Mom Turns Love of Fitness Into a Million Dollar Franchise

After her son was born, Lisa Druxman wanted to stay home with her kids, but she still needed a full time income.

One day while walking with her baby in his stroller, she had an “ah-ha!” moment when she realized she could start a business teaching classes that helped other moms get back into shape.

That day, in August 2001 she came up with the name of her company…Stroller Strides.

Lisa Druxman wasn’t aware that her business idea would fill a need across the country. Mothers who needed to get back into shape after having their babies were also looking for support from other mothers. Lisa’s classes would fulfill that need.

Lisa initially started offering classes to a few moms around her San Diego neighborhood. One day the local news called her because they needed someone for a new story the next morning. In the news interview she was able to pitch her small Stroller Strides business. Because she was just starting out, she had to put her personal email and phone number on the screen of the T.V. When she got home she had 75 emails.

She realized this was a great opportunity.

She started getting requests for classes all over San Diego, so she kept adding more. By the end of the first year, she had over 12 classes and 1000 moms participating in San Diego.

During that first year, she got requests for classes all over the country. She really didn’t know how to provide that until one of her instructors said she was moving and wanted to start classes in her new town. She realized she could franchise her business.

Lisa agreed to give her all of the plans to run her own classes and it was an absolute success.

She then decided to release 10 “beta” locations across the country to see how it would work in other cities. She learned a lot, tweaked a few things and in the end the franchised Stroller Strides classes took off like wildfire.

She hired attorneys, worked with consultants and joined the International Franchise Association. Stroller Strides is now franchised across the country and has nearly 200 franchisees. Her sales for 2006 were $2 million.

She offers her franchises for $3,000 - $6,000 with a monthly fee of $160 - $380 depending on the size of the area you live in. This includes a start up kit, operations and marketing manual, instructor training DVD’s, PR program for local publicity and much, much more! If you are interested here’s the franchise website.