Curves For Women Franchise: 20% of Curves Franchises Closed in MA
February 4, 2008 by Sean Kelly
Filed under Business
Photo: Bobu. Licensed by Creative Commons.
(FranchisePick.Com) In it’s article Curves sheds a fifth of its fitness centers, BostonNow Business reports that both membership and number of Curves for women franchise clubs in Massachusetts has declined significantly in the past three years. According to the article citing information from the Boston Business Journal:
“…Owned by local franchisees, last year the number of Curves gyms in Massachusetts dropped 20 percent to 156 from 194 in 2006, and was down nearly 30 percent from the 218 sites that were operating in 2005, according to research by the Boston Business Journal. Membership levels in the state also dropped 20 percent to 62,400, from 77,600 in 2006.
“A spokeswoman for Curves International Inc., headquartered in Woodway, Texas, attributed the falloff to a shift in company strategy.
“‘We have always tried to keep every club open and that’s not always the best decision,’ said Becky Frusher, Curves’ corporate communications manager. ‘There are some owners who shouldn’t have bought a Curves … that’s normal with any retail business. We’ve taken a different approach of, maybe we shouldn’t struggle to keep every club open.’ …
“Donna Henderson, who manages the 500-member Curves in Watertown, notes that Curves gyms in Waltham, Brookline and Belmont have closed recently…”
“Nationally, the fitness chain’s stature has also flagged. According to Entrepreneur.com’s annual Franchise 500 rankings, the company dropped from No. 2 in 2005 to No. 185 this year.”No experience necessary. Unless you fail. Then you should have been experienced.
According to Curves, the reason for the failures was presumably that the franchisees weren’t “business owner” material. Does that mean Curves tightening up their franchise requirements, and seeking franchise owners with prior fitness club experience? Not according to their website, which says they assume franchise owners have no experience. They’re shift in business strategy seems to be to stop feeling bad about it and accept a 20% failure rate as “normal with any retail business.”
So in your search for a solid franchise opportunity, be wary of those who say you can be “In business FOR yourself, but not BY yourself.” Once you’re OUT of business, you’re definitely BY yourself… So go into it understanding that there’s NO system that, if followed, assures success.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW.
Thats No big surprise!!!!! Curves clubs are closing down left & right. They say 10,000 locations. YEAH right!!!! that’s just the amount of franchises they have sold, got rich off of and now they dont care about the franchisee going out of business. If they did a real count of open clubs they probably only have 1/3rd left. I know of 4 in Florida that were out of business in the 1st year and one in California that was out of business in the 1st month. This FAD is Dead and Dying. Don’t buy one unless you want to throw away your money. Don’t buy a gym business unless you have experience. Do your homework. I bet over 50% of Curves centers are out of business. No big surprise. The circuit gets boring after 3 months and people drop out. Open a real gym with real equipment and know the business. Good Luck!!!
I have wasted about 1 hour reading various posts on this site about Curves. What a waste of space! Owners going out of business in 1 MONTH! either it’s not true or very poor planning on their part. Much mudslinging about Curves-from people WHO DO NOT/HAVE NOT OWNED A CURVES!!! And to top it off, idiot EX-CURVES owners who if you gave them $50,000 lotto winnings- would be dead BROKE in 1 year! Some people are cut out for WORK and running a business, others need to WORK for someone.
What a bunch of whine-bags!
No one comes CLOSE to what Curves has done for the population who would have NEVER stepped foot in a gym. Curves WORKS if you WORK Curves! That is said for the workout AND the business! Some people will never be happy unless they are knocking/bad mouthing somebody!
For the record- I PERSONALLY know of ONE owner who owned THREE locations-huge territories-and just walked away because she lived out of state and she made her $$$$$, and was tired of the “work”. Perfectly viable territories. Many more stories like that. Not all the closures are do to poor population or territories too close, no many are closed because of POOR OWNERS. But you won’t hear that story-not as exciting!
To fellow ‘Curves Owner’,
I too own more then one Curves Franchise. While I agree that some clubs closed due to poor business practices, but that statement does not paint the true picture. Curves International itself is to blame for the vast amount of the closings in part due to: overbuilding, lack of support for the franchisees, lack of adverting and change of business model among others.
• Overbuilding
Curves has over saturated many markets to include where I have my clubs. Fact is in my state, the Sales Director never set foot not only in the cities where I have clubs but also in the state where they are located. At the Curves Convention of 2006 Gary Heavin (sic) the CEO stood before us and stated that many clubs were going to have to close due to the overbuilt system. He further stated that this was part of the so called, “franchise wars” in which he claimed victory. Furthermore, Curves International encouraged their franchisees to split their territories which further caused cannibalization.
• Lack of Support
I cannot tell you how many times we have asked for help from Area Directors, Regional Directors, and Curves Corporate Officers for assistance. None of which have helped us in areas of; other owners advertising in our territories, offering corporate discounts to business in our territories, obtaining payments from transferred members from other clubs. The response we have received is either null or statements such as, “Try to get along with each other.” Fact is Curves has never taken a club away from an owner for breaking such rules. Now that this is know by owners, the owners pretty much do whatever it takes in order to survive. Can you blame them with the amount of overbuilding that Curves has done.
