How to Buy a Curves Franchise for $1.00… or Less!
April 23, 2008 by Sean Kelly
Filed under Business
(FranchisePick.Com) Do you dream of joining the fastest growing franchise system in history, of owning your own Curves for Women 30 minute fitness franchise… but you only have a dollar? No Problem!
You CAN own a Curves fitness franchise for less than the cost of a Big Mac.
I will tell you the secret as long as you promise to you must promise to appear on my upcoming infomercial (Sean Kelly’s 36-Cassette No-Money Down Wealth Building Franchise Secrets!) and read whatever comes over the teleprompter verbatim, no questions asked.
On the Curves resales website, there are approximately a 1.2 jillion established Curves franchise clubs the franchise owners are trying to unload, I mean, willing to part with. Here are a few lower cost examples:
EXAMPLES OF LOW COST CURVES FRANCHISES FOR SALE
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$1.00 or less: DeQuincy, Louisiana $1.00* Make An Offer Best Offer Peculiar, MO** $10,000 or less $5,000.00 Glendale AZ $9,900.00 Rochester Hills MI $10,000.00 Sterling MA $10,000.00 Oxford CT $10,000.00 Must Sell, IN*** |
$20,000 or less $16,000.00 Grafton OH $18,000.00 Lake Mills IA $19,000.00 Huron OH $19,000.00 Cherry Hill NJ $20,000.00 Tyngsborough MA $20,000.00 Port St. Lucie, FL $22,000.00 Lancaster PA******
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$15,000 or less $11,500.00 Waterford CA $12,000.00 Lowell MA $12,000.00 Lancaster PA***** $12,500.00 Reedsport OR $13,500.00 Sartell MN $13,500.00 San Antonio TX $15,000.00 Lavonia GA $15,000.00 Waipahu HI***** $15,000.00 Brooklyn NY $15,000.00 Hot Springs, Wy****** |
$25,000 or less $21,000.00 red bud IL $24,900.00 Cape Coral FL $25,000.00 Bay Minette AL $25,000.00 Superior CO 1k down, 1k mo $25,000.00 Fort Myers FL
NOTES * Or best offer. ** Clientele is a tad… odd. *** Possible typo **** Amish customer base. Low electric bill. ***** As seen on DOG The Bounty hunter ****** SmartCurve Hydraulic bullrider very popular ****** Proud Sponsors of World Whoopie Pie Eating Championship |
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Why are Curves Owners Selling so Cheaply?
Why are these franchise owners selling? Isn’t it obvious?
Some want to pursue other interests, like spending the wealth they’ve amassed.
Some want more time with family, spending time together spending the wealth they’ve amassed.
And others just want to share their good fortune… with you!
WHAT DO YOU THINK? SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.
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Curves looks like it is going down the tube and all of those poor souls who invested their faith and money will suffer great financial losses. Obviously, you could buy a Curves for $1.00 or less from some poor distressed franchisee who wants to get out from underneath the personal guarantee on the ten-year lease they signed.
Is Curves still selling franchises and is Curves still on the SBA franchise registry?
The trouble with franchising is that the franchisors always saturate the markets with the same or a similar concept and hide the great risk of the investment from the new buyer until everyone fails —even the franchisor.
Greed is not always good. $1.00 for a Curves is too much!
Carol:
It’s even worse than that. Curves Int’l requires a $10,000 fee for closing your club. That’s right, a $10K Loser Tax.
Imagine the feeling of trying to save up $10,000 so you can close your club?
Curves is unparalleled in its ability to charge on the front end and on the backend.
Our relative who was a former co-owner bought our two clubs last year for 50 cents each in exchange for not suing us, despite our warnings that the clubs were losing money. She and her husband already owned another club out west they had picked up for $1.
Since then, they’ve closed the $1 club and are struggling to keep our old clubs open.
They were warned, but didn’t listen.
Sadderbutwiser:
Pretty bad when you can’t make a $1.00 club work.
Why were they going to sue? Something club-related?
Sounds like your relative overpaid for the clubs (!)
Breach of contract. We overpaid to buy out the relative’s share of the two clubs we co-owned together, foolishly using our home equity after they threatened an INITIAL lawsuit if we didn’t go through with it. When we couldn’t make payments, they threatened a SECOND lawsuit if we didn’t surrender the clubs. So we did. Now it’s their nightmare. We’ve got our own to deal with, like moving out of the only home our young children have ever known.
