We spent 10’s of thousands of dollars on advertising and even had every CUTS in the state jointly advertising in print, radio and sponsoring major fundraiser events to help spread the word.

When the Founder stated in the owners meeting… Corporate will no longer spend the advertising money to help “brand the name” and corporate would not spend any more of its money advertising… That is when I figured the founder gave up on the Franchise. The Founder may have been able to sell millions of dollars worth of “the ab machine” but when it came to running a franchise he and the rest of the staff fell way to short of the league they wanted to be in. Not one of them had any business sense and they didn’t try to hide that fact either.

As a Franchisor they had a commitment and an obligation to provide branding and advertising and they failed to have the knowledge or the budget do either to survive. Although, Corporate fired one or two VP’s and/or directors they did it late and they refused to replace the worthless VP’s with the talent they needed to survive.

We had nearly 100 members and all of them brought in friends because the concept worked…. We had several members lose over 50 pounds and everyone saw the system worked. One mistake Cuts made was not allowing co-ed facilities. We had many members who wanted their wives to join because they had “plateaud” at curves and needed the bigger stronger equipment… we also lost several members because theirs wives wanted to work out and couldn’t at our gym so they left our gym and joined a co-ed one.

The Founder and his staff sold every owner a bill of sale that corporate could not fulfill. They sold the owners on numbers that they could not back up, but sure used them to prove that we all were making a good investment. In the end the Founder even screwed a couple of the Master Franchisors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by pulling their Master Franchise Agreements without compensation. So I don’t think any of the owners truly had a fighting chance from the beginning.

There may be a few owners who out survived the Franchisor but I am one and know at least 6 others who tried and tried with everything they had including their homes and family’s only to find out that the Founder didn’t even believe in what he was selling. I knew when I went out of business our “states” advertising funds we paid to corporate had never been touched for any advertising purposes. Because I asked if I could have that money back to help local advertising and was told no…. then when it all disappeared we figured Corporate had spent it on something stupid and in fact I believe they did use it to fund the writing of the book and probably for legal fees against the franchisee’s who filed suit against them.

I end by saying I commend any and all of the Franchisee’s who gave Cuts Fitness for Men a chance and whether we survived or folded it was not all our fault. If we only had a Founder who truly believed in what he sold and truly supported what he sold… we would still be in business and be 10,000 locations strong and growing! But I also truly hope that the Founder ended up just as financially broke as the rest of us did.

The problem is that Curves is designed for WOMEN, and women are not the same as men. Curves is all about support, atmosphere, a simple workout for new exercisers, and a women-only environment. Men don’t want that. We don’t want to chit-chat on the circuit. When I work out, I come in, say hi, do my workout, say bye, and I’m out the door.

John Gennaro “thought” he could just clone an original concept into a different environment and it would automatically work. I think he has Walter Mitty dreams of being Gary Heavin. Not an original idea in his head. I hope he enjoyed all the free press while it lasted.

IS SHAPEXPRESS A GREAT FITNESS FRANCHISE OPPORTUNITY?

For related posts on 1-2-3 FIT FRANCHISE, BUTTERFLY LIFE FRANCHISE, CONTOURS EXPRESS FRANCHISE & CUTS FITNESS FOR MEN FRANCHISE, VISIT: Blogliography: 30 Minute Fitness Franchises

The reality is you can get great results at any gym if you actually show up. Today both men and women work full time, have many responsibilities and little time for themselves.

The traditional gym can be very intimidating for non-exercisers. Unless you pay for a personal trainer, who’s watching you? How long should you be on a machine? How much weight should you be lifting? You could get hurt? Oh, and why do all those people look like models?

Cuts Fitness, like Curves provides a non-intimidating supervised fun atmosphere for people to get healthy in a 30min. routine. A no-brainer-YES!
I think the equipment had something to do with it. We now offer the same type of workout a traditional gym offers in a fraction of the time with our new equipment. Men are visual. When a guy walks into a gym he wants to get the masculine feel of a mens gym even if he has no intension of using all of the equipment…is it a macho thing, probably.
An image of masculinity, a perception of being healthy and fit.

Starting a new business is not easy. New concepts take time, dedication and hard work. If you believe in your product it will show and they will come!