5 Advantages of Running an Outdoor Fitness Franchise

If you’re passionate about keeping fit and inspiring others, why not start your own outdoor fitness franchise? It’s a huge sector, with one of the many advantages being the opportunity for profit and growth. To find out further benefits that come with working within this industry, keep on reading!

An outdoor fitness business is a great investment if you’re looking to run a business that you’re passionate about whilst also turning a great profit. With 61.4% of adults working out for an average of 150+ hours a week [Sport England], there are plenty of potential clients waiting for your expertise if you choose to become an outdoor fitness coach.

Why start an outdoor fitness franchise?

As mentioned above, there’s a huge customer base waiting for you in this popular sub-sector of fitness, and if you can capitalise on this, you can join the lucrative UK personal training industry, which currently boasts a market size of over £500 million [IBISWorld]. Beyond this, you’ll also benefit from the many advantages inherent to franchising if you choose to invest with one of the top outdoor fitness franchises in the UK. Advantages such as:

• The ready availability of franchisor training and support
• The access to a proven business model
• The access to an established customer base
• The lowered level of personal/financial risk
• The endless room for growth and expansion
• The built-in support network that leaves you never feeling alone

The 5 biggest advantages of an outdoor fitness franchise investment

Knowing that the sector is lucrative and that franchising is a great path to go down when it comes to running your own business while still being supported and assisted along the way, it’s time to dive into some of the juicy, specific pros of investing with an outdoor fitness franchise in particular...

1. You’ll be working actively and working outdoors, accessing plenty of vitamin D and getting plenty of exercise

Many franchise investments (many jobs, actually) will see you tethered to a desk with no reason to set foot in the great outdoors, but not with an outdoor fitness franchise. Even in a managerial role, you’re likely to be spending plenty of time outside, enjoying the proven benefits of natural light and boosting your immune system/strengthening your bones with vitamin D. Working out outdoors has also been shown to reduce blood pressure AND help with insomnia, so the benefits really stack up.

Say, for instance, that you’re working with a kids’ sports franchise like SportsCool or Kixx. Not only will you be coaching the next generation and keeping children fit and healthy in the great outdoors each working day - you’ll also be doing the exact same thing for yourself. Just remember to wrap up warm in those chilly winter months!

2. You’ll get to choose your working hours and enjoy a great work/life balance 

When you’re running an outdoor fitness franchise, you’ll be your own boss, and you’ll largely find you’re able to set your own hours and work around your lifestyle/to your own preferences. Whether that’s working in the evenings, avoiding work on the weekends or pausing classes for a week for an important family celebration, the flexibility will be extremely valuable and enjoyable to you, granting you the work/life balance you deserve.

Flexible working opportunities can benefit everyone: employers, employees and their families. Most employers now recognise that it makes good business sense to provide flexible working opportunities for their staff.
- NI Direct

3. You’ll enjoy lower overheads and running costs than an equivalent indoor fitness franchise

If you choose to simply make a career change with a gym franchise, you’ll be faced with the many associated costs and overheads that come with running a commercial indoor space like a gym, from staffing reception desks to cleaning toilets to replacing and repairing issues when they arise on the property. Even before you factor in things like rent, the numbers start to add up. 

Working outside (and from home, when you’re not actively running sessions) will reduce your list of financial responsibilities and simplify franchise running for you. This isn’t to say that there won’t be any costs, as obviously equipment and space rental will still need to be factored in - it’s simply to say that these costs will likely be lower than they would be for an indoor fitness franchise.

4. Your investment will be far more COVID-proof/similar-situation-proof

[The way in which COVID spreads] makes gyms and fitness studios—where you ride close together during indoor cycling classes, congregate at the dumbbell rack, and breathe heavily on the treadmill—potentially risky places. That’s why many fitness spaces are now offering outdoor fitness classes as a way to mitigate that risk.
- Tiffany Ayuda, SELF

COVID-19 has changed the world of fitness - and the wider world - in many different ways. So many gyms spent huge swathes of time during the pandemic completely closed, even long after outdoor fitness events were able to take place once again. This means that if COVID rears its head again to the same degree in future (or, indeed, any disease similar to COVID), your business will be less extensively impacted thanks to the fact that all the exercise takes place outside, in the open air.

5. From football to yoga, you’ll be able to find the perfect niche for you 

This is probably the biggest benefit of all to starting an outdoor fitness franchise. Everyone dreams of working a job that they feel truly passionate about, and as a franchisee with an outdoor fitness franchise in your ideal niche, you could live that dream. Do plenty of research to explore your full range of options. You could:

• Work with kids, teaching them to be active from a young age
• Teach a specific sport to adults or kids like football, tennis, rugby or wild swimming
• Run yoga sessions outdoors, keeping people in touch with themselves and nature
• Run a mobile gym franchise that’s semi-outdoors like Fitness Rush
• Run a gym that has an outside space/offers outdoor activities and classes

Start running a franchise in the outdoor fitness industry now!

If you’re more ready than ever to invest in outdoor fitness, don’t let anything stop you! If you’re still on the fence and you’d like to explore the wider fitness industry, find out how to choose the sports franchise that’s right for you and check out indoor options like 9Round and Fitness Space.