• Lack of Adverting
Curves owners are required to pay 195 dollars a month for national and regional advertising. Lets do the math shall me? For 10,000 clubs that comes out to 1.95 million dollars a month for adverting or 22.8 million per year to be spent on advertising. That is an enormous amount of money. I have seem more advertising for franchises such as Subway and Jiffy Lube then from Curves.
• Change of Business Model
The general public has become more aware of Curves for its energy bars and cereal then for fitness. Curves has changed direction with its partnership with General Mills. Fact is that Curves Owners can NOT get these products at discount rates. The owners have found that it is cheaper to obtain these products from the local supermarket or through Office Depot. Why is that? It is simple, Curves International new direction is now hard product based then through franchising.
Lets face the hard truth. Curves club owners are in the fitness business. They are the ones who deliver the service of fitness and wellness. Curves International is in the Franchise business, a business of selling franchises to individuals which they have done very well in and made a lot of money. Now that that business model, of franchising a business concept has reached its peak, Curves International needs to find other ways to make money. The way Curves international has done this is though product promotions by having Curves owners promote non-Curves items in their clubs for other business. The Curves owners make no money on this but I seriously doubt that Curves International did this for free. Still not satisfied with that model, Curves international whipped up a receipt for an energy bar and a cereal, but their logo on it and with General Mills is now selling it to the general public. Oddly enough, not even Curves International franchisees can get the best price for these items. It is shocking that Curves franchisees can get it cheaper at the local grocery stores! Furthermore, Curves has partnered with Avon in selling Curves logo’d hard goods, specifically clothing items. That partnership with Avon has netted Curves International tens of millions of dollars annually. That is a fact, not a guess. Yet, each and every Curves owner has had difficulty in obtaining such items from Curves Intentional wholly owned subsidiary, “Ideas In Action”. Why is this? Probably because it is more lucrative for Curves International to sell through Avon..
This sad fact should be a wake up call that Curves International never did nor ever will value its franchises. The vast majority of the franchisees have worked very hard and many put their life savings into these businesses and built the name brand recognition that it now has. Now Curves International is cashing in on the brand name. But rather then share that with those who worked so hard and so long, Curves international has gotten greedy and built new relationships with others in order to squeeze what ever dollar it can make.
Curves no longer sells new territories in the US. Why is that? Two reasons really, first one is over saturation. But would Curves sell more territories if it could? Absolutely, but it does not. That brings us to the second reason why Curves has stopped selling franchises is the US – Lawsuits. Currently, Curves International along with Gary Heavin is being sued by no less the 350 angry broken franchisees and former franchisees for breach of contract and unfair trade. This number is growing and will continue to grow as the Curves continues to allow the system to implode and fail to repair their broken system.
For every one current operating successful Curves club there are literally dozens of unsuccessful clubs, meaning closed clubs or clubs bleeding money each and every month. Make no mistake, many owners lost tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Curves landscape is littered with bankruptcies (both business and personal), lost homes, children removed from college due to losses, broken marriages and even one suicide.
This in not an invention of imagination or exaggeration, this is fact. This is fact that Howard Gary Heavin will have to answer for in a court of law.
Very interesting comments. I am doing my homework. My partner and I are looking into buying a local curves franchise. The person who owns it has 4. She just got them all back from selling them one year ago. I did notice that their are a lot of lawsuits pending. Was wondering if owning one franchise would pay or be worth the while.
Stay away from Curves. In 2004, my wife and I once owned one of the top six Curves in the entire chain. We had nearly 1,100 members.
Today, we’re filing bankruptcy and facing foreclosure.
We did everything the Curves way. The members simply stopped coming.
The Curves fad is over. Invest your money in something long-term, NOT a Curves.
Mr Foreclosure- If you were raking in 32K a month (1100 x $29) in just MEMBERSHIPS, not including new sales $$$$ (1100 x $100= $110,000.00), where were you spending it? Did you repay yourself? Did you sock some away for when the market would level off? No one should feel sorry for you if this is your story-you have left some information out. You made a TON of money! Members “stopped coming”???? ALL OF THEM? From 1100 to zero? Come on! You cannot think of ANYTHING you could have done to IMPROVE your business profits? Training? Education? Reduce your club size? Stopping your Escalade lease? (It’s like finding out WHY your complaining member is NOT losing weight-OH the nightly bowl of ice cream could be the culprit) I think business judgement might have something to do with your predicament. I don’t know! But I am tired of the Curves bashing.
Boredom? You are all too funny! EXERCISE IS BORING! Do gyms still have weights and treadmills? Are THEY cutting edge? Of course they are- they’ve been around FOREVER!!!!!!! Work on YOURSELF- meaning the STAFF, paint the club, ask other owners to come in and critique you to REALLY SEE WHAT A MEMBER SEES. CHANGE! There is PLENTY you can do AND stay within the Curves rules!
