Chuck Runyon knows you hate working out. So in 2002, the fitness-nut-turned-entrepreneur launched a 24/7 co-ed gym with the goal of it becoming the most convenient get-fit option in the world. To scale the business, he decided to use a franchise model. Runyon, who has a self-help book hitting shelves in January called Working Out Sucks, now has franchised 1,700 clubs in 10 countries. Inc.’s Caitlin Berens talks with Runyon about how, with very little knowledge of the business model, he made franchising a scalable—and surprisingly affordable—way to grow his gym business.
Anytime Fitness has grown really quickly over the past few years. What drew you to franchising in the first place?
We saw this as a fast way to grow because with franchising you’re using other people’s capital and the capital of landlords. Franchising was a comprehensive, fast way to grow the brand of Anytime Fitness without having to take out a big pool of money.I imagine there were challenges to going the franchise route, though? Read full interview here.