Archive for August, 2009

Over the past week illuminate gym has begun to accept calls from franchisees across the country and even abroad.  We have had interest pour in from countries like Asia and Switzerland and across the nation.  People are looking for a change of career and the good thing for those entrepreneurs is people are looking for a change in their fitness experience that illuminate gym can provide.  Over the past year franchises across the country have watched as business has declined but here at illuminate gym in Denver our business has considered to grow and we believe the change in the economy has opened up doors for the future of every industry including the franchise world.  Over the past year we have watched as many franchises in our market have faltered in the way they have run their business and in fact, within the last 6 months we’ve seen 2 prominent fitness franchises come and go right before our eyes because there is one common flaw.  The common flaw is the lack of heart and soul put into each of these franchises.  In fact, I met with one of the former owners of one of these mega franchises and we spoke about why his business had failed.  He told me that after buying into the franchise model he never spoke to anyone who had ever developed or even managed a business like his.  ‘They were just telemarketers with a script,’ he told me.  Prior to buying into the system and before he was trained on how to run  the business this gentleman spoke to some of the founders of the company but after his training he was never able to get a hold of them again. 

Many franchisees complain that after buying into a franchise unit they feel like they are left on an island to fend for themselves.  Unfortunately, for the gentleman I met with fitness franchises are no different.  His business was open for 8 months and he never spoke to an executive of the company until he was 6 weeks away from closing his doors.  He then found that some of his questions had been answered incorrectly by the fitness franchise’s ‘call center’.  Now this franchisee is not claiming that his franchise unit would have survived with the expert advice from a franchisor who had in fact run the fitness franchise he had paid to become a part of, but he would have liked to have every opportunity to make his fitness franchise a success… especially because he used all of his savings to try and create a successful business.  He finished up by asking me why I was so interested in his franchise experience and I told him  about our franchise opportunities here at illuminate gym.  At first he moved away from me as if I was another used care salesman with only lemons on the lot.  Then later that day he wrote me an email stating that he wished the franchise opportunities at illuminate gym were available and visible to him 3 years before when he started looking into owning a fitness franchise.  I  felt bad for that gentleman, but because of his story illuminate gym has learned where other fitness franchises have failed their franchisees.  We are committed to creating the best fitness franchise model in the world.  Evolution is here in the fitness industry and it’s called illuminate gym.