Is a Franchise Worth It at 50? What Club Pilates Buyers Were Told

By Shannon Nicole, Founder, Switch to America · September 27, 2026
Published September 27, 2026 · Last updated September 27, 2026

It is eleven at night. The binder is on the dining table under one lamp, thick as a phone book. You have read the words "semi-absentee" more than once.

No shame in wanting that.

What were Club Pilates and Pure Barre buyers told?

Quick answer: about six months to open. The FTC says 5 in 100 Club Pilates studios sold in 2022 opened inside a year.

Every franchise must hand you a long document before you sign. Item 11 says how long a typical owner takes to open.

Xponential's paperwork said about six months. The FTC's complaint quotes it: "approximately six (6) months."

The FTC says the real average was more than 12 months. That covers January 2020 to August 2024. For Pure Barre owners who opened in 2022, it was over 17 months.

The FTC says that 5 in 100 came from Xponential's own report, on US and Canada studios.

Some never opened at all. Thousands of deals were signed from 2020 to 2024. The FTC says "hundreds of them never opened their studios for classes."

Now look at the contract. It said open in six months. Maryland's April 2026 order says what happened if you missed it. Xponential could end the deal and keep your fee.

The FTC says that fee averaged $45,000 a studio. That is before the rent, the build-out and the staff.

What does a late opening cost you at 50?

Quick answer: the rent and the fees keep coming while the doors stay shut. And a ten-year clock is running.

Say you sign at 50. The FTC says these were 10-year deals. So you are 60 before it ends.

Now spend the first year waiting, lease signed. The FTC quotes one owner's list of what her delay cost. It included "continued rent payments with no corresponding revenue."

The FTC says owners also paid "numerous monthly fees" to Xponential while they waited.

And the fee does not come back if you walk. The FTC calls it "non-refundable." Then a two-year ban on opening another fitness studio follows you out the door.

The pitch, the FTC says, was a "semi-absentee" business at 10 to 15 hours a week. The FTC's words for the real thing: "the investment of time and money is substantial."

Isn't a franchise safer than starting from scratch?

Quick answer: it can be. The law gives you 14 days and a list of the owners who left. Call that list.

The other side is real, too. The FTC said in March that about 2,500 Xponential studios were open in the US. Somebody opened every one of them.

And a franchise gives you things a blank page cannot. A name people know. A system somebody already tested.

So do not buy one off the brochure. Buy it off the filings, and the law is on your side.

You get the full document at least 14 days before you sign or pay. The FTC's buyer guide says so. Item 20 must list the owners who left last year. It must say how to reach them.

The Xponential file, side by side.

The question	What the paperwork said	What the filings say
How long to open	"Approximately six (6) months"	Over 12 months on average, 2020 to 2024 (FTC)
When a studio counts as open	Not explained	When it began selling memberships, doors still shut (Maryland)
If you miss six months	You must open in six months	The company could end the deal and keep your fee (Maryland)
Owners who left	Listed in Item 20	Many listed only at a closed studio's phone or a shut-off email (FTC and Maryland)

The right side came out years later.

What should you get before you sign anything?

Quick answer: two dates from every recent owner, and a phone call to the ones who left.

Ask for the opening dates, not the average

Ask for the day each of the last twenty owners signed. Then ask for the day each one held a first class.

Ask it that way on purpose. Xponential told Maryland it counted a studio as open when it started selling memberships. The doors were still shut.

Measured to the first class, Maryland's table shows 12.0 months on average. Club Pilates came in at 12.1. And that left out studios held up by landlords and permits.

Call the owners who left

Call every one you can.

At Xponential, the FTC says, many of those numbers led nowhere. Maryland found some listings gave the closed studio's phone. Others gave a company email that Xponential switches off when an owner leaves.

So if the number is dead, ask why. That is an answer too.

Look up who really runs it

Item 2 names the people in charge. Item 3 lists who has been sued.

The FTC says Xponential left its own founder off those pages from 2019 to 2024. It says he had been "repeatedly sued for fraud." Type every name into a search bar yourself.

Take all 14 days

If anybody hurries you to sign before day 14, stand up and go home. The FTC says "in many instances" Xponential handed the document over late. Its documents ran 263 pages on average.

What else could you own at 50 without a lease?

Quick answer: customers of your own. No studio to build and no landlord waiting on you.

Here is what I do instead. Switch to America is a private membership store. We are the manufacturer, so there is no middleman and no markup.

There is no lease and no monthly requirement.

Now the part that cuts against me. Maybe you want your name over a front door and a full room at six in the morning. A studio gives you that, and I cannot.

I will not hand you a number to expect, either. Nobody honest can.

Ask me what you would ask a franchise. What does it cost to start, all in? Who gets paid when I start, and how? What happens to my customers if I stop? Where is the income disclosure, and can I read it today?

If anybody dodges one, me included, that is your answer.

Before you sign anything, mine or theirs, sit on a porch with a friend who sells nothing. Read her the table and let her ask the questions.

What else are you asking me about franchises?

Is a franchise a safe way to own a business at 50?

It can be, if the paperwork is true. Get the full document 14 days early, and call the owners who left. You are not being difficult. You are the buyer.

Do you keep paying the franchise if you lose money?

Usually, yes. The FTC's buyer guide says: "Typically, you must pay royalties for the right to use the franchisor's name, even if you are losing money."

Can I get my franchise fee back if I never open?

Do not count on it. The FTC says Xponential's fee was non-refundable. In Maryland, it offered refunds to owners who had not opened on time. The state's April 2026 order says so.

Where do I get a franchise's disclosure document?

Ask the company for it in writing. The FTC says you have the right to a copy once they agree to consider your application.

Here is what I want for you, whether or not we ever speak.

It is a Saturday in October. The binder has been off the dining table for weeks. You gave it a polite no, or a yes you checked line by line. You are on your knees in the garden. Dirt under your nails, a bunch of carrots in your hand. Nothing in your week rests on a number you did not check.

You become the one who gets the real opening dates before you sign.