Sadderbutwiser: Sorry to hear about both those tragedies: moving out of your home and having your family at odds over a business deal. With all these expensive lessons, we should be geniuses any day now… hang in there.
Is this for real , ?? 1 $ club ?? I understand that your $ value is low but wow! and also is this 10,000$ closing fee a urban legend? someone that is able to make people sign a franchise agreement with a clause like this is GOOD!! if Curves goes down I am shure that a lot of used car lot will hire him !! or her..
I am in the process of “selling” my club for the sum of $10k, under duress from McCord. I brought the buyer to the table and Curves talked her into going through McCord,circumventing me altogether. So now they are taking thier fee of 5k leaving me a sum of 5k, after 1k transfer fee and $1800 escrow fee. The poor woman thought she was doing me a favor going through them. They lied to her and to me. Now we can’t get out of it. So I am going to strip my club down to just the basic circuit and the member files. These poor people aqre going to have to buy furniture, computers, music etc. One of the new owners is a memeber already in my club. My landlords are being stupid, not wanting to concede to lower rent and cosmetic upgrades and the a/c needing to be replaced, what I have been complaining of for four years. Now she will probably have an empty building, and will come after me for the remainder of the lease. I had decided to close on July 31, 2008 when the buyer came forward. Then the strong arming began. I will have a mutual release from my 10year agreement, so they say, that’s if they haven’t lied about that. My territory should be closed and never re-opened, but you know it’s all about the money and not the franchisees. Gary Heavin is a liar and all his henchmen will answer someday for thier deceptions and thievery. I am so tired after four years, I can’t wait to get out and not look back. I hate the word Curves or any reasonable facsimile thereof.
This broker used to work for McCord. He is wonderful. If you need to buy or sell a club call him, he can help. We purchased through him and he was a tremendous help. He was very fair, professional, and knowledgable.
Well the value of the curves franchises are still going down and most are unsellable at this time. The equipment which curves international tells owners who close that they have to donate it to a women prison or send it back to CI can be found all over for next to nothing as long as you pay the shipping cost.
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.
I am thinking of purchasing a franchise, but not sure after reading all of this?
I am considering buy a curves franchise but concerned after reading all of this, any comments?
joan writes: I am considering buy a curves franchise but concerned after reading all of this, any comments?
Joan, everyone needs to make up their own mind after weighing all the opinions put before them. When we asked if Curves for Women was a good investment, we received 600+ comments here:
http://www.bizzia.com/franchisepick/is-curves-for-women-a-good-franchise-investment/
I’d suggest you also search in the sidebar “categories” menu to read the 21 stories/discussions on this site about Curves.
Also, check out hundreds more comments and articles on Curves at http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com
Ultimately, you’ve got to make the decision and, for better or worse, take responsibility for the outcome. Speak to as many Curves owners as possible.
The good news is that even a few years ago you would not have all this information with which to make an informed decision.
Best of Luck. Keep us apprised!
Joan,
There is probably a very good reason why the owner is willing to part with their business for $1Joan,
There is probably a very good reason why the owner is willing to part with their business for $1.00:
• The business is in the red and most likely deeply in the red.
• The owner is trying to escape a lease payment that is probably guaranteed personally.
Those two issues should be cause for concern. If you are able to address those with a solid plan you might want to take the risk:
• How do you turn this business around to profitability?
• What kind of agreement can I get concerning the lease space?
For the latter question you might be able to come up with some favorable lease due to the economic conditions we are in. Most landlords probably are thankful if they can just make their payments at this point and any profit is gravy. You will have to make contact with that landlord and if I were you, get a lawyer to review everything before you sign on the dotted line.
However, you are dealing with a franchise when talking about Curves and with that come a whole additional set of issues that you need to address. This is especially true with Curves International and Howard Gary “Golden Greedy Pockets” Heavin:
• To buy the club, you will be entering into a long term agreement, an agreement that has a failure clause.
• Curves International and “Golden Greedy Pockets” are being sued in Federal court for numerous violations to include among some items as: Fraud, Unfair Trade Practices and Failure to Disclose.
• “Golden Greedy Pockets” was sued a few years back by his own executive staff.
