How Body Fit Training went from zero to $15 million in three years
Co-founders Richard Burnet and Cameron Falloon grew Body Fit Training to a multi-million dollar business in just three years. The pair shares their nine steps to success.
Body Fit Training has been one of the most exciting businesses to crop up in the past few years. Launching with four studios in Melbourne, they have exceeded targets and are set to have 200 studios Australia-wide by the end of the year, as well as a rapidly growing presence internationally.
This is no easy feat for a young business, especially with a global pandemic shaking things up – particularly for the fitness industry – over the past 18 months.
However this originally-Melbourne based business has prevailed. Despite the majority of their studios being Melbourne based, and therefore being closed for much of last year, they have managed to come out on top as the 2020 APAC Franchisee of the Year at the Fit Summit conference, beating F45 Training and Snap Fitness to the podium.
Both Cameron Falloon and Richard Burnet have a background working in the AFL, with Richard working with Essendon and the GWS Giants, and Cameron being the S+C coach for a bunch of high profile AFL and soccer teams, and also Princess Diana’s personal trainer back in the day.
Falloon takes his experience training elite athletes and applies it to each and every BFT program, little wonder so many athletes were among the first to put their hand up and buy into the franchise. Cricket legend Tim Paine, the Aubusson brothers (Rugby League), Nick Riewoldt (AFL) and Essendon(AFL) star Zach Merrett are among those names.
So how did they do it?
Nine steps to business success.
Research, Research Research
First and foremost, go out and speak to your desired audience and find out what they want. You need to know the gaps that need to be filled for your customer and the problems that need to be solved by your competitors.
We knew that we wanted to create a concept that was backed by science and programmed for performance, but how do you make that accessible to both members and franchisees, as well as successful for us as the franchisor.
Additionally, find out as much as you can from businesses that have already done the hard yards. Learning their lessons early so you don’t have to learn them yourself will save a lot of time and potentially money.
Validate your ideas
When your business is a franchise model, it is important to show proof of concept. Don’t be afraid to spend your own money and get your hands dirty to make it work. This adds to the story and helps to sell in a franchise model. If you are not prepared to invest your own money then why would anyone else invest in you?
How do you want to operate? How do you want to be seen?
Spend time outlining your morals, values and ethics as these will shape every decision you make and every direction you take as the business grows. The people you hire, the messaging you put out and how you are positioning the business.
Put on your crocodile suit
You will have a lot of knockers and you will receive plenty of opinions from people. It is important to listen to them as you may get some valuable feedback that can help you along the way, however also pick and choose what you are going to listen to.
The people who told us the concept wouldn’t work outweighed those who encouraged us to take the plunge. Stay open to feedback but back yourself in and have thick skin!
Get the back end of your business in order
By that we mean contracts, legals, an accounting system, trademarks to protect your IP if you are launching an innovative product into the market. Going to market too early can really damage your brand and IP, so make sure you have the mechanisms in place to support, protect and grow your business
Get the unit economics of your business right from day one
Don’t worry about whether you’ll sell 10 or 100 units; focus on the success of the original units you take to market because they will form the basis of your growth potential.
Build relationships based on trust
Particularly with your franchisees, those early adopters, they need to believe in the owners as much as the model. Rich sold the first 75 franchises before we put on a Sales Director, and Cam personally wrote our programs for the first 2+ years before adding a programming team. We were both highly engaged in the detail and fundamentals of the business right from the start and the franchisees trusted that we would deliver on what we said we would.
We never lose sight of the three most important people in our business
That is the members, franchisees and franchisors. Everyone has to win and everyone is equally important. Our business model is built on fairness.
Understand your strengths and weaknesses and build a team around this
Hire great people. And along with this, hire people who can fill gaps that you have already identified in your own skills or your team’s skills.
This will help the business grow and stay innovative as people bring out of the box ideas and skill sets to the table.
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