Posts Tagged ‘fitness facility’
Friday, August 20th, 2010
I was 22 years old and I had worked extremely hard to become a successful personal trainer, but I wanted more. I arrived at work every single day at 4:30 AM (to prepare for my 5 AM session) and I wasn’t out of the gym until 8 PM, and though I loved my job I came to important realization as a personal trainer that changed my career course forever. The realization because I wanted to earn more money, but there was only one of me and so many hours in the day. I also started to understand that though I loved personal training I couldn’t keep working 15 hour days 6 days a week forever. I started to wonder, had I already reached my full earning potential in the personal training profession? Had my career reached the pinnacle of the fitness industry at 22? ‘Maybe it’s time to find a new profession,’ I thought to myself, but every time I looked into a new career I just couldn’t imagine leaving the fitness industry.
Then one day I voiced my concerns to one of my long time clients as we measured her body fat. She then looked at me and said, ‘David why don’t you open your own gym? I mean I don’t even like this gym. I just come here because I like you and my personal training with you is getting me results.’ That’s exactly when I started thinking about opening my own fitness facility which would cater to individuals interested in working with personal trainers just like me. That’s the day that Illuminate Gym became a reality for me. I knew that many other personal trainers had tried to open personal training gyms in the past and failed, but what I have learned is being a great personal trainer is not enough for a personal training gym to succeed. It took me a long time to perfect my model, but something I found out about myself is I’m actually a business man first and a personal trainer second. It’s the combination of business sense and fitness passion that makes for a successful entrepreneur in the fitness industry and if you are missing one these two attributes then I’m not sure opening your own fitness facility is really the answer for you. However, if you do have these two important attributes then maybe it’s time you put your leadership skills to the test and open your own fitness facility!
If you are considering your own fitness facility the one piece of advice I would give you is the make or break for an entrepreneur starts with all the pieces of owning a business you haven’t considered such as, the lease you are going to sign, the insurance you are going to carry, your marketing efforts to get people into the gym, development of your brand, and how to support and develop the people that work for you. As I said before being a great personal trainer isn’t enough to be a good fitness entrepreneur. In fact, it’s just a small piece of the journey to success. It’s important that you understand the early development of your personal training gym or fitness facility is the most important and fragile part of your business development. In other words, the worst thing you can possibly do is to rush to get your doors open as quickly as possible. I have watched personal trainers rush into opening their own personal training studios multiple times and most of them end up out of business very quickly. I had a personal trainer who once worked with me who had all the potential in the world and one day he came to me to let me know he wanted to open his own fitness facility.
‘Great, let’s put it together and build a business,’ I said because he knew I had just started offering franchise opportunities for Illuminate Gym. His eyes dropped and I could tell he had other plans.
‘I think I want to do this on my own David,’ he said.
‘That’s fine. Get yourself an attorney to take a look at your lease and make sure you have enough money behind you to market and to support your business while you get back on your feet,’ I told him.
‘I think I’ll be fine I already met the landlord and I think I have some good ideas to get some new clients,’ he explained.
That day he walked out of my office and within weeks he had opened his small facility in a small office building with no exposure and of course without proper legal representation the landlord had taken advantage of the young personal trainer. Within a year both he and his business was gone even though he was a great personal trainer. The point is if you’re a personal trainer looking to start your own business regardless if it’s a ‘one-man-shop’ or a full scale gym you need to educate yourself and take your time. I personally would recommend looking into a fitness franchise or aligning yourself with someone who understands retail business. Either way personal trainers need to make sure they do their due diligence before opening up to the public to ensure they give themselves their best opportunity for success. Business can sometimes cloud our view of the fitness industry and I think you should always remember that personal trainers do what they do because we want to change people’s lives for the better and because of this the fitness industry can be the most rewarding industry in the world.
