GYMGUYZ’s Josh York On The Importance of Listening to Franchisees

Gym brand GYMGUYZ began franchising just four years ago, but the emerging franchise is already one of the fastest-growing in its segment.

Specializing in personalized one-on-one and group training sessions, GYMGUYZ eschews brick-and-mortar locations in favor of mobile and in-home services provided by certified trainers who arrive on site in branded vans outfitted with all of the equipment required by their vast menu of health and fitness services.

We talked to GYMGUYZ Founder and CEO Josh York about why franchise operations teams should be listening to owners and why operational challenges can be a good sign.

1851: What is the most important operational concern for a franchise brand?

York: You have to make sure your franchisees are doing well. That’s the goal, and it’s the most important thing. To do that, you have to have good systems in place, and you have to work closely with your franchisees to make sure those systems are being implemented effectively.

So an operations team should be focused on building strong systems, and at the same time, it should be focused on implementation and tweaking its systems based on what it’s seeing from the franchisees.

1851: When refining your operations, do you look first to the top- or lower-performing locations?

York: We look at every location. It’s essential that every owner is doing really well, so we work with all of them. We’re going to make sure that everyone is where they need to be. We’re taking tips from our highest performers and we’re working closely with the lower performers to see where we can make improvements.

1851: What’s an important aspect of operations that you’ve seen other brands get wrong?

York: When you are creating a training program, the instinct is to fit every single aspect of your operations into the training. If you’ve got a two-week training program, chances are the franchisees aren’t going to retain everything. You’ve got to make sure you are focusing on the things that are crucial for them to succeed.

1851: If a franchise brand is struggling operationally, what’s the first thing they should do to get back on track?

York: Start by listening. We believe keeping your ears open is the most important thing. We’ve built our model around listening. Listen to your owners. Make sure you understand what they need and what their concerns are, then make sure you have all the systems in place to address those concerns.

1851: How is GYMGUYZ’s operations team organized?

York: We have a variety of different teams. We have training teams for before a franchise launches, support teams for after the launch, continuing support teams, and more. Every stage is covered.

We’ve only been doing this for four years, but we’ve really got things down tight. Still, we always expect challenges. In fact, we embrace challenge. Challenge comes with change, and change is a part of growth. If you aren’t seeing challenges, you are doing something wrong. The key is how prepared you are to deal with those challenges, and we are very well prepared.