Franchise Pick

25 opinions for What Happened to the Cuts Fitness For Men Franchise?

• What Happened to the Cuts Fitness For Men Franchise? at PIGASYS
  Oct 8, 2007 at 10:25 am

  […] Share This […]

• Health Tips Blog » What Happened to the Cuts Fitness For Men Franchise?
  Oct 8, 2007 at 11:55 pm

  […] Here is an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptOne of the most aggressive was Cuts Fitness for Men, an admittedly male version of Curves founded by John Gennaro. Cuts Fitness for Men advertised their franchise opportunity aggressively, promoted its story continuously through the … […]

• www.fitnessbook.info » What Happened to the Cuts Fitness For Men Franchise?
  Oct 9, 2007 at 12:55 am

  […] sean wrote a fantastic post today on “What Happened to the Cuts Fitness For Men Franchise?”Here’s ONLY a quick extractOne of the most aggressive was Cuts Fitness for Men, an admittedly male version of Curves founded by John Gennaro. Cuts Fitness for Men advertised their franchise opportunity aggressively, promoted its story continuously through the … […]

• Mysterious Disappearance of Hot New Franchise Cuts Fitness for Men Part 2
  Oct 11, 2007 at 8:07 am

  […] The hype continued through mid-2006, when the company press releases slowed and stopped mentioning the number of units.  In September, 2006, in an otherwise positive article, the New York Times reported that “67 Cuts for Men clubs have either closed or never opened.”  Steven Haase, the company’s managing director, was quoted as saying that “closings were part of the process as a franchise grows.” [Also read Mysterious Disappearance of Hot New Franchise Cuts Fitness for Men Part 1:   What Happened to the Cuts Fitness For Men Franchise?] […]

• Mysterious Disappearance of Hot New Franchise Cuts Fitness for Men Part 2 at PIGASYS
  Oct 11, 2007 at 9:10 am

  […] The hype continued through mid-2006, when the company press releases slowed and stopped mentioning the number of units. In September, 2006, in an otherwise positive article, the New York Times reported that “67 Cuts for Men clubs have either closed or never opened.” Steven Haase, the company’s managing director, was quoted as saying that “closings were part of the process as a franchise grows.” [Also read Mysterious Disappearance of Hot New Franchise Cuts Fitness for Men Part 1: What Happened to the Cuts Fitness For Men Franchise?] […]

• Fiscal Fitness Proving Elusive for 30 Minute Workout Franchise Owners at PIGASYS
  Oct 18, 2007 at 10:40 am

  […] What Happened to the Cuts Fitness For Men Franchise? (Part 1) […]

• jcawthorn
  Oct 31, 2007 at 2:24 pm

  This was a real disaster for many people. The corporate support that was promised was just so much hot air. Their only interest was in getting their franchise fees. All club owners were offered a buy out option; i. e., we could send corporate a stated amount of money to end our association with them. Most people did this, as far as I am able to tell. Truly was a financial pain of astronomical proportions for me. So I now own a bunch of used exercise equipment and nothing else. What a disappointment and disillusioning experience!

• Richard Bernier
  Nov 1, 2007 at 1:31 pm

  My partners and I looked at Cuts and had way too many questions. We did not go with them but instead opted to start our own system. I thought the way they had there system set up that they could not offer the support a franchisee needs. We are setting that up in ours and have structured our company to give the best support possible. Anyone that may be interested in switching to our franchise cna look at our web site at http://www.expresstrainonline.com. One of the big things that turned me off on Cuts later on was the way they changed their equipment three times. We use the original manufacturer they were going to use and they told use some interesting stories that confirmed our suspicions. Anyone who wants to discuss their experience with us we would very much like that. We have a true passion to help others, not to just make a buck.

• Franchise Seeker
  Nov 2, 2007 at 9:08 am

  Richard Bernier said: “I thought the way they had there system set up that they could not offer the support a franchisee needs. We are setting that up in ours and have structured our company to give the best support possible.”