Tags: business, business model, clients, entrepreneurs, fitness business, fitness facility, fitness franchise, fitness industry, franchise, franchise advice, franchises, gym, illuminate gym, lease landlord, personal trainer, personal trainers, personal training
Posted in illuminate gym the franchise, personal training | 13 Comments »
Monday, June 21st, 2010
So why is obesity on the rise in America with all of these fitness options or gyms out there? Well there really isn’t a simple answer to this question, but I’ll try my best to answer it with my personal opinion. First and foremost, as technology has begun to advance itself we are seeing a change in our the newer generations activity level. Today with computers and video game consoles there is no reason to go out and play because you can do everything in a cyber world. You don’t even need to learn to play an instrument with games like ‘Rock Band’ out there. Then those same kids grow up to work behind a desk and a computer screen. In other words, as a society of people we are not getting enough activity in our day-to-day lives and it’s now starting at childhood. Also our nutrition habits in the United States are starting to slip even further into cheap foods packed with saturated fats, sugars and preservatives. So now we are looking at a society that doesn’t have enough activity and we’re eating poorly and in most instances too much! With this combination you see a society that is 36% obese and 61% over weight. The question is how are all these gyms and fitness options helping with the obesity epidemic in America?? The simple answer is they’re not. Most fitness facilities are selling the dream of a healthier and fit life. However, as soon as you drop that credit card on the table you are let loose into a jungle of fitness equipment which very few no how to use. In other words, most people going to the gym are unclear about how to pursue their fitness goals. So they either waste their time in the gym or they merely stop going. However, they usually always continue to pay for the gym because as I said before fitness facilities are selling the dream of a healthier and fit lifestyle. So now we have people who aren’t active enough, eating horrible and they are members to a gym they don’t know how to properly use.
At Illuminate Gym our philosophy is your health is worth a trained professional. If you didn’t know to build a house would you trust yourself to build your dream home? I didn’t think so, and your body should be no different. At Illuminate Gym we offer the opportunity to have a fitness professional take an active role in your personal fitness journey at an affordable price. We also offer nutritional counseling at no extra cost. We are committed to helping our clients become as fit as they can. Thanks so much for reading the blog here at www.illuminategym.com. Have a healthy day!
Tags: fit, Fitness, fitness facility, fitness franchise, franchise, gym, gyms, illuminate gym, personal trainer, www.illuminategym.com
Posted in Fitness, Nutrition | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
What started as a vision and grew out of a garage and into a space on Colorado Boulevard is changing directions drastically. We started as a gym called Sunshine with a core group of personal trainers and a following of a group of individuals that always be dear to me. Over the past few months business has changed drastically for myself as my responsibilities begin to be spread beyond the clients in our small boutique gym on Colorado and 7th Avenue. Today the build-out began on a new space that will carry the illuminate gym name in Greenwood Village, Colorado. It is my responsibility to make sure I give this new entrepreneur the best opportunity I can to succeed as I have in owning their own fitness facility.
With this change I look out over an illuminate gym with new faces, new personal trainers, and a new direction. I’m proud of the group of people who continue to help our small little gym grow into more as we continue to speak with perspective franchisees across the country and even beyond. There is no telling what the future holds for any of us but I am proud of all the hard work and dedication that continues to poor into illuminate gym. And though we’ve changed names, and seen personal trainers come and go our simple mission has always stayed true. We provide a service at the best value anywhere and unlike many other fitness facilities in these tough economic times we are here to stay.
As for our next franchisee he has been by my side for years and it will be tough to watch Taj go, but I know it’s also his time to grow as well. Growing and changing, even for the better, is always a hard thing to handle, but in my mind the vision I had years ago is starting to take shape and I’m excitied to see where we go from here. Thanks for reading about illuminate gym and have a healthy day!
Tags: Colorado, Denver, fitness facility, fitness franchise, franchise, franchises, illuminate gym, personal trainer, personal training
Posted in illuminate gym the franchise | No Comments »
Thursday, January 21st, 2010
Banks are overloaded with defaulted loans and repossess property from small businesses and homeowners. The issue right now individuals are not able to get financing even on proven business models because banks are so concerned that individuals will default on loans and they will be stuck with exercise equipment. Now this issue with financing is not just impacting fitness franchises because other food and service franchises are also being impacted by the banks lack of financing. I know at illuminate gym we have problems getting financing done for individuals who have stellar credit on loan amounts that are less than $40,000 which in the world of business financing is nothing. However, because of the nature of the business loan people are having trouble getting their business doors open…Or so the banks say. I believe at the end of the day banks are still in gridlock over the crash of the market in 2008. Our nation’s government made the decision to bail all of these banks out of their immanent financial collapses in order to free up the credit markets. However, our nation’s politicians made some calculated errors in letting the banks borrow our tax dollars. When you go into a bank to get a loan for an illuminate gym franchise (as an example) the bank is going to want to know exactly where every single cent is going to go in order to determine if the investment is good for the bank or not. It’s called good business however, our government made the decision to sign over billions and billions of dollars to save banks and re-open credit markets only to find that the banks re-invested the money in China and are still not offering credit to worthy entrepreneurs. This unhealthy chain of events could cause more problems for Americans as entrepreneurs are no longer able to grow their businesses, provide jobs, and essentially produce revenue.
