Starting your own business, even at the best of times, can cause the odd sleepless night. Even when you have the support of a successful and well-established franchise organisation behind you.
With the economy still struggling to regain its feet after a series of recent setbacks, you might feel even less inclined to ‘give it a go’ right now. However, before you give up on the dream of doing your own thing, this blog is worth a read. It might even change your mind.
Bucking the trend
The fact is, even when the general economy is struggling, some sectors will always buck the trend. Take the technology sector during those long periods of lockdown, for example, that flourished with the sudden need for ‘working from home’.
One sector doing particularly well right now is health and fitness. The pandemic changed many people’s attitude to the way they look after themselves. According to industry research, 79 percent of people agree their health is more of a priority now than it was just three years ago. They’re doing something about it, too, with 58 percent now exercising at least once a week[1].
Changing attitudes
Many of us are new taking active steps to look after ourselves better. This covers everything from eating better, sleeping longer, safeguarding our mental health and maintaining physical fitness.
Over a third of consumers around the world report they “probably” or “definitely” plan to increase spending on nutrition apps, diet programs, juice cleanses, and subscription food services. At the same time, more and more people are turning to vegetarian and vegan diets.
As regards sleep, more people are understanding the impact this can have on general wellbeing. Half of consumers surveyed around the world declared a desire for more products and services to meet the need for more fulfilling rest.
Mindfulness became a particular focus during the long periods of lockdown and is now a priority in the corporate arena as well as at home. Hybrid working, and the avoidance of the daily commute on certain days, has resulted in a more rewarding work-life balance for many.
79 percent of the UK population feel their health has become more important over the last three years[2]. While gym memberships have decreased by 4.7 percent from 2019 to 2022, people are finding new cheaper ways to exercise, largely because of the current cost of living crisis. That includes jogging, walking, cycling and swimming.
Increasing popularity of swimming
Talking of swimming, this is an activity that over 4 million people in the UK do at least twice a month[3], making it one of the most popular forms of physical activity. To give you another idea of the scale of interest in swimming, there are over 750,000 searches each year in the UK for “Swimming Pool Near Me”[4].
With the whole health and fitness sector booming, now might be the perfect time to set up your own business with Swimtime. We are the UK’s largest independent swim school and a flourishing franchise network. Becoming a franchisee for a business like ours is a different way of starting your own business.
Set up over 25 years ago, Swimtime is proud to be setting the highest standards with all of our teachers highly qualified to ensure swimmers receive a safe, fun and rewarding experience. Better still, a Swimtime franchise comes with a ready-mate support network that’s always there when you need it. You’ll get none of that reassurance and assistance if you decided to set up your own business from scratch.
Less than 5% of franchises fail
According to a recent survey, around 90 percent of franchisees reported being profitable after just two years. Compare that with around 50 percent of all independent businesses that will go under within the same time frame.
The odds for success seem to favour franchise holders, especially if you’re part of a flourishing and well-established organisation like Swimtime.
Territories within the Swimtime franchise network vary in size and you can expect average turnover ranging between £100,000 and £500,000 with average net profit of 20%.
What’s more, we’re a British Franchise Association (BFA) accredited operator. That gives you the reassurance of knowing you’ll be joining an ethical organisation that has consistently proved it does things in the right way.
If you’d like to find out more about Swimtime and our successful franchise model, please just follow this link. We’d love to hear from you and we’ll be delighted to answer any questions you might have with no obligation whatsoever.
Sources
[1] https://www.puregym.com/blog/uk-fitness-report-gym-statistics/#:~:text=Our%20research%20found%20that%2079,34%25
[2] https://www.puregym.com/blog/uk-fitness-report-gym-statistics/