  Richard, I checked out your website and saw that you provide three WHOLE days of training for the $37,000 franchise fee. Either you don’t have much to share, or you’re not sharing it. If you read through the comments on the Butterfly Life and Contours Express articles here on this site, you’ll see the dangers of promising support then not building it in to your franchise program.

  Better keep your running shoes laced up if you’re getting people to invest and sending them out in the world with 3 day’s training.

• burned by Genarro
  Nov 2, 2007 at 10:00 am

  We all got burned by this pompous “little” guy.
  He is an arrogant jerk that is the worst kind of opportunist…..Never had any intenetion of making this work…..saw a way to steal money!
  He’ll get his payback someday—Bad Karma

• sean
  Nov 2, 2007 at 10:43 am

  burned by Genarro said Never had any intenetion of making this work…..saw a way to steal money!
  burned: I don’t know John Gennaro personally, but it seems to me that people who know a concept’s going to fail stay in the background and don’t plaster their face all over everything the way Gennaro did. Why do you say he never had any intention of making the Cuts Fitness concept work? What gives you (or gave you) that impression?

• Richard Bernier
  Nov 2, 2007 at 2:12 pm

  To “Franchise Seeker”,

  I appreciate your candid comments. We offer three days at our location because we are trying to keep the franchisee’s costs down. We provide additional support and training at their location prior to opening (making sure everything is set up correct and go over what they need to do) and then we are there again at Grand Opening.

  If anyone feels they need additional training we will provide it. If they want us at their location they have to pay our travel costs but if they come to ours it is at no additional charge.

  We plan to grow slowly. I do not care about getting on the “Fastest Growing Franchise” list because that does not necessarily translate into a good franchise system.

  Also, the $37K includes the franchise fee, 9 machines, medicine balls, bands, training, operational manual, initial marketing, computer systems and membership software. I saw that the low investment on Cuts is listed at $40K and the high at $70K (including a $25K franchise fee!). That is deceiving because their high is less than what we list as low. We opened one at our low so I know this to be true. The only way this could be remotely possible is that they are having the franchisee’s lease the equipment. With ours you own it.

  I like this exchange because I want to make sure I understand what people are looking for or feel is wrong. We want to have a healthy and thriving franchise base.

  I encourage you to leave additional comments (so long as you stay constructive and not insulting).

• Ex Ms Contours
  Nov 2, 2007 at 3:21 pm

  I would just make sure you are not going toooo slow. We were told at Contours that “we’re still in the infancy stage”. Yeah, they have been in business since 1998!!!!

• CUTS Exec: Male-Only Fitness Club Idea Bombed at PIGASYS
  Nov 19, 2007 at 4:04 pm

  […] October 8th, 2007 What Happened to the Cuts Fitness For Men Franchise? […]

• The Bandwagon Effect | fitness-course.com
  Dec 2, 2007 at 12:26 am

  […] press and strategic alliance partners, then seemed to go silent all at once,” say the folks at FranchisePick.com. The Cuts Fitness for Men website now simply hawks a Cuts book, as if the whole thing never […]

• N/D
  Feb 29, 2008 at 10:29 pm

  If there are many people “burned” by Gennaro and all his staff (Cuts Fitness Franchise) why there are so little information in the web about the Cuts bankruptcy?

• sean
  Feb 29, 2008 at 10:42 pm

  N/D:
  There’s a lack of information on lots of franchise companies and franchise units that just disappear without a whimper. At the time I wrote these posts, I could hardly find anything in print about a much-hyped chain that just seemed to disappear. Franchisees tend to just slink off in many cases, and in others they are only let out of their obligations (even after failing) if they sign a non-disclosure document.
  In this case, they let the franchisees convert to independent clubs, so they weren’t as perturbed as the Contours Express, Butterfly Life, etc. franchisees.
  Not too many media outlets report on franchise failures… it’s probably not good for advertising.

