Characteristics Of An Ideal Alloy Franchise Candidate

In this episode, Matt and Rick discuss the characteristics of the ideal Alloy franchise candidate and facility operator.

As an investor in an Alloy franchise, you don’t have to work in the business and service revenue. You can always find an operator who will run the facility on a day-to-day basis. But you can’t be totally absentee, you must still be able to coach and motivate your operator to do this job effectively.

So what we tell our potential franchise candidates is whether you can find the right talent and keep them motivated to effectively run your Alloy operation. In other words, we like to say, “Are you the person you’re looking for?”

Finding Good Talent

Whether you have or haven’t managed and hired people before, you’re going to struggle to find good talent. So that’s one criteria that we’re looking for. From an investor standpoint, you don’t have to service revenue; you don’t have to have a background in fitness or work out yourself.

What you have to do is to attract the right talent. Are you the person who you’re looking for, is looking for? If you’re the investor, and you plan to be semi absentee, you need the right energy to attract good talent. Many Alloy investors are buying three to six locations. They’ll handle all the business functions for multiple facilities and economies of scale with back office support like payroll. They may not be in the gym on a day-to-day basis servicing revenue, but they’re going to need to attract someone who is that person who can service the revenue.

“Are you the person you’re looking for, is looking for?”

Rick Mayo

Here is an example scenario that we’ve seen. We had an excellent candidate on one of our CEO calls that is a part of our sales process. It is a time to get questions answered by the founder and vet them before our confirmation day, which is the last step in the sales process, where really get to know each other. This individual expressed his biggest concern was that he won’t be able to attract the type of talent that’s needed to run a good fitness facility. This individual works in the software industry only from home. He’s not very social and has hobbies like video gaming. He had little social influence and is very introverted by nature.

Even though he is self aware, he’s probably not a good candidate for Alloy, because that type of individual is going to struggle to identify with a very outgoing, gregarious, take charge operator who can get in, get in front of and influence many people to improve their health.

You need someone who can hold people accountable and others wouldn’t want to let this person down. You’ll need an operator who is going to be drawn to the investor that’s hiring them. They’re going to want to be on the team.

You don’t have to be exactly like the person who you’re sitting down with, but if you’re extremely introverted, don’t have a lot of social circles, lack the confidence to get in front of groups of people, and be somewhat entertaining, then you may have a tough time finding the right person.

Some questions to ask yourself include:

Are you outgoing?
Do you have leadership skills?
Are you mentally tough and resilient?

As an investor, you still have to hold people accountable and make tough decisions. You need to be a cheerleader, a leader, and an excellent communicator. You need to identify and bring on the right people.

Alloy does have a screening tool to help investors find the right operator.

Another characteristic you will need is to have a “salesy’ nature. You have to make the sales to keep the business running. You will need to be focused on sales in the pre-sale and doing some sales every month.

So do you just need someone who’s a good personal trainer, or do you need someone who’s good at sales?

Even if you are personal training helping clients to be successful, there’s a certain amount of sales you’ll need to deal with nutrition and daily habits to persuade clients to improve. You’re selling people on change and life improvement, on changing habits and nutrition to accomplish their goals. You are motivating and changing people’s lives for the better, so in the sales process you can’t be afraid of no’s or fear of change.

Listen to the podcast to learn more about characteristics of Alloy Franchise Candidate.

Also check out the article on Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs: