Your Hotworx Discovery Day Playbook: 15 Questions That Separate Due Diligence from Tourism

Every prospective Hotworx franchisee gets invited to the Corporate Training Center in Cincinnati, Ohio for Discovery Day — a polished, one-day immersion into the brand. You’ll meet department heads, shake hands with the executive team, and sit in a small class of fellow candidates who are just as excited as you are. By the end of the day, many attendees report feeling “comfortable and confident to execute the franchise agreement.”

That’s the point. Discovery Day is a sales event wrapped in an information session. With the right preparation, it becomes your most valuable due diligence tool — but only if you know what to watch for beyond the presentation.

This playbook covers exactly how to prepare, what to ask, and what to do after you leave Cincinnati.

Discovery Day is a corporate-hosted event at the Hotworx Corporate Training Center in Cincinnati. The format is straightforward:

• Small class sizes (typically under 10 candidates), which allows genuine interaction
• Presentations from department heads covering operations, marketing, real estate, technology, and support
• Face time with members of the executive team
• An itinerary that promises to cover “every aspect of the business model”

The atmosphere is warm and family-oriented. Hotworx leans into its culture hard — and that culture is real. The people you meet genuinely believe in what they’re building.

But warmth and belief are not substitutes for unit economics. The department heads presenting to you are not the ones who will answer your phone at 11pm when your sauna malfunctions during a Saturday rush.

Discovery Day is not due diligence. It is a curated experience designed to move you toward signing a franchise agreement.

It is not a negotiation. The franchise agreement is non-negotiable per the FDD — the terms are the terms, and the 10-year initial term is the 10-year initial term. Nothing you hear at Discovery Day changes that contract.

It is not the place to make your decision. The emotional high you feel walking out of that building is by design. Every franchise system in America — not just Hotworx — engineers Discovery Day to create momentum. Recognizing that doesn’t make you cynical. It makes you a competent investor.

The candidates who extract the most value from Discovery Day are the ones who arrive already informed. Here’s your pre-work checklist:

1. Read the FDD Cover to Cover

Not skim. Read. Every exhibit, every footnote. Pay particular attention to Items 5–7 (fees), Item 19 (financial performance representations), and Item 20 (outlet status). Our FDD Item 19 analysis breaks down what those numbers actually mean for your investment.

2. Build Your Financial Model

Before you set foot in Cincinnati, you should have a working spreadsheet that models your first 36 months. Plug in the franchise fee, buildout costs, equipment, rent assumptions for your target market, and realistic revenue scenarios. See our unit economics model for the framework.

3. Research Your Target Territory

Know your market. How many Hotworx locations are already open within 30 miles? How many are sold but not yet built? What’s the competitive landscape for infrared fitness in your MSA? Our territory saturation analysis can help you benchmark.

Pro tip: Request to see available locations in your proposed territory after your 2nd or 3rd recruiter call. Don’t wait until Discovery Day to learn your preferred territory is already spoken for.

4. Prepare Your Question List

Print it. Bring it. Don’t rely on memory when you’re in a room full of charismatic executives and free coffee. The 15 questions below are your starting point.

These are organized by category. Not every question will get a direct answer on Discovery Day — that’s data in itself.

Financial Reality (Questions 1–4)

1. What percentage of studios hit $330,000 in gross revenue in their first full calendar year? Not “can they” — what percentage actually did? Push for the median, not the average. Averages get pulled up by outliers.

2. What is the median gross revenue for studios open 12–24 months, and how does it compare to studios open 36+ months? This tells you the real maturation curve. A studio that takes 30 months to stabilize is a very different investment than one that ramps in 12.

3. What is the permanent closure rate for Hotworx studios, and what are the top three reasons studios close? Item 20 of the FDD gives you raw numbers, but ask for the narrative. Was it undercapitalization? Bad location? Operational burnout?

4. What is the typical break-even timeline in months — and what does “break-even” mean in your definition? Break-even on cash flow is different from break-even on total investment. Make sure you’re comparing the same thing.

Operations (Questions 5–8)

5. What does corporate tech support look like at 10pm on a Saturday when a sauna goes down and members are in the lobby? The answer reveals whether support is a 9-to-5 operation or a genuine 24/7 infrastructure. Get specifics: phone number, ticket system, average response time.

6. How often do infrared saunas require servicing, and what’s the average annual maintenance cost per unit? Equipment is the backbone of the Hotworx model. You need hard numbers on lifecycle costs, not vague reassurances.

7. What’s the SocialMadeSimple onboarding process and timeline, and what happens if I’m not satisfied with their marketing performance? You’re paying for this through your marketing fund. Understand exactly what you get and what recourse you have.

8. When a piece of equipment fails under warranty vs. out of warranty, what’s the replacement timeline and cost? A sauna down for three weeks is three weeks of degraded member experience. Know the logistics.

