Feb 1, 2008 12:00 PM

Children’s fitness facilities are also catering to parents by offering exercise programs and services for more than their young members.

McGuire plans to break even within the first year with his PowerKidz club, which opened in November 2007. He and his co-owners invested $100,000 — including $18,000 in the equipment — and plan to grow the memberships from 80 in mid-December to 500 by summer.

While the owners of Peekadoodle and PowerKidz expect to see a fast return on investment, Josh Kuklak , owner of Fitwize 4 Kids, forecasts a longer rate of return. He paid about $400,000 to launch his franchised center and expects to get a return on investment in about three or four years. Katz of movinNgroovin also thinks it will take a few years to see a return on investment at his family fitness center. He spent between $250,000 and $300,000, which includes $70,000 to $75,000 for equipment and specialized flooring for the dance studios.

Although launching a family fitness center often requires a significant investment, any fitness facility can cater to families by offering programming for babies through adults, Kibler says. As childhood obesity continues to grow by leaps and bounds, clubs need to start offering kids' programs, and fitness facilities need to find a way to allow parents and children to exercise together, she says.

“Our big belief is that in order to instill the joy of fitness and activity in the child, you should have their best role models participate in the program,” she says. “By dropping your kids here or there, parents can lose their connection to their children. If a family can go to a center or class together, they can spend time communicating, enjoying each other and exercising.”

One-Stop Shop

Along with getting a good workout, parents can also knock out a few errands at some family fitness centers. Parents nationwide are looking for the same thing — a one-stop shop, says Ellen Park, co-founder of Peekadoodle in San Francisco. When her partner and she designed the center, they thought about all the things they would want to have for their own kids. Their vision included not only fitness programming and child development classes but also a padded indoor playground, an organic café, a kid-friendly hair salon and a child care room.

Kidville, a New York-based center that is set to open 250 locations this year, offers an indoor playground and more than 100 classes for babies through 5-year-olds, and it also pampers moms with manicures and massages in its in-house salons.

Not all family fitness centers, however, need to offer multiple services under one roof. Sometimes, strategic placement can help business owners cater to busy parents. For example, PowerKidz is located in a strip mall with a hair salon, a nail salon, a tanning center and a Starbucks, so when parents drop their children at the club, they have somewhere close by to go where they can relax and get things done.

Five Ways to Increase Retention at Family Fitness Centers

• Keep it clean

  By maintaining a clean environment , you'll keep parents and kids coming back. At Peekadoodle Kids Club in San Francisco, non-alcoholic hand sanitizer is available to members, and the staff uses green products to clean the toys and equipment.

• Offer age-appropriate programming

  Design classes that are tailored for specific age groups, whether you're targeting babies, toddlers, grade schoolers, teens or adults.

• Be realistic on pricing

  If you are a parent, consider how much you would be willing to spend for programming and services for your own children.

• Hire qualified staff

  Employ instructors who love children and are flexible. Club owners should run their staff's fingerprints through the Federal Bureau of Investigations for extra protection, says Celia Kibler, co-owner of FunFit in Rockville, MD. To meet the needs of your adult clientele, make sure they are also experienced and qualified, she says.

• Offer flexible fitness packages

  Rather than charging adults by the month for adult fitness classes, consider selling a package of classes that can be used anytime.

Spotlight on Children's Club Memberships

The International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association estimates that about 4.1 million children under the age of 18 have a health club membership, 24 percent of facilities offer some kind of children's programming, and children ages 6 to 17 are the second-fastest growing demographic of members. Here is how the market for child memberships has changed over the last 20 years.

Children (ages 6-17) Membership Numbers:

• 1987 (benchmark): 1.3 million
• 2000: 3.2 million
• 2002: 3.9 million
• 2003: 4.5 million
• 2004: 4.6 million
• 2005: 5.1 million
• 2006: 4.1 million

Source: IHRSA

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