• JC
  Mar 28, 2008 at 9:56 am

  It is hard to define a phenomenon like Cuts when you have no connection with the “business” itself… Only the ones that put their soul,hope,private time and money are able to tell you more about.Look for them, see what do they do now and rewrite or write a third part of the original article. What do europeans think about?!-60’s American Bull@$£t Marketing! Big words, small facts, uncontrolled marketing and franchise development-hands off the business-all the meniu needed for a business to collapse.You ask yourselves how come Curves stands up?!-so far good structure and management and two different markets-men and women.Was no proper market research done for Cuts-for men-yeah-for men in need! The concept is great if you have a nursery home otherwise you open just to have something to close! Look the way it developed-at the beginning-hydraulic based systems only-after nearly two years they started to introduce adjustable weight machines-why?! Because this is what male market is looking for…There are more other things to say…Sean said he knows Mr. Gennaro-take life as it is-the life partner can be deceptive-what abot a friend?!
  In conclusion-buy a Bally franchise and find a corner for the Cuts concept-will help customers that need rehab!

• jenny
  Jun 5, 2008 at 10:19 am

  I knew it was a risky business but I believed in the concept and opened two Cuts in two different towns. We spent thoudsands on advertising but couldn’t get men into our facility. we felt like failures until we found out from corporate friends that many were going out of business. Again we knew the risks but the only thing that was upsetting was the way Mr G. threatened us when we told him we had no money left. Talk about kicking someone when they are down. We knew all the web ads were hype because we knew they were going out quicker than opening. I don’t think corporate cared. We thought they were up and up but I quess it is temting to get greedy when you see an oppurtunity. I’m sorry for all the people who lost so much money as I did. It really hurt and is till hurting. That’s the way it goes. If someone is suing Mr. G how will you get away with it when the contracts protected him 100%.

• N/D
  Jun 8, 2008 at 7:26 pm

  Hey folks,

  I can´t believe that there is no way to do something against Mr. Gennaro. There are a lot of people that was hurted by this guy, he stole their money selling a franchise that did not work.

  If he and his staff were unable to make this work they are guilty.

• ronnie thomas
  Sep 2, 2008 at 4:41 pm

  i join cuts in suffolk va.now i am told cuts is closeing in 9/13/2008 i will be lost without cuts. thanks ronnie thomas

• sean
  Sep 2, 2008 at 4:43 pm

  Amazing they were able to survive this long.

  I wonder how many Cuts are still out there?

• Janet
  Sep 11, 2008 at 5:03 am

  My husband and I bought into this franchise in 2005. We did as much research as we possibly could. At the time, there was only a couple of Cuts out there and we were all told at our training that this was going to be huge. We all knew that it typically takes 2-3 yrs to start breaking even and we were all prepared for that BUT, without the advertising that was promised to us and that we all had to pay for monthly, we knew it was only a matter of time. We were threatend to be sued because we were asking corporate to do what they promised. The only thing corporate ever did was to promote this stupid book, more franchises and how “wonderful” John Gennaro was. Anyone who once owned a Cuts, knows the real story behind Cuts and as far as sueing John and corporate, I can only speak for me and my husband but we have spent countless hours, sleepless nights and way too much money already on this guy to turn around and do it again would put us in the loony ben. If anyone knows of an attorney that would take Cuts on pro bono for the many many owners that had no choice but to close and lose 100k plus of their hard earned money, please feel free to contact me by responding to this post. To all you previous Cuts owners, we feel for you and hopefully your life can resume to they way it was before Cuts.

• sean
  Sep 11, 2008 at 5:40 am

  Janet:
  I was under the impression that all the Cuts franchisees bought their way out of the franchise program and were independent or closed.
  Is that not the case? Didn’t you sign away your right to sue?
  Thanks for any clarification.
  I was amazed by the claims that the Ad fund was used to write and promote Gennaro’s book. That’s franchising abuse at its worst.

• N/D
  Sep 29, 2008 at 11:40 am

  One of my closests friend invested a lot of money buying a Master Franchise as long as I know he never received a notification that Cuts was closing the business. He does not want to waste money sueing John and corporate. However, if there is an attorney that would take the case and more Master Franchisees or Individual Franchisees are willing to cooperate I think he would provide all the evidences that he could.

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