January 2014 Archives

Nathan Owens, Chief Operating Officer for The Growth Coach Franchise System, has been promoted to the role of President. On both the domestic and international fronts, he will lead the business and oversee all facets of strategy, operations, brand development, franchise development, finances, and legal matters.

Since Owens started as COO, the franchise system has experienced significant growth, profitability and system improvements under his leadership. Also, under his direction and creativity, significant innovations have been developed which will be rolled out to the franchise community at their national conference in San Antonio in mid-February.

Prior to The Growth Coach, Owens had more than 15 years of executive franchise expertise, both domestically and internationally, for companies such as PepsiCo and RARE International among several other leading global brands known for producing industry-defining culture, products/solutions and results.

"Nathan has proven himself to be a visionary, results-oriented and high-energy leader and the best fit to take our business and sales coaching franchise system to new heights. Our entire franchise community and thousands of clients around the globe will benefit dramatically from his leadership, vision, passion, innovations, and deep commitment to our service mission," said Dan Murphy, CEO and Founder of The Growth Coach. Murphy, for the last year, also served as President while he led a national search for his successor.

"This strategic leadership role at The Growth Coach allows me to take my passion, energy and intense drive and channel them into something special that can make a real difference in the lives of business owners, managers, sales teams and leaders throughout the U.S. and abroad, including our franchise owners. Our proven business model and coaching and marketing systems absolutely and significantly help transform lives, businesses and communities around the world," Owens said.

"My vision is to have franchise owners thriving in 369 territories and in seven countries in the next four years. We continue to experience robust growth and success in North America and we now have Master Franchise Owners located in Quebec, Ecuador, India, and are in the final selection stages with Masters in Mexico and Turkey, to name a few," Owens stated.

For Owens, taking The Growth Coach to the next level is truly about his passion to help millions of people around the world find the all-important, but often elusive, balance between success in business and balance in life. Through his own pain, he had to find that balance for himself.

"In my previous executive position, I was traveling all the time - so much so that I barely saw my own wife and kids. When I met Dan Murphy I knew the coaching process would not only help me, which it has, but the rest of the world. Through The Growth Coach, my purpose, passion, and the right platform to make a significant difference in this world came together," he said.

The Growth Coach is the world's largest provider of group coaching, the #1 ranked Business Coaching Franchise in the United States for 2013, according to Entrepreneur Magazine, and the only coaching franchise dedicated to helping business leaders find both greater success at work and balance in life. Clients include small business owners and leaders, management professionals, sales teams, and self-employed professionals among others.

"I am thrilled for Nathan and our franchise community. I know the company is in great hands, both on a strategic and operational level. Nate respects our history and is excited to create an even better and brighter future for all our stakeholders...our clients, franchise owners, vendors, alliance partners, communities in which we operate, and shareholders. Last year we celebrated our 10-year anniversary as a successful franchise system and also recognized our broader legacy of serving clients for well over 20 years with our proven coaching systems. Now is the perfect time to bring in fresh leadership, blood, ideas, and energy to reinvigorate and reinvent our system for the next 10-20 years," Murphy said.

Murphy continued, "As the Founder, I knew it was time to hire a high-powered, high-energy, visionary leader to elevate the innovations, expansion, performance and impact of The Growth Coach. Nate is that dynamic leader, champion and change agent we needed. It was also time for me to step back and allow an outside, objective, proven and driven franchise leader with a fresh vision take our company, service mission, and franchise owners to greater heights."

While most of The Growth Coach's services are delivered through affordable group coaching workshops, coaches also provide one-to-one coaching, remote coaching delivered via phone and web, and coaching for special projects. New revenue streams in the areas of strategic retreats, business valuations, and emotional/social intelligence coaching are forthcoming in early 2014.

ABOUT THE GROWTH COACH
The Growth Coach Franchise was founded in Cincinnati in 2003 and is the only pure business and sales coaching franchise aimed at driving success while balancing the lives of business owners, managers, sales people, self-employed professionals and executives across a wide spectrum of businesses and industries.

The Growth Coach specializes in group workshops and individual coaching with the goal of helping clients gain greater focus and leverage in order to work less, earn more and enjoy more fulfilling lives.

The Growth Coach is active in more than 140 markets in North America and abroad and is always looking to expand domestically and internationally. For more information about the company or the process of opening an award-winning franchise, visit http://www.TheGrowthCoach.com.

Based in Newington, New Hampshire, fitness franchise Planet Fitness has gone from a small, local based chain to national leader in fitness franchises. With an astounding 4.5 million members across 47 states the popularity of Planet Fitness has grown tremendously.

And it doesn't look like this growth will be slowing any time soon; it is currently the fastest-growing full size health club franchise in the country.

In 2012 Planet Fitness became the national gym sponsor of the widely popular NBC program "The Biggest Loser" and the franchise celebrated the opening of their 700^th location in November of 2013 in Stockton, California.

So how did Planet Fitness get so big? Well, the story starts in 1992, when brothers Michael and Marc Grondahl took over a struggling Gold's gym franchise in Dover, NH. Unfortunately, due to poor location and lack of parking, they were eventually forced to close that original location. But that didn't stop Michael or Marc.

