Customer Profile: Liberty Barbell Gym, Dallastown, Pa.
Ned Duke Jr. moved to Pennsylvania for the opportunity to grow his personal training business without the street-level competition existing in his home state of New Jersey.
There, his brother reminded him, gyms were on every corner.
Today, the 47-year-old, ASFA-certified trainer owns Liberty Barbell Gym with locations in Dallastown and Red Lion, Pennsylvania. His companies also offer nutritional counseling through CS Health Systems.
How did Liberty Barbell Gym start?
Duke Jr. received a call from a former personal training client. She and her husband own DC’s Sports Complex LLC, a youth sports and entertainment facility. Their Red Lion location features 150,000 sq. ft. of space. To complement their baseball-focused training edge, Dave and Lindsey Carr wanted to offer an athletic training studio on the first floor.
At first, Duke hesitated. He’d just left a partnership where he’d owned a gym with two other people. In fact, he was interviewing for management positions with another gym, rather than start another venture.
“Do I really want to start over?” he thought. Then he realized, “I don’t want to work for anybody.”
The agreement with DC’s Sports would give him the opportunity to start a fitness center with immediate access to clients. It seemed the perfect marriage.
All he needed now was, well, everything.
What did it take to start Liberty Barbell Gym?
A bit of good luck coupled with a lot of preparation. After Duke Jr. shut down his previous gym, he was left without any training equipment. Luckily, he’d invested in relationships, as both a personal trainer and a business owner: “I’m a big believer in ‘if you put out good, you get good in.’”
This new gym would be different from his previous venture. It would reflect who he is. What he believes.
First, the name: “Liberty Barbell.” It originated from a promise made between him and his dad, Nate Duke Sr., a Guyanese native. His father rose to become a United States Army Master Sergeant after working as a police officer for most of his career. Tragically, Duke Sr. died from cancer while serving in the military. Just 59 when he passed, the father and son were unable to fulfill a lifelong dream to visit the Statue of Liberty.
“I’m doing this for someone who gave his life for this country. I believe you should leave your community in a better place than when you found it,” Duke Jr. explains.
Second, he soon found the spirit of faith and gratitude learned from his parents would pay dividends in this Hail Mary pass at starting a gym.
Early on, his quest found traction in the many people who met him through previous positions. One former employee fired up her design business and produced his signs, tee-shirts, and website. Another contact offered him used gym equipment – the retired Army Ranger had just undergone hip surgery and believed in Duke’s message of being a positive force through turbulent times.
The final bell rang from another business. The owner of Absolute Fitness, a reseller of refurbished gym equipment, found himself sitting on a stock of goods never picked up. To clear his space, the owner sold Duke a roomful of lockers, seven cardio pieces, two squat racks, an incline chest press, leg extension, abductor, lateral shoulder-raise machines, and smaller pieces such as plyo boxes for about $1,000.
By November 11, 2023, Liberty Barbell was in business.
How has Liberty Barbell changed since it opened?
Duke originally believed his member base would pay the bills. Instead, the gym evolved into a personal training and group fitness center. Only a small number of members exercise alone. With dueling Gold’s Gyms, Crunch Fitness, and Planet Fitness within miles of his business, he can’t afford to compete with the big guys. Instead, his clients seek the one-on-one, results-oriented personal training he’s built a reputation upon. These individuals arrive at every level of fitness, from struggling with chronic illnesses to training for marathons.
What advice would you give someone on going in on a gym partnership?
Make sure all agreements are written down and everyone involved understands their exact roles.
What advice would you give a new gym owner?
“I would say, to make that transition, be authentic, be real. Really listen to what that person is telling you,” says Duke Jr.
The hardest part for any new client, he explains, is to walk through that door. They are failing and that is a hard thing to admit. Second, understand your market. In Duke’s case, both locations benefit from their affiliation with DC’s Sports, because they are located inside the baseball center’s buildings. Yet, Red Lion’s proximity to schools, and heavy sports states, such as Maryland and New York, make it an ideal location for child sports development. Dallastown focuses more on adult group training and classes.
What is in the future for Liberty Barbell?
“I would love to open multiple locations. To have a location that houses everything. My vision is a gym that has a nutritionist, a supplement store, an area for working out, for functional training, classes, a one-stop shop, CrossFit, bodybuilding. That is my goal. The hardest part is finding people who align with my values. I want to find someone who thinks like me. That is an extension of me… making decisions on my behalf… They must care about your businesses,” he concludes.
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Above all, we believe in supporting our customers with excellent assistance. Our service never ends with the sale – just ask Duke Jr., who selected Gym Insight because our sales guy never speaks from a script. Honest, excellent, and the easiest-to-use gym software in the industry. Give us a call today at 855-367-4967 (855-FOR-GYMS) for a free demonstration. Ask for Anthony or Natalia. They will be happy to answer any questions you may have.