Welcyon Fitness After 50:A concept right for the times

A market ripe with opportunity

In pursuit of longer, healthier lives, aging baby boomers are joining health clubs by the millions. But many find traditional gyms overcrowded, overwhelming and underserviced, making the market ripe for a better idea. That’s where your client, as a Welcyon, Fitness After 50, franchisee, can be a game changer in the $22-billion U.S. health club industry.

Our solution: Offer boomers a better fit

Welcyon is a franchisor of a new kind of health club designed specifically for adults over 50. Here’s our concept: Offer boomers a better experience and healthier results. Include more of what they want and need, like hands-on supervision, interactive user-friendly equipment, effective workouts and a warm, welcoming environment. And back it with turnkey support to ensureyour success.

Distinctly branded, our model makes your client a fresh, innovative face in a thriving industry and a frontrunner in the emerging field of active aging. What Curves® did for women’s only clubs and Anytime Fitness® for 24/7 convenience clubs, we are doing for the fitness after- 50 category.

Sneakers yes, spandex not so much

Some 100 million Americans — one in every three — are 50 and older, and the market is growing by two million a year. Having spent careers building wealth, boomers are now chasing health, lacing up their sneakers and joining gyms in droves. They are the fastest-growing health club segment, having grown 58% between 2002 - 2011.

As aWelcyon franchisee, your client brings to market a gym unlike any other. The footprint is small and intimate, the ambiance warm and welcoming, and the highly structured program — consisting of cardio, strength-training, stretching and balance exercises — is effective and reinvigorating.Some 11 million belong to gyms, and analysts predict millions more will join, fueling strong industry growth into the next decade. Problem is, though boomers have moved beyond the spandex and muscle shirts, many gyms haven’t. This is where your client wins by offering a better fit.

Smart coaches, smart machines

Accentuating our unique approach, members exercise on safe, air-driven equipment usually found in high-end wellness centers. Powered by smart card technology, these machines greet members by name, count reps and adjust future workouts based on performance. Specially trained fitness coaches offer instruction and support along the way.

Rounding out the experience is a social area that hosts wellness workshops and other events to nurture a sense of community. In short, Welcyon is a modern- day “Cheers” — a gym and social gathering place that blends high tech and high touch to carve a niche no one else is filling.

Five reasons to be a Welcyon franchisee

1. Timely Concept –The aging of the Baby Boomer generation is one of today's best business opportunities, and Welcyon, Fitness After 50, helps your clients respond with a powerful solution that speaks to Boomer’s desire for healthy living and active aging.
2. Capable Leadership – Co-founders, active agingexperts and former health club multi-unit franchisees Suzy and Tom Boerboom have more than 40 years of combined healthcare experience. Tom is also president and chief operating office of a $200-million nursing home system ranked among the 40 largest by the American HealthcareAssociation.Rounding out the executive team are key marketing, real estate and franchisee coaching executives who helped build Snap Fitness® into an industry leader. Fitness programming and training is led by a prominent physical therapy expert known for his insight into exercise and rehabilitative care for aging adults.
3. Turnkey Support – People and systems arein placeto support real estate site selection and negotiation, sales and marketing, money and member-data management using leading-brand club operating software, club design and build-out, equipment procurement and installation, and fitness programming and training
4. Solid Business Model – A flexible management structure allows your client to be a semi-absentee owner and keep the security of a full-time job. Ourannuity-like model assures a steady revenue base every month while limited staffing requirements reduce overhead and management headaches. Stable working capital requirements enable business growth with little or no additional infusions of cash once the club is open. High operating leverage, due to stable facility and staffing costs, means that once breakeven is reached, steady revenue growth can greatly impact bottom-line profitability. Turnkey operational support keeps you working smart and efficiently, with no industry experience necessary.
5. Personal fulfillment and reward - Beyond the business appeal of the model, Welcyon is one of those unique opportunities that offers your client purpose beyond profit. Owning a business that positively changes customers’ lives and redefines what aging inAmerica ought to be provides a level of personal satisfaction and reward unmatched by most other franchise opportunities.