Territory (Questions 9–11)

9. How many territories are sold but not yet open in my MSA, and what’s their expected opening timeline? Sold-but-not-open territories are future competition with the same brand. You need to know the density trajectory, not just the current snapshot.

10. What is the actual protected territory radius, and what specific activities are restricted within it? “Protected territory” means different things in different franchise systems. Read the exact contractual language, not the recruiter’s summary.

11. Can corporate or another franchisee open a non-traditional unit (gym-within-a-gym, hotel, university) inside my protected territory? Many franchise agreements carve out exceptions for non-traditional venues. If you don’t ask, you won’t know until it happens.

Support (Questions 12–15)

12. What does ongoing training and support look like after year one? The first 90 days are always well-supported. Year two is where you find out whether the franchisor stays engaged or moves on to the next new franchisee.

13. When a franchisee is struggling financially — below break-even at month 18 — what’s the corporate intervention process? This is the most revealing question you can ask. The answer tells you whether struggling franchisees get support or pressure.

14. How are franchisee-franchisor disputes resolved, and has any franchisee filed for arbitration or litigation in the past 24 months? Cross-reference the answer with Item 3 of the FDD and our legal landscape analysis.

15. After I sign, who is my specific point of contact for operational questions, and what is their caseload? “You’ll have a dedicated franchise business consultant” means nothing if that person is responsible for 80 studios. Get a name, a number, and a ratio.

Validation calls with current Hotworx franchisees are separate from Discovery Day. Hotworx encourages you to do your due diligence — take them up on it aggressively.

Who to Call

Request the full Item 20 list from the FDD. Don’t limit yourself to the 3–4 franchisees the recruiter suggests — those are cherry-picked references. Aim for 8–10 conversations across:

• Studios open less than 12 months (the ramp-up reality)
• Studios open 2–4 years (the operational grind)
• Studios in markets similar to yours (comparable demographics and rent)
• At least one franchisee who has transferred or closed (if you can identify one)

Request to communicate with current franchisees early in the process — don’t wait until after Discovery Day when momentum is pushing you toward signing.

What to Ask Every Franchisee

• “What was your total all-in investment to open, including working capital you burned through before break-even?”
• “What’s your gross revenue and what do you actually take home after royalties, rent, marketing, staffing, and maintenance?”
• “What was your biggest surprise in the first year — something the FDD or Discovery Day didn’t prepare you for?”
• “If you were starting over today, would you buy this franchise again at the current franchise fee?”
• “What’s the one thing you’d change about the franchisor relationship?”

Red Flags in Validation Calls

Watch for these patterns:

• Scripted enthusiasm. If every franchisee hits the same talking points in the same order, they’ve been coached.
• Deflection on financials. “I’m not really comfortable sharing numbers” from multiple franchisees suggests a culture of secrecy — or numbers that don’t support the pitch.
• “It’s great if you work hard.” This is franchisee code for “the model doesn’t generate passive income, and corporate blames you if it underperforms.”
• Reluctance to discuss corporate support. Hesitation here often means the franchisee doesn’t want to say something negative on a call they know might get reported back.
• Everyone refers you to the same 2–3 “rockstar” operators. A healthy franchise system has broad-based success, not a handful of outliers propping up the average.

You’ve just spent a full day in Cincinnati. You’re energized. The team was impressive. The other candidates were sharp. You can see yourself doing this.

Do not sign at Discovery Day. Do not sign in the parking lot. Do not sign on the plane home.

Here’s your post-Discovery Day protocol:

1. Go home. Sleep on it. Let the emotional high dissipate. That takes at least 72 hours.
2. Revisit your financial model. Plug in anything new you learned. Does the math still work with realistic assumptions, not best-case scenarios?
3. Complete your validation calls. If you haven’t done 8–10 yet, keep calling. Every conversation adds signal.
4. Talk to your franchise attorney. Not your family lawyer — a franchise-specific attorney who has reviewed dozens of FDDs. They’ll spot things you missed. The IFA maintains franchise education resources that can help you find qualified counsel.
5. Review your exit strategy. You’re signing a 10-year commitment. Before you sign, understand what it costs to get out — transfer fees, approval processes, non-compete restrictions.

The right franchise will still be there in a week. If a recruiter pressures you with territory scarcity or “this opportunity won’t last,” that’s a sales tactic, not a market reality. Legitimate urgency comes with documentation — signed LOIs, deposit receipts, specific competing candidates. Vague urgency is manufactured urgency.

Discovery Day is a valuable part of the franchise evaluation process — but only if you treat it as one input among many, not as the final confirmation of a decision you’ve already emotionally made.

The franchisees who succeed are the ones who were hardest to sell. They asked uncomfortable questions, demanded real data, talked to struggling operators as well as thriving ones, and made their decision with a spreadsheet open and an attorney on speed dial.

Be that candidate. The investment is too large and the commitment too long for anything less.