Franchise Pick

20 opinions for Curves For Women Franchise: 20% of Curves Franchises Closed in MA

• Janeane
  Feb 10, 2008 at 11:15 pm

  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!!!

• curves owner
  Feb 13, 2008 at 5:47 pm

  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!

• Another Curves Owner
  Feb 14, 2008 at 12:46 pm

  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.

• HAS CURVES FOR WOMEN ABANDONED ITS FRANCHISE OWNERS?
  Feb 15, 2008 at 7:37 am

  […] of FranchisePick.com reader “Another Curves Owner” who left the following comment on a recent post on the Curves for Women franchise woes.  What do you think?  Leave a comment […]

• Louise
  Feb 15, 2008 at 10:43 am

  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.

• Sadderbutwiser
  Feb 16, 2008 at 12:48 am

  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.

• curves owner
  Feb 16, 2008 at 2:07 pm

  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.

• Sadderbutwiser
  Feb 17, 2008 at 12:37 am

  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.

• Amy
  Feb 17, 2008 at 1:40 am

  Curves Owner- your story isn’t over with yet……

• Sadderbutwiser
  Feb 17, 2008 at 2:25 pm

  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.

• curves owner
  Feb 18, 2008 at 8:52 am

  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.

• sean
  Feb 18, 2008 at 10:09 am

  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.

• Sadderbutwiser
  Feb 18, 2008 at 10:29 am

  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.

• ex-curves owner
  Feb 21, 2008 at 8:46 am

  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.

• Curves Owner 3
  Mar 13, 2008 at 4:20 pm

  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.

• Curves Owner 3
  Mar 13, 2008 at 4:43 pm

  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?

• Franquiciada Curves Spain
  Mar 30, 2008 at 2:56 pm

  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

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• mary
  Apr 24, 2008 at 1:37 pm

  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!

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  May 8, 2008 at 10:06 am

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