Anytime Fitness awarded Karmen Smith, an entrepreneur from Appleton, Wis., the Club Operator of the Year award on Sept. 27. At the age of 24, Smith left her desk job at an investment-banking firm in Minneapolis to open an Anytime Fitness franchise. In only three years, Smith, 27, grew her operation from one location to 10 highly successful clubs across eastern Wisconsin.
Successful? What does that mean? Planet Fitness boasts clubs that do $300,000 in EFT’s per month. I do not think opening 10 clubs equals success, although Im sure Anytime Fitness Corporate office does, considering that is 10 clubs they take their monthly dues from. How about some numbers to back up the award. How many memberships does she average per club? What is her average net profit per club? Did she receive this award for any other reason than opening lots of clubs and being an Anytime Fitness testimonial for opening more clubs? I wonder what her current debt is?
How do you rate the success of a Fitness Club? By opening more number of clubs/branches, by the total net profit, or by the service it provides and how satisfied its members are.
I just came across this posting, and wanted to respond to some of the comments.
While I appreciate the comments posted above, I would wonder why they are addressed in such a negative fashion? I did open 10 locations throughout northeast WI, and if you would like to speak with me about my debt ratio, I would be more than happy to discuss. We reach a niche market of people that are interested in a smaller, more personal fitness club. We are achieving exceptional returns that could challenge any fitness facility.
As far as the factors that go into making a decision on a winner for this award? This is something to address with Anytime Fitness Corporate, and it is wide number of things from member retention to profitablity.
If you would like to talk with me individually about anything, I am available karmen@anytimefitness.com.
I spoke with Beth a short time ago and she sent me in your direction.My husband and I joined Anytime Fitness a short time ago and have been making sturdy wood benches for several of the locations ever since. Tom Elson in Winneconne was pleased with them and passed our names on to others who have purchased them. The question is, is there anyone we could contact who would be opening new facilities and might be interested? I would appreciate any input at your convenience.Thank you for any information. Marlene Blank 920-410-9049
Hey Marlene,
I have a great lead on 741 new gyms that are going to be built in 2010. Let me know if you are interested in getting in touch with the owners. You can email me at bruce@clubsolutionsmagazine.com.
Don’t listen to the nay-sayers Karmen, they are simply jealous of your success. And by getting where you are now, I would say you never listened to those type of people before anyway! Keep up the great work and helping our local economy as well. And damn, you are fine lookin! 😉
Congratulations Karmen, I know you work hard and deserve all the blessings that come your way. Great response to the naysayers.
I recentely worked with Karmen Nenahlo (Smith) on one of her club locations. I was so impressed by Ms. Nenahlo that I wanted to learn more about her success as a businesswoman. Sadly, I came accross these comments by Mr. John Smith. Not knowing what “Planet Fitness” was I decided to do some research.
I live and work in Minneapolis/St Paul so I pulled up a club search on Planet Fitness and on Anytime Fitness. Planet Fitness has 2 clubs in the Twin Cities Metro. Anytime has 32 clubs just within 25 miles of my home address!!
It may be possible that Planet Fitness has clubs with $300k per month in member collections…but where do all of those members work out??? The two clubs here are in strip malls and would actually have to be the size of Metrodome and Target Field put together to fit that many people and equipment. I don’t know if Planet Fitness has 10,000 members per club, or if they just charge $300/month per member. Either way the numbers don’t add up.
It seems to me like Karmen has been very successful and deserves any awards she has been given for her success!
Maybe Mr. Smith just knows that Karmen and Anytime Fitness have a superior product to his and is a little bitter about it.