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Business Strategy and Research for Fitness Franchise

Paper Type: Free Assignment Study Level: University / Undergraduate
Wordcount: 3341 words Published: 20th Oct 2020

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Executive Summary

The aim of this report was to assist my client with his objective of starting a business with his little knowledge about starting a business and investigating the suitability of purchasing a fitness franchise. This business report explored Anytime Fitness and its viability. The research conducted was secondary research, field research and general knowledge. In this report I hope to inform and educate my client about fitness franchises and the legalities and expenses of purchasing a fitness franchise.  This research provided information that helped build this report and let my client know if purchasing a fitness franchise is worth it and if it is viable. 

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Introduction

In Australia’s competitive marketplace, many large businesses want to maximise their competitiveness by setting up in a range of different locations. Franchises have proven to be a popular alternative to this business model. A franchise allows someone who aspires to be a business owner to own a business under the guidance and licencing of the large business’ head office (Adams, Business For QCE Creation and Growth, 2019).

The purpose of this report is to assist my client with his objective of starting a via the purchasing of a franchise as a feasible option. This business report will Investigate Anytime Fitness as a Fitness Franchise that would suit my client. 

The Business Environment

Anytime Fitness is the world’s largest and fastest-growing co-ed fitness club chain. Founded and created in 2002, brother and sister duo, Justin and Jacinta McDonell launched the highly successful fitness franchise in the US (Hart, 2016) then Australia, in 2008. Averaging more than 300 new gyms a year for each of the past 8 years and will soon open its 3,000th franchised unit. Anytime Fitness aim is to constantly develop and set new trends. It also provides the opportunity and support to open up your own franchise. But most importantly, its biggest seeling point is that it provides 24/7 access to members (Canstar Blue, 2019) . Since 2008, it has become the fastest growing segment in Australia and one of the world’s fastest growing fitness chain (Canstar Blue, 2019). Anytime Fitness Australia has the largest group of clubs open outside of the USA and is the biggest health club chain in Australia.  “Culture is the personality of your business. In recent years, the concept has become highly scrutinized because everyone wants to identify, study, and copy any behaviour that yields an extra edge. Workplace culture has shown itself to be a powerful competitive advantage across all industries says Anytime Fitness’s CEO (Runyon, n.d.). Anytime Fitness leaders make a ‘wonderful, rich experience’ to all members and franchisors as culture is the personality of a business. Anytime Fitness’s mission is to help people thrive through a fit and active lifestyle. Their employees and workers are encouraged to improve their health and fitness levels, increase their energy and productivity, and lower their healthcare spending. The Anytime Fitness Employee Wellness Program makes it possible for companies of all sizes to encourage wellness at work (Companies Fitness mission, 2019).

In comparison to other franchises, the fees for Anytime Fitness are considerably lower. Their fee structure includes a one-time $37,500 franchise fee and an ongoing $549 monthly payment. Most franchisors take a percentage of gross sales. With Anytime Fitness, you don't pay fees based on sales totals (Anytime Fitness, 2019)

The Business Idea

The Business idea for their fitness franchises are that the business model allows flexibility and freedom to the clients who use the gym, as well as flexibility and freedom to the franchisees who own it. The franchisor and franchisee relationship is a vital component to the franchise business structure. As a result, a well-balanced franchisor and franchisee relationship is the key to success for any franchise business. A good franchise business structure always has a well-established business model. However, it is necessary for both franchisor and franchisee to follow the rules and responsibilities that each role requires.  A franchisee is a person or company who is granted a licence to do business under the franchisors trademark, trade name and business model, however, the franchisee must follow certain rules and regulations already established by the franchisor. Franchisors own all overall rights and trademarks of the company (Franchisor and franchisee realtionship, 2018).

Anytime Fitness is in its Mature Stage of the business life cycle, however, is in the start-up stage for the client as he is a new entrepreneur. The Start-Up Stage of the business life cycle is when the business beings trading, after meeting all legal requirements and sourcing its finance (Adams, Business For QCE Creation and Growth, 2019). It is important during this stage that the business owner ensures they have set up their business correctly so that they are adequately protected by law and have structured their internal and operating environments.

Research and Analysis of Business Idea

SWOT Analysis of operating a franchise

As the living quality has been continuously improved over recent years with the widely spread sense of keeping fit, fitness clubs and franchises are becoming more and more popular in Australia. According to the Australian Institute of health and welfare, 67% or 2 in 3 Adults are overweight and obese in 2018 (Australian Health and Welfare, 2019).  Among all of the various companies, Anytime Fitness is rapidly growing as it offers 24/7 access to all clubs they own (Canstar Blue, 2019).  A SWOT analysis was conducted to analyse strengths and weaknesses as well as the opportunities and threats purchasing a fitness franchise as well as the strengths and weaknesses of Anytime Fitness. (See appendix B)

Anytime Fitness is famous health club, which is concerned to provide the excellent health services to the targeted customers with modern and technologically advanced equipment. All the equipment and the gym trainers are innovative, interesting and unique considered and compared to the other existing gym in various regions of Australia. Anytime Fitness offers numerous strengths that make the franchise extremely popular in the fitness industry.