They went back to the drawing board and started again in 1993 with a new location named Coastal Fitness. To help with managing operations, they brought on a third partner, present CEO Chris Rondeau. They would eventually buy the name "Planet Fitness" from a Florida gym in 1994.

Given the highly competitive nature of the gym business, the partners made a bold move to target an entirely new demographic... people who wanted a place to casually exercise without all the serious body-building types and judgemental attitudes.

To accommodate this new audience, they streamlined operations and eliminated the serious weight equipment and focused more on cardio machines such as treadmills and stationary bikes. Over time, this hassle-free environment became known as the "Judgment Free Zone," designed to make those new to working-out totally comfortable.

After quite a bit of price experimentation from $99/year to $35/month, they ended up offering gym memberships at dramatically reduced prices of $10/month in order to compete against bigger, better-known brands. This low cost membership and unique environment proved to be a truly revolutionary business model in the fitness world.

In addition to the low-cost $10 per month membership, Planet Fitness offers a variety of other benefits including membership appreciation gestures such as free pizza on the first Monday of every month, and free bagels on the second Tuesday of every month, being open 24 hours, no contracts, no commitments, no salesmen, free training, 30-minute workout rooms.

After a decade of successful operations, the company then embarked on a national franchising plan in 2003. The fitness industry as a whole has seen rapid growth in the last ten years or so, with global gym membership reaching close to 50 million, and Planet Fitness is right on the cusp of that trend. Today, they are actively seeking new franchises throughout the United States and Canada, ranking in at #25 on the list of fastest growing franchises. If you are looking to invest in a fitness franchise Planet Fitness is one of the best options out there. The franchise fee is $10,000 with an ongoing royalty fee of 5% over the course of the ten-year franchise term, which is renewable.

All in all, it looks like Planet Fitness' success will only continue to grow. "As we celebrate our 10th year of franchising and the opening of our 700th club, we're excited to continue to open new locations and provide even more people with access to affordable, high-quality health clubs," Chris Rondeau, the franchise's chief executive officer, recently explained. "Our unique, non-intimidating environment truly creates an atmosphere where everyone can feel comfortable."

The Keys to Planet Fitness Success?

Specialized Knowledge/Proven System

For starters, the original Planet Fitness owners were operators themselves and operated several gyms first-hand. This personal experience provided Planet Fitness ownership and team members with the "specialized knowledge" to build-out a scalable, franchise-able system. Such operations experience provided Planet Fitness corporate members with the insights and experience to understand the dynamics of leases, construction, gym operations, staffing, member issues, memberships and product offerings, marketing and sales, legal and other business areas critical to franchise system success.

The Right Team

With a seasoned, experienced team Planet Fitness was able to crossover into franchising much easier than other franchises with less hands-on experience. As well, Planet Fitness really did have a "system" that could be rolled out successfully -- and they knew it because their team had already opened and operated multiple gyms previously for over 10 years.

Smart Marketing

A keen sense for marketing exposed a large, untapped market of casual fitness individuals that were often intimidated and therefore uninterested in gyms. By introducing a low-cost membership and the "Judgement Free Zone", Planet Fitness was able to directly target and attract a huge following of new, atypical gym members.

Planet Fitness fully committed to this "non-gym" audience and successfully launched national advertising campaigns that specifically scoffed at typical "gym rats." Such edgy campaigns were wildly successful and clearly touted that Planet Fitness was truly the home of "no judgement."

Combining these marketing efforts with the national recognition that came with Planet Fitness' involvement with "The Biggest Loser" created a recipe for franchise awareness and market success.

Business Model

By pricing recurring monthly memberships all under $20, Planet Fitness made their gyms accessible to most everyone. As well, most members don't work out frequently, but are willing to maintain their membership anyway because it's so affordable. Planet Fitness also went against the grain and focused only on the bare essentials clients wanted in equipment and services. This allowed for streamlined operations and equipment purchases.

National Trends

Of course, it always helps to have some national trends driving interest in a product or offering. And the trend of an aging population and increasing rates of obesity are now encouraging people to get fit far more than ever before.

Support

No franchise system will be successful without dedicated support. Planet Fitness offers a range of franchisee support such as:

• Training: Available at headquarters: 2 weeks. At franchisee's location: as needed.
• Ongoing Support: Newsletter, Meetings, Toll-free phone line, Grand opening, Internet, Security/safety procedures, Field operations/evaluations, Purchasing cooperatives, Lease Negotiation
• Marketing Support: Co-op advertising, Ad slicks, Regional advertising.

Commitment

Given the success of Planet Fitness, it's clear to see the brilliance of this unique business model after 20 years. But the truth is, it wasn't always so clear what the future of such a novel concept would be. It took tenacious confidence and commitment of the original ownership team to stick with this unique and unproven gym model. And in that commitment lies the real key to the success of Planet Fitness.

Marc Grondahl once said, "Just be true to yourself. If you have an idea, even if it is an unpopular idea, be tough and don't give up. Don't be afraid to do things differently."

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References:

http://www.planetfitness.com/health-club-franchise

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_Fitness

http://www.nhbr.com/June-3-2011/Q-A-with-Michael-Grondahl-Co-founder-of-Planet-Fitness/

https://www.openforum.com/articles/mark-grondahl-of-planet-fitness-how-a-lean-business-model-became-a-franchise-heavyweight/