Labor of Love

ATLANTA-During lunchtime on a Saturday at Marietta's Fitness 19, co-owners Brian and Pam Evans have something much more important than invoices and expense reports to discuss.

"Take my car home," Pam says. "Remember, you need to pick up dog food on your way home."

"I'll just take my car," Brian replies. "It's already parked in front, anyway."

With this quotidian banter, one might assume that running this fitness center is just a hobby. Not so, says Mr. Evans.

"Running a health club has been a lifelong dream for me," he says. "My wife, though, recently retired and just kind of fell into it."

Mr. Evans was born in Philadelphia and grew up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. When he met his future wife, he was a regional market sales manager with Bell South. Mrs. Evans worked at AT&T, doing large project implementation. The two fell in love and married in 1997. 14 months ago, Mr. Evans was working as a manager at the Fitness 19 in Lilburn, Ga., where he and his wife live. He worked out there regularly, and after Mrs. Evans retired and Mr. Evans' job at Bell South was outsourced, he decided to "seize the opportunity" to own his own Fitness 19 franchise.

Fitness 19 is a regional chain of fitness clubs, with each club being independently owned and operated. The Evans' store is around 8,000 square feet. In the front of the store are a dozen treadmills and ellipticals, two rows deep, which face a large glass window that looks on the parking lot in front. Behind the cardio machines is equipment meant to work a person's upper body muscles; there is a pull up machine, three bicep curl machines, two shoulder presses and various other contraptions designed to give the patron a good workout. Behind these machines are the free weights and bench presses, where the most muscular of patrons are usually found.

"I can tell you this right now, the worst day here is better than the best day in the corporate world," Mr. Evans says. He also admits that working with his wife has made the experience all the more worthwhile and pleasant.

Mrs. Evans adds, "You'd better like each other and like what you do." Working at Fitness 19 is a family affair; all three of the Evans' children have worked at the store at one time or another.

The Evans' office, in the front of the store behind the receptionist's counter, is a little corner of home for the couple, who live in Lilburn and must commute nearly an hour each way every day to a business that regularly opens at 5:00 a.m. Behind panes of one-sided glass, Mrs. Evans explains the financial side of running a fitness center.

"A membership costs $19 a month," Mrs. Evans says. "If I sign one person up but two members cancel, I'm $19 in the red." A dry erase calendar that rests above a refrigerator provides a day-by-day account of profits and losses. One day may have "45.00" scribbled on it, followed by "163.46." This is accounting in its simplest form. Most days, the club runs in the black. Days on which the club makes more than 100 dollars, a smiling face is drawn next to the number. The calendar also keeps a running tally of monthly profits and losses; in March, the club made a little more than $2,000. In late April, profits were roughly $1,000.

Until recently, the fitness store was the only business operating in the strip mall that it occupies; the other lots had not been sold yet. There are also some nearby strip malls that have been shuttered before they were even completed, owing to the downturn in the economy.

Mr. Evans admits that in these tough economic times, competition is fierce. However, he notes with some pride that one of their nearby competitors, a 24-hour fitness center called Snap, was closing its doors that very Saturday due to Fitness 19's success.

"To use the old movie cliche, 'It's not personal, it's just business.'" Mr. Evans says. "The problem with Snap is, sure, they're a 24 hour gym, but if there's nobody there helping or encouraging you you're not gonna go back." Mrs. Evans echoed this sentiment.

"We try not to prejudge people when they walk in for the first time," she says. "It doesn't ever work out." Mr. Evans relates the story of one of their members who was refused entry at Snap.

"This guy is huge, bald, has tattoos running up and down his arms and has a braided goatee. He tried to work out at Snap and they told him, 'We don't want your kind here.' He's brought us at least 20 new clients and now he's going to open a smoothie shop right next door to us and offer discounts to our members," he says.

"We're not a 'meat head' gym. We're a suburban, family fitness center with personal trainers who want to help you reach your goals," Mrs. Evans says.

