Jane DO Franchise Beginnings
When Danielle DeAngelo and Jacey Lambros left their jobs as Radio City Rockettes – work they’d done together for a combined 17 years – they knew they wanted to do more with their lives than anything a 9 to 5 job could provide.
“What we found during our time at Radio City is that there's so much power in a group of women coming together with a unified mission. And once we left Radio City, we decided to start our own business,” DeAngelo recalls.
Over the next year, as DeAngelo bounced between Jersey City and Chicago selling real estate, Lambros remained in New Jersey, working as a personal trainer and developing a business plan that would ultimately become the blueprint for a brand that would disrupt the fitness industry in a unique way: building a community of inspired women who embrace self-confidence and empowerment in every part of their lives.
“There was a void in the Jersey City market where I lived at the time … for any boutique-style fitness. At the time, barre was hot – it was the type of workout that was most recognizable. So I wrote a business plan for The Sports Barre – the idea being the fusion of the athlete and the dancer,” Lambros recalls.
After Lambros showed the business plan to DeAngelo when she returned to New Jersey from Chicago, DeAngelo was excited about the idea of doing something that was more aligned with what she loved doing than her current job in real estate.
“When I came back (from Chicago), I was like, ‘I do not want to start over again.’ And really, what I was missing in my life was moving my body and connecting with like-minded humans. So (Lambros) said, ‘Listen, I've been working on this plan. What do you think?’ And six months after that, we both quit our jobs and opened our doors,” DeAngelo recalls.
From Radio City to building an empire
Despite their new fitness studio’s success in attracting local clientele, entrepreneurship wasn’t without challenges for DeAngelo and Lambros early on – especially when it came to selecting a business name that could stand the test of time during an era when fitness trends often came and left with the seasons.
“We did open as The Sports Barre, and we quickly knew that having ‘barre’ associated with us was potentially a fad,” DeAngelo says.
To mitigate the risk of losing the public’s interest when the barre trend might potentially fade out, the business partners decided to rename their studio – this time, with a focus on honoring the demographic they designed their business to serve.
“We came up with the name Jane DO. We like to say Jane is every woman. She is in all of us. And ‘do’ as her call to action? She's taking the strength she finds inside the studio and doing amazing things outside the studio because ultimately, that's where it really counts. It's not just about physical fitness. It's about emotional confidence, financial confidence, sexual confidence, ” DeAngelo says.
As a fitness brand that offers digital programming to meet women where they are alongside five signature in-studio workout classes including HIIT, dance, sculpt, tramp and step, confidence is a serious topic for the team at Jane DO. For DeAngelo and Lambros, it’s also personal.
“When I booked the job as a Radio City Rockette, I called my father. He was from a small town in upstate New York. And he pulled the car over and he said, ‘Jacey – there's the Jets, the Mets, the Yankees, the Nets … and the Radio City Rockettes!’ And now he tells me and (DeAngelo) that we have the biggest balls he's ever seen because he just thinks what we've done, and what we continue to do, is so courageous,” Lambros says.
Doing business on purpose – and at scale
Drawing on their sense of confidence and courage, DeAngelo and Lambros have infused Jane DO with a strong sense of purpose since opening the doors of their first studio in 2015. Last December, the partners decided to take their mission-driven brand a step further – this time, through franchising.
“We truly feel that a purposeless brand is a soulless company. And our purpose is to create the largest community of the most confident women. We're really able to do that now, with this franchise opportunity, because we're not just providing jobs for women anymore. We're providing careers,” Lambros says.
More than just a fitness franchise, Jane DO is also a source of inspiration and empowerment for the women it serves. As the company continues to scale into new markets as a franchise, the partners behind Jane DO don’t see their purpose-driven business model fading away any time soon.
“The future of fitness is unquestionably community-driven. And as more women like ourselves continue to break barriers in the industry, this focus on uniting women continues to intensify,” Lambros says.
That philosophy and sense of community even carries over to Jane DO’s franchisees, who receive support from the brand in the form of training, operations assistance and marketing help – including those with no previous dancing or athletic training.
“It's not about being a dancer. You don't even have to be a fitness professional. You have to be passionate about empowering others to be the most confident versions of themselves,” Lambros says.
Finding the right support when it matters most
As new franchisors, making sure their new franchise system was compliant with federal and state franchise laws was critical to the brand’s success.
To ensure their brand’s legal documents were rock solid, DeAngelo and Lambros turned to The Internicola Law Firm last year for help developing their Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) and keeping it in line with federal franchise regulations.
“(The Internicola Law Firm) provided exceptional legal expertise and personalized guidance throughout our FDD filing process. Their team's knowledge, support and genuine commitment to our success were instrumental in the smooth completion of our FDD. We highly recommend Internicola Law to any business seeking experienced legal counsel for franchising matters,” DeAngelo and Lambros said in a review of the law firm.
For the women behind Jane DO, having the right legal support to ensure their new franchise was able to hit the ground running without any legal obstacles also meant establishing a strong foundation for their future franchisees.
“Our model isn't about quick wins or overnight empires. It's about building sustainable businesses, empowered communities and impactful legacies through realistic financial protection,” Lambros says.
To learn about franchising opportunities with Jane DO, visit https://www.janedo.com/franchise.
