Geared Up Issue 4 2017 | Page 32

me to work with so many wonderful team members and peers along the way,” McGuiness explained.

Many franchisees never imagined what was to come when they became part of Planet Fitness or how it would change the course of their lives.“ Planet Fitness saved us from going out of business and made us more successful than we ever thought possible,” Rizzo said.

Other franchisees echo that sentiment.“ Planet Fitness gave us the opportunity to grow,” Mastrangelo said.“ We were able to jump on it when it was hot. We ended up buying two buildings that we are in. When you ask how Planet Fitness changed our lives, we probably would have continued to have two clubs. We probably would have been renting instead of buying million-dollar buildings.”

With the market potential for 4,000 locations in the United States alone and another 300-plus in Canada, the impact Planet Fitness is making on the world is just beginning.

Victor and Lynne Brick celebrate the grand opening of the 1,000th Planet Fitness club alongside CEO Chris Rondeau.

25 Years Continued from page 29

industry than we are in the gym industry. We are changing millions of people’ s lives for the better.”

While Sunshine Fitness was a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck, Dore and McGuiness also look at what their success with Planet Fitness has allowed them to do for others.“ We opened our first location with dreams of one day having a significant portfolio of clubs, but when you are pushing hard and concentrating on running the business day to day, as the years go by it’ s easy to forget the‘ big picture plan.’ Instead, you focus on the job at hand, doing such things as opening your next club, implementing new best practice policies system-wide, establishing a great team around you and so many other initiatives that go into the business. When you have the rare opportunity to take a step back and see all that has been accomplished as a brand by the Planet family, it makes you proud to be part of it and to truly appreciate just how special of an opportunity this has been. Planet has provided financial security for me and my family, but more importantly, it has improved the quality of lives of millions and millions of members and allowed

THE YEARS TO COME

As Planet Fitness marks its silver anniversary and turns an eye to the future, the possibilities are endless. The company has grown at a rate of roughly 200 clubs per year for the past several years, and because it is a franchised company, PF has been able to scale much faster than the competition, an advantage working in its favor.

“ Over 90 percent of openings are with our existing franchisees. They are bullish on their brand, they are bullish on the business model, and they continue to put their earnings back into their businesses and build more and more stores,” Rondeau said.“ When you have a strong group of entrepreneurs out there who are beating the streets every day in their local markets, they’ re a heck of a lot smarter than if we were all corporate-owned and we were trying to open a store in the middle of Kansas and I’ ve never been to Kansas. Nobody is better at doing that than them.”

Rondeau also looks to the franchisee community for innovative ideas for the future.“ If I was just a one-headed snake here, I only have one person thinking about the business, trying to come up with ideas and come up with strategies where we have almost 200 entrepreneurial groups out there that are thinking about the businesses every day,” he said, referring to the franchisee community as a resource and asset.

Operating as a franchised company also allows for an expanding marketing budget. With each new incremental member, 9 percent is allocated to marketing.“ The budget expands every day,