By Pete Hull, Founder and CEO, Fitstop
Building a franchise system across four countries teaches you things you can’t learn from reports or expansion playbooks alone. You learn them by watching the same model land differently in different markets, then being willing to understand why.
The question I keep coming back to is not whether a concept works. By the time you are thinking about international expansion, you have already answered that. The harder question is whether it travels.
The most challenging part of international expansion is not usually the logistics. It is the assumptions. A proven model tells you the system works somewhere. It does not prove the system can work somewhere new.
The brands winning internationally are not just the ones with the best systems. They are the ones that know which parts of the model create the outcome, which parts need local flexibility and where compromise would weaken the brand.
What the Data Reveals About International Expansion
A Cornell University study of international master franchise agreements found that only 39% of international master franchisees were still operating at the end of their development periods. The failures cited most often were not operational. They were relational. Franchisors did not understand the local market, support was inadequate, and the model had not been adapted with enough discipline.
Research published in AIB Insights, the journal of the Academy of International Business, reinforces the same point – brands that struggle internationally often standardize across markets instead of understanding the model deeply enough to adapt intelligently. Those that succeed know which elements must hold and which must flex.
The most dangerous assumptions are often the ones that feel reasonable – that another country can’t be that different, that your core member is the same everywhere, or that your culture will automatically translate. Those things may prove true, but they can’t be assumed.
Why Consumer Behavior Is the Variable Franchisors Underestimate
When Starbucks entered Australia, it brought a globally recognized brand and a model proven across thousands of locations. It still closed more than 70% of its Australian stores within two years. That was not because the product lacked quality. It was because product quality and cultural fit are not the same thing.
Fitness brands face the same challenge in more personal ways. The product is not just the workout on the floor. It is the coach’s tone, the way accountability is delivered, the role of competition, the social dynamic in the room and the member’s expectation of progress.
In some markets, members respond to a coach who challenges them directly. In others, that same energy can feel aggressive or disconnected. The same session that drives retention in one market can quietly erode trust in another, and your data will often tell you something is wrong before it tells you why.
Confidence that a model can travel has to be earned through evidence – how members respond, how coaches deliver, how franchisees lead and whether the experience holds beyond the initial launch.
Why the Right Franchisee Determines the Market
This is where international expansion often goes wrong. A brand enters a new market, selects a franchisee based on capital and enthusiasm, then discovers too late that the operator has no real roots in the community they are expected to build. Capital matters, but it can’t replace local credibility, operational discipline and genuine belief in the product.
MSA Worldwide, which has advised franchisors on international growth for decades, has long emphasized that franchisee selection is one of the most critical decisions a franchisor makes. In international expansion, the wrong choice can weaken your market position before you have had a chance to correct it. You are risking the brand narrative and the market’s early proof of concept.
The U.S. adds another layer to this. Local knowledge is not a nice-to-have here. It is a critical selection criterion. Our Houston franchisee, Victor Guo, is a good example of why alignment matters. Before joining Fitstop, he evaluated a number of boutique fitness concepts. What mattered was not just the category opportunity, but the combination of structured programming, real coaching and a team-based environment.
That conviction matters because early franchisees do more than open locations. They set the standard for how the brand is understood.
What the U.S. Market Demands
The U.S. fitness consumer has seen almost every version of boutique fitness. They know quickly whether a brand is built for long-term outcomes or just a strong opening. Being new to a market is not a value proposition. You win on what happens after the first session, the first month and the first year. Opening momentum matters, but retention is the scorecard that tells you whether the model is working.
The U.S. also has a franchise culture that holds brands to a high standard. Prospective owners ask hard questions before they sign about unit economics, market ramp-up, local support and what the franchisor provides beyond opening day. That scrutiny is healthy. It forces franchisors to prove the opportunity is not only compelling, but supportable in practice.
Knowing What Can Adapt and What Can’t
The things that can’t move are the things that make the model work. For Fitstop, that means structured, progressive programming led by accredited coaches. The coaching standard and progression of the member experience are structural, and they are non-negotiable in every market.
How you communicate, activate locally, build partnerships and create community moments is contextual. That should adapt. The strongest franchisors draw that line before they expand. They know what must be protected and what needs to change.
We are not trying to be the fastest fitness franchise to scale in the U.S. We are focused on building the right locations with the right partners and letting each community prove the model. Asking whether your model is proven is the easy question. Building one that can travel without losing what made it work is where international expansion is won or lost.