Buy a club in a town of 3,000? Who are your members and how many are there? Sustainability? How many clubs are/were around you? Cheap rent and 1 PT staffer with a FT owner can STILL make $$$$$ in a small town. Did someone hold a gun to your head and MAKE YOU PURCHASE YOUR CLUB THERE? Why did some buy a club with only a mile between you and the next club? You get to SEE YOUR TERRITORY before you fork over the cash!
How many franchises out there ONLY charge $195/395 or the small sliding percentage scale? Not too many. Do some homework! Curves Fees are CHEAP in comparison! Many owners are previous owners of OTHER franchises and think this is a GREAT DEAL. Taking about Curves corporate- also find out the “support” you get from OTHER franchises! Keep in mind-THIS IS STILL YOUR BUSINESS! CURVES ISN’T YOUR BOSS, GARY HEAVIN ISN’T YOUR BOSS! Curves took off like a rocket and they have been playing catch up- adding even MORE area directors and such. They have GREAT training. They have research at Baylor- they are constantly trying to improve the brand. Add ons like general Mills-how cool!!! Free advertising down the grocery aisle. Does the local weight watchers get $$ back from WW when food is SOLD in the grocery next door? No, but it helps strengthen the brand! Come on! THINK! All this whining about what is WRONG with Curves. There is a lot right! Last time I checked, this was a free country! get out of this then and do something else! the grass may or may NOT be greener. From my experience, this is a great business. Is it perfect? No, but you’ll never find perfection and if most of these bellyachers REALLY took stock to see that THEY might have had something to do with their predicament-instead of Curves, the list of REAL complaints would be small.
Poor judgement is not just reserved for some Curves owners (or business owners in general)-buy too big of a house with an adjustable mortgage? Credit card debt? Buy a new car instead of health insurance? Sock cash away for a rainy week? Buy a $30K car on credit? (depreciating before you even leave the car lot) I am NOT bashing people who get socked with cancer, or a family death, or some other circumstance beyond their control and left them unable to deal with unexpected debt, or whatever. No, this is for the “you made some bad decisions” crowd who instead of owning up to them, prefer to bash Curves who has created a service that was non-existent- and most definitely has SAVED lives because of their existence.
I had another (non franchise) business b4 Curves. You were ON YOUR OWN! In the 15 years I owned that, 5 similar businesses came and went around me. Businesses -go OUT of business- ALL THE TIME! Much do to POOR PLANNING AND UNDER CAPITALIZED. My previous business, as a lot of OTHER businesses cost tens of thousands of dollars- many over $100K to open, they have NO REVOLVING MEMBERSHIP each month you can count on. It takes YEARS for them to realize a profit. And it is WORK! Owning your own business in work. You get to clean the toilet, do the payroll AND show up as “president of your company” at the local chamber event!
How many are CONTINUING to learn? Are you taking classes, seminars to better yourself? A new resale next to me proclaimed after 2 months in this business-”THIS is a lot of work!” She thought she could show up at 9 and go home by 5. That’s doable-but having your own gig requires ingenuity and work. Yes, you can go home and take a nap without asking!!! And if you run, you can make a lot of cash instead of making someone else a lot of cash.
350Curves owners in a lawsuit? Let’s see. I PAY this lawyer $2500 and he’ll put me on the “list”. Yeah- the stupid list. Here you go, take my money. Class action suits never ask for $$$ up front. Looks like the same owners who are looking to sue are getting duped. Yawn- move on! You only have so many years to live, so find something better to do!
Maybe under 100 new clubs were opened this past year in the US/Canada, in areas where growth was experienced and needed a club as was stated at convention. There are approx 9000 curves in the US and Canada. More than Golds. More than Curves’ nearest competitor by 8x I’m guessing. are ALL 9,000 closing? Are ANY of them making $$$$$? Let me ask you this- is 30 minutes of exercise still in vogue- or do people nowadays have MORE TIME????
Is the population getting fatter or skinnier? Is LIFESTYLE diseases such as High BP and diabetes on the rise? I’m sorry to BURST your bubbles but CURVES is not obsolete!
A Quinznos, Cold Stone Creamery, 2 carpet dealers, a lot of builders,a karate gym, a jeweler, 3 bakery’s, an Ace hardware, a financial planner and so on have ALL gone out of business around me within the past year. Without knowing if there was personal tragedy, poor management skills, poor financial skills, bad business decisions and so forth who knows!? I do know this- we are in a business that works for those who WORK it. Look at every aspect and see where you can improve your club or improve upon the sellers ability if your looking to purchase. I would NOT listen to people on a list serve. Go and TALK to owners. Talk to a lot of them. Find a few of the thousands of successful owners, Ask them questions. There are a lot of terrible owners. So, find the successful ones and talk with them, what works and what doesn’t. Just moving from a bad location has made the difference of a successful club or not! We moved 1 mile and gained 150 new members. Who was to blame? Curves????? US!
