Our journey as Snap Fitness multi-gym owners

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about franchising, it’s this: if you wait until you feel completely ready, you’ll be waiting forever.

Becoming a multi-site gym owner wasn’t a happy accident or a last-minute decision, it was always the plan. From the very beginning, this journey has been a partnership with my husband, Gurnake. In fact, he was the one who first properly explored fitness franchising, spending time researching models, comparing brands, and asking the less glamorous questions around systems, scalability, and long-term sustainability. From day one, we were aligned: if we were going to enter fitness, we would do it with scale in mind.

That mindset didn’t come out of nowhere. Before fitness, we followed a similar path in hospitality by starting with one site and growing into a multi-site operation. Different industry, same fundamentals. We already understood what it takes to manage multiple teams, balance performance across locations, and build businesses that don’t rely on one person being everywhere at once.

Learning fitness from the inside

I came into fitness as a gym user, not a gym operator and there’s a big difference. Owning gyms means quickly learning about member behaviour, retention, staffing structures, personal training economics, and the operational reality behind what members actually experience day to day.

Early on, we divided responsibilities based on strengths. My husband leads on operations, maintenance, HR, marketing, and supplier relationships. I focus on performance, growth, and strategy. That balance made one thing very clear very quickly: multi-site growth is not a solo effort.

One of the most important lessons we learned early was the value of trusting the system and the playbook in front of us. Franchising works best when you resist the urge to be the hero and instead commit to following what’s proven. Much of this thinking aligns with the philosophy set out by Scott Greenberg in The Wealthy Franchisee; that sustainable success comes from discipline, consistency, and trusting the system rather than trying to outwork or outsmart it.

How the industry and member expectations have changed

The fitness industry has changed significantly since we opened our first site four years ago and members have evolved just as quickly.

Today’s members are more informed, more selective, and far more experience-led. They care about how a club feels, not just what equipment it has. Recovery, flexibility, wellbeing, and community now sit alongside strength and cardio as standard expectations, not “nice-to-haves”.

By the time we opened our third site, we were building very differently. We focused heavily on future-proofing and designing spaces that are adaptable. This means choosing layouts and equipment that allow flexibility and use technology that enables us to respond to changing trends rather than constantly chase them.

The goal isn’t to build clubs that are perfect for today only, but clubs that can evolve without needing a complete rethink every time the industry shifts.

Confidence comes from repetition

Confidence didn’t arrive with our first site. It arrived when we opened the second and realised the success wasn’t luck - it was repeatable.

By the third club, decision-making became sharper. Processes were clearer. Supplier relationships were stronger. Cost control was tighter. There were far fewer “we’ll deal with that later” moments - our experience teaches you those are usually the most expensive words in business.

The systems and support within the Snap Fitness network played a big role here. Standardisation doesn’t limit creativity; it creates stability. It allows you to delegate properly, maintain consistency across sites, and scale without reinventing the wheel every time.

Growth without ego

For us, scaling has never been about chasing numbers or opening sites for the sake of it. It’s been about building good habits, tightening operations, and getting better with every step.

The biggest unlock came when we fully embraced that we didn’t need to be indispensable. Trusting the playbook, trusting the people, and sticking to the system created far more progress than trying to do everything ourselves ever could.

Investing in your team early and surrounding yourself with the right people makes everything else possible. Skills can be taught. Ownership, accountability, and attitude cannot.

What’s next

We’ve now opened our third club, with a fourth already planned and fit-out expected to begin later this year. The excitement hasn’t gone away - it’s simply become more focused.

Multi-site growth isn’t one dramatic leap. It’s a series of well-judged steps, taken with the right partner beside you, the right people around you, and the discipline to follow the system even when it feels tempting to improvise.

We’re very much looking forward to the next chapter.