I’m Sara Waskow, FranNet’s Market President for Dallas-Fort Worth and Oklahoma.
I’d like for you to meet a former client of mine, Mike Beaty. Back in Feb. 2019, he and his wife Faith purchased a franchise, Workout Anytime in Lake Worth, for their grown sons to operate. After moving to the Dallas-Fort Worth area 15 years ago from Houston, they’ve settled in the Metroplex and created a legacy business for their family. The day-to-day operation is run by their two sons, with Mike and Faith overseeing their efforts in an advisory role.
With the assistance of FranNet of Dallas-Fort Worth and Oklahoma, Mike Beaty and his wife, Faith, became the proud owners of a Workout Anytime Fitness Gym. Turns out, it was the perfect opportunity to set up their children in business, providing a way for the family to retain their close and meaningful ties to one another. Below, in his own words, Mike describes his entrepreneurial journey with FranNet…
Our Background
“My wife and I are both veterans of the healthcare industry, with a majority of time spent in acute, post-acute, hospice and home healthcare environments. We’ve spent about four decades in all in our corporate jobs and we’re still going strong. We’re happily married, with three children and now have four grandchildren to spoil.”
On Family Entrepreneurship
“We have an interesting little annual evaluation we like to do each year between Christmas and the New Year. We kind of critique the things we’re proud of and it’s an opportunity to openly share our hopes and dreams for the coming year. It was about five years ago when we began discussing the possibility of purchasing a small business for our grown sons to own and operate. What was most important to this new plan was for us to establish a family legacy opportunity that our kids could manage—and possibly one day have their kids own and operate.”
Why Franchising?
“I think franchising was the right route for us to take, as we didn’t have the time, resources, or the capabilities to go out and start everything from scratch. Thankfully, a good friend introduced us to Sara Waskow at FranNet, who turned out to be the right person and the right time to discuss the type of small business that would be a great fit for our family. We participated in the Entrepreneur Readiness Profile and thus began our evaluation process.”
How FranNet Helped
“Sara wasn’t just a guide but became more of a true friend to us during the process. There were never any preconceived notions about the direction we should take when it came to making decisions. She simply listened, then told us the truth about which opportunities best matched up with our family’s stated goals on owning a business of our own. Though Sara presented multiple franchise concepts, my wife and I zeroed in on the fitness opportunity because of our collegiate athletic experiences. Workout Anytime had several aspects that helped convince us it was the right opportunity. Our two boys could run the franchise as general managers, it was a boutique-style concept, and it didn’t have a corporate-run feel to it. Above all, we wanted a place where you really could get to know each and every one of our members. Sara was an invaluable part of the journey—even connecting us with a CPA to review the financials.”
Where Do the Business Stand?
“After looking at about 60 site selections to get the right location, we opened the family’s Workout Anytime gym in Lake Worth in Feb. 2019. With our grown sons operating the franchise like a fitness club, we met all of our first-year goals and they got to know all of the gym members on a first-name basis. Our membership customer satisfaction surveys were off-the-chart positive. Like everyone else, when Covid hit, there was a pause and real reason for concern. But as a family, we didn’t panic. All of the classes the gym offered instantly became Zoom groups and our sons and fitness leaders continued coaching remotely. They even established an ‘equipment library’, where members could meet at a pre-determined time to check out what they needed to continue their workouts at home. These efforts to adjust to the situation allowed the gym to maintain its members and our Lake Worth location recently scored the highest in the nation for our retention rate. That led to one of our proudest family moments, as our sons were presented with the Workout Anytime Heart and Soul Award for this achievement.
At the end of the day, our boys have lived up to the brand’s value proposition—which is a simple repetitive question they ask themselves as Workout Anytime owners: ‘Today, did you choose to make each member’s hour the best hour of their day?’ Although it’s a rhetorical question, our family has realized that the answer to that question can be found in the success of the business.”
For more information, please visit the Beaty Family’s Workout Anytime location on the web.