Misery loves company and will bellyache all day long if given the ears to listen. Getting advice from PEOPLE YOU NEVER MET, DON’T KNOW THEIR CREDENTIALS, THEIR BUSINESS ACUMEN, COMMON SENSE OR WHAT EVER!!!! They may own a YUGO and live in a BOX. They’re a legend in their own mind! You may as well ask the Ouija board. Do your OWN homework! ask and ask and talk to REAL people. People on the internet can be anything you want them to be with NO ACCOUNTABILITY! I am always taller and skinnier on the internet! It’s amazing how smart and sharp you get in knowledge with that mouse in your hand!
Have a great day!
An imperfect owner of (2) 4 year old Curves.
Curves owner:
As I’ve stated here before, my wife and I are not blameless in this fiasco. We made big mistakes along the way that contributed to our misfortune.
But today, of the three Curves we used to own, one is closed – merged with another nearby club – and the other two have about 250 members apiece and rent in the $3,000 range for each club. There’s no way the new owners are breaking even.
Perhaps in your neck of the woods the Curves phenomenon is growing and thriving. But here in my county, its a dying fad. Nine of the 18 Curves here have either closed or are for sale at McCord Business Brokers, the exclusive broker for Curves. One club had 800 members, but had shrunk to 80 before closing. Another club that was recently purchased for $185,000 was listed for $49,000 before it finally sold, perhaps for even less than that.
If Curves had never made our territory to the west available for a new franchise, we’d probably still be in business with only one club with close to 600 members. Instead, we had to buy the territory to keep from losing hundreds of members who lived there, then pay for buildout costs while a new retail center was constructed, because there was no existing retail space available.
There’s many things I’d do differently, namely insist that we SELL our clubs in 2005 before the Curves-wide membership dropoff began.
I wish you continued success with your two Curves. We tasted amazing success, too. Too bad it didn’t last, and too bad we didn’t recognize the warning signs and bail out before disaster struck.
Curves Owner- your story isn’t over with yet……
Curves owner :
I agree Curves is a good concept. There’s just FAR too many of them. The bloodletting has been going on since 2005, and with a recession – or worse – on the horizon, more clubs will fall be the wayside. Perhaps half must close for the remaining half to survive. That’s going to be 5,000 angry former owners that Gary Heavin is going to have to face.
If you are increasing membership and posting solid profits during this economy and years after the “days of magic,” as our area director called 2002-2003 for Curves, you are to be congratulated. Because most clubs are LOSING members no matter what they do.
And PLEASE show a little more compassion to club owners who are struggling or who have lost their life savings. That could be YOU in a few years, or even months, considering the shaky state of the US economy. Count your blessings that you are not among the majority of club owners who are facing monetary losses.
This site I happened across is called “Franchise Pick”. You all posting negative information on Curves- well I disagree with most of it, not all, but most.
We are not discussing my compassion, in which you have NO IDEA how much I have done or not done to help future buyers, current owners, resale’s and such. I am not here to defend myself, as I could give a rip about what you think about me. Let’s be clear-I do feel very sorry for ANYONE who has lost $$ in any business venture, with only their best intentions to go on. For most people $30, $60K, or more is a chunk of change-hard to come by. It happens EVERYDAY in all sorts of businesses. Best intentions do not make a savvy business owner.
I am comfortable in relaying to people LOOKING on this site, at (ANY) franchises to PURCHASE, that Curves is a GREAT deal, and to DO YOUR HOMEWORK. You need to do your homework for ANYTHING you do! I bet most owners spent more time hemming and hawing over an appliance purchase, than the purchase of their franchise! I know for a fact this is true for many owners I have talked to. They REFUSE to let the facts get in the way.
Nothing is certain in life, but personal responsibility needs to be in the equation or the would be purchaser is NOT getting the whole story in order to evaluate their decision.
You don’t get much for $40- $100K in terms of starting a business. Your not going to get McDonalds, or Norwalk Furniture. You won’t be starting your own bar and grill, or a donut shop. Geez, a painter needs $60-80K to start off (professionally) and they STILL need to brand themselves and get clients EVERY MONTH for years until they build a client base. We start at X income EVERY MONTH!
If a Curves owner has solid member numbers, based on bank receipts and workout numbers, and it is priced so the new owner can take it from there, it is a GOOD DEAL. It still is 30 minutes, women only, thousands of locations to travel, transfer to, fun, efficient and we haven’t solved the problem of obesity! My members who got bored, went to X gym, are back because what we do at CURVES, no one can beat. You won’t use the Y pool== if time is your issue, and you certainly are not showing up at a coed gym is your confidence is in the basement.
All I am saying is TAKE some personal responsibility and find out what is broken and fix it. If I fail at Curves it is MY FAULT because of MY inaction to take care of my business. It is easy to blame the big, corporation who gave you the opportunity to begin with. I am not Pollyanna and disagree with a lot of things they (Corporate) do, or don’t do, but it is STILL my business, and I can always count on MY two hands improvements I can make to make it stronger/better. (And BTW-my State is in a financial mess, effecting not only my business, but thousands of others-but I WILL survive with figuring out how to make it better- thinking)
All the bellyaching here from-owners, former owners, Pseudo owners and “I don’t know anything about Curves, never owned one but I am commenting anyway because no will ever know that I don’t know what I am talking about”-owners, needs a rebuttal. So I rebutted.