These new issues with banks can be a very tricky hurdle for franchisors. However, at illuminate gym our fitness franchise team are making adjustments to how we set up franchisees’ fitness facilities. In the future we are hoping that our franchisees never have to go to banks for financing on equipment as we will take on the bulk of the risk in regards to equipment because we believe in our franchise model that much. If you’re interested in hearing more about the franchise opportunities at illuminate gym and how our business model is changing due to the change in banks then please check us out at www.illuminategym.com/franchises.php. Thanks again for reading and have a healthy day!
Tags: Add new tag, bailout, bank loans, banks, business loans, fitness facility, fitness franchise, fitness franchises, government, gym franchise, illuminate gym, risk
Posted in Fitness | No Comments »
Thursday, January 14th, 2010
If you’re a perspective franchisee looking into opening a franchise unit there are many things to consider such as, overall cost, your passion for the business and what their existing franchisees are saying about the business model. At illuminate gym our franchise model is one that is new to the franchise world which means there are definite pros and cons to examining a newer franchise opportunity. Some of the pros are usually when dealing with a newer franchise model you find that you are dealing with the people who founded the original concept meaning their closer to being on the floor of your business then a staff of people who have been hired by a larger franchise to sell the model. Many times when you speak to people at a larger franchise you will find they themselves have never owned the business you’re looking to get into. The other pro of getting into a younger franchise is ‘USUALLY’ newer franchises are the innovators of our industry and they are the future brands of America. Sure there are franchise brands like MacDonald’s that are going to stand the test of time however, new concepts can pave the way for a successful future for franchisees as they carry the brand into new regions. That being said a major con of getting into a smaller less known franchise is that the brand is not developed in most regions. If the brand is not as developed you as a franchisee have to make sure the franchisor has a plan to ensure the brand is pushed in the community you are looking to open in. At illuminate gym we’re well aware that a lot of markets in the United States are not familiar with our brand and that’s why we take our marketing so seriously.
That all being said it’s hard for a franchisee to look at a model he or she is not familiar with and determine if it’s a solid business model or not. At illuminate gym we think we have an answer for you as a perspective franchisee looking in the fitness world. Conversions…. What is a conversion franchisee you ask…. A conversion franchisee is an existing similar independent business that makes the decision to re-brand itself as a franchise unit. Today in Denver, Colorado illuminate gym is negotiating with one of our fiercest competitors to convert them to an illuminate gym. This should show franchisees that a franchise model is in fact a good business model. If competitors in a region are looking to re-brand themselves to become a part of the franchise model as a whole then you know that business model is on to something. At illuminate gym we definitely feel like our business model has some superior aspects over most of our competitors.
Thanks for reading and we hope you have a healthy day! If you are interested in hearing more about illuminate gym please check out our website at www.illuminategym.com/franchises.php.
Thal
Tags: business, business model, conversion franchise, conversion franchisee, fitness facility, fitness franchise, franchise, franchise opportunity, franchises, illuminate gym, marketing
Posted in illuminate gym the franchise | No Comments »
Saturday, January 2nd, 2010
Over the past week we have three inquiries about changing a current facility into an illuminate gym. Many people wonder what is the reasoning behind converting an existing facility into an illuminate gym. After all, all these facilities have a current leases and equipment in place. The answer is simple for us. First of all bringing an illuminate gym to a current facility will change the branding of the gym and its personal training. Also illuminate brings the highest standard to the fitness industry which ensures that the fitness experience that each and every client has at an illuminate gym is up to our standard. Also illuminate gym also brings proven marketing tactics to ensure that illuminate gym gets in front of as many perspective clients as possible.
You see the problem in the fitness industry is many personal trainers and other fitness professionals get into owning their own fitness facility without any business sense. We see it all the time at illuminate gym and we find many people who are very capable inside of the facility but they lack the business savvy to get people in their doors. You have to remember that a fitness facility can be a very intimidating place when someone is in need of a personal trainer or a fitness professional. At illuminate gym we attempt to break down these walls of insecurities making our facilities inviting and accepting to everyone.
Also our brand of personal training (High Oxygen Training) makes our job much easier to not only market our personal training but also to get serious results for our clientele.
Converting a current facility into an illuminate gym can prove to be a profitable move for a gym owner as we can use our business experience and savvy to help them create a more successful business for themselves. At illuminate gym we like to tweak current facilities with a little design work and marketing and then we let our ‘High Oxygen Training’ do the talking. We also connect franchisees with our preferred vendors which will undoubtedly save our franchisees lots of money in the future.