• Curves clubs were closing at a high rate BEFORE the economy turned bad.
• Curves International does not enforce many of its own rules governing advertising on other club territories, transfers of members and payments to other clubs.
There are many other issues that can be added to the above list and the above list has many subparts such as over saturation of clubs which is a major compliant. Any one of these should be a Red Flag for any prospective franchisee, and in this case there are many Red Flags. If you have any doubts take Sean’s advice and read the many postings on the internet. If you still want to move forward, visit no less then ten clubs and talk to the owners.
If you still decide to move forward with the purchase I strongly recommend that you do an audit of the club who understands the Go Figure computer program and can help you go through file by file to get an exact accounting of the clubs membership. Be aware that if you have no experience with that program the membership can be very easily concealed from you and thereby you will be shocked by the true number a couple of months later.
If you feel this is what you want to do and go ahead, then I suggest that you contact the local houses of worship and have the minister, priest, rabbi, mullah, medicine man bless the place, perform an exorcism or whatever it is they do to – ‘cause you are going to need whatever help you can get. “You say you don’t believe?” Well, if you get involved with Curves, “Gary Greedy Golden Pockets” is going to take everything from you and the only thing you will have left is Hope, and that is where your faith comes in.
Finally, find a good shirk. You will need that too.
I was interested in purchasing a Curves until I read some of the posts. If Curves is such a bad deal, why has it been named “Franchisor of the Year for 2009?
rogers7808 says: I was interested in purchasing a Curves until I read some of the posts. If Curves is such a bad deal, why has it been named “Franchisor of the Year for 2009?
Rogers7808:
There are no valid franchise awards/rankings that I know of (Though FranSurvey.Com at one time seemed to be useful and well-intentioned). All are somehow driven by a self-serving motive. For Entrepreneur magazine, the 800 lb. gorilla of franchise rankings, it is ad sales and perpetuation of the franchise myth of great opportunities galore.
The 2009 Franchisor of the Year award was given by the AAFD (American Association of Franchisees & Dealers). This is the same organization that gave Cuppy’s Coffee – an outright scam organization – its highest accreditation and defended it despite tons of warning signs that they were pirates. Why? Because Cuppy’s was paying the AAFD. Once they stopped paying, AAFD “got religion.”
From what I understand, Curves International made a commitment to spend $250K or so funding the AAFD-sanctioned Curves franchisee association. Think that might have had something to do with it?
http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/curves-aafd-names-curves-franchisor-of-the-year/
Keep in mind that the very name of the award is deceptive. Since their awards are solely for AAFD member organizations, shouldn’t it be designated as “Franchisor AAFD Member of the Year”? The award implies they evaluated all franchisors and designated the winner as the best. In fact, the number of franchisors involved with the AAFD is quite small.
Be sure to also check out:
http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/curves-overview/
http://www.bizzia.com/franchisepick/curves-is-franchisor-of-year-say-what/
http://www.bizzia.com/franchisepick/aafd-quietly-suspends-cuppys-franchisor-accreditation/
HI CAROL: I AM A CURVES OWNER AND THAT RIGHT WHERE AM AT !!! THEY WANT $10,000, I TOLD THEM IF I HAD MADE MONEY IN THE YEAR AND HALF, I WOULDN’T BE TRYING TO CLOSED…I HAVN’T MADE A PENNY!!!!AND HAVE NO $$$$… SO HOW AM I TO SALE THE PLACE… IT SAVE MY LIFE 5 YEARS OLD 75# AND I KEEP IT OFF 4 YEARS IT DOES WORK… AM A NEW PERSON AND I THOUGHT I COULD SAVE CURVES… BUT NOT NOW THE WORLD IS FALLING APART…AND HOW LONG BEFORE IT WILL GET BETTER, NOBODY KNOWS!!!! AM IN A SMALL TOWN AND LOT OF THE SMALL BUSINESS ARE CLOESING. I GOT CURVES THINKING ANOTHER BUSINESS WOULDN’T GO UNDER….WHAT OUR WE TO DO???? I USE TO SAY “CURVES FOR LIFE” I GUESS I WON’T BE ANY MORE..THIS IS SO HARD I LOVE ALL 75 MEMBERS I HAVE LEFT..HOW AM I TO TELL THEM????IS THERE ANY HOPE!!!!!!!! LINDALEE