What is Mission Active?
COVID-19 has displaced millions of workers and in the fitness sector, self-employed personal trainers have been very badly hit by the closure of gyms – in many cases seeing the loss of their regular income. It’s not possible to underestimate the negative impact of this on individuals and families who are seeing a very real threat to their livelihoods.
In every corner of the UK, when gyms do reopen, they’ll do so with significant restrictions and we anticipate many PTs and fitness professionals will be facing a long period of unemployment. This isn’t something we want to see happen.
Mission Active is an initiative aimed at out of work fitness professionals who want to rebuild their businesses with the support of the UK’s most established outdoor fitness franchise – BMF.
We recognise it will be challenging for some PTs and fitness professionals to reach the investment levels required for them to acquire a BMF franchise territory in the normal way. As a result, we’ve committed to creating a £1 million grant programme to support the first hundred PTs who sign up to launch an outdoor fitness territory with BMF.
BMF will provide a £10,000 grant to each successful applicant – as part of the Mission Active initiative – supporting them to acquire a BMF territory of their choice.
In this way, Mission Active will be empowering out of work applicants to become business owners within an industry they’re truly passionate about.
Why should fitness professionals get involved?
PTs are passionate about fitness. Very often they have their own personal mission to empower people to transform their lives through fitness.
There’s never been a more important time to create a national movement that supports the ukactive mission to get more people more active more often. It’s time to provide real, tangible support to our wonderful NHS and work together to improve the health of the nation.
Mission Active is a movement dedicated to extending outdoor fitness opportunities to the hundreds of thousands of people who now need to take fitness more seriously.
BMF was founded more than 20 years ago. It has a clearly recognised brand, world-class programming, a network of professionals, and a raving fan base that – even in the period of the COVID-19 lockdown – achieved a Net Promoter Score of 77.
While other operators froze their memberships, BMF trusted in its tribe of passionate members and was rewarded when 82 per cent of members chose to keep paying their membership as we moved our operations online.
This tells us that BMF’s exceptional customer service – with client satisfaction ratings on a par with Apple – is the key to retaining clients and building profitability in the future.
BMF brings all that brand value and support to every BMF franchise business. PTs and professionals will feel the value of the training, peer group support and professional advice very quickly and, more importantly, see the results in their bank balance.
We believe many fitness professionals will
be displaced by the pandemic and we aim to
create an unprecedented, affordable franchise
opportunity that will offer them an income
and a means to sustain their passion
What’s the timescale of this offering?
We’re committed to providing the first hundred personal trainers with the grant opportunity for as long as it takes. The reality is we don’t expect these grants to be around for very long because we expect take-up to be high.
What commercial opportunities do you see for BMF?
BMF has dominated the outdoor fitness market since its inception. It will continue to do so and in the next few years, will extend its footprint internationally.
We have a well developed online learning platform and our at-home programme is hugely popular with our client base.
We see significant commercial opportunity to build a blended outdoor and at-home offer in the years ahead. We’re also working very closely with health professionals in the NHS.
The NHS believes that aiding patient recovery and helping people boost their immune system must take greater priority in the post-COVID-19 period. This means there’s significant commercial opportunity for innovative fitness operators to reach out to the 85 per cent of people who don’t currently use a gym.
We believe outdoor exercise will rapidly increase in popularity when lockdown ends, as it can be socially distanced more easily and brings with it all the benefits of fresh air and community engagement.