Past news...

100% MONEY BACK GUARANTEE FROM ENERGIE FITNESS FOR WOMEN

The superb women's only health club chain, énergie Fitness For Women, has just announced that they now offer a 100% money back guarantee to new franchisees, offering peace of mind to new entrants.

The cast-iron offer applies to the initial franchise fee and means that énergie Fitness For Women guarantees to have sold at least the equivalent value in membership fees before day one of opening, or you get your money back.

"énergie Fitness For Women is very progressive and proactive franchise company and we want to make it as easy as possible for new entrants to see the many valid business reasons to open one of our franchises," said Peter Croney, managing director of énergie Fitness For Women. "Part of this is guarantees and the ability for franchisees to see how genuine we are in our belief in the product. As we have an incredibly strong marketing offering that delivers results, we don't see any problem in making this guaranteed."

énergie Fitness For Women seems to be able to be as good as their word; their recently opened Belfast site achieved over 100 memberships and the new Plymouth site sold over 150 before opening!

énergie Fitness For Women seems to have discovered a real niche in the fitness market they launched what is fast being recognised as the "Next Big Thing" in fitness. With 12 franchise clubs successfully open and a further 30 plus anticipated this year, the clubs cater exclusively for women in a format that appeals in a way that traditional health clubs never could and women just love it!
"We are very pleased with both the growth in our club chain plus the outlook for our market longer term, which is strong and steady," said Peter.

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Jo Jingles: How I Made It…

ONE WEEK before Gill Thomas was due to launch her franchise business offering music classes to preschool children, she got a shock.

She had chosen to call it Musical Minors and had assumed that the name had been registered as a trademark by her lawyers. Then she discovered that another franchise business had already applied to trademark a similar name, so she could not secure it for her business.

“The trademark checks that I believed had been undertaken had not been,” she said, “but at no time was I told there was a problem until a week before we launched.”

Thomas was forced to change the name of her business to Jo Jingles, a move that cost her £25,000 and caused a delay of four months.

“At the time it was horrendous because we had to ditch T-shirts, promotional material, advertising, the whole lot,” she said.

Born in Sidcup, Kent, and brought up in Macclesfield, Cheshire, with two older sisters, Thomas was introduced to music by her father, a distribution manager for a newspaper company, who was passionate about classical music. “There was always music in the house,” she said.

She left school at 18 to study geography at Hull University and then joined the graduate-trainee management course at Mars confectionery. She moved on to Kay shoes and worked her way up to national sales manager. When she had her first child at 32, however, Thomas realised she would need to make some changes to her life.

In her first week back to work after maternity leave she was sent to Boston in America for 10 days. “I really didn’t feel that the job I had was going to be conducive to having a family,” she said. “There was an awful lot of travel involved and I really didn’t want to be spending huge amounts of time away.”

However, having had such a fulfilling career, she didn’t want to become a full-time mother. Her solution was to start a local music class for children aged under five. She called it Musical Minors and ran it in village halls.

“There was absolutely nothing in Beaconsfield for very young children to do,” she said. “I felt there was a real need for something stimulating and fun that parents and children could do together.”

Thomas ran the classes for three years and they were so popular that she decided to explore the possibility of turning Musical Minors into a nation-wide franchise.

So she took a year out to find out everything she could about starting up a franchise business, talking to the British Franchise Association and looking into why music was so important for preschool children.

She began by organising two pilot schemes run by people who had already worked for her doing classes. Then in 1996, after surviving the setback of having to change the name, she launched the business as a franchise, initially offering packages for £5,500.

To begin with, interest was slow, with five or six franchisees signing up in a year. “It took a while to get off the ground because, like most franchises, the early stage is convincing people when you haven’t got a huge track record,” said Thomas.

“Then as the business grows, and more franchisees join, people can see the success that they have had in terms of their financial accounts and performance.”

At this point the business hit a growth spurt, with 25 people joining in one year alone.

She said: “It was tremendous because it really developed a momentum of its own. At the time there was a lot of research coming out about how good music was for youngsters.”

The business hit another challenge when Thomas realised that demand from older children was falling because those aged three to five were going to nurseries and preschool groups.

Fortunately, the solution was simple - to add on classes for babies, and to approach nurseries and offer to run sessions in them.

Even the need to change the company name has turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as it provided Thomas with a character the franchisees could use in their classes.

She said: “I am a great believer in turning negatives into positives. The great thing was that, by changing the name, the character Jo Jingles was born, and the character has gone on to be very much part of our success. The children adore him and they hug him every class we go to.”

Jo Jingles now has 105 franchisees in Britain and Ireland and this year will have a turnover of £3.5m.

Aged 50 and married with two children, Thomas, who still owns 100% of the business, said the secret of her success was that “I have a tremendous belief in what we are doing”.

She added: “If you can’t be passionate about the work you are involved in, if you can’t sell it, then you can’t really expect anyone else to care about it.

“I also have a very determined character, which probably helps. Failure was never part of my plan.”

Thomas has this advice for budding entrepreneurs: “Whatever you decide you want to do, research your market thoroughly and make sure there is an opportunity for you. Believe in what you are doing, then be prepared to work at it.”

She said that for her, finding something that enabled her to combine work life with home life had been the ultimate reward.

“I have loved it because it has given me the opportunity to combine my family life with something that I love and passionately believe in. Money is not my prime motivator. It is the quality of my family life and my work-life balance that are the most important things.”

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INDUSTRY LEADERS COME TOGETHER TO OFFER NEW YOUTH FRANCHISE

Two of the leading names in the fitness industry have joined forces to create an innovative youth fitness franchise product.

The énergie Group and SHOKK have launched a joint venture business that is based on the globally successful SHOKK youth fitness model and delivered from the successful énergie franchising platform. The SHOKK énergie franchise targets young people aged 5-15 and offers ambitious individuals the opportunity to own and operate an affordable leisure business in a growing sector of the market.

The énergie Group, formerly énergie Fitness Clubs, is the fastest growing fitness franchise business in the UK. Set up in 2003, the company now powers 30 clubs across the country under the énergie Fitness Club and énergie Fitness for Women brands. Over the next twelve months the company plans to expand its product offering and the launch of this new youth specific model signifies the start of this process.

Jan Spaticchia, énergie Founder and Chief Executive, says: “Now that our operational systems, support network and training provision is well established and demonstrating success, we are ready to expand our product offering. With childhood obesity on the rise, the opportunity to provide youth specific physical activities is huge. SHOKK already has a globally recognised youth fitness concept so teaming up with them to deliver this product makes perfect sense.”

The product was unveiled for potential franchisees in May and SHOKK énergie is already in talks with a dozen potential franchisees. Jonathan Williams, Founder and Managing Director of SHOKK, says: “With a simplistic and highly lucrative franchise model in place, I am very excited about the potential for this product. As an organisation SHOKK has now over 120 UK facilities and eight overseas territories already operational.

This reinforces that the market, pioneered by SHOKK, for professionally devised youth gym facilities will continue to play a central role in the industry moving forward. Developing a franchise model based on the success of the concept was always a logical progression and with the expertise of The énergie Group we now have all the necessary elements in place.”

A SHOKK énergie franchise requires an initial investment of just £15,000. Jan adds: “SHOKK énergie is all about ‘empowering people to change their lives’ and this product does exactly that. Youth fitness is a growing market and with the profile of the childhood health so high on the political and media agenda there has never been a better time to invest.”

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