Single Mom Becomes International Franchise Success
Highlands Ranch, CO -- Michele Merhib, OTR/CMT is the founder of an International franchise, with over 70 locations. This single mom of two teenagers has reached a level of success most only dream about. When asked what it is like to travel the world and teach her successful massage therapy methods to others, she usually gives a modest response revealing that it has not always been like this.
Born in New York and moving to Oklahoma as a teenager, Michele went on to receive her first Bachelor Degree in Business Administration from the University of Central Oklahoma in 1984. She worked in the banking industry for several years and then decided on a career change to the health care industry. Michele became a Registered Occupational Therapist (OTR) after graduating from the University of Oklahoma with a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy in 1993. Michele began as a staff therapist working in hospitals, health care centers and providing home health care to individual clients. What motivated Michele with her occupational therapy was helping people to lead more independent, productive and satisfying lives. Michele quickly moved into management of a rehabilitation department combining her business skills, occupational therapy skills and natural leadership ability. Michele had no idea that these skills and life experiences combined with her massage therapy training would lead her to International success beyond her wildest dreams.
Living month-to-month and raising two teenagers, Michele was in search of greater income opportunities and more flexibility in life. While Michele was busy raising her teenagers and managing a rehabilitation department, she sought out massage therapy to bring some balance and stress reduction to her own life. Michele’s massage therapist wanted to retire and encouraged Michele to buy her business. This was a small massage practice with over 100 regular clients inside a country club in Aurora, Colorado.
Broke and scraping together enough money for a down payment for the massage business’ asking price, Michele got excited about the possibilities, and became a certified massage therapist in July of 2000. She says learning the craft of massage came easily to her as a result of her previous training. Working as a massage therapist increased Michele’s passion for helping people.
“Certainly I was nervous to take such a leap, but the decision to start my massage therapy business was the best thing I ever did for my family,” says Ms. Merhib. Within 12 months of buying the business, Michele quickly grew out of her 100 square foot facility and moved into a much larger location. Employing as many as 25 full-time massage therapists, Michele not only learned the business of massage, but also received a new set of experiences including systematizing the daily operations, human resources, networking, administration and learning how to handle the accounting procedures. She mastered these necessary business skills as the demand for her services grew. The business was literally forced to open up another location because so many people wanted to benefit from therapeutic massage.
“I rarely advertised. Most of my clients were referred to my business from other happy clients. We train our staff to give 5-Diamond quality service just like the high-end resorts and spas, our locations are at a convenient location and our services are at an affordable price” Merhib revealed.
Michele’s therapeutic massage business became so successful that multiple corporations asked Michele if she wanted to take her organization nationwide. She turned them all down. “I enjoy helping people so much and at the same time enjoy providing fellow therapists with a calm, safe and clean environment to practice their craft. I did not want a faceless corporation to take the systems I developed and use it to treat therapists and customers as just numbers,” Merhib reported.
“When the Fitness Together Franchise Corporation (FTFC) approached me, at first I was very hesitant, but then I did my due diligence and found the success they had achieved in the personal training industry. I interviewed many of their franchisees and personally spoke with local employees to understand how the organization treated people – I quickly became convinced that FTFC was the right organization. I saw the opportunity to provide thousands of other massage therapists a great environment and help millions of people live a better quality of life through massage. Something that I just didn’t believe the other corporations could help me do.”
Today, as the founder of elements therapeutic massage, Michele’s organization has 50 locations with the first international location now open in Costa Rica, and recently selling a master franchise in Ireland. “Locating the right franchisee for a location is one thing, but being able to support that new business owner, help them set up properly, sign their lease and have enough clients at their grand opening are entirely different topics. FTFC has done an amazing job in getting the elements therapeutic massage franchise model started that I have no doubt we can support 4,000 locations worldwide, helping countless millions of people live a better quality of life through therapeutic massage.”
For more information about Michele, or about elements therapeutic massage, visit them online at www.touchofelements.com or call
303-663-0880x24.
About elements therapeutic massage:
elements therapeutic massage is headquarted in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, and is part of Fitness Together Franchise Corporation. In 1996, Fitness Together Franchise Corporation began franchising to bring professional and affordable personal training services to every major city. Today there are 377 Fitness Together personal training franchise locations throughout the world and over 500 scheduled to open. elements therapeutic massage is following the same model, and was created in 1999 by founder, Michele Merhib. The company started franchising in 2006 under the Fitness Together Franchise Corporation, and has 51 locations sold.
