Athletech News – The Stretch Zone Approach
The goals of Stretch Zone clients are taken into account in order to deliver the optimal assisted stretching routine, which is paramount to the franchisor.
“We always strive to design programs unique to the individual because it’s understanding that longevity means completely different things to every single individual, depending on what your goal is,” said Zaccario. “That’s why we’re adamant for our franchisees and their team members to understand why a person is even interested in a stretching routine and what are the differences they want to make in their life.”
Fully confident in the life-changing service it can provide to guests, Stretch Zone offers a complimentary assisted stretching session for those new to its studios. While the “first stretch free” concept may go against the grain, Zaccario says it’s been a big piece of spreading the word early on.
“People could see the difference firsthand immediately,” he said of the complimentary stretches. “The other big piece is that it’s such a great service.”
As Stretch Zone continues to grow, Zaccario shares that the process has been very organic, with stores as far as Anchorage, Alaska.
“We’re well on our way and pretty close to the 350 mark as far as open locations by the end of the year and 500 open locations across the country next year,” Zaccario said. “It starts with finding good people with good human characteristics.”
Aside from passionate franchisees, Stretch Zone is relatively easy to launch.
“We’ve developed a really robust and proven business model,” he said. “We’re not necessarily looking for people to reinvent the wheel. We just want people that want to take the playbook and run with it.” According to Zaccario, the process comes down to good people doing good things.
“When you find good franchisees who are good human beings and care about the service and care about the communities, they’re likely to attract good individuals within their respective communities who are going to take and give the utmost care of their clientele,” he says.
For those looking to enter franchising, Zaccario advises prospective franchisees to find something they are passionate about, while also keeping one thing in mind: “As much as you are buying a product, you’re buying a business model,” he explained.
Zaccario also advises franchisee prospects to do their own research and talk to existing franchisees.
“A franchisor should never shy away from having you talk to existing franchisees or even old franchisees if it’s a good brand and a good product,” he points out. “I think that that level of transparency has been paramount to our growth and a big reason why we have 300+ stores, because we’re not going to shy away from any of that because we try to run everything the right way and stay on the up and up.”
“A franchisor should never shy away from having you talk to existing franchisees or even old franchisees if it’s a good brand and a good product. I think that, that level of transparency has been paramount to our growth and a big reason why we have 300+ stores.”
— Tony Zaccario, President and CEO, Stretch Zone
