CURVES FITNESS FOR WOMEN

THE CURVES FAMILY!

I can honestly say that we created an amazing 'family of friends' during our time at Curves. We started this business with so much energy that our enthusiasm rubbed off on everyone we met.

I say we, because Katie & I would arrive in Mill Hill at 7am every morning to sit outside coffee shops spreading the word and delivering leaflets to all the locals.

Before long we had signed a fantastic number of lovely ladies who wanted to work out in our new gym. We were unique, there was no-one else in the UK offering a 30-minute workout for women only! Our circuit of machines was also innovative and created for the size of a women rather than a male, and we had been fully trained to work with the members and make sure they enjoyed their time at Curves.

The work out was carried out to music which was played throughout the day, it was infectious and everyone that came to the club loved the atmosphere and made friends with their contemporaries. Before long they were all chatting to each other while they exercised under our supervision to ensure they were using the machines correctly.
Pretty soon we needed to employ other trainers to help out, and eventually after being indispensable to me for the opening of the club, and a few months to follow, Katie decided to return to her nail job and build a clientele.

Every day Rob would take the train back to Mill Hill after his day working at PR in the West End of London, he was getting bored with his job and didn't feel fulfilled. He used to walk across the street to the Curves club which was open until 8pm, and positioned right opposite the train station, and watch with interest at the ladies working out. With his amazing personality and sense of humour before long he had made friends with most of the members, and they all loved him.

It also wasn't long before Rob nagged me to hire him as a circuit trainer, I was reluctant for 2 reasons, one being that he had a solid job and was earning good money, but I knew he wasn't happy in his job. The 2nd reason was that we were a 'women only' facility and I wasn't sure how the members would react to a man helping them to use the machinery.
My fears soon dissipated when I witnessed the connection Rob had with the members and how they enjoyed having him around.

Rob started working at the club not long after we had opened, he was a natural fitness trainer, he had trained in the Curves method and taught himself how to encourage and push the members to their comfortable limits. He made them laugh and chatted to them while they used the circuit, he was in fact a fantastic addition to the club.

Within a year of opening our club, many other UK clubs were springing up all over the country. We had met a few Curves owners at our training in Waco, and Curves would hold meetings and conventions for everyone to attend, both in Europe and in the USA. We attended at least 2 huge conventions in Las Vegas and the excitement in the air was infectious.
The USA certainly know how to promote a business, they excite their audiences so that when they return to their businesses they are motivated and full of ideas which always rubs off on their members or clients.

We had made a lot of friends at these events and this helped us all to build our franchises. Our clubs were in different areas, so we were never in competition with each other. This meant we could work together to build our businesses and to this day I still keep in touch with many of them.

In 2005 we were lucky enough to host a visit from Gary Heavin the owner of Curves which was to have over 10,000 franchises worldwide in a very short time. The concept was accepted and enjoyed by every country where clubs had, and were still opening. However, Gary wanted to congratulate us on being the first London club to open, and he came to the club along with local journalists who gave us a lot of press.

During this visit Gary instantly connected with Rob, sensing his fabulous spirit and enthusiasm to the business. He watched as Rob integrated with the members and was very impressed.

Before long Gary approached Rob to work for the corporate division of Curves starting with a job as a franchise director in the UK and eventually promoting him to International Training Director which meant him travelling to many countries and hosting many conventions. This was Robs vocation, he absolutely loved what he was doing, and he grew with the clubs, offering help and advice to all the owners and visiting the clubs to ensure they were running correctly as per the franchise agreement. Everyone loved him and respected him.

2 WEDDINGS AND 3 GRANDCHILDREN!

In 2005 Katie married Paul who had been with her throughout Tony’s illness and spent time with us in Zaragoza. We made them a beautiful wedding in Spain in a fabulous new hotel very near to our apartment. Friends and family flew over once again this time to celebrate a wedding and it was wonderful to see Tony walk his daughter down the aisle, something that we didn't think we would ever be able to do.

Katie & Paul settled down together and in 2007 they gave us the greatest gift anybody could be given, our first and so far, only, gorgeous grandson. I promised at the start of my blogs that I wouldn't boast about being a grandma and I will keep to my promise, but I must emphasise that the birth of my beautiful grandson was the most wonderful thing that ever happened to me (until the other 2 granddaughters were born!) I was in 7th heaven and so was Tony. Harry is now 11yrs old and continues to give us both more joy than we could ever wish for.

