How Anytime Fitness Found a Winning Way in Fitness

Becoming a franchisee has its benefits, and a stable support system with procedural guidelines is one of them. You can be the business owner you want, but you don’t have to figure out every detail on your own.

1851 Franchise caught up with Chuck Runyon, CEO of Anytime Fitness, to discuss how the brand has managed to succeed in the 24-hour fitness segment in franchising.

1851: What about the 24/7 fitness model appealed to you when first creating Anytime Fitness? Why did you think it was a concept that would draw the most success?

Chuck Runyon: Before Dave Mortensen and I founded Anytime Fitness, we spent several years doing consulting work for traditional big-box fitness centers. During those years, we spent countless hours speaking with members about what they really wanted in a gym. We kept hearing the same things over and over again: A friendly, welcoming club atmosphere; clean and well-maintained equipment; affordable membership fees and convenient hours; and most importantly, a supportive and knowledgeable staff. We also noticed that 90% of the members spent virtually all of their time in 10% of the facility. We used everything we learned to develop the Anytime Fitness business model. We designed smaller gyms so franchisees could focus on serving their members instead of empty spaces. And we continue to empower our franchisees and our members with convenience, a supportive community and on-going health and business coaching.

1851: What do you think were the keys to becoming the fastest growing health club franchise?

CR: It’s interesting that you mentioned “keys” because while a key fob gives our members unlimited access to all 4,000 of our clubs, it also provides feelings of independence and trust.  Think about it, what other brand gives you the keys to the business when no other employees are present? Our members value that trust and take control of exercising on their schedule, not ours. Another key, of course, is finding the best franchisees in the world. Half our new franchisees have never owned a business before opening their first Anytime Fitness gym. But one thing that virtually all of our franchisees share in common is a genuine passion for helping others in their community lead healthier, happier lives. That’s a great way to make a living. You wake up each morning thinking, “Today is another chance for me to help somebody else improve the quality of their life.” It simply doesn’t get any better than that in terms of job satisfaction.

1851: What challenges arose in handling that growth?

CR: In the early years, and to a lesser degree today, we’ve had to deal with antiquated legislation in various states and countries that prohibited our business model from growing.  But we fought hard to educate policymakers and, thanks to members and franchisees who voiced their support, we overturned bad legislation which prevented individuals from exercising whenever it was most convenient for them. The result is that Anytime Fitness is now thriving in all 50 states and 30 countries with thousands of locally-owned businesses and millions of people improving their health.

1851: How do you differentiate yourself as a brand when a lot of competitors are trying to do exactly what you do?

CR: Most franchise brands are strict with uniformity and compliance. Often times, that stifles innovation.  Instead, we listen to our best franchise owners and carefully balance standardization and innovation to foster entrepreneurialism within our network. When creative ideas are proven to increase efficiency or member satisfaction, then we enable our best franchisees to pull the brand forward with their success.