Iron Bodyfit – The Power of Electro Muscle Stimulation

We interviewed Hadri Jaffal, the Head of Development & Strategy of Iron Bodyfit (website Link). He talked about the start of Iron Bodyfit (IB), a new EMS and fitness studios franchise business, and the challenges they faced in the early years.

1. How did you enter the franchise business?

2. Where and how did the idea of your concept come from?

3. What inspired the brand name IRON BODYFIT ?

Iron is a strong word that doesn’t need to be explained!

When you put IRON and BODY together, you don’t have to explain what you do. People directly understand that it means you will do something on your body and make it stronger.

It reflects performance results, and this is what we were looking for – a STRONG name.

Iron Bodyfit Logo

4. What is the story behind the brand’s logo?

This story is crazy because at the beginning we were some bad entrepreneurs and we copy superman for the logo. But reality came very fast and we received a mail from DC comics that ask us to change it immediately. We adapted it, proposed for them our new logo and they approved.

5. What makes your brand different from your competitors?

The brand does not make the difference – this is what we create behind this brand, this is the values of the company. IB is a disruptive company which has the mission to help people and make them happy. Make clients happy, make franchisees happy, make our partners happy. The first goal of IB is not to make money, making money is a consequence of our values. We create a real difference for people we really add values in their life and this is what we promote everyday.

6. What are the essential qualities that you look for in a franchisee?

We are looking for franchisees with the same values. There is not a certain profile of an IB franchisee. They can be a man or a woman, experienced or not, have money or not, that is not what really matters.

The most important thing is that they really believe that EMS (Electro Muscle Stimulation) is a great activity and we can promote wealth by our body, to work with people who love other people and want to be a game-changer for their clients.

7. How long does it take, on average, for your franchisee to realize their investment?

On average, it take 3 to 6 months to open a studio.

8. What was the major challenge you faced in your career, and how did you overcome it?

The major challenge we faced was to manage the growth of the company. It is really hard and dangerous.

We decided to go fast and to organize as we can at the same time but we stayed focused on the growth and to continue to grow faster. When you grow there is solution for everything and this is what happened for us.

8.1.What is your best achievement?

Our best achievement is the success of the French franchisees. We were in a seminar last week and we saw that 85% of the franchisees achieved their financial goals and made profits even in the first year of their activity. This is the most important thing for us.

9. How does your business day start?

My business day start with a 6-miles running session followed by a 30 minutes workout. After that I take care of my children ant bring them to school. After that we can change the world.

10. What was your best moment throughout your franchise career?

I can not identify my best moment because there are too many of them. The first seminar, our second fitness entertainment in PARIS was crazy. All the seminars are very emotional! We keep a crazy memory of them.

I think to be a franchisor is like being a father. It is all in the journey that you remember and make you fall in love. The bad moments and the wonderful ones.

11. Where do you see your brand in the next 5 years?

In the next five years we will be the leader of EMS market in the world. When people speak about EMS, everybody will think immediately about IRON BODYFIT.

We want to be the MCDONALD’S of EMS! And with what is happening now, our road is paved straight. We just have to accelerate and stay focused.

11. Any tips you want to impart to our readers who want to be in the franchise industry?

• The franchise industry is not a financial game but a people’s game.
• If you want to get involved in a franchise game, you MUST love people and be able to be in a group.
• You MUST have goals and make a real difference in people’s life.

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