Franchisee Profile: Geff Malone of Santa Cruz, CA

Name:  Geff Malone

Date Store Opened:  2000 (11 years ago)

Location: Santa Cruz, CA

Q: Where are you from?

A: I am from San Jose, California. 

Q: What was your career before franchising?

A: Prior to working for MMSN, I worked in a carburetor remanufacturing family business for 24 years that my grandfather started in 1945. My father took it over from him, and I took it over from my father.  When car manufacturers discontinued the use of carburetors in cars, revenue became tighter. I decided I was still young enough to do something else and looked into franchising.

Q: What was appealing to you about joining a franchise system?

A: I looked into franchising for a very long time before I committed, and I was attracted to the structure.   It is rare to see a good franchise go out of business.  I looked into the major fast food chains first, but they took too much capital to open, and I really didn’t believe in eating fast food anyways.  I also looked into some healthier quick service concepts but could not see myself performing the repetitive tasks it took to be successful for a long period of time. 

My decision to open a MMSN was based on making myself happy and giving myself a quality lifestyle. The concept of MMSN went along with my lifestyle of working out and body building. I also really enjoyed being a client of MMSN; I was buying from them already, and it seemed like a business I could do because I have a personal training and nutrition background.

Q: How have you survived the economic downturn?

A:  In the 10-11 years I have owned a MMSN, I never thought about failure.  However, 2010 was a much harder year for me; my store did not perform as well as I would have liked, and I became worried for the first time.  This experience made me open my eyes to my view of the store and the value I offered my clients.  We always offered light nutritional planning, but my focus and energy was more on athletes more than the average person. In addition, I focused too much on selling supplements.  These choices started to show on my bottom line. 

I decided that I had to reinvent myself and my view of the store instead of just lowering expenses if I wanted to make a difference.  In early 2011, I decided to focus on compensatory nutrition and wellness planning that incorporates supplements and works more on health and wellness consumers as opposed to athletes and body builders.  We also started partnering with a lot of wellness and fitness centers to provide this much-needed service to the community. 

The first step is a one-hour fitness consultation with a client to understand their goal  and to ascertain their current workout and eating habits.  Our plan is uniquely designed to fit their goals and to be attainable; not just what we want them to be or to do. Most of our clients want to lose weight and tone up, but, occasionally, some want to gain weight.

We tell people that 70 percent of attaining a goal is proper nutrition.  People like to work out, but even the best only devote between one to one and a half hours a day to it.  Nutrition accommodates the rest of the day, and, if you can handle the nutritional aspect of a goal, you can achieve it.  The problem is that most trainers do not take the time and do not have the energy to design meal plans.   

As a result, 2011 is set to be our best year ever!  By taking a look at myself and my view of the services we provide, I was able to align our store offerings with our client needs in a way that made them want to choose the value we provide by focusing on everyday health and wellness.

Q: With regard to your previous experience, what skills do you feel helped you in your business?

A: I have good people skills and manage employees well.  Having a personal training and nutrition background helped, as I was living a healthy lifestyle prior to opening up my location. I can relate to my clients, however, because I used to be really overweight until my early adult life.  I went from over 30% body fat to around 10% body fat. 

ABOUT MAX MUSCLE SPORTS NUTRITION:

Established in 1991 by former NFL linebacker Joe Wells, Max Muscle Sports Nutrition (MMSN) is America's premier sports nutrition retail outlet and franchise system, selling a combination of scientifically proven nutritional supplements at more than 150 outlets in 32 states. Rated by Entrepreneur Magazine as a Top Retail Franchise 2010, a Top 500 Franchise 2010 and by Military Times Magazine as a 2010 Best for Vets business, MMSN provides a one-of-a-kind in-store experience through its unique design and one-on-one customer counseling from extensively trained Certified Fitness Nutrition Coaches™. MMSN's aggressive expansion plans include offering its unique opportunity to qualified, business-savvy candidates. For more information, call 888-MAX-MUSCLE ext. 2 or visit maxmusclefranchise.com.