Fitness franchise plans to make Queen City debut this weekend

A pair of Nixa sisters have teamed up with plans to launch a Queen City location of a national fitness franchise this weekend.

Saturday is the planned soft opening for the local gym of Burn Boot Camp at 820 W. El Camino Alto St., Ste. 100, located behind Academy Sports & Outdoors and just south of Sam’s Club. Cami White, who is the local franchise partner with sister Carlee Yount, said the newly constructed gym building occupies 5,600 square feet. She said a grand opening for the gym is expected the week of Oct. 1 and that the sisters developed the building.

Burn Boot Camp, a North Carolina-based franchise founded in 2012, combines strength and intensity interval training in 45-minute workouts. The gyms also provide members with access to equipment, including free weights, kettlebells and jump ropes. While White said women are the primary target audience for Burn Boot Camp, men also are welcome to become members. There are over 400 franchise locations in 38 states, according to the company’s website.

“Everything they stood for as far as a fitness philosophy, it was just right in line with everything I’ve always believed, as well as the style of fitness that Carlee and I both like,” said White, who exited her 17-year career as a teacher for Nixa Public Schools to focus full time on her new venture.

After White first learned of Burn Boot Camp two years ago through an Instagram post, she and Yount visited northwest Arkansas to see the locations open in Bentonville, Fayetteville and Springdale.

“We just showed up to a camp and about 10 minutes in, we looked at each other and we were like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is awesome. We need this, and we’re going to have to bring this to 417,’” White said.

The sisters initially looked for leasable space but were particular about wanting the gym in south Springfield to be near their Nixa homes.

“There was nothing big enough or that met the requirements for parking or ceiling height, things like that,” White said. “The idea of building our own building was brought up to us. We felt that God put it before us.”

Fusion Consulting LLC was hired as general contractor for the project, White said, declining to disclose startup costs. According to the company’s website, the initial investment for franchisees ranges $150,330 to $406,500, which includes a roughly $45,000 franchise fee. Burn Boot Camp also collects a 6% royalty fee and 2% marketing fee.

Membership is $149 per month, which includes unlimited camps, complimentary child care and one-on-one focus meetings with a personal trainer.

White, who will serve as lead trainer at the gym, which employs 10, is no stranger to the fitness realm. She previously taught group fitness for 10 years at The Studio by Jamie Kinkeade LLC.

“We will tailor every workout to every individual to meet them where they are in their fitness journey and then to be able to grow with them,” she said.

White said Burn Boot Camp serves as a second entrepreneurial venture for the sisters, who previously owned a women’s clothing boutique business, MOSisters Boutique in Nixa, which closed in 2022 after five years.

In addition to the gym, the sisters have 2,400 square feet of adjacent and vacant new building space available for lease that White said could be split into 1,200-square-foot units.