10 Reasons to Buy a Medical Fitness Franchise

If you are thinking of starting a business, have you considered a medical fitness or health and wellness franchise? If you haven’t, you should, because it is a brand new industry which will become an essential part of our healthcare system. To get you started, here are 10 reasons why you should look at a medical fitness franchise.:

1. Demographics are on our side

I build demographic-based businesses. Why? Because a rising tide raises all boats. Nurse Next Door was the first. LIVE WELL Exercise Clinic is the second. You see, when you build a business based on demographics, as long as you execute well, your business will grow over time. Why? Because the market will only continue to get bigger. It’s quite simple, really. And Medical Fitness? Yes, it is on the right side.

2. There is no one else doing what we are doing

Right now there are gyms, (a few) hospitals with gyms and diabetes education programs. But no one does Medical Fitness the way that we do it at LIVE WELL Exercise Clinic. We stand alone in the health and wellness franchise category. And we will probably have a national brand in Medical Fitness built before we begin to see others. This is the birth of an entire industry. And at LIVE WELL we have seven years of experience behind us (and seven years of outcome data). For you, that means limited competition. It means “owning the doctors” before competitors start. It means being the thought leader nationally and locally.

3. Chronic disease is the biggest healthcare issue our system is dealing with. And answers and solutions are required.

A few facts:

• Three out five Canadians over the age of 20 have a chronic disease;
• Four out of five are at risk for a chronic disease;
• Chronic disease rates are growing at a rate of 14% per year;
• Treatment of chronic disease consumes 67% of all direct health care costs.
• Rising obesity rates are driving the chronic disease epidemic (one out of six Canadians is now obese).

Combine these stats with the changing demographics - the percentage of seniors will soon double and people are living longer - and we have a massive problem in our healthcare system. This is why LIVE WELL Exercise Clinic is so relevant right now. Because we know “If exercise could be packed in a pill, it would be the single most widely prescribed and beneficial medicine in the country.” (Doctor Robert Butler, the former director of national institute of aging)

(Stats from the Public Health Agency of Canada)

4. We have made Medical Fitness a turn-key business to operate.

We have put a lot of time (and sweat and even a few tears) into building our Medical Fitness franchise systems. So many mistakes, so many ideas that didn’t work. And we didn’t launch our franchise system until we had made so many that we knew what systems were the right systems, so our Franchise Partners didn’t have to go through the trial and error that we did. How do you optimize your spend to acquire members? How do you minimize your member turnover at the critical months? How do you extend and double the average length of stay of your members? How do you build and execute a habit coaching program? These are just a few of the questions that we solved over the years.

5. Work with the best in our industry - in both Franchising and Health Care

At LIVE WELL Exercise Clinic, we have our bases covered. Sara Hodson is a leader in Canada in “Exercise is Medicine.” Our Medical Director Dr. Ali Zentner is one of the most acclaimed obesity medicine experts in the country. Our Director of Training Tasha McRae (who has worked with Sara for 15 years) is a leading mind in Health Coaching.

And on the franchise side, we have that base covered too. I am the incoming Chairman of the Canadian Franchise Association. Gayla DeHart is our in-house behavioural health expert, and has a PhD in psychology. Our CFO ran a franchise system before joining LIVE WELL.

Do you think you will find this experienced a team, at our small size, anywhere else?

6. Be a life changer for hundreds and thousands in your community.

Our favourite part about being in this business (remember, we own and operate three of our own Medical Fitness clinics) is that we get to hear day in, day out, how great we are. Yes, our members love us. And they love us because of what we enable them to accomplish and become in life. That’s a big deal. And they tell us so.

For the right person, this is essential for you in a business. And this is what you will get.

7. Get into an industry that isn’t even an industry yet.

Since we are introducing a new way to do things in healthcare, Medical Fitness services aren’t yet covered by insurance. Or our healthcare system. And that’s OK because we have built a pretty amazing business without their support. So imagine one day, when our service is supported? We have no doubt that someday, insurance will cover a portion of medical fitness. Why are we so confident? Because the health outcomes we achieve tell us so. They are simply too good for people not to notice. Who knew, that with regular exercise and healthy habit coaching, we could drive such significant health outcomes in our member population? We did!

8. Medical Fitness is a FUN business (well, our way of doing it is!)

One of the reasons we have such low member turnover and high AVLOS (Average length of stay) is that we make coming into our Medical Fitness clinic fun. We hire fun and joyful people. We do fun things inside our clinics - Dance Days, Circuit Days, challenges - and we create a fun and vibrant culture to walk into on a daily basis.

So as a Franchise Partner, you absolutely are allowed to bring the fun! (Well, let’s be honest, you have to bring the fun!)

9. Medical Fitness is lucrative.

Our formula at LIVE WELL Exercise Clinic seems to be 1/2 purpose and 1/2 making money. Talk to our employees, talk to our Franchise Partners, and it seems to be an even split down the middle. That’s cool. Because when you build a brand with this intention, you become a powerful force.

This is a lucrative Franchise business. It’s why we have three corporately-owned clinics. It is why we can hire such a powerful team at such an early stage in our business cycle. We know that lifestyle is important to our franchise owners. Once you put the hard work into opening and growing your clinic, it’s a fairly easy business to operate. And rewarding, both financially and purposefully.

10. Be a change agent in our ailing health care system

Perhaps you never imagined yourself to be a healthcare champion, let alone a healthcare change agent. But that is who we are. So if that excites you - to be a revolutionary in an antiquated healthcare system that our country depends on, well, we are the right place for you. And don’t worry - we will bring the thought leadership to you. You just have to be passionate and inspired by it.

Ready to bring a LIVE WELL Exercise Clinic to your community?

LIVE WELL is a medical fitness clinic specializing in supervised exercise and healthy lifestyle coaching to for people who have chronic health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and for prevention. We are truly one-of-a-kind, bridging a gap between fitness and healthcare.

We are looking for business-minded franchise partners who are tenacious, have a passion for healthy living, who want to be part of something special, have purpose in spades and who are ready to become leaders who help transform healthcare.