gyms around - not many, but a few. I think there might be around 12+ gyms in my area. So basically, there is tons of competition out there for anyone trying to get into the gym business. Honestly, here, setting up a new gym would be a rather poor business venture.
However, as I alluded to earlier there are some specialty gyms around. There's a rock climbing gym that also has a barebones free weight area set up with barbells, racks, a couple benches, and some lighter dumbbells. It's small, but that gym does very well.
There's also a place called Total Performance. It competes with Golds. It is a 24 hour access, has tons of equipment, has chalk, bands, prowlers, GHR, battle ropes, boxes, rings, and caters not just to your average Joe but also to athletes. They also have an entire division of the gym devoted to training up-and-coming baseball players. This is their moneymaker. High schools use these guys to train their players, and so far there has been a lot of success as reported by local newspapers.
Finally, there's the gym I go to. With small exceptions, everyone there trains with the conjugate method, whether they're powerlifters, athletes, or mom. The gym is the size of a medium garage, but it has everything - racks, mono, reverse hyper, belt squat, GHR, cable machines, sleds, bench, DBs, adjustable DBs, EVERY barbell imaginable, bands, chains, etc. They do lack a seated military press bench and a dip stand, but that's it. What's really interesting about this place is how regular people train at this gym. The trainers have small group sessions, and they use the conjugate method even for their beginner clients no matter what walk of life they're from. This gym is doing fairly well, constantly buying new stuff and looking for a new home to expand to.
I think what I'm trying to get at in a long-winded way is that you should take stock of the population that's there, their interests, and the competition. I think you'll succeed by finding a niche for your gym that's relevant to your potential clientelle, and putting the word out there of what your gym is and why they should go there instead of any run-of-the-mill Snap Fitness or whatever.