Thanks so much for reading about illuminate gym as a viable fitness franchise. If you want to see more about our exciting fitness franchise please contact us at www.illuminategym.com/franchises.php where you can fill out a franchisee application or contact us. Thanks again.
Tags: business, business savvy, conversion franchise, conversion franchisee, fitness facility, fitness franchise, fitness standards, franchise, franchisee, gym, gym franchise, illuminate gym, personal trainer, personal training
Posted in Franchise updates | No Comments »
Monday, December 28th, 2009
In my family we celebrate Christmas and though it’s always a fun holiday I find myself looking more toward the first of January. This is a time for us all to reflect on the year before and look forward to the year ahead of us. I know years ago I was on my way to opening the first illuminate gym and I made the New Year’s resolution to become a successful entrepreneur. By April I had made my goal a reality. At illuminate gym we know there a lot of people out there with the same goal coming into the new year and we’re here to help people open there own successful fitness facilities. If you are a person looking to open your own business there has never been a better time and if you are interested in getting into the fitness industry there has never been a better time to get involved with illuminate gym. Our franchise fees have never been better and our negotiation power has never been greater. If you are interested in hearing about our exciting franchise opportunities at illuminate gym please check us out at www.illuminategym.com/franchises.php or you can also give us a call at 1-877-427-2615. Thanks so much for reading and have a healthy day.
Tags: fitness facilities, fitness facility, fitness franchise, fitness franchises, franchise, franchises, goals, gym franchise, gym franchises, January 1, New Years
Posted in Fitness | No Comments »
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
At illuminate gym we are very aware of the current state of our credit markets and the way the last year has affected the franchise community. Because of this we have made the decision to offer some incredible savings to our future franchisees because we believe now is the best time we have seen in the last decade to start a business. Franchisees looking into franchises over the next few months should definitely take a look at the illuminate gym franchise model because you won’t find a better offer from any other franchise in the country guaranteed. Owning a fitness facility like illuminate gym isn’t for everyone however, if you’ve ever though about becoming an entrepreneur in the franchise world there is no excuse not to check out the franchise opportunities here at illuminate gym. For those of you reading our blogs in hopes that I will reveal our franchise specials you’re just going to have fill out a franchise application on this site or give us a call at 1-877-427-2615. As I said before our franchise specials are better than any other franchise unit in the country and we are so sure of this claim that if you can find a better deal from another fitness franchise we will match it. We are so confident in our business model that we are merely looking for qualified franchisees to build their own businesses in new territories.
If you are interested in hearing more about illuminate gym, High Oxygen Training, or our franchise opportunities then please give us a call or check us out at www.illuminategym.com/franchises.php. Have a healthy day!
Tags: business model, fitness facility, fitness franchise, franchise, franchise fee, franchise royalties, franchise specials, franchisee, franchisees, franchises, gym, illuminate gym
Posted in Franchise updates | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
The future of the fitness business will depend on the back end of a business or franchise. It’s not enough to have great fitness professionals or great methods to getting people more fit. At illuminate gym I have a great deal of respect for all of our personal trainers on staff but we have to find ways to get people excited about making their way into a gym or fitness facility because it can be a very nerve racking experience. People are scared to show their vulnerability and flaws when they walk into a gym or to meet a personal trainer. It’s so much more easy for a person to grab burger and fries and assimilate to the other 60% of Americans who are obese. At illuminate gym we are committed to getting personal trainers in front of clients because we know once they open the door to illuminate gym we have them and their focus on becoming more fit. The challenge on the back end of any fitness business is getting people to feel comfortable before they take the step to open that front door.
It’s easier at bigger gyms like 24 Hour Fitness because they can live off of everyone knowing about them and also there is no accountability. You can just put your headphones on and ignore everyone, including yourself, in the building or you don’t have to show up at all. However, at illuminate gym the fitness experience we provide is focused on the client and their needs. Though it seems like a great idea it can be a nerve racking experience for many people to have the spot light on them. At illuminate gym when our clients begin to see the results of ‘High Oxygen Training’ they understand the importance of being the center of attention. Fitness needs to be tailor made for every single person. That’s why at illuminate gym we run a boot camp but we don’t believe it is the best way for a person to obtain their goals. Thanks for reading and have a healthy day…
Tags: 24 hour fitness, boot camp, clients, fit, Fitness, fitness facility, fitness franchise, gym, healthy, illuminate gym, personal trainers, personal training, workout
Posted in Fitness | No Comments »