Buying your own fitness franchise can offer you freedom and money if you choose the right one. At Review Rumble, we recently took a look into who has the hottest fitness franchises in America. We reviewed the current hottest fitness franchises on the market and analyzed each using the following factors;
We reviewed over 10 franchise opportunities including F45, UFC Gym, OrangeTheory Fitness, Crossfit, 9Round, Anytime Fitness, Crunch, Workout Anytime, Planet Fitness, Gold’s Gym and PMyGym, UFC Gym and Pure Barre. We reviewed each franchise considering their brand image, set-up costs, equipment costs, training, profit/growth opportunity, break-even level, as well as royalty, marketing and operational costs.
After careful consideration of all the factors we felt F45 was the Top Choice. With over 1750 studios in 44 countries (800 in U.S. alone), F45 offered the best opportunity having the strongest growth & member renewal rates while being low cost to set up & operate. If we were looking to kick “working for the man”, F45 would be our pick!
F45 Stands Out As a Franchise
At first glance, the F45 looks rather sparse. There are no treadmills, boxing bags, or bulky equipment. Instead, the open-floor layout features a medley of free weights, dangling TRX straps, a few exercise balls—resembling a cross between a gymnastics gym and a children’s playroom. Every piece of equipment gets rearranged each day.
This combination of interval, cardiovascular and strength training has been proven to be the most effective workout technique for burning fat and growing lean muscle. They try to make every session surprisingly exciting so that no workout is ever repeated.
- Large and Growing Industry: UFC GYM is a part of the rapidly expanding health and fitness sector, where growth potential is massive due to persistent positive industry trends.
- UFC Sport Growth: UFC one of the fastest growing sport in the world, reaching over one billion households across 152 countries
- Their Advantage: We bring the fitness undercurrent from UFC to life. UFC is based on physical activity, discipline and dedication.
- UFC GYM is for EVERYONE: More than just the Octagon™—it’s an environment where everyone, that said, it was more male skewed in its appeal.
Orangetheory franchise is an international fitness chain which started in the USA and expanded to 21 countries. It specializes in group and personal training workouts. The equipment is awesome!
Owning an Orangetheory fitness franchise means seizing a vast range of Orangetheory fitness franchise opportunities. Such as many years of experience in the industry, a set of trainings for a franchisee, a reasonable cost and profit ratio. They are more expensive than other franchises, with $488k – $994k in start up costs and 8% of revenue & 2% Ad royalty fee.
Anytime Fitness offers convenience and flexibility to its clients by being open 24 hours a day, every day of the year. They have a unique security system that allows the members of the club to access the gym even during unstaffed hours. This lets you run a 24-hour operation without the need for additional staff. Their services include fitness consultation, group training, and personal training.
Anytime Fitness was founded in 2001 and started franchising in 2002. They currently have more than 2,300 existing franchise locations nationwide, and more than 1,500 existing franchise units outside the United States. You need an initial investment between $107,524 to $722,796 if you want to start an Anytime Fitness franchise. The ongoing fees include a royalty fee of $549 monthly and an ad fee of $300 monthly. The initial agreement length is six years.
CrossFit gyms are affiliates, not franchises. The corporate office charges $3,000 per year to own a gym bearing the CrossFit name and logo, but there is no revenue share. However, gym owners receive no territorial rights and very little in the way of marketing support from corporate. A competitor is free to open a CrossFit gym a block away, as long as he pays the $3,000.
Planet Fitness is a workout gym that aims to provide a judgement-free experience so everyone will feel comfortable. They are open 24/7 and pride themselves for having clean and spacious facilities. Their service includes free fitness training where certified trainers are available to provide a customized workout plan for their clients and/or help them with the equipment.
Franchise Description: Gold’s have approximately 705 franchises. Gold’s Gym facilities will offer a full array of amenities, products and services to members. Currently, all new Gold’s Gym facilities must offer cardio training equipment, resistance training equipment, group fitness, personal training and locker room services, a kids’ club, and must have a “pro shop” including sales of clothing, accessories, drinks, bars, supplements, nutritional products and other items. (However, the franchisor may elect to waive some of these requirements if the Gold Gym facility is to be located in certain large, urban locations, such as Manhattan, New York.) New Gold’s Gym facilities also may offer other optional amenities, products and services that the franchisor currently authorizes, like cardio cinema, basketball, racquet and other courts, smoothie bars and juice bars. In addition, although not required, the franchisor recommends that new Gold’s Gym facilities install a pool. The franchisor does not offer direct or indirect financing. The franchisor does not guarantee a franchisee’s note, lease, or other obligation.