Two years later the second light of our lives arrived, Ruby Sienna Icklow was born and I was lucky enough to watch her birth. A little replica of her mummy Ruby, who is now 9yrs old, has a very special bond with her Grandad Tony. We both enjoyed being hands on Grandparents in the early years, having them to stay at our home and taking them out on trips. 

I am so grateful to have had that time with them when they were little, as that is when we created the bond and the memories that will last forever.

 The birth of our 2 grandchildren helped us to deal with a difficult time in our lives. We had lived in a beautiful Georgian family home for 30 years in a small cul-de-sac in North West London. This house was full of wonderful memories, and we had made close friends with our neighbours, enjoying street parties and birthday celebrations together. Our children had grown up with the other kids in the street and to this day still retain a friendship with them as adults.

 Unfortunately, the sale of ‘Diva’ went horribly wrong, and we finished up with a law suit as the buyer pulled out of the sale at the last minute after a stressful year of negotiations. Sadly, we were duped, and we realised too late that he was never serious about the sale. Because of this we were forced into selling our beautiful home earlier than planned. We knew that it was probably time to downsize as both our children were married and settled, but because of legal fees etc. we had no choice but to sell it quickly to settle our debts.

 In May 2007 we reluctantly moved into a smaller house which we had found near to our family home, we refurnished it to our standards and settled down to begin a new chapter in our lives.

It was during this time that UK was heading for the worst recession that we were to ever witness. It had been fated that we had sold our house when we did as property prices fell, and businesses were closing everywhere. We knew it would not be long before we would see a drop in our membership at Curves as the public were dealing with austerity and  cutting out luxuries, and gym memberships were one of those luxuries.

 It took a couple of years before we had to deal with the repercussions of the recession, and during this time I found another product to distribute.

On a trip to the USA I had visited another Curves club with my sister and seen the members using a weighted hula hoop with their cardio workout. They loved it and although we were not really supposed to use other equipment other than that approved by Curves, I decided to try the hoop in my club. It was a huge hit and before long I was importing the hoops from a manufacturer in Taiwan who I had tied up UK distribution rights with.

Apart from selling these hoops to my members, I also exhibited with them at fitness shows and started another little business which helped to fund the drop in my membership.

It was just about the start of the internet craze, and after researching where the hoops were being sold I found a company in Norway who were selling over 1,000 hoops a week. We made contact with the couple who had built this amazing business, and before we knew it we were invited to spend a couple of days with them in their home in Norway with the idea of creating hoop training events and joint promotions in the EU.

After about a year of working together, Norway wanted to take their business further and offered to buy our UK distribution rights, so they would be able to sell to the whole of Europe, so after negotiating a deal with them we sold our hoop business to them, and I concentrated on keeping our Curves business afloat.

 I was constantly trying to find ways of holding on to our Curves club, the overheads were very high, and the membership was falling. I managed to rent an area of the premises which we weren’t using to another business which helped to pay the rent, and we were lucky enough to have made some wonderful friends who were Curves owners and struggling with their business as well. We supported each other through this recession and as most of the owners were women we all met regularly to discuss ways of increasing our membership and holding on to our clubs.

It was one of these club owners who was to change my life with another new business which will be in my next blog!

A MAGICAL BEACH WEDDING

In 2008 Rob was visiting a Curves club in Devon where he met who was to be his future wife. After convincing me that Dominique would be a perfect addition to the staff at my London Curves club, she became my club manager and moved in with Rob.

Dom started to travel with Rob when he visited his Curves Franchisees, and on one of the trips to South Africa he proposed, and she accepted. They arranged a beautiful wedding in Naples Florida and once again close family and friends, including Rob’s boss Gary Heavin, attended the intimate ceremony in the glorious Florida sunshine.

Within 2 years they had presented us with a beautiful little granddaughter Sky, we were over the moon and they would both go on take this little beauty on all their business trips. Little Sky visited more countries in the first 2 years of her life than some of us have visited in a lifetime. This little family even lived in India for 3 months!

Rob had always wanted to live in the USA, after visiting with his family every year in Florida he got the taste for the lifestyle, and working for an American company gave him even more reason to fulfil his ambition. Fate took another hand as Dom who was born in the US, had an American passport, so they both decided to immigrate to the USA and continue their work with Curves there. 

In 2013 we waved them off to their new life in the USA, it was heart-breaking for us to see them go but we were determined to visit with them as much as possible, and we also made sure that they would visit us whenever possible as well. Once again our lives were changing and ........ SPAIN HERE WE COME!!

See you next blog……