MY GYM Franchise Complaints
My Gym franchise opportunity: Are you familiar with it?
If so, please share your experience, opinions or insights with a comment below.
The My Gym franchise information packet on the My Gym website claims “My Gym has grown by leaps and bounds in the last several years. We currently have over 200 locations and are in over 25 countries. We have been named as one of the top 300 franchises by Entrepreneur Magazine’s ‘Annual Top 500 Franchise List’ and also listed on their ‘Annual Top 200 International Franchise List’ for the past 5 years.”
My Gym claims that risk-reduction is a benefit of their franchise. Their info packet states:
“THE BENEFITS OF BUYING A FRANCHISE
…in purchasing a well-structured franchise, you greatly minimize the risks and strains of starting a new business….
“Our pre-opening, post opening and continuing support to our franchisees is unparalleled in the field of franchising.
“My Gym Children’s Fitness Center is a proven, productive business with locations across the country.
“Comprehensive financial, marketing and administrative systems help you avoid the mistakes and perils independent business owners must combat alone.”
However, according to Entrepreneur, My Gym locations declined from 179 US franchises in 2008 to 152 in 2011
According to data released by the Small Business Administration (SBA), My Gym franchise owners who qualified for SBA-backed franchise loans have an outrageously high loan failure rate of 51%.
That earns My Gym a spot in UnhappyFranchisee.com’s list of WORST FRANCHISES IN AMERICA (by SBA loan defaults)
My Gym franchise owners have an outrageous 51% SBA default rate.
The apparent drop in My Gym franchises in recent years and the high loan default rates are franchise due diligence red flags.
| My Gym Franchise | |
| My Gym U.S. franchises in 2008: | 179 |
| My Gym U.S. franchises in 2011: | 152 |
| Growth in franchise units 2008 – 2011 (#) | -27 |
| Growth in franchise units 2008 – 2011 (%): | -15% |
| SBA loans granted since 2001: | 68 |
| SBA loan failure rate: | 51% |
| Sources: Entrepreneur (growth), Coleman report (SBA) |
The inability to repay an SBA-backed loan (or any franchise loan, for that matter) indicates a serious situation for the franchisee.
It’s likely that My Gym franchise owners who received SBA loans may have collateralized their franchise loan with their homes or other personal assets, and many were unable to repay those franchise loans… despite the serious incentive to do so.
Are you familiar with the My Gym franchise opportunity?
What do you think accounts for the SBA loan failure rate of My Gym franchise owners?
What steps should My Gym be taking to stop further franchise failures?
Has My Gym taken serious action to address the problems that led to these loan failures?
Please share a comment (anonymous is fine) or Contact UnhappyFranchisee.com.
If you are a My Gym franchise representative or employee, please feel free to leave a comment or email us at UnhappyFranchisee[at]gmail.com.
ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH THE MY GYM FRANCHISE OPPORTUNITY?
ARE YOU A CURRENT OR FORMER MY GYM FRANCHISE OWNER?
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I opened my franchise of My Gym in 2004. It has been difficult along the way but the support from My Gym Enterprises has been amazing. My Gym is a wonderful program that focuses on child development and physical fitness.
I can’t imagine owning any other business and I would be happy to speak with anyone about my experience.
Hi Lorna – My wife and I are considering a fixed location My Gym, we’re researching as much as we can. It’d be great to hear more about your experiences, please let me know if you’d like to connect.
Hi Lorna, Adrien and Wendy,
We are also thinking about owning a My Gym fixed franchise and would love to hear any experiences and personal opinions on your decisions so far.
Please let me know if you are interested in sharing, thanks.
Good morning, we are also looking for more information about My Gym franchise, if you guys had any experience or found something you didn’t like or actually went through with the idea please let me know!
Thank you!!!!
I would love to hear your thoughts on owning a MyGym franchise.
Thanks!
Hi,we are also looking into my gym franchise. Would love to hear your thoughts- pros and cons.Thank you very much.
Hello, I would love to hear the pros and/or cons about franchising a MyGym as well. I am very interested in the franchise business.
I am very interested in any information on My Gym franchise. I just recently came across a location in Exton, PA and was thinking it would be an asset to my hometown in Arkansas.
Thank you in advance.
Owning a My Gym for the past 10 years was the best business decision I ever made. It has been very profitable and the assistance from corporate if ever needed was immediate. I can’t say enough about how wonderful this franchise is and how good it makes you feel to just walk in the door.
