An Array of Workouts Plus Nutritional Guidance Prompted Fitness Enthusiast Sandra Calkins To Franchise with Burn Boot Camp

Certified personal trainer Sandra Calkins has had a lifelong love of fitness, but she never imagined it would lead her down the business ownership path.

Then she came across Burn Boot Camp.

Founded in 2012 by husband-and-wife team Devan and Morgan Kline, Burn Boot Camp prides itself on providing members with five keys to success: Mindset, Burst Training, Strength Training, Organic Whole Nutrition and Community. The brand has grown to more than 225 gyms with over 200 more in development.

Calkins’ relationship with the brand started when she took camps at her local Burn Boot Camp in Westchase, Florida after giving birth to her daughter. She immediately became hooked.

“At that time, I was looking to get back in touch with the pre-marriage and pre-baby Sandra because you kind of lose yourself after being married and having a child,” Calkins said. “You just melt into mom-mode. Being a part of Burn Boot Camp allowed me to reconnect with my passion for fitness and feel secure.”

Within six months, she was working as a trainer for the brand and constantly telling her husband how much she loved her job. They decided to look into franchising and reached out to company headquarters.

“Since I had literally worked every role, I felt very confident that I knew what it took to run a Burn Boot Camp myself,” Calkins said.

She signed a three-unit deal with the fitness brand in early 2019 and her first gym opened in Palm Harbor, Florida in September 2019. Her other two gyms will be in the Tampa area and are scheduled to open in 2020.

Burn Boot Camp’s variety of creative workouts, as well as the one-on-one focus meetings it offers members, prompted Calkins to sign with the brand.

“Burn keeps me on my toes and it’s never the same workout twice,” she said. “You’re always on the move. Before you know it, the 45 minutes are over.”

Then there was the brand’s nutritional guidance. Burn Boot Camp offers members nutritional guidance to complement their workouts and help them reach their fitness goals. Even though Calkins was already passionate about fitness and healthy eating when she became a Burn Boot Camp member, she still found the nutritional guidance helpful.

“You don’t get that kind of support at any other gym,” Calkins said. “I dropped 15 pounds and was able to go from 22% body fat to 15%. I’m the proof in the pudding. I knew all the right things to do, but it was the support from the trainers and the community that made the difference.”

Calkins Palm Harbor location has been well-received partly because there is a scarcity of gyms in the area that offer the same experience.

“All the other gyms in the area don’t emphasize the importance of childwatch like Burn Boot Camp does,” Calkins said. “When you look at other gyms, some of them don’t even offer childwatch. We’re very unique because childwatch is just as much of a selling point as the workout itself. You want the kids to be just as engaged as the moms working out.”

Calkins noted how the children, in fact, love Burn Boot Camp just as much as their mothers do and can also be huge motivators.

“There’s this running joke that’s been told by many moms wherein the mom doesn’t want to go work out some days, but the kids get very upset because they want to go,” Calkins said. “It’s a double support system. There’s a strong sense of community here, and your kids act as your accountability partners if you don’t want to go.”

And she cannot forget the sense of community.

“People can come in and make friends who have the same goals as they do,” she said. “You want to surround yourself with people who motivate and support your goals, and Burn gives you that. It’s more fun to work out with people just as excited as you are about becoming a better version of yourself.”

When it comes to community involvement, Calkins is taking a proactive outreach approach and connecting with children-focused enterprises.

“I’ve connected with other small businesses like Little Explorers––a learning center for kids where classes are focused on music, story reading, dancing and sensory exposure,” she said. “I also work with Foster Florida, where people can donate supplies and toys for children, and Lotz of Blessings, who inspire families to work together to help others in the community.”

Calkins is thrilled she chose to take the step to business ownership with Burn Boot Camp and credits her child for igniting her passion for fitness.

“If it wasn’t for my daughter, I wouldn’t have been motivated to ride this wave and finally pursue this longtime dream of mine,” she said.

The startup costs for a Burn Boot Camp franchise range from $148,830 to $353,150. The franchise fee is $40,000 for one unit and $100,000 for a triple-unit deal. To learn more about franchising with Burn Boot Camp, visit ***