The traditional New Year's rush at fitness centers takes on a new meaning for Renobased Club 50 Fitness Centers, where the company's founders are digging themselves out of a blizzard of applications from would-be franchisees.
The company has received more than 600 inquiries since it introduced its franchise program in mid-November, and 20 or more letters a day continue to arrive.
"It's overwhelming," says Mike Martin, who founded the company with David Smith about 20 months ago.
Club 50 Fitness Center's niche is this: Fitness programs tailored for the over-50 crowd.
Equipment for its 30-minute circuit-training program is ergonomically designed for easy use by sometimes-creaky knees.
The music that accompanies workouts comes from the 50s and 60s.Nobody is pumping iron competitively.
Instead, the company's staff wants an environment where the over-50 crowd feels comfortable, even if members never have used a fitness center in the past.
And from the start,Martin and Smith had their eye on franchising the concept.
They opened Club 50 Fitness Center at 294 E.Moana Lane in November 2003, and almost immediately began working with Francorp, an Olympia Hills, Ill., company that specializes in franchise development.
Francorp oversaw everything from preparation of legal documents to development of a 350-page operating manual that Club 50 franchise owners can use when they open their own location.
And the franchise development firm helped Martin and Smith place the Internet advertising that spurred the blizzard of responses.
Club 50's founders now have winnowed the responses to about 100 serious inquiries.
Successful candidates for a franchise will pay a fee of $24,900 for equipment, software and operating information.
Club 50 estimates the full start-up cost of a center most will occupy 1,100 square feet to 1,400 square feet at $50,000 to $80,000.
A basic one-year membership is priced at $29 a month.
While Smith and Martin initially planned to open about five company-owned locations in northern Nevada, they now hope to find a franchise buyer even for their flagship Reno location.
"Our plan is to focus strictly on franchises," Martin said last week.
The privately held company has been financed by its founders as well as outside investors,Martin said.
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