Hi Beth,
I would love to talk to you about your experiences owning a My Gym. I am very interested in opening a fixed locations and would like to hear more about the business advantages and disadvantages.
What does the average gym turn per year in profit?
Hello,
If someone could also provide me with the pros and cons for owning a my gym it’d be much appreciated! I’m very interested.
I’m also interested in opening a my gym and would love to hear from others who have experience – both pros and cons.
If anyone who has started one of these in the last two years could share their experiences, good and bad, that would be great. I’m considering a permanent location. Thank you.
Would be interested in learning more from anyone who has opened a my gym in the last 2 years
Thinking of purchasing an up and running “My Gym” franchise both fixed and mobile and I really need all the advise I can gather!! Please reach out to me to discuss!
To those of you considering purchasing a My Gym – Your Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) should provide the names of previous and current owners. Make sure you speak to several previous and current owners and not just ones that My Gym provide as references. If you’re purchasing an existing location, make sure you understand the real reason the location is up for sale. You should also look into how many owners that location has had – lots of changes in ownership is a red flag.
Before signing anything, talk to owners and have your contract reviewed. We constantly hear from people after they sign, making it much more difficult to fight any issues. If you’d like to talk to us about a potential franchise investment, please contact us, no obligation. (Feel free to look us up on this site, our most recent case was against another fitness franchise – Curves)
I am a former My Gym owner. I loved it! There were ups and downs as there will be with any business. What I did find was that My Gym had a great support system in place. If I needed anything, someone would help. I stopped operations and sold my locations because I got tired of it, I had always said when it was not fun for me anymore, it was time to go. The locations continue to thrive under new ownership.
I am interested in opening a soft play for children, but if a franchise is the way to go or do it alone
Hello,
I’m interested in franchising in Canada. I would love to connect with experienced franchise owners. Thank you
Has anyone compared MyGym to The Little Gym? I am seriously considering purchasing one of them, but am curious if anyone did a head-to-head comparison of the two companies.
I owned the Yorktown heights franchise in Westchester county for nearly 4.5 years after teaching with various locations . My career with My Gym spanned nearly 12 years, my entire adult life. I am now homeless and stuck in a never ending cycle of displacement.
I have stories upon stories you should hear before you invest in a My Gym. I’ll share the one that is most appalling: During my time as a first time owner with My Gym, I had a report from a family claiming their child had caught whooping cough from my location. I am single, Male, no kids of my own and unfortunately many of the lesser known terms of child illnesses I was just unaware of. News of this spread like fire over night due to the controversial nature of the mostly eradicated disease and of course Facebook.
Over the course of the next two weeks I was demonized, my staff were harassed, and I had families, families I valued serving, end up cancelling their memberships. My support team at My Gym had me draft the email response to the family whose son was barely breathing in the hospital. I was beyond mortified and in fear for so many reasons. Support gave me no advice I wasn’t already doing by using my own crisis management skills. Support reviewed my email response, approved that it looked good, then called me the next day to follow up with me. That was the end of their involvement in this matter.
After calling friends I had kept in contact with, other owners and directors, all confirmed they had never seen or heard of such a situation. I thought, well at least other owners will benefit from this learning experience. Surely there would be a mass email, a training webinar, something. You would assume. When a child falls off a swing we would get a handful of emails directing us in safe swing hanging, but this? Not a damn thing. No notices were sent informing new franchisees.
This is one example of the franchise you are buying into. Contact corporate and please, ask them yourself if any of this seems inaccurate.
I owned a franchise an affluent suburb of Atlanta for several years. When I started there were several My Gym locations in Georgia. All the locations in the Atlanta area closed. I believe there is one remaining location in Columbus, GA. My experience was owning a My Gym is a lot of work for meager profits. If you’re considering purchasing a franchise, the only way to be successful is to be an owner operator. Hiring someone to run the gym will eat your profits and the gym will not operate efficiently. Corporate support was decent from an operational and training standpoint. The “regional manager” visited my gym twice a year for approximately 30 mins. I never heard from anyone from the corporate office unless I initiated contact. Marketing was non-existent. Not a $1 of the franchise fee was spent on local marketing. Hence you should expect to do any and all marketing for yourself on your own and at your own expense. I sold the gym after realizing I could make more profit doing other things with a lot less effort. The new owner closed the gym after a year for the same reasons I sold the gym.