SPECIALFEATURE T
im Harris owns an Anytime Fitness club in Welwyn Garden
City. He launched his franchise when he was 29 years old. Last year he received the ‘Best performing club under 12 months’ award at the Anytime Fitness annual conference.
“I’ve always had an interest in sport and fitness, so I decided to pursue a career in the industry. I started by completing a foundation degree in sports coaching before doing a personal training course. This led to a job as a personal trainer with Anytime Fitness at the company’s Hemel Hempstead club, which is where I first learnt about franchising and the opportunities on offer. Running my own gym had been ambition of mine for a long time and after finding out more about it I decided to begin the process of setting up my own Anytime Fitness franchise.
Tim Harris
“It was resassuring to know that there was a support structure in place to help guide me through the process”
Since opening the club in Welwyn Garden City nine months ago, club memberships have reached just over 1,000, which is fantastic. We would like to reach 1,200 members by the end of year and then the key milestone of 1,500 by mid-2016 – which is the preferred number for a club of our size. I didn’t have a background in business so
it was reassuring to know that there was a support structure in place to help guide me through the process. It was a huge learning curve for me, but it was great to develop a clearer understanding of aspects such as how to identify a suitable location and conduct lease negotiations. Anytime Fitness offers a
lot of training in these areas and has a team of in-house experts that is on hand to provide support from the outset. It’s also extremely useful to be able to speak to other Anytime Fitness franchisees who have been through the same experience and are able to talk about their learning and share new ideas. The priority is to maintain the success we have enjoyed in the first 12 months of trading and ensure that we continue to create an environment that attracts people to our gym. In the future it would be great to look into opening a second club, but for the time being my focus is on trying to improve the experience to our members in Welwyn Garden City.”
Brett Edwards, general manager at Anytime Fitness UK, says:
“Franchising presents a fantastic opportunity for young people who have the enthusiasm and passion to run their own business but, understandably, may not have the experience to make their dreams a reality. By starting a franchise, budding entrepreneurs are able to overcome these barriers by drawing on the
experience of established franchisors and the in-house expertise of trained franchise consultants. Tim Harris is a prime example of a young person who has benefited from pursuing the franchise model. Anytime Fitness has the experience, infrastructure and support to ensure Tim was supported every step of the way. We are pleased to see that Tim has taken every opportunity to further his knowledge
and understanding of the franchise sector by completing all of the training that is available to our franchisees. When you combine this approach with his energetic, proactive nature you can begin to understand why he has been able to create such a great club culture. We are delighted he is part of the Anytime Fitness community and we hope by sharing his story that we are able to attract more young people like him into the business.”
Franchisor News | 43
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