The F45 Point-of-Difference
F45 is the leanest, most cost-effective fitness franchise we evaluated. With a breakeven of circa 60 members and aiming to get to 175 per gym to make serious profit. F45 studios have proven to meet breakeven within 2 months and have a payback of less than 9 months.
The magic combination of high volume, high margins with minimal overheads ensures that F45 franchisees enjoy significant returns on their modest capital outlay. You could invest $150,000 to make $600,000 per year. I’m not a finance major, but even we like the sound of that kind of return!
Welcome to the future in training technology. With millions of dollars spent in tech projects within the business, franchisees can benefit from a suite of solutions and apps for their business and F45 was at the cutting edge of fitness tech.
An internal intranet, custom built radio channel, systematized training systems and exercise dongles, online nutrition portal, training and judging apps, fitness tests, client CRM, all power your business with the best of breed across the board in all aspects. This turn-key solution ensures franchisees with no business acumen can run a successful operation by simply following the F45 system.
What we liked about F45 is that it was community based, sure, alot of gyms claim that but F45’s functional training system prides itself on innovation, motivation and results. Why is that important? Because, that means you F45 is attractive to a wide range of fitness customers, and, those members renew at higher rates than any other franchise. That mean’s you hit profit earlier! The methodology is built on 26 different training systems, of which the same workout is NEVER repeated. The key facets of F45 from a training perspective include:
- Suitable for all ages and fitness levels
- No power lifting or heavy weight lifting
- Time based not rep based
- Aesthetic simplicity – The apple store of health and fitness
- 65% female and 35% male
- Live DJ’s
Amazing Gym Operator Reviews
The greater of 7% of Gross Sales or $2,500 per month.
Up to 2% of Gross Sales, or $200 per month, whichever is higher.
$2,500 per month
$60 per month
$25 per month
$105 per month
Currently $150 per month for LionHeart software; reasonable amount for additional software programs based upon cost to provide the software and related services or as charged by third-party providers.
$1,000 for attendance at the orientation seminar (for a maximum of two attendees).
The franchisor’s cost; currently, not less than $1,500 every three months (does not including shipping, taxes, and duties (if any), which franchisees must pay).
The franchisor’s cost, which is currently $25 to $35 per monitor, plus shipping and handling charges.
Market rate; currently, $45 to $60 per scanning session.
If applicable, 18% per year or the maximum lawful rate. |
A reasonable fee based on the franchisor’s costs of providing the training; currently, $250 per day per person trained.
The then-current per diem fee for remedial training, plus costs; current per diem rate is $250.
Currently, $160 per on-site evaluation if the franchisor determines that the Studio is not in compliance with the terms of the Franchise Agreement.
25% of the then-current initial franchise fee, plus the franchisor’s reasonable costs and expenses associated with the transfer, including training costs and legal and accounting fees.
50% of the then-current initial franchise fee.
$600 per ticket; a minimum of two tickets must be purchased unless the franchisor otherwise approves in writing.
Actual cost of the DJ; currently, $25-$50 per session if the franchisor supplies franchisees with a DJ to play at their Studio on a Saturday.
Varies depending on cost of services required. e.g. indemnification depends on loss, insurance based on franchises expenses.
Our Conclusion
Investing your money in a gym is serious business. This isnt a lifestyle, its your life. You have to be confident in your return, that’s why we pick F45, it showed the strongest path to profit with lowest investment. Here are reasons we liked F45 over the other fitness franchises out there;
- Fast Growth is reassuring: Last month, F45 broke its own franchise sales record with 84 studios signed in just one month.
- Expansion: The fitness brand now counts 44 countries with plans to further expand in Europe and South America. As for the States, Deutsch harbors an ambitious goal of growing to 5,000-7,0000 studios. Fitness is a fashion business too, move with the trends.
- Wide appeal: F45 is playing with new formats and programs, including a workout program for adolescents that focuses on self-confidence. We haven’t seen this before and would increase your customer base
- Low Investment: less equipment, lower setup, operational and marketing costs mean you can buy and F45 gym easier.
- Training: Never run a business? They spend 5 days in California and have online training sessions.
- Initial Investment: Total required capital is $95k, and you’ll need between $227-312k, that included training, equipment, furniture, legal & licenses fees.
- Ongoing Fees – reasonably low revenue share and marketing fees mean you continue to grow while not losing ridiculous amounts of margin. Their rev share is lower than almost all other options. And the marketing fee is actually a positive, not a negative. You get to leverage their brand and continue to build members.
Fernando Camacho
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