Curves Owner:
You make some good points about personal responsibility, and I state here over and over that by giving up that responsibility – and laying the blame solely on the franchisor (of any concept) – a franchise owner is accepting helplessness and powerlessness… which is self-defeating. Anyone who couldn’t recognize that this was a new, unproven concept that hadn’t stood the test of time – or an avalanche of knock-offs – has now learned an expensive lesson.
At the same time, these concepts are still being sold by emphasizing the simplicity, ease of operation and absolutely NO experience necessary. It’s a bit of a contradiction, isn’t it, to allow people to take out second mortgages on their homes while telling them that everything they need to be successful is taught in the initial training course? Hasn’t much of what’s made you successful been the result of things you learned in the trenches? If so, wouldn’t that mean that health club recruitment and retention experience would be a definite help? And, specifically, Express Fitness experience?
Second question: What are the specific things that struggling owners should be focusing on to boost their membership and increase their retention? Are their specific things you’ve done that you see the struggling club owner not doing?
Thanks for your input.
The main question at this Franchise Pick thread was “Is Curves a good investment?”
A few years ago, Curves was a GREAT investment. Right now it’s not a good investment. Perhaps in a few years it will be again.
I am a previous Curves owner and I will agree that most of the problems my husband and I had sprang from the fact that we had no business experience. I also will say, that I quit my job to work my club full time and I tried a variety of things to not only bring in new members, but retain the ones I had. When I confronted Curves with my failing situation I was not offered any help. No “let us waive your franchise fee for a few months so you can pay your rent”, instead I got “Here is the process of closing a club.” I was absolutley disappointed. I know a lot of other owners who are either not paying themselves or are paying themselves very little just they can keep the doors open. My heart goes out to anyone who finds themselves in this situation.
I would not recommend that anyone buy a Curves franchise at this point in time. Not a new one, not a resale. Even with the introduction of Curves “Smart Equiooment”. It is so hard to make this business profitable. Best of luck to anyone who is already in this business.
Dear curves owner and other readers:
What a joke. Curves owner, my husband and I are both experienced business owners who’ve owned thriving, lucrative businesses, and while running our businesses, the harder we worked, the greater our rewards. NOT SO WITH CURVES. It started out that way, but then Curves International oversold the market. Now they look to blame the franchisees for not being able to succeed, when in fact, they unethically oversold the market.
Unfortunately, this corporation is not organized with a board of directors, but rather is a sole proprietorship with Mr. Heavin pulling all the strings. In addtion to overselling territories, he is getting more than enough money from all franchisees to run ads on TV frequently, but prefers to hold back the funds.
Who are you really? Certainly you are NOT a Curves franchisee. Your rants smack of corporate BS.
Dear ex-curves owner, did Curves charge you to close your club? I am being told that I have to pay a $10,000 fee to Curves (instituted Feb. 1, 2008) in order to close my club, which is making no money. I don’t have $10,000 or I wouldn’t be closing. Others in my geographic location have closed with no penalty of any kind. How legal or ethical can it be for them to change the rules for the rest of us who have stayed in a bit longer, PAID them longer?
HELP PLEASE!
I am a Curves franchisee in Spain. Can any colegue from United States help me? I have been losing money for 2 years, like almost every Curvas in Spain. Prices in Spain are too low (even if we have not 30 minute competition yet) and members only pay when they want, contracts are not obligatory, members cancel when they want. I am triing to sell it for 1 year, but most Curves are trying too. I am almost loosing my home. Does any one know what happens if I just close? Will Curves take me to tribunal to claim royalties and penaltys? I know Viseu and Estoril Curves have already closed in Portugal many months ago but are still in the list, I supose are still paying royalties? Help Me Please ma2004@terra.es
I owned 2 Curves and made a ton of money in the first year from each. The second year was pretty good too and by the 3rd year I realized that it was a fad and I better get out. I was lucky enought to sell each of them. Once for $150,000 and another for $80,000. Get out now or it will only get worse!
Curves just plain sucks…. stay away from it at all costs. My girlfriend has been crying her eyes out for the last 6 months due to how bad curves has become at business collapsing. Why? Because the oversold the franchise in here area.. Small communities and curves still let others in close to here area. Way to go Gary, I think you deseve a big smack upside the head.
All of this strikes me so funny. I am a member and I love it. I was a runner but had to stop from foot surgery. Thank goodness for Curves.
There seem to be lots of satisfied women in my town.
D:
I bet there’s also a Curves owner who’s losing sleep worrying about her finances.
My question is for Curves Owner 3 – What where you able to find out about the $10,000 fee? I, too, am facing the closure of my club and was shocked to find this out. Any advice would be appreciated.
