LEADERSHIP
Kate and Mike Davidson
FRANCHISE FIT Operating as a personal trainer is entirely different from running a franchise, says award-winning Kate Davidson. By Sarah Stowe
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t was a series of decisions and events that led Kate from her role in public service to business ownership, and she has made the most of her unexpected journey. Studying health and fitness while still in the public service led her to a PT role with a local studio. Just one year later and Kate and her husband were on the move, relocating for his career from Brisbane to Noosa. Kate had no idea this location shift would take her down the path to being an award-winning franchisee. “That’s when I came across EFM Health Clubs. I was doing bootcamp and personal training.” Kate had notched up 10 months as a casual fitness coach at the local EFM club when the franchisee offered to sell her the business, and it was just too tempting to resist. “I hadn’t really thought properly about running my own business but it’s always in the back of your mind. It is hard to run a PT business, it’s hard to keep up your numbers, but I’d never really taken any steps towards it,” she says. It proved to be the right move, even though there were challenges. “The studio had been open for seven and a half years
when I took over. The first challenge was the transition. In the members’ mind I had gone from part-time casual coach to new owner. The previous owner was very popular and no one had any idea he was selling. “I knew everybody but people don’t like change. It took some members a little while to adapt.” Kate says the transition from casual coach to fullyfledged business owner was quite quick – and she learned fast how different the two roles are. “Running a PT business isn’t like running a franchise. I was learning everything on the job. We did have franchise training and I spent a lot of time with the support office. EFM does have lots of internal processes and systems that work well and are user-friendly. You can call anyone at any time. But there’s a lot to learn,” she admits. “But there is so much support and financial systems, membership-based systems, social media, EFM deals with the website. They provide us with promo details and marketing materials. There’s a lot of additional work and it’s very helpful to have the extras.” Kate had no second thoughts about her choice of business, or the brand, and because she had done thorough due diligence before actually buying the franchise, she was confident in her choice.
FEB/APR 2020 | 56 | WWW.FRANCHISEBUSINESS.COM.AU
