How Franchise FastLane Spun SPENGA into a Stronger Brand

Before founding the fitness studio SPENGA, coworkers Amy Nielsen, Heather Ruff and Roger McGreal helped a traditional health club in Chicago grow to 63 locations. During this time, they also kept a close eye on the boutique fitness industry, watching as small-footprint, community-building cycling and boot camp brands rose to prominence within high-end markets like Los Angeles and New York.

Soon, those trendy concepts branched into the suburbs. That’s when the four-person team knew it was the right time to enter the boutique fitness space, and thus, SPENGA was born.

SPENGA—a portmanteau of “spin,” “strength” and “yoga”—puts an innovative equal focus on cardio, strength and flexibility in one comprehensive 60-minute workout. The co-founders spent two years in development before opening the first studio in Mokena, a south-western suburb of Chicago, in July 2015.

“We knew that if we could make it in Mokena, imagine where else it could work across the nation, and what it could do in more high-end markets,” said McGreal. “Mokena was a big success, so we decided to grow through franchising.”

Thanks to the SPENGA co-founders’ previous fitness business experience, they began allocating funds toward preparing for franchise growth early. From national marketing campaigns to consulting with real estate developers, they wanted to be able to provide a turnkey solution once the national effort rolled out. In 2016, SPENGA opened its first franchise location in Chicago suburb Downers Grove.

“From growing that traditional club concept, we had a lot of local contacts, but we quickly realized that we needed people working at a national scale,” said McGreal. “We were confident in the fitness industry and how to run a large-scale organization, but we were new to franchising. We needed to surround ourselves with people who had that industry insight in order to be successful.”

The SPENGA team decided to hire franchise law firm FisherZucker for support, and when they asked the firm for broker recommendations, Ryan Zink, the CEO of full-service franchise development organization Franchise FastLane, was on the shortlist.

“We had a few calls, and then Ryan came out to see the concept. We made sure it was a good fit for them as well, and we hit it off,” said McGreal, adding that SPENGA had four franchise locations open by the time Franchise FastLane was brought on board. “We spent quite some time working on the game plan, then launched alongside Franchise FastLane with a Discovery Day in June 2018. And it’s been full steam ahead since then. It’s been an extremely wonderful experience.”

Today, SPENGA has 130 franchise units sold across the nation. “Franchise FastLane completely took our sales process to another level,” said McGreal. “Their process is so formalized, and really leads to getting us high-quality, vetted franchise candidates.”

Franchise FastLane helped SPENGA refine its approach to candidate engagement, from initial informational calls through finalized signings—and beyond. FastLane set up weekly leadership calls for candidates to ask the executive team questions, validator calls for candidates to speak with franchisees, and unit economics calls to explain costs and finances.

“By the time candidates are coming to Discovery Day, they're very well-versed about what SPENGA is about and next steps,” said McGreal. “We now have an incredible closing rate for candidates who attend Discovery Days.”

In addition to rigorously vetting and stewarding candidates-slash-Discovery Day attendees, Franchise FastLane also revamped SPENGA’s two-day event itself. “They came in and looked at what we were doing for Discovery Day, from where we were going out to dinner to our main presentation,” said McGreal. “They have so much experience, and they brought an attention to detail to the systematic approach that candidates go through. We couldn’t be happier with what they’ve done with our Discovery Day.”

McGreal said that when potential candidates do move forward as franchisees, they often request to keep in touch with the Franchise FastLane team. And that’s an easy request to accommodate—Carin Skowronsky, Director of Franchise Development at Franchise FastLane, frequently reaches out to SPENGA franchisees while traveling. “Recently, she was in Houston for an event, and took all the area franchisees out to dinner,” noted McGreal.

The detailed attention that Franchise FastLane gives to SPENGA candidates and processes ultimately frees up time for SPENGA’s executive leadership team to focus on driving the business forward. “We can achieve so much more operationally because our sales are in great hands with FastLane,” said McGreal.

In addition, SPENGA looks to Franchise FastLane as experienced consultants for business advice. “I know I can reach out to them anytime with a high-level question,” said McGreal. “I can ask, ’Hey, we’re looking to do an annual conference, can we set up a call to talk about it?’ Or, as far as a third-party vendor to contract with as a business solution: ‘Hey Ryan, have you ever heard of this company? Anyone else you’d recommend?’ They're so integrated within the franchise network, and they have so many contacts. That’s a great perk of working with FastLane.”

SPENGA’s partnership with Franchise FastLane will be integral to helping achieve the company goal of opening more than 30 locations and selling 200 total franchises by the end of 2019.

“It’s night and day difference from where we were before working with them,” said McGreal. “They're not an extension of our team—they're an extremely valuable member of it.”