How the Mašáts left corporate jobs to build The Little Gym chain

David Mašát and Jana Mašátová left careers at major corporations to bring the children's gym concept The Little Gym to Czechia and Slovakia — today their network operates in several cities and generates tens of millions of crowns in annual turnover.

The idea was born back at the turn of the millennium in Amsterdam, where Jana began attending The Little Gym classes with her children alongside friends and became so taken with the format that she decided to bring it home. Yet a full seven years passed between her first contact with the American franchisor and the opening of the first Czech location — the couple kept working at pharmaceutical companies, Czech Radiocommunications and Sony, until they finally decided on a radical change.

Finding a suitable space in Prague took two years: The Little Gym format requires at least 300 square meters set aside exclusively for children's activities, something most landlords in 2008 simply didn't understand. It wasn't until 2010 that Jana found a suitable space — a former print shop with high ceilings in Prague's Anděl district. To convince the building's owner, she offered to pay a year's rent in advance.

The couple invested nearly 5 million crowns in the project — most of their savings, plus a little help from family and a bank loan. Demand for classes turned out to be 50% higher than expected, so the investment paid for itself in just three years.

Later, the couple was approached with an offer to become master franchisees for Czechia and Slovakia, but they didn't have enough for the licensing fee — a family friend joined the business with a one-third stake, funding the expansion. A few years later the couple bought that stake back and now fully own the network again, which besides the two Prague gyms includes branches in Brno, Ostrava and Bratislava, run by separate franchisees.

Every year one or two serious candidates approach them about opening new locations, but the Mašáts choose partners carefully, turning down those who see the business purely in terms of numbers. “We don't want to grow at any cost, but we do see potential in regional centers — for example in Plzeň, Hradec Králové or Olomouc,” says David. The Prague branches currently run about 80 classes a week, with thirty instructors working with the children — many of them former clients of the network.