The $10,000 fee is for “abandoning your Franchise Agreement.” The fee is because Gary is being “gracious” enough to offer an out of the Franchise Agreement which states you have to continue paying royalties and advertising fees even if you close the business. One way out would be to file for bankruptcy. If you have no other assets, even though you own it as a corporation, etc., they don’t have anything to attach for the money. They can’t get blood from a rock! I’m closing after 4 years because everything stated that Gary did wrong is correct. I had a couple decent years – not tons of money – but at least had little bit after expenses. I’m an absentee owner so it’s more challenging. My closest clubs are 3 mins and 5 mins away. Gary’s flying around the country in his Curves jet while forgetting to help us “nice” owners. They need to restructure and do things to help other owners. How about teaching marketing and how to get corporate accounts? As for lawsuits against Gary, they are valid and many more will be coming. They don’t have to be only class action. We’re already investigating with other owners how to proceed. Good luck to all those owners who have been successful and to all of those who have lost money.
My wife and I have owned a curves franchise the early days. It was great at first and we ended up buying several more. Now the shit so to speak has hit the fan and we are starting a class action lawsuit for owners who have been ripped-off by the crook Heaven and his co-horts. The horror stories of what we have had to endure are overwhelming and the majority of owners feel the same way. If you are an owner who has been ripped-off please contact me by emailing confidentially unhappyfranchisee [at] gmail.com as any owner who would like to join the class action lawsuit against Curves International.
Ask for your message to be forwarded to “Curves Z” and I will email back.
My wife and I have owned a curves franchise the early days. It was great at first and we ended up buying several more. Now the shit so to speak has hit the fan and we are starting a class action lawsuit for owners who have been ripped-off by the crook Heaven and his co-horts. The horror stories of what we have had to endure are overwhelming and the majority of owners feel the same way. If you are an owner who has been ripped-off please contact me by emailing confidentially unhappyfranchisee [at] gmail.com as any owner who would like to join the class action lawsuit against Curves International.
Ask for your message to be forwarded to “Curves Z” and I will email back.
I’m an ex-member of Curves. They ripped me off for $145 &, after recent research into this company, I’m interested in getting involved in a class action suit against these professional thieves. Anyone?
Hey, I don’t see my post – ?
Margo
How did they rip you off? If your not an owner you couldn’t get involved in the grop action lawsuit. But you can filoe a complaint with your local BBB and youor states attorney generals office as well as the US FTC. Good luck.
I have read all the posts on this page and I can definately identify with a lot of them. My relationship with Curves began about 4 years ago when I became the Assistant Manager of a new club opening in a small West Virginia town (population about 10,000) In the beginning the club did PHENOMINAL!!! I then moved and was able to manage another Curves location in another small town in W.V. I later decided to be a wife and mom and not work. About a year and a half later I found out the Curves that I had originally worked at was for sale. The owner contacted me and after some careful thought, my husband and I decided to go for it. At the time I really believed in Curves as a whole and wanted the opportunity to own my own business (I was 22 at the time I bought my franshise) Now, I knew that the franchise had suffered from poor management and had lost many members, but after being encouraged by my corporate mentor that if I did things “the Curves way” I could recover the business and be very profitable. At the time, I definately agreed! I put myself in the mindset that if I worked hard and did things the way they should be done that everything would work out. At first I was doing well, not making a lot of money, but doing well. Then I started realizing from listening to my members and other women in the community that I knew who were past members that due to the poor service from the previous owner and staff that a lot of women just had a really bad taste in their mouths regarding Curves. But still, I continued to try hard and market the business and provide great service to my members….well now, after a year and 3 months I am facing closure. Not only have I not been able to sway members back by remodeling the facility and getting new equipment, the “recession” we are experiencing right now has hit my small town VERY hard! Many of the women who attend here are housewives and retirees. And as we all know, when you have only one income or live on a very fixed income, there is little money left for anything else. Many of the women in my community look at exercise as a luxury (or at least their husband’s do) or are very stuck in the 80’s as far as their ideas regarding health and fitness….it is hard to get through to them!! I have tried everything I know to do. I have sought help from Curves International with no avail. I guess it gets busy at the top while all of us are drowning!! I would definately tell anyone thinking about buying a frachise, new or existing, that you need to DO YOUR HOMEWORK!!!!!!! Cause I’m NOT AT ALL happy with the way I have been treated! BUYER BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
unhappy,
I got the member rip-off where they continue to charge, as long as they can get away with it, after the contract is up. Apparently, there’s a lot of us; but, looks like there’s even more current/ex owners that have been screwed. No surprise there.
Help! I am considering closing my Curves location within the next week. I am an experienced business person but this franchise is much more than I signed on for. The more I promote, the more members I lose because they suddenly realize that they have “forgotten to cancel” their monthly fees. The prior owner has been working at another Curves just 3 miles from me and I am losing members to that club as well. I feel that my advertising money all goes into advertising for Gary and his Curves products. I could easily spend that $195 per month on local advertising and gain a few new members with it. I could care less if people buy Curves cereal or vitamins!!
