One year on... A healthy start
Gurpreet Sandhu runs the Bexleyheath branch of Anytime Fitness. Here he discusses the last 12 months as a franchisee
How have you found running your own business?
The exhilaration and freedom of running your own business is certainly one of the factors that attracted me away from my life working as a consultant. My business partners also felt that being able to express your creativity and having an added degree of autonomy has been priceless. Moreover, being able to build great relationships with lots of diverse people has been fantastic!
What hurdles have you had to overcome since starting to run your franchise business?
The main challenge has been around fi nding the right team and making sure they stay motivated. The fact that Anytime Fitness is the world’s largest gym brand and is very well known in the industry helps us enormously in attracting and retaining staff . I feel that leadership and teamwork skills are key if you want to keep your team motivated.
What are your ambitions for the franchise? We are now on our third site and most recently broke the UK pre-sales record at our Bexleyheath club with over 800 members. We are aiming to successfully open 13 Anytime Fitness clubs by 2020. We have a big target that will be very challenging to meet, but we are hoping with the support of the team at head offi ce we will get there.
What was your turnover in your fi rst year of trading? It’s a very competitive market and we have managed to hit close to our target of £250,000 for the fi rst year of trading for our clubs.
What advice would you give to someone looking to buy an Anytime Fitness franchise? Try your best to visit as many Anytime Fitness clubs as possible as well as the competitors because the devil is in the detail. It will help you to understand the Anytime Fitness off ering better but also the diff erentiation. There are a number of reasons that are behind the fact that Anytime Fitness has over 3,300 successfully operating clubs and is one of the largest gym groups in the UK in a
Gurpreet (far right) and his Anytime Fitness team
few short years. Once you get your head around it don’t be too surprised if you’re hooked.
What has the support been like from head offi ce?
The team at head offi ce has been a godsend. It is a very open and fl at structure; everyone from members of the board to the general manager, as well as the folks from marketing, property services and vendors, are always happy to help.
There are many educational institutions that off er courses relating to sports. We have recently brought onto our team a number of apprentices who are studying in parallel, giving them experience and skills of working in the industry. The government is supporting local communities by introducing sports facilities and academies. Anytime Fitness is extremely supportive of education and skill development. We have numerous types of training, for personal trainers as well as our other staff .
“We have numerous types of training, for personal trainers as well as our other staff”
How do you see the sports education market developing in the years ahead? As more and more people start to get involved in health and fi tness and demand for it grows I think the future looks great.
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BusinessFranchise.com | November 2016
Would you recommend an Anytime Fitness franchise? I would strongly recommend taking up the Anytime Fitness franchise opportunity. It is a unique business, which has a signifi cant positive impact on your quality of life, health and wealth.
I see the brand going from strength
to strength not only in the UK but also across the globe. After you’ve explored the opportunity in the UK, there is nothing to say you couldn’t look at markets abroad.
jointhefamily@anytimefi
tness.co.uk
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