One of these trainers is in the back of the club, near the free weights. He and two of his "protégées" are huddled around the inclined bench press, putting on 35 pound weights to either side of the bar. Derek Freeman, the trainer, blinks rapidly as he talks and can bench press 405 pounds. (Mr. Evans quips, "When my wife is here alone when Derek is around, I'm never worried about her.")

Today, though, he's taking it easy; he has an injured wrist. His hands, covered by black fingerless workout gloves, grasp the heavy bar with the 35 pound weights and he quickly belts out 10 reps on the inclined press.

"I started working out at 18," Freeman says, as one of his compatriots with a large tattoo under his right bicep that that reads, "ARMY," takes his turn on the bench. "It kept me out of jail." After a career as a bouncer, Freeman found Fitness 19 in November and now works as a personal trainer at the Evans' fitness center.

"My reward for doing this job is helping people get a healthier lifestyle and helping them live longer," Freeman says. Not many people stick with the program, though; Freeman guesses that one out of every 20 people who come into the fitness center requests a personal trainer.

"If you sign up for personal training, you really want it," Freeman says. "Our job is to light a fire under you and keep you motivated."

"People who have monthly subscriptions here and never come in are just throwing away their money," Freeman says. "The people who stick with it will look better because they'll feel better and they'll feel better because they'll look better."

Fitness clubs are a seasonal business. "On Jan. 1, the parking lot is full," says Freeman. "By February, you can get your spot back." This attrition of the New Years' Resolution crowd is now in full force. Mrs. Evans says that around 50 percent of the New Year crowd is gone by early Spring, another 10 percent drop out by the Summer, and only 20 percent are still around by Halloween.

Another peril of the fitness club is the large periods of down time. Mrs. Evans explains that Monday afternoons are always the busiest, because "people want to jump start their weeks." Fridays are usually slow, and the fitness center is a ghost town whenever it rains or is cold. At 1:30 p.m. on a Saturday, there are less than 10 people working out; there are four men and women on the treadmills or elliptical machines, and Freeman's crew using the free weights.

Mr. Evans relates his frustrations while observing a heavier woman on the treadmill. "I've seen this time and time again, obese women will come in here and sit on the treadmill because it's the easiest piece of equipment and just walk on it and hope they magically lose weight," he says. He readily admits to judging some new clients the first time they walk through the door; he will look at an obese person and ask to himself what he can do for him or her.

"A lot of the time, people will come in and want to lose weight, but they never work hard enough to get their heart rates up high enough to make that happen," Mr. Evans says. He feels this lack of progress may be why many people seem to drop out of the fitness center as the year progresses.

Sometimes, frustration comes not from the clientele but from the management. The Evans' have had to fire three managers in the 14 months that they have been operating the fitness club.

"You'd be amazed at the things we have to make our employees sign," Mrs. Evans says. A clause in the contract warns employees that they are not allowed to hit the children that are in the club's children's area. "You'd think that would be common sense," Mrs. Evans says.

The couple is quick to praise their hourly employees, though. Mrs. Evans says, "Most of these girls we've had since before we started running the business, and most keep working for us until they go off to college."

Keeping people coming back for more is very important for the couple, who run their fitness club as one of 140 other franchises in the chain. The business perspective of Fitness 19 is to positively impact people's lives in order to generate revenue. The multi-thousand dollar profit in March shows that this approach is working so far.

"I love what I do," Mr. Evans says. "I love educating people about health and fitness." Despite the challenges of finding good managers and watching club patrons fail to realize their fitness goals, Mr. Evans feels his dream job has been a very rewarding experience for him and his family.

"The most rewarding parts of these jobs are running the business with my wife and seeing people change their lives and improve themselves," he says. This altruism means nothing if the money isn't there, but,"In light of this economy, the day we finally broke even was a very proud moment for me," Evans says.

In February, the Evans' celebrated their one year anniversary of running their Fitness 19. The outpouring of support from the community was heartwarming, according to the couple. Even though times are tough, Fitness 19 is thriving, and Brian Evans' childhood dream has finally come true.

"Running a business isn't rocket science," Mrs. Evans says. "It's people skills."