Failed Contours Express Fitness Franchise Owner Shares Experience, Advice

(Franchise Pick)  ”Frank” left this comment on the post Is Contours Express a Great Fitness Franchise?  Frank claims that his wife opened a Contours Express womens fitness franchise… and failed. 

It’s a sad story.  Despite their best efforts, they lost $100,000, incurred $150,000 in debt, declared bankruptcy and may lose their house.  Still, “Frank” claims they have not joined the lawsuit (read Franchise Dreams Becoming Nightmares for Many Fitness Club Owners) and do not entirely blame corporate.  “Frank” provides some great insights into the challenges facing 30 minute fitness club operators, and offers advice for those thinking of opening a new fitness club, or growing an established club. 

I am a tough guy. I never cry, but my eyes are tearing up thinking about this subject.

My wife opened up a Contours. I went to training with her in Kentucky because even though I had my own job, there is no way somebody can do the business on there own.

We found a nice place and spent about $15,000 fixing it up. All toghter with the fees, equipment, rents, all that, by the time we opened we had spent about $65,000. We borrowed the money through a second mortgage. Our trainer that corporate sent was good, however she had a gym that was failing and she closed a little while after training us.

Anyway to get back to my wife. She left a good paying job she hated. She has been overweight her whole life and wanted to truly help people and herself. When people would walk in to join they would see her and feel comfortable with her, and they loved her. I can picture my wife coming up with things for people and helping them. I see her know hanging up little cards on the wall that showed how much weight people lost. She loved it. She was in heaven and she was so alive.

However there were many problems. The biggest was branding. Corporate had always talked about national branding. When the finally made commercials they were on at 2 in the morning on the Oxygen Channel. We were then told something big was coming in the summer of 2006 during the annual convention. What was it? Chicken Soup for the Soul supplements and shakes. We tried it and it was a flop. We would spend $3,000-4,000 for big mail drops. One that corporate discouraged us from doing actually landed us the most members we ever had for a mail drop. But are best advertisement was word of mouth from happy members.

We ended up with many members, however the problems we had were other factors beyond our control. Our rent went up unexpectedly. The stores around us closed, so we lost a lot of foot traffic. There was then a string of robberies in the area that made people not want to the area.

Also the contours by us were closing, and when people heard of this the became weary of us. We had never made a profit but were close. However we started getting more in the red till we were losing about $5,000 a month. My wife started to get depressed and our marriage was suffering. We were both having nervous breakdowns. I had always considered myself tough. My family had been wealthy but when I was 15 my father had lost his business through some bad investments and we had to move from a 4,000 square foot house to an apartment, so I had rough times before. But this was different. We both felt like failures.

I am not the ‘blame corporate crowd’. I believe in the end the owner has the ultimate responsibility. However Contours professed of having a great support system, which they didn’t. The training was lack luster. It was four and a half days long. About one whole day was how to use their ABC system, which could have been done in an hour. We then spent half a day about the crappy supplements and junk that we were encouraged to sell. The biggest part you needed to know, how to sell this type of service, was only given the most generic explanations. On the last day they took us to a local country club for a very lack luster dinner.

Corporate in theory is supposed to help you sell your gym. They don’t have to sell it for you, but they are supposed to have the system there. For us the system sucked. Then corporate came up with the policy that if you closed your gym, you couldn’t sell your equipment to another gym just opening. A new gym owner opening up a place from scratch needed to buy their equipment through the corporate approved vendor. Our equipment was well maintained. It was two years old and not a tear, not a scratch, not a mark. We had an inspector look at it before we closed and he said if he didn’t know it was used he would of thought it just came off the production line. We couldn’t find any takers for the equipment. Kind of hard to get rid off a whole gym set. We didn’t have the time to sell piece by piece when we closed. So we gave away $20,000 of new-like equipment to charity. We were willing to sell it for $5,000-7,000 to a new Contours, which would of helped the new owners but not Corporate.

We closed the gym and sold what we could, took home some of what we had left, and junked the rest. The other day my wife gave to Purple Heart the last Contours shirt she owned, she couldn’t stand to look at it. We had to declare bankruptcy; we had over $150,000 in debt. Our IRAs and 401k of almost $100,000 are gone. We wife became severally depressed. We are losing our house of 20 years also. My wife is trying to find work but in her state it is hard. I am working two jobs but it is a losing battle.

In the end I wish my wife didn’t do it. She was making good money before. And while she might have been happy for a short time while doing this she is depressed now. I tear up when I think about it. I know that most of the people in my training class closed their businesses also. And while we take ultimate responsibility Corporate led to a huge part of us failing. I am not in the lawsuit and don’t plan to be. But to say those that are should of known better is wrong. Unless you have been there you have no clue.

The gym industry is hard to make money in. If all the people who needed to join a gym came we would be billionaires. But most people don’t want to work out. People join gyms and never show up. If you want to do this industry and have to franchise I would go with someone better known like Curves. Even thought the weight resistant training is more superior to the hydraulics Curves has, Curves has the name.

But my suggestion would be to open up your own place, buy your equipment on the cheap, find a good location with decent rent, and SIGN UP AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN BEFORE YOU OPEN. That last part is the best piece of advice. You get money to get you going before you open the doors, and you have the best advertisement, word of mouth, before you even open the doors. Also make sure your landlord give you a month or two of free rent and some build-up reimbursement. Build out is when you fix up the place; bring it to code and the like. And advertise. Print out flyer (Staples will make them cheap) and put them on every car you can find. Put them on people’s front door. Do a mail drop before you open. Put up bandit signs. SELL, SELL, SELL.

Number one lesson; never get emotionally tied to your business.

HAVE AN OPINION? LEAVE A COMMENT!

Franchising is a great way to own a business, but requires EXTENSIVE research and due diligence.  Here are some good places to start:

FranBest.Com: The Best in Franchising   Check out the “Franchise Guide” section for a growing list of hype-free articles, some by FranchisePick.Com’s Sean Kelly.

FranBest.Com Interview Series:  Founders of franchise concepts share lots of information about  themselves, their companies, their franchise owners, and their franchise opportunities so that you can decide for yourself.

TopNewFranchises.Com: Check out in-depth interviews with new franchisors, and see actual comments from both their customers and their franchise owners.

Franchise & Marketing Newsletters: Info, guidance, tips, offers and new opportunities for franchise shoppers, franchise owners and franchisors.  Free franchise newsletters tailored to your interests.

Custom Franchise Search

__________________________________________

FREE WHITEPAPER: What’s the best way for companies to respond to online criticism and attacks? A Harvard report with multiple recent case studies compiled and is available for free download.

__________________________________________