PESTLE Analysis

A PEST analysis was also conducted for Anytime Fitness to analyse the political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, legal and environmental factors of a franchise (See appendix A). All businesses want to be superior and more advanced than their competitors. Whether it’s for reputation, customer satisfaction or product quality, the competitiveness contributes to the success of the business idea and the business itself (Adams, Business For QCE Creation and Growth, 2019).

The culture of fitness has made its positive move towards the fitness industry in order to help people to get in proper shape with the help of interesting and effective exercise equipment. We are an ageing population and the increasing number of older Australians will widen two markets for fitness consumers (Fitness Australia, 2016). Australia also has increasingly unhealthy population’s as it is one of the highest rates of overweight and obesity in the world (Australian Health and Welfare, 2019). This brings with it a large share of the population with the need and/or desire to lose weight and to increase their levels of physical activity making improvements to their health, linking to a need for fitness professionals and gyms.

Break-Even Analysis

A Break-Even Analysis is a tool used to inform business owners as to the amount of money needed to break even. To reach the point where total revenue (sales from membership) is equal to expenses (Franchise fees and ongoing costs), at this point the business is not making a profit or loss. These analyses are important because even a business with a lot of sales or cash turnover could be running at a loss and It helps decide on price, budgets, production volume and business plans. Break even analyses also determine how viable a business idea is. The Information gained from a break-even analysis includes how profitable a business idea will be, how many products need to be sold to make a profit, how reducing price or Employee wages will impact on profit and the effect of an increase of fixed cost on price or sales volume.  (Refer to appendix C for the financing able of the startup costs)

Analysis of Research

When purchasing a franchise, especially a fitness franchise with many competitors, many strengths and weaknesses arise. Anytime Fitness encounters a heavy competition level in the fitness industry of Australia from its competitor companies, such as Jetts, Fitness First, Emf and Snap Fitness to name a few. Anytime Fitness has opened over 400 clubs in various cities of Australia to capture a strong position in the fitness industry of Australia.

A strength of buying a franchise includes the business will already have a reputable brand or trademark. The franchisor is responsible for maintaining overall brand reputation, awareness, and development (Hart, 2016). This eliminates one of the key steps in setting up a new business. One of the many benefits of buying a franchise is that the franchisor shoulders the responsibility of innovating and staying ahead of the competition. This includes new and updated products, and monitoring competitors and industry trends.

In the last few years, gym franchises and social media have seen the rise of fit and attractive young people marketing their own exercise and diet programs directly to a customer base maintained through social media.

Additionally, the franchise system consists of Anytime Fitness centres offering convenient access and location as there are many clubs all over Australia and in our cities. Convenience of location is the strongest factor in deciding on a gym, followed by cost incentives. This understanding of customers wants and needs has allowed Anytime Fitness to grow rapidly. The franchisor also offers the opportunity to open a more limited Anytime Fitness Express centre (Anytime Fitness, 2019). The franchisor has developed an access and security system that allows members of an Anytime Fitness centre to have access to any Anytime Fitness centre 24 hours a day, this has successfully met a need for many Australians.

The behaviour of the customers of Anytime Fitness is to stay fit and to lose weight for getting a perfect physique. Also, the basic concept of fitness is becoming popular in today’s modern lifestyle and everybody prefers to look gorgeous with perfect body shape as living on the gold coast could potentially have a stereotypical feel. Anytime Fitness has installed contemporary exercising machines (electronic treadmill, abs machine) in order to meet the current trend of customers who want to have that ‘social media’ perfection. (Marketing and Management, 2019).

Viability of Business Idea

When exploring into Anytime Fitness and considering the viability of the business idea Anytime could succeed with the fact the only threats they have is the other fitness clubs and competitors in Australia. But in order to develop and achieve your goals, making sure that you always take in account of feedback of the customers and your franchisors, being efficient with staff and always having a stable competiveness side.

Recommendations

Competitiveness

Competitiveness is “competitiveness is the ability to provide products and services as or more effectively and efficiently than the relevant competitors” (Adams, Business For QCE Creation and Growth, 2019). Most franchises, especially a fitness franchise strive to achieve the competitive advantage. Having competitiveness as a skill can provide your franchise with opportunities to refine and develop your strategies in the industry. Customer service is the key to success. To stay competitive, you should analyse customer trend, find out what’s driving them. Make sure your aware of your competitors and what they’re offering and marketplace trends.

