The “Not So Secret” Millionaires
Anytime Fitness facilities minimize the need for staff …
“WE MET SOME OUT-
STANDING VOLUNTEER ORGANIZATIONS AND COURAGEOUS PEOPLE WHO WERE GIVING THEIR TIME, ENERGY, AND
MONEY IN MEANINGFUL, ADMIRABLE WAYS.”
Prime time for Anytime
For starters, Runyon and Mortensen were ideal candidates, as the show features successful, self-made individuals. The Anytime Fitness story, notes Runyon, the company’s CEO, is about hard work, good timing, luck, and building a business from the ground up. The two met while attending college; both had experience with health clubs. They also met Jeff Klinger (another Anytime Fitness cofounder, who left in 2009) and the three formed a marketing company that helped club owners generate new memberships and provided sales training. They also saw a chance to purchase a distressed, 30,000-square-foot facility, where they increased the membership from 500 to 4,000, before, ultimately, selling the business.
After doing this several times successfully, they began to think about a new concept. “Our experience in big-box clubs was profitable,” says Runyon, “but payroll accounted for 45% of our revenues, and turn- over was a headache.”
By chance, Runyon discovered a tiny gym in Tennessee that was open day and night, a feat made pos- sible because the owners gave keys to their members, who would unlock the front door, work out, and lock up when they left. That example inspired and drove the model for the Anytime Fitness franchise, which they began marketing in 2002. “In our travels, we realized that 80% of club members use 20% of a club,” says Runyon. “So, the template we developed was a club with a small footprint, say 3,000–5,000 square feet, to accom- modate an average of 750 members. We identified what members really use—free weights and machines—and built these facilities in local strip malls, so they were convenient to reach. We utilized technology to minimize staff, cutting payroll from 45% to 10%.”
This year, after just a decade, Anytime Fitness expects to open the doors to its two-thousandth club. At that point, it will be serving a total of 1.5 million members in 12 countries around the world. As successful as Anytime Fitness is, Runyon and Mortensen, the company’s president, continue to add value to the franchise. In 2010, the pair launched Anytime Health, a health and wellness Website for members that’s dedicated to nutrition, fitness, and disease prevention and management. And, earlier this year, Runyon published Working Out Sucks!, a no-nonsense self-help manual, in collaboration with a sports dietitian and a psychologist.
Taking the “path to change”
Little did Runyon and Mortensen know that, eventually, Secret Millionaire would provide a path to change—for them. When the producer of the show first approached them about appearing on the show in late 2009, they declined. “It just didn’t feel right,” says Runyon. “We’re not flashy Gucci-type guys.” Still, the show’s premise was intriguing. They’d board a plane for an unknown destination to work as volunteers for not-for-profit organizations. “You show up, happy to help, like any other volunteer,”
40 Club Business Internat ional | APRIL 2012 |
ihrsa.org
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