I have 5 children to fee, no husband to support me and I can not afford to lose $1500 per month one more second. Can anyone give me advice on what to do to shut this down quickly without making any mistakes.
Dear Ms,
Send an email asap to Sean Kelly at unhappyfranchisee[at]gmail.com. asking him to forward it to me. Please include your phone number and I will contact you right away with advice on how to close, what to expect from curves and the lawsuit that is on going that you may want to consider joining to recoup your losses. Robert
———-ATT ALL CURVES OWNERS———–
IT HAS JUST BEEN ANOUNCED THAT [Name withheld] IS TRYING TO PARTNER FOR ADVERTISING WITH SLIVER SNEAKERS FITNESS PROGRAM. AS UNHAPPY FRANCHISE OWNERS WE MUST PUT ARE EFFORT TO STOP THIS ARRANGEMENT AS SLIVER SNEAKERS IS A HONEST BUSINESS THAT DOES NOT NEED TO GET ENVOLVED WITH SUCH A DISPICTABLE, DISHONEST, UNETHICAL, UNMORAL FRAUDULENT BUSINESS PERSON OR COMPANY AS [Name withheld] OR CURVES INTERNATIONAL. BELOW IS THE ADDRESS, TELEPHONE NUMBER AND FAX FOR SILVER SNEAKERS. PLEASE EITHER CALL, SEND THEM A FAX, OR GO ON LINE AND E-MAIL THEM ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS TOWARDS CURVES AND [Name withheld] ASAP. THIS IS URGENT FOLKS SO DO IT RIGHT NOW PLEASE. THANKS
the SilverSneakers Fitness Program presents many new exciting opportunities for Curves franchise owners. The brand is owned by Healthways (www.healthways.com) who is a leader in health and wellness. SilverSneakers offers its program to over 4 million Medicare beneficaries – babyboomers are aging-in to the Medicare system in large numbers. This is very exciting for Curves – the franchises will benefit!
yea sure just like aarp thats a line of junk fed by CI. The company is on the brink of bankruptsy with all those lawsuits pending If you own one get out its only a matter of time before you lose your shirt too
THERE ARE SOME HERE ON THIS SITE THAT DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING IS THAT BAD WITH CURVES. WELL FOLKS IT IS AND FOR THOSE WHO WOULD QUESTION THAT WHY DON’T YOU PROVE IT TO YOUR SELF BY DOING THE RESEARCH ON THE LAWSUIT. HERE IS WHO YOU NEED TO CONTACT.
FEDERAL COURT
U.S. CLERK OFFICE
800 FRANKLIN ROOM 800
WACO TX. 76701
254-750-1501
CASE OR DOC # 07′ CV’ 048
YOU CAN CALL AND REQUEST ALL DOCUMENTS REGARDING THE CASE AND PROVE TO YOUR SELF THAT HEAVIN IS NOT TELLING THE TRUTH TO THE CURVES OWNERS. SEE YOU IN COURT REAL SOON HEAVIN
I am a Curves member and tried to work out yesterday in a club that was 52-55 degrees.
I was imiserable. I also had much trouble in the summer when the club was kept 78 degrees.
Cutting corners isn’t fair when it affects the members like that.
I couldn’t agree with you more. It’s not right and you have every right to mention it to the owner. Your owner must be inexperenced or just not thinking and is probably close to closing. Members should be treated fairly and although the time for all business is getting rough as a result of the economy and some owners don’t have the experience to cope with the turn down. There are other ways to cut costs which won’t hurt the members and CI could help by working with those owners on how to do just that. But the help form CI in nonexistant. All they do is tell the owner that it is there fault and than send the letter about the 10,000 dollar closing fee. good luck curves member and thanks for posting here and keep us informed as to whot the owner says.
I WORKED AS A MANAGER OF A CURVES.I PURCHASED EVEYTHING FOR THE CLUB MYSELF, BELIEVING THE OWNER 3 HRS AWAY, WOULD SELL ME THE FRANCHISE..SHE NOT ONLY DID NOT SELL.SHE ALSO TOOK MONEY SHE DEDUCTD FROM OUR PAYCHECKS FOR SS ETC AND NEVER SENT IN TO SOCIAL SECURITY..IRS WAS NOTIFIED..I INFORMED CORPORATE AND THEY ADVISE WAS NOT THEIR PRO LEM..IN ADDITION WE HAD NUMEROUS DRAFTS THAT WERE NOT STOPPED BY OUR OWNER WITH SEVERAL COMPLAINTS TO CORPORATE WITH VERY LITTLE CONCERN..I HAVE LOST A LOT OF RESPECT FOR A COMPANY THAT I ONCED WANTED TO BE A PART OF.
becky sims:
Sounds like the owner did you a favor not selling the Curves to you. If you had bought the club and failed, Curves corporate would have been much more responsive… at least to get their $10K failure fee.
