The Concept

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The Concept Deep down, women everywhere want to feel good and look good. Exercise is a fundamental part of fighting the rising obesity problems of the UK but many ladies find conventional gyms to be cold, intimidating and sterile environments with little encouragement or motivation for beginners – leaving them feeling distinctly ‘Gymophobic’! Gymophobics provides a unique boutique-like environment for ladies of ALL ages. The circuit is designed to make exercise easy, relaxing and fun – and delivers amazing weight loss and inch loss results for our members.

Donna Hubbard, founder of Gymophobics and former competitive swimmer, opened the first centre in Lichfield, Staffordshire in 2003. The Gymophobics network now encompasses over 40 franchised centres throughout the UK

For the franchisee Gymophobics provides amazing earning potential, a fun and friendly working environment and is the ONLY nationwide franchise specifically aimed at the 88% of the UK female population that would not attend a conventional gym – a HUGE untapped market! With member retention rates far in excess of conventional gyms, Gymophobics provides a sustainable and lucrative business model for the years to come.

The Opportunity As a franchisee of Gymophobics you will be part of a truly unique concept; making exercise and slimming easy, relaxing and fun for ladies who would normally hate exercise and have a phobia of conventional gyms – the vast majority of the UK population! You will have your own exclusive territory, a fun and friendly environment to work in, huge earning potential and top class support from our UK head office. The majority of Gymophobics centres recruit in excess of 900 members in the first year with turn over in excess of £250,000; success attributed to our unique targeting and marketing messages and our incredibly successful membership sales training. Recruiting members is only part of the story; our unique VIP treatment and incredible inch loss and weight loss results ensure our member retention rates are far in excess of other gym brands. And with the opportunity to sell our unique branded wellbeing/beauty products and treatments, a Gymophobics franchise offers great scope to generate significant secondary income streams.

The Support For many the thought of starting and running your own business is a daunting prospect, but the Gymophobics Head Office team will be there every step of the way. The initial franchise fee is only £7,500 excl VAT and includes the following ‘start-up’ support – • Negotiation of your exclusive territory • Advice on suitability of premises, design of floor plans and gym layout • Support negotiation with the landlord and local council, help with ‘change of use’ applications • Compilation of business plans and assistance with accessing start up capital • Support with staff selection • ALL training (gym management, instructor and sales training) for franchisees AND staff for the first 6 months • A marketing plan for the first 3 months and access to marketing collateral ongoing • Your own mini web site and start-up stationary The monthly fee is fixed at £834 excl VAT for the lifetime of the franchise agreement, and includes a franchise services help line, business performance reviews, field based support, quarterly national franchise meetings and regular regional meetings.

All Gymophobics training takes place in the UK at our Stafford Training Academy. Training is provided free of charge for all franchisees AND staff for the first 6 months.

Once up and running franchisees need to know that help is on hand. Mandy Barker (pictured above) ran Burton Gymophobics for 3 years and now offers field based support to franchisees. The founders of Gymophobics, Richard and Donna Hubbard (pictured below) are still very active in the business and take many of the training courses.

A History of Success Sue Simpson runs the Crewe and Chester Gymophobics centres with her husband Pete. Crewe was the third franchised centre to open back in 2005, generated £90,000 profit in the first year and is still thriving today. Wayne and Melanie Heath opened their Gymophobics centre in Romford in July 2007. They had signed up an amazing 1000 members by January 2008 – a new record! Joanna opened Ipswich Gymophobics in 2005 and generated over £100,000 profit in the first year. Joanna has since gone on to open a further centre in Colchester where she is based today.

Donna Hubbard and her husband have over 60 years combined experience in the fitness industry and invested all of that experience in the original Gymophobics centre in Lichfield, which opened in 2003. The business generated enough income to fund the opening of two further centres in Burton and Stafford – both generating profits in excess of £50,000 in the first year. In 2005 Donna decided to franchise the business to achieve the aim of opening a Gymophobics in every large town in the UK. The first franchised centres opened for business with several franchisees generating profits in excess of £90,000 in the first year. The business model proved its longevity in 2006 when, 3 years after opening the doors, Lichfield generated a profit of £85,000.