CURVES Franchise Owners React to Comments That They’re Being “Pruned”

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• Call me what you want, but i can tell you that most people I know, know that for a friend, I'll put them before myself. They also know that i will take responsibility when I screw up and won't harp on the situation. You learn from it.

  The point is, you make it seem like every failed franchise in the Curves system was the franchisor's fault. It's not. People overspent on resales, based on the fact that they weren't able to decipher what reports were important in their 'due diligence'. The big piece of the puzzle would've been getting that report that showed when a member attended. If someone hadn't been there for 9 years, you obviously wouldn't count them as a member in your due diligence.

  Just out of curiousity, you say that Curves should follow their policies and enforce them, but what is your opinion when Unhappy made the comment that stores should stay open 24/7 or that they should sell the equipment when the agreement stated that Curves had the right of first refusal, or that the transfer fee in the agreement was illegal?

  There is an issue with this story where the franchisees want enforcement on issues that help them out, but on issues that would be on the franchisors' side, they say to ignore it.

• "People overspent on resales, based on the fact that they weren’t able to decipher what reports were important in their ‘due diligence’. The big piece of the puzzle would’ve been getting that report that showed when a member attended. If someone hadn’t been there for 9 years, you obviously wouldn’t count them as a member in your due diligence."

  You would never think a Christian owned franchise, that does everything right in the eyes of the founder's god, would set up a business to benefit financially at the expense of others. You assume as a new owner, that the draft is coming out as Curves.

  Calling members not working out is a Curves International policy. As an owner, we are supposed to send out "Miss You" cards to the members who are not working out. Curves International, as the franchisor, should have been/should be making sure the owners were/are doing this.

  The franchisor should be there for the buyer during the entire process. They should be looking over the documents, and making sure the establishment is being sold for what it is worth. They should be by your side because they want you to succeed. You not succeeding because you paid more for the franchise then it is worth, is not good for the franchise as a whole.

  Curves International is responsible for some of the failures. Not all. I never said all. The previous owners made a return on their investment. The resales will close their locations because they are not bringing in enough to pay their loans each month, and they will be paying off their investment in Curves for the rest of their lives.

  We can not sell our clubs, even profitable clubs, because Curves International has allowed the name to be tarnished. We can't list everything that has caused all of us major headaches, heartache and pain over the last 6 years at this site. Gary blames us for the demise of our clubs, yet we are an establishment meant to strengthen women, and our founder supports anti-choice organizations. If he thinks his presence in Haiti with George Bush makes up for the sins he has committed, he is wrong.

  Unhappy made the comment that stores should stay open 24/7 or that they should sell the equipment when the agreement stated that Curves had the right of first refusal, or that the transfer fee in the agreement was illegal?

  We are about strengthening women and in today's society women have jobs/children/responsibilities. 24/7 would give these women access to our facility so they could work out at their convenience. We would provide a trainer during certain hours, and they would have to work out with a trainer for at least a month so we we can make sure they are using the program correctly. If we want to truly strengthen women, we need to be there for them. Gary said it is not safe to have 24/7 access. This is ridiculous. A women can be rapped or mugged in broad daylight. Women are rapped in their own homes. It is a great idea and would increase our membership numbers.

  Gary thinks Zumba is a great idea. It's going to save our clubs. Why is this a great idea? My facility is under 2,000 square feet. I do not have the space to have a Zumba class. I have looked at larger spaces and they will cost me twice as much each month.

  We should be able to sell the equipment. We paid for it, and we need every penny we can get out of our locations when we sell them. It is written in the franchise agreement, but it shouldn't be. They have all the power and it shouldn't be this way. When you sign the franchise agreement, you're not thinking, "I am going to be out of business in less then 5 years and broke, so I really don't want to give Curves International my equipment because I will need the money to cover payroll."

  The transfer fee is another attempt by Curves International to get as much money as they can from their franchisees. Which is what they do all the time. Every change they make benefits them more then us. A franchisor should be focused on the franchisee and what would benefit the franchisee. This in turn will benefit the franchise as a whole. Curves International is not interested in this. Every change they make takes from our wallets and fills theirs.

• Jd,
  Where are you? I'm waiting for a response to the above post.

• One of your first mistakes is including religion in your business purchasing process. Religion shouldn't come in to play and if someone is using it, they are probably using it to 'prey' on others. I don't think in any purchases/business dealings have I ever asked nor have I asked whether someone was a Christian or not. I've read about other 'businesses' that have been described as pyramid schemes where the founder talks about being a minister, yet, he's making around half-million or more, because he is getting suckers to pay $50/month for websites.

  Your idea that the franchisor should be involved in the due diligence process is all about trying to bring your own failures on the shoulders of the franchisor. I've stated before, I never got involved as the franchisor in the purchase price or sales process. The only time I was ever asked anything was someone wanted to verify sales numbers with me. I told the potential buyer that I needed something in writing from the current franchisee for me to divulge that information. Either the potential buyer didn't ask for the permission or didn't get it from the selling franchisee. The last thing that you want to do is give out information that is not approved by the selling franchisee.

  As for 24/7 clubs and Zumba clubs, there is a standard that the clubs have to meet. You can't just let clubs start doing there own thing, because then what happens when the club 3-5 miles down the road start to lose members to the club offering those things. If you're the one getting the members, you'll be happy, the losing club will be calling 'foul'.