Becky,
You make a great decission and you obviously have a good head on you shoulders. But remember the franchises are independently owned and just because you worked for an obviosly bad owner the concept and most clubs are a great workout for most laddies. The owners are in most cases good people being screwed by the franchisor.
Important message to all Curves owners.
There is another site that all current owners of a curves franchise needs to be aware of. The site was set up by Curves using our advertising dollars so we all need to use it. It’s intent is to allow owners to converse with other owners and to share ideas. It is a good site if you are looking for ideas on how to save your club or just have questions for other owners. Here is the link http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/curvesowners/?v=1&t=search&ch=web&pub=groups&sec=group&slk=1
Please go there to check it out and voice your opinion on the current posts and voice your concerns. This site is strictly for owners.
PAST AND PRESENT OWNERS,
Don’t forget to send your complaint letters to the BBB in your area as well as waco Tx. and your states attorney general as well as TX. and the FTC. Here are the links that you can go to to file the complaints.
http://www.bbb.org/
http://waco.bbb.org/WWWRoot/SitePage.aspx?site=40&id=ab5100aa-4c5a-4314-8e1b-f5996973f10c
http://www.oag.state.tx.us/consumer/index.shtml
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/index.shtml
Yeah I would have to agree with most of the owners here.
I owned 2 locations for over 5 years and never saw a regional rep. As for national adverstising there should of been enough money to run adverstisement during the Superbowl if needed. Where is all that money going???
I sold both of my locations in the Spring of 2008. Corporate I think cares only for its royalities and advertisement royalties. Just wait until you try and sell them to somebody. They want you to fork over another $5,000 a piece for them..
Curves is named AAFD’s Total Quality Franchising Franchisor of the Year.
Comments invited:
http://www.bizzia.com/franchisepick/curves-is-franchisor-of-year-say-what/
I don’t know what the big problem is here. I love my club. It’s small, has committed members – I work there full time (okay, a little bit more than full time) but I seriously enjoy my job. I like the freedom of working for myself and I think that the clubs do best when the owners are present daily (this also saves a ton on staffing costs). I think Curves do best when they are small and focus on giving personal service to it’s members making sure they are happy and satisfied with their experience. I’m not rich by any means, but it’s so much better than working in an office pushing paper! And the members just love coming in: they get a great workout and have some fun conversation with friends – if the walls could have ears! I’m sure that my Curves will keep growing, but the work to get and retain members never stops – nor should it! It’s my job!
I too am a former owner of a Curves. We opened in summer of 2005 and had to shut out doors in Winter of 2007. Prior to purchasing, I had managed a club for a year, so I thought I knew all the “ins” and “outs” of the business. Boy, was I wrong. Long story short, club was doing great in the beginning- 300 members, who slowly but surely dropped by the wayside once the newness wore off. I worked my tail off! I tried all the “curves” way to do things as far as marketing and retaining members. Didn’t work! I totally understand what the previous poster mentioned about when she tried to do local advertising and it came back to bite her! Old members who hadn’t been in for a while suddenly remembered and cancelled! I had tried all kinds of incentives to get them to use their memberships while they had them. Bent over backwards for them on holds, would have stood on my head if I thought it would have helped. I did not try to trick anyone into keeping memberships or anything like that. It’s so frustrating to know that I have over $80,000 I am trying to pay off by myself. I realize I got myself in this situation, but c’mon! It’s hard to pay my own living expenses- which are very modest- I drive a 1993 corolla. Doesn’t even have power windows! Definatly did not see any riches from this venture. All the revenue taken in was barely covering expenses. A prospective owner should really do their homework. You need to investigate all the money you will be paying to Curves each month for starters. I’m just glad I was able to stop the bleeding and now I am doing my part- still working my tail off- probably will till I’m 60 to pay the stupid bank off. Oh well, I definately learned a lesson! Buyer BEWARE!!! P.S. Since everyone else gets a “bailout” where’s mine???
Did anyone see the fireside chat with Gary? He tells us that half of his clubs closed due to bad management..he wont tell you that he got greedy and oversold..why would be be honest?? Hes a salesmen..
5000 clubs nationwide ALL closing due to bad management? You cant modify what cant be changed! A curves is a curves..its not a traditional gym and after 6-8 weeks people stop seeing results because there is no overload of the muscles!
the resistance is what it is..it doesnt get heavier or anything..
it IS a fad and he will continue to loose clubs
To all curves owners who have had problems with curves International and Gary Howie Havein please send your complaints to the BBB of your city and Waco TX. As well as the attorney general of your state and TX. And the federal trade commission. Below are web links where you can file the complaints on line.
http://www.bbb.org/
http://waco.bbb.org/WWWRoot/SitePage.aspx?site=40&id=ab5100aa-4c5a-4314-8e1b-f5996973f10c
http://www.oag.state.tx.us/consumer/index.shtml
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/index.shtml
You can’t continue to see results when there isn’t any more resistance. You’re just going throught the motions. With the short period that you are on a ‘machine’ isn’t enough time to amount to anything. Curves is a joke!