Efficiency

A business that strives to maintain an appropriate value of assets, while also earning a significant profit, is achieving the financial objective of efficacy (Adams, Business For QCE Creation and Growth, 2019). To ensure the efficiency of this franchise, a key factor to look into more depth would be staffing, making sure not to over pay and making sure you have a person on the front counter at all times. Perhaps looking into having a baby sitter for the parents who may come in with kids as babysitting can be expensive while parents may still want to look and feel their best without having to worry about that extra arrangement. This can be seen as an efficient to run a business because businesses are considered efficient when they have more staff on the floor in peak trading times, such as late night or early mornings. However, this is also a good factor for health and safety ensuring all customers are safe at all times.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is seen that Anytime Fitness is a globally known fitness brand and would be an extremely profitable franchise to purchase. Obtaining a gym franchise would be the perfect fit for my client as he was a former gym teacher and has the qualifications and this franchise is more likely to succeed and help my client gain entrepreneurial experience.

Bibliography

  • (2019). Retrieved from australian health and welfare: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports-data/behaviours-risk-factors/overweight-obesity/overview
  • Adams, S. (2018). Business for QCE. Nelson.
  • Adams, S. (n.d.). Business For QCE Creation and Growth.
  • Anytime Fitness. (n.d.). Retrieved from Anytime fitness: https://www.anytimefitness.com/franchise-faq/
  • Canstart Blue . (n.d.). Retrieved from Canstar blue : https://www.canstarblue.com.au/stores-services/brands/anytime-fitness/
  • Companies Fitness Mission. (2019). Retrieved from comparably: https://www.comparably.com/companies/anytime-fitness/mission
  • Fitness Australia. (2016). Retrieved from fitness australia: https://bp-fitnessaustralia-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/uploaded_file/file/173496/FAUS843-Industry-Report-2016-Section-3-Digital.pdf
  • Franchisor and franchisee realtionship. (2018). Retrieved from Tap Snap: https://blog.tapsnap.net/blog/the-franchisor-and-franchisee-relationship-key-roles-and-responsibilities
  • Hart, S. (2016, August). Anytime Fitness. Retrieved from Anytime Fitness: https://www.anytimefitness.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/top_global_franchise_-_anytime_fitness_australia-2.pdf
  • Marketing and Management . (n.d.). Retrieved from https://myassignmenthelp.co.uk/freesample/marketing-and-management-for-global-gym-and-fitness-culture
  • Runyon, C. (n.d.). why not make work fun. Retrieved from improve your club: https://www.ihrsa.org/improve-your-club/why-not-make-work-fun/

Appendix A

Anytime Fitness- PESTLE Analysis

 

Political

-          Freedom

Economic

-          The inflation rate has direct influence on the operations of any franchise

-          Interest Rates

-          Constant increasing labour costs have affected the business of the fitness industry in Australia since few years.

-          Income 

Socio-cultural

-          Consumer trends (Fitness Australia, 2016)

-          Lifestyle trends (Fitness Australia, 2016)

-          Media opinions and its effect on body image (Fitness Australia, 2016)

-          We are an ageing population (Fitness Australia, 2016)

-          Increasingly unhealthy populations (Australian Health and Welfare, 2019)

-          Advertising and brand image

-          Health consciousness (Australian Health and Welfare, 2019)

Technological 

 

-          Anytime Fitness for provides the technologically advanced health and exercises equipment’s to its members. (Anytime Fitness, 2019)

-          Anytime Fitness uses modern process of advertising, promoting and marketing such as engaging the social media platform (Hart, 2016)

Legal

-          Rules and regulations

-          Franchisee agreements

-          Employment laws

-          Health and safety laws

Consumer protection laws

Environmental

-          Workplace health and safety and security of customers

-          Weather

-          Climate

   

Appendix B

Anytime Fitness – SWOT Analysis

 

Strengths

Weaknesses

-          Operates 24 hours a day 7 days a week- flexibility (Anytime Fitness, 2019)

-          Global known brand recognition & largest gym chain in Australia (Canstar Blue, 2019)

-          Fitness/gym activities are the second most participated type of sport and recreation by Australians. (Fitness Australia, 2016)

-          Equipment provided (Anytime Fitness, 2019)

-          Established locations (Anytime Fitness, 2019)

-          Easy to find and have financial support

-          Low risks of failure

-          Up to date equipment (Hart, 2016)

-          High dependency on Franchisor

-          Ongoing costs

-          Lack of security after hours

Opportunities

Threats

-          The Franchisee has a chance to become their own boss and build up experiences of being an entrepreneur

-          Has a higher rate of success (Marketing and Management, 2019)

-          People want to get fit and lose weight (Social Media Influence)

-          Continuing growth of existing franchised competitors

-          New fitness competitors always entering the market

-          Anytime fitness has lock in contracts and don’t let you cancel or leave unlike other fitness franchises (Anytime Fitness Frachise Costs , 2019)

-          204 other fitness cubs in Australia

   

 

Appendix C

Retrieved from: https://www.franchisedirect.com/directory/anytimefitnessinc/ufoc/5872/

 

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