  You can think that the transfer fee is another way to get money out of franchisees, but it's coming from the selling franchisee and they should have that considered in the sales price. It's common in franchising. The franchisor has costs associated with the transfer of a club.

  I was looking at a lawsuit last week with a currently 'hot' franchise. It was a resale, in which the terms of the non-compete stated they couldn't open a new store within 4 blocks (miles was scratched out). So what happens, the seller opens up a new store six months later about 5-6 blocks (looking at Google maps) and the buyers sales go down 10-15%. Because the buyer didn't ask for a larger territory, the seller and the franchisor were able to take advantage of it.

• Jd,

  I understand you. Finally! You are a franchisor, and someone who has made money at the expense of others. No wonder why you are always in support of Curves international. It all makes sense now. You think it is okay to manipulate people. You're one of those rip off artist that feels you didn't do anything wrong, because the person you ripped off was stupid and allowed themselves to be ripped off. Sickening.

  You stated, "One of your first mistakes is including religion in your business purchasing process. Religion shouldn’t come in to play and if someone is using it, they are probably using it to ‘prey’ on others..."

  I think you misunderstood when I said, "You would never think a Christian owned franchise, that does everything right in the eyes of the founder’s god, would set up a business to benefit financially at the expense of others."

  I said this to be sarcastic. I didn't buy because he was a Christian. Actually, that made me hesitate a bit.

  You also stated, "Your idea that the franchisor should be involved in the due diligence process is all about trying to bring your own failures on the shoulders of the franchisor."

  What failures? I never said I failed. I paid more than the business was worth. I was lied to and manipulated. Members were lied to an manipulated. What was done to us was wrong. It's deceptive and unethical.

  Jd,

  Pretend you are buying a Curves. Please tell us how you would keep something like this from happening to you. Don't just say due diligence. Explain the due diligence. Explain what you would do to discover this problem before purchasing a Curves.

• The answer to your question is simple. You ask what reports their system can generate, and then you request the ones that you want. If they won't give you the listing they are hiding something. If they hand you a list that doesn't include reports that could be run, you put a stipulation in the contract that would then be able to 'recover' some damages. Each franchise system has different reports that would be needed.

  As for me, I haven't worked for a franchisor in nearly 5 years, and only worked in the industry for 18 months. Mind you, I've never hid from that fact. I should mention that there were people that we told that their location wasn't viable and they wouldn't listen, put their store there and it was closed in 2 years.

  The person in the example I used before in buying a resale is still in business, and that's been 5+ years. They obviously did enough on their side that they didn't feel that getting the information from me was necessary.

  You have no idea what our franchisor did, yet because of your distaste for the one you got involved in you decide that we were 'ripping people off'.

  For each new store and resale in the company, someone from corporate would make it to their store at least 2 times/year to help out. There were some that got more visits if needed. Reports were given to the stores so that they could compare their sales with their peers and see how they were doing.

  We asked for the franchisees to send in their financials so that we could assist them in areas that they may be spending too much money in (and these would come in all formats and some were totally inaccurate, so we tried to help them with their accounting). We had people working with credit card companies to bring down the fees.

  So, while you say that we were 'ripping people off', you should realize that there was a lot going on too to help out the franchisees.

• A report that shows the draft coming out as merchant is not available.

• Your main report in buying a fitness franchise is to see the activity report on members, not how many were showing drafts coming out as merchants.

  If a member hasn't shown up in 8 years, then you take that into consideration of the financial statements. So, if it's $30/month, you take $360 off the profit/loss that the seller has.

  You take the report and maybe if someone hasn't been in 2 months, you assign it a percentage that maybe that person will come back and figure that into the price. See you have to get into the details. You want to blame the merchant drafts, but it would've been much easier if you would've figured out to get the report that showed member activity.

• Jd,

  "Your main report in buying a fitness franchise is to see the activity report on members, not how many were showing drafts coming out as merchants."

  What are you talking about? We didn't look at the bank statements of all her members and then count how many were coming out as merchant. This is silly.

  We knew she had members not working out. A member not working out for 3-6 months and then coming back is normal. You assume when you purchase the club that the women on your report know they are paying. You assume they are not coming in, but they see the payment coming out every month. Some of my members, who know they are being drafted because the draft comes out as Curves, keep paying as motivation to get back in.

  The purchase price was based on a percentage, deducting from those that were outside their 12 months drafts. We didn't pay for any of the contents within the location, to offset the possibilty of members who could cancel. Seriously, you treat us like we're idiots. Paying a lower percentage doesn't really matter when members are not really members because they do not know they are paying.

• SICK IN NC, CURVES OCT,2010
  OWNER FROM 2002 AND NOW POOR HEALTH NERVES ARE SHOT CAUSING SHINGLES. CAN'T SELL OR GIVE IT AWAY AND CLOSING TOTALY BANKRUPT
  GOING THROUGH A DIVORCE. SELLING MY OWN CLOTHS,SHOES AND HOME GOODS TO JUST TRY TO HAVE GAS MONEY AND FOOD AND THEY TELL ME TO
  PAY THEM 10,000.00 + MONTHLY ROYALTIES ALSO FOR THE NEXT 2+ YEARS WELL OMG HELP ME . I HAVE SEEN MORE DOCTORS THIS PAST YEAR AND HAVE CRYED RIVERS ALONE. THE END!!!!!!!