There was a thread about this a while back but I'm starting a new one!

It's been my long term goal for some years now to one day own & run my own gym, I was figuring on it happening 2-5 yrs down the line but some premises are up for grabs near me that would be ideal and its making me think about trying to put it together sooner.

To guys that own their own gym: I spoke to my financial advisor today and I'm gonna be meeting with him to get a business plan together and I want to go armed with as much knowledge as possible so please post up anything that you think might be helpful from the most basic to the more complicated aspects. Stuff like how memberships are controlled, i.e. can you get one piece of computer software that somehow liases between your bank account and your membership database so that if you let members pay on a month by month basis it would flag up who has not paid or do you have to manually check each month - could get impractical once you have a few members.
Also (more for the UK boys as laws probably differ) do I have to have a certified trainer on site at all times for insurance purposes or anything like that?
Would you recommend buying or leasing equipment?
+ any other info you think would be useful to me!

To anyone else that uses a commercial gym:What do you like / dislike about gyms you use now or have used in the past? i.e. what makes you choose one gym over another?

Thanks guys!