Max Phillips is a Fit Body Boot Camp Franchise Business Advisor, whatever that is. But he says starting your own business is a gamble. Why? Because a staggering 50% of ’em will fail within the first year; and 95% within five years. A lack of proven processes and systems is usually the culprit. Max’s solution, of course, is franchising. Piggyback off what’s already working. But how are you gonna pay for it, right? And which franchise should you go with? Read on.
There are four ways to fund your franchise buy-in fee. The first is an SBA loan. Government-backed, good terms, but extremely difficult to get. And usually, you have to put your home up for collateral. So the second way is a personal loan. Easier to get, no collateral required, but because of this, the interest rate’s probably gonna be a little higher. Third, you could do a ROBS (Rollover for Business Startups) plan, which allows you to access your retirement account without fees or penalties. Fourth, is a HELOC, or cash out refinance.
Say you use one of those four funding methods, you buy into the best franchise for you, now how do you generate profit? First and foremost, Max says, do not reinvent the wheel. Don’t let your ego get in the way and assume you know better than the company you’re now working with. Instead, connect with HQ, be on every live training, stick to the systems that every other franchisee has been leveraging in order to succeed. Also, love what you do. This is the key to resiliency. Finally, get good at sales.
“Okay, now you’re following the systems,” Max recaps, “you love what you’re doing, you’re listening to headquarters, you’re executing on proven processes, you’re working on sales—and now you have money coming in. At this point, you’re still trading time for money. You’re not free yet. Poor people take the money they’re making and put it into liabilities. New car, new clothes, a brand name watch, right? They want to look rich. But that’s not the goal here. The goal is to be rich. Okay?”
“So what you’re gonna do instead is you’re gonna reinvest this money into your business,” Max continues. “You are not gonna buy liabilities. But here’s what’s critical. You wanna reinvest in things that are gonna move the needle forward. Most people do what’s good for their ego. They buy new signage, new equipment, things that may be awesome but don’t bring in any additional revenue. What you wanna do is spend more money on marketing, on sales, you wanna invest in your team, your managers.”
“Now you have more money coming into your bank account. And at that point, it’s much easier to get a loan. The banks are like, ‘Man, this business is crushing it. They’re making money. Take my money.’ Right? Do more. That’s what you want. Now when you have more money coming in, guess what? You go to location number two. Same thing. That’s what’s so beautiful about a franchise. Once you get the systems and processes down, it’s just rinsing and repeating. It’s copying and pasting. The more locations you open up, the more you’re hedging your risk.”
Max is obviously biased, but if you’re into fitness, the number one turnkey franchise opportunity, in his mind, is Fit Body Boot Camp. Founded by Bedros Keuilian, this bootcamp specializes in running 30-minute, high-intensity interval training sessions for small groups of people. They also help each of their members out with their nutrition, which sets ’em apart from competitors who only offer workouts. Cost of total investment is reportedly as much as $213,000. My main concern would just be saturation.
