Contours Express vs Iron Tribe Fitness Franchise Comparison

Below is an in-depth analysis and side-by-side comparison of Contours Express vs Iron Tribe Fitness including start-up costs and fees, business experience requirements, training & support and financing options.

Start-Up Costs and Fees
 
Contours Express Franchise
Iron Tribe Fitness Franchise
Investment $35,000 - $50,000$300,000 - $433,500
Franchise Fee $12,500$42,000
Royalty Fee $395/mo.6%
Advertising Fee -1%
Year Founded 19982010
Year Franchised 19982012
Term Of Agreement 10 years-
Term Of Agreement 10 years-
Renewal Fee --


Business Experience Requirements
 
Contours Express Franchise
Iron Tribe Fitness Franchise
Experience --

Financing Options
 
Contours Express Franchise
Iron Tribe Fitness Franchise
  In-House/3rd PartyIn-House/3rd Party
Franchise Fees No/No-/-
Start-up Costs No/No-/-
Equipment No/Yes-/-
Inventory No/No-/-
Receivables No/No-/-
Payroll No/No-/-

Training & Support
 
Contours Express Franchise
Iron Tribe Fitness Franchise
Training - On-The-Job Training: 20 hours Additional Training: Online pre-training course
Support Newsletter, Meetings, Toll-free phone line, Grand opening, Internet

# Protected Territory # 5 days of Training at Contours Express University # 3-Day Training at your gym # Adjustable Weight Stack Equipment # 16 Stations - 4 extra stations optional # Butt-n-Gut cd # Preferred Vendor Discounts # Unlimited Ongoing Training # Advertising and Marketing Advice # 24/7 Online Marketing Materials Library # Personal Gym Website # Prepared PowerPoint Marketing Presentations # Nutritional Counseling Program - C.O.R.E. # Site Selection Assistance

Purchasing Co-ops Newsletter Meetings/Conventions Toll-Free Line Grand Opening Online Support Security/Safety Procedures Field Operations Site Selection Proprietary Software Franchisee Intranet Platform
Marketing Ad slicks Co-op Advertising Ad Templates National Media Regional Advertising Social media SEO Website development Email marketing Loyalty program/app
Operations 50% of all franchisees own more than one unit

Number of employees needed to run franchised unit: 2

Absentee ownership of franchise is allowed. (50% of current franchisees are owner/operators)

 Absentee Ownership Allowed Number of Employees Required to Run: 5

Expansion Plans
 
Contours Express Franchise
Iron Tribe Fitness Franchise
US Expansion -Yes
Canada Expansion No-
International Expansion Yes-

Company Overviews

About Contours Express

After operating coed clubs, working as consultants and working in other areas of the fitness industry, Daren Carter, Mike Widener and Charlie Woodward joined forces to create a fitness center just for women. In 1998, the partners founded Contours Express, a women-only center catering to towns with populations too small to support a full-scale, coed gym.

Contours Express members follow a 29-minute cue tape that keeps them moving through aerobic stations and strength training machines. A fitness trainer (the franchisee or an employee) works with the members during their workouts, providing motivation and other services.

Clubs, which are usually located in strip centers, are about 1,200 square feet in size and can accommodate up to 20 members at a time.

About Iron Tribe Fitness

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Iron Tribe was founded by fitness industry veteran, Forrest Walden, back in 2008 in his 400 square foot garage. Initially, it was just to have a place for Forrest to do group-based workouts with his friends because he couldn’t find anywhere locally that offered the right amount of space and equipment. There was no charge to belong, but you had to have a personal invite. "The  As more and more friends begged to come and join his garage gym, Forrest began to dream about what it would look like to start a brand-new concept that would take his team-based, group workouts to the next level and allow more lives to be impacted. The first official Iron Tribe location opened in February of 2010. The response from the community was immediate and overwhelming. In fact, the 250 membership cap was reached in under 8 months with a growing waiting list .
That location has operated at max capacity since  September of 2010 eventually moving across the street and expanding the location to serve 300 clients.