Curves For Women Franchise Owner Defends her Chain
(FranchisePick.Com)
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Women’s 30 Minute fitness franchises, Curves included, get a fair share of scrutiny (and abuse) on FranchisePick.com.
On the lively comment thread on Is Curves for Women a Good Franchise Investment? Curves franchise owner and FranchisePick.Com commenter mcc stood up for Curves for Women as a club and as a franchise investment [bold emphasis added]:
• My family and I own 2 Curves. We’ve been open for 6 years. We continue to be profitable. We work at it. We market. We advertise. We can’t always ‘count’ how many members come from a newspaper ad or a mailing. All consumers are bombarded with advertising to the point that they don’t know what they are seeing or when they see it. I judge the effectiveness of our marketing efforts by the bottom line. For instance, when we stopped doing Pennysaver covers, our appointments slowed. Even though previously members were not citing Pennysaver as the reason they came in.
• Regarding overweight women owning Curves or being at Curves: One of our very best staff members was almost 300 pounds. She was the kindest, most caring person you could ever meet. She had gained her weight during a 5 year period when she was desperately trying to have a baby. She had more compassion for the members than anyone. She had a 100% ’sales’ record. The members absolutely adored her — even the skinny members loved her (imagine that!)
• Curves is a place where you can get fit and get healthy. One of my members recently had a heart attack. Her doctor asked her what kind of exercise she had been doing. She told him she had been exercising at Curves for 5 years — 3 times a week — faithfully. He told her that CURVES saved her life. She was surprised because even she thought 3 times a week was no big deal. Her doctor advised her that it was enough to strengthen her heart muscle to the point that her heart suffered no damage from the heart attack. He told her not to quit. I do not know this doctor. I’ve never met him. He’s not trying to get me business — he just wants his patient to stay healthy.
• We have countless stories of women who have controlled their diabetes, controlled their blood pressure, decreased their arthritis pain, and improved their self esteem and mood — and they ONLY exercise 3 times a week at Curves. So I take offense to the comments by some on this board that “Curves isn’t really fitness” and “Curves is only pushing products on people”.
• Are we a social club? Yes — for some. Some women are motivated to come to Curves on a regular basis because of the social atmosphere. Women are social creatures … don’t be surprised to learn that they enjoy social activities where they can also maintain their health & fitness.
• The beauty of Curves is STILL the fact that busy women can drop in anytime to workout for 30 minutes. They don’t have to commit to a class time. I don’t know about the women where you live, but most of the women I know do not have the leisure time to commit to a 1 hour class, 3 times a week on a regular basis. Most of our members are running in to Curves then running home to take care of the kids, grandkids, dogs, husband, parents, shopping, laundry, cooking, etc. etc. etc. For that reason, Curves is STILL the answer to: “How am I supposed to stay healthy?”
• Curves diet is not a diet as much as a better way to eat: HEALTHY. It’s not a fad. It’s not unreasonable. It’s hard — because changing bad habits is hard. Giving up foods you love is hard. But the nutritional advice in Curves diet is based on sound science. We always advise our diet classes to take the Curves Member Guide to their doctors to show him/her what they are participating in. The doctors are always very pleased with what their patients are doing at Curves.
• One of the things that happened with Curves is that lots of people saw it as a ‘get rich quick’ scheme. Some of those people became Curves owners and they were surprised that you have to actually work your business. Others bought in to copy-cat systems such as Slender Lady & Contours. They all sold themselves as: “We are just like Curves - but better!”
• In closing: Curves is STILL the best thing that ever happened to women. BUSY women can find time to get at LEAST 30 minutes of exercise 3 times a week when it’s convenient for them. The exercise is both cardio & strength training. That’s the heart of the program. On top of that, IF they choose, they can enjoy the social, friendly, encouraging, motivating atmosphere provided by Curves. And IF they choose they can try our diet. And IF they want to eat a protein bar called Curves, or cereal called Curves or popcorn called Curves, all sold by General Mills, they can. All of those things are extras. They don’t have to buy our vitamins or shakes.
Curves is still #1 and I don’t doubt that fitness snobs around the world will continue to try to drag it down. Were it not for Curves, millions of women in this world would not be doing any strength training. And most women who aren’t doing Curves, are simply walking on a treadmill in front of a televsion. Talk about boring!
Thanks, mcc, for sharing your opinion
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POSTED IN: Curves For Women
2 opinions for Curves For Women Franchise Owner Defends her Chain
Guest
May 8, 2008 at 11:13 am
The last paragraph is best: Were it not for Curves millions of women would not be doing any strength training.
That’s true, I work out at Curves on my lunch hour and see firsthand what it does for a lot of women. I go to Curves to be with friends and to have a quick workout.
Having previously worked out in gyms, HOWEVER, I long to go back to a regular gym, because I do think it is a better workout, and certainly more diverse. Also, gyms are open longer hours for those that have busy schedules.
Curves works for the lunch hour crowd and for social interaction. I think it is around to stay and probably a reasonably good investment for someone in a good location who is willing to work at it.
mcc
May 8, 2008 at 12:25 pm
I do want to clarify something because it feeds into the sterotype of Curves employees. I mentioned in this post that we formerly had an employee who was very overweight.
We currently have 15 employees — mostly part time.
two are in their early 20’s
two are in their late 20’s
two are in their 30’s
several are in their 40’s
a few are in their 50’s
one is in her 60’s
Our employees look like our members. They go to college, are young moms, have kids in school, hold full time jobs besides Curves, watch their grand kids, have husbands in the military, they are widows, singles, newleyweds, have pets, drive their kids to soccer practice, etc. They represent the average American woman.
Some of them are in great shape (including the 60 year old), some are a little out of shape and some are overweight. Some have thyroid problems, two are cancer survivors, one has lost a great deal of weight at Curves (100 pounds).
They all have one thing in common: They are kind, helpful, happy, fun, good hearted people who know how to treat customers. And they are dedicated to helping the members who also become their friends.
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