Karl Green is the franchisee of a Plus Fitness 24/7 gym in Melville, Perth with his partner, her sister and her sister’s partner. They are currently in the process of acquiring a second Plus Fitness 24/7 franchise.

The brand

Karl says he and his business partners opted for a franchise for a variety of reasons.

“It just made good business sense. It gave us the opportunity to come on board with a successful business model, established brand and great support.

“The systems and processes you get from joining a great franchise like Plus Fitness are just priceless.”

Plus Fitness is an Australian owned and operated fitness franchise, and Karl explains this was one of key reasons they opted for the brand.  

“Having a head office in Sydney is great and they provide a huge amount of support, it really does feel like a big family.

“We also wanted a 24/7 gym model which allowed us to put a bit of our own flavour into the gym – free weights, boxing bags and cross fit equipment as these are things we are very passionate about. The brand itself has great marketing and the resources at our disposal are fantastic,” he says. 

Sweet success

Karl loves that the business has grown so rapidly in such a short amount of time.

“We were pleasantly surprised by how fast the business can grow with a great marketing plan, great customer service and a good sales process. In a matter of months our membership base had skyrocketed,” he says. 

A family affair

The challenges associated with working with family members have been well documented; however Karl says the team complement one another well.

“We work off each other’s strengths to ensure the business does the best it possibly can. We come from different backgrounds and have different skill sets. We use these to our advantage and delegate duties based on this.

“Being able to share the workload is very important, it ensures everything is done efficiently and everyone gets a good work/life balance.”

Local area marketing

Karl explains he and his business partners used multiple different mediums to get their business out there.

“We spent six weeks casual leasing in our local shopping centres, sent out over 40,000 flyers, stamped the streets, visited many local businesses, ran a radio campaign, held a very successful open day and made connections with local sporting clubs. The list goes on!”

Franchisor training and support

Karl says the training facilitated by Plus Fitness has instilled the franchisees with the confidence to run their gym.  

“The franchisor has passed on years of knowledge and best practices to ensure we are a successful business. We are constantly being given support and advice in so many different areas of expertise, from marketing the gym to managing staff.” 

The future

Karl’s partner currently manages the Melville gym however this will change when the team open their second gym, which he says they are currently in site negotiations for.

Once this happens, Karl says “we will hire a club manager and my partner will run the second club. The other three business partners take care of the marketing, finance, business development, future planning etc.”

Karl and his business partners invested in the Plus Fitness brand in November last year, however they already have clear goals for the future.

“We want to open three to four clubs over the next two to three years. We want to get the clubs to a point where they are booming along, at capacity, and the members just love their gym,” says Karl.