What Should You Look for in a Personal Training Franchise?

Would you rather run a funnel or help people lose fat?

Would you rather write web copy or celebrate a client’s weight loss progress?

I’m guessing you’d pick the second options. That makes sense, you’re a fitness professional first and foremost, right?

But when you go at it on your own, all of your marketing, website development, press releases, and more fall into your hands—or into the hands of someone on your team. Some people love taking on that responsibility, others hate it.

Here’s the bottom line: if you want your funnels, your website copy, your marketing, and more done for you, then a personal training franchise is the way to go. But how do you know if a franchise is the right fit for you?

Today I talk about the qualities you’ll find in any great personal training franchise.

 

They’re Picky When It Comes to Choosing Franchisees

A great personal training franchise will only select qualified people to become franchisees.

Some franchises would rather choose anyone to run their businesses so that they’re opening rate goes up. I don’t care about that. I care about how fast your franchises are closing.

And if a franchise picks their franchisees in a hurry, they’ll sign on unqualified people who will run their business into the ground.

So ask yourself that as you search for the right personal training franchise: do their businesses close often?

At Fit Body Boot Camp, the franchise I own, we put prospective owners through a rigorous process. They fill out an application online, but we only take them into serious consideration if they’re financially qualified.

Then they talk to one of our franchise business advisors. If they still make it through, then we have a discovery day, where they come to our headquarters and sit with me and our vice president of operations, seven people at a time. If the discovery day goes well, then they sign our franchise agreement.

That vetting process is why we boast one of the lowest closing rates in the entire industry.

 

They Serve a Niche Market

If a franchise caters to one specific target demographic, that’s a sign that they know what they’re doing.

Listen, I preach this to you all the time. You can’t be everything to everyone. It’s just not possible.

What you can offer is the solution to one specific audience’s problems.

So rather than join a fitness franchise that offers yoga, spin classes, boot camps, and CrossFit, look for one that specializes in one of those programs.

For example, at Fit Body Boot Camp, we don’t have juice bars, barbells, kids care, or showers. That’s why I have compliance officer to make sure our franchisees actually comply with business our model, because if they don’t they blame me.

Instead, we offer 30-minute HIIT sessions that cater to women ages 25-55. That’s it. 550+ locations later and we’re still going strong in the middle-aged woman fitness space.

 

They Educate and Support Their Franchisees

Join a personal training franchise that takes the time to teach you its ways AND give you anything you need to succeed.

The last thing anyone wants is to buy into a franchise, only to be left to figure everything out themselves.

A great franchise will set clear standards and expectations for their franchisees. They’ll give you the resources and knowledge to thrive as a fitness professional.

At Fit Body Boot Camp, one of the first things our franchisees do is come to a four-day university. That four-day university is our indoctrination process on how we do business, how we don’t do business, why we offer refunds, why we have a 12-month unconditional money-back guarantee, stuff like that.

But that’s not all. As I mentioned before, we offer them done-for-you Facebook marketing, professionally-made websites, and more. All they have to worry about is converting the leads we bring them into long-term paying clients.

That coaching doesn’t just end there either. We walk them through every step of the process. Once they open and start to hit success, we’re there helping them scale their businesses even further.

What’s my secret agenda? All I give my franchisees is what I wish I had when I started my five gyms back in the day, the things that would have saved me a ton of time, effort and money.

Any great personal training franchise will do the same for you.

 

Committed to your success,

Bedros