[Karen37a]

The 1990s didn't start out well for Bally Total Fitness, which was still called Bally Health and Tennis Clubs (HTCA) at that time. The economy was having an effect on Bally Manufacturing, the health club's parent company. Bally's Holiday Health clubs agreed to a $9.5 million settlement in a class-action suit admitting racial discrimination against African-Americans. The Internal Revenue Service alleged that the company owed $29 million in federal income taxes due to improper accounting in 1983 and 1984.

Don Wildman, HTCA's CEO in the early 1990s, decided to move the company away from short-term sales to a membership/cash-driven model that emphasized improving member services and that would standardize membership policies. In the early 1990s, the company had 311 clubs nationwide, many of them coming from various acquisitions and still operating under their original names or variations of those: Holiday Health, Jack LaLanne, Scandinavian, and Bally Matrix, Bally's Health and Fitness, Vic Tanny.

"The idea is that ultimately, all the divisions will be called Bally's," Wildman told Club Industry in 1991. That plan finally became reality in 1995. Bally also then began a national marketing campaign featuring the slogan "Turn on Your Life."



(anyone who doesnt recognize the power of a strong 1099 sales force that can actually sell a fridge to an eskimo, and talk a dog off a meat wagon, needs to step down, some of us lived though this numerous times.Some didnt just wander into sales its a carrer for those who choose to actually become a true salesperson and not an order taker, and you can never learn what you need to learn by creating a lcc and buying burnt leads and mouthing off to the top producers, top reps and funders , # 1 Rule . Do First, Then Teach, let me know when the voice mail gang are going to bet 50k on lead generation... ..karen)

Bly gave a % adjusted gross on the Finance contracts ( the spread, the mk u from the b rate) and also on the membership cost.a m u, like a PSF fee.

Once they took that away they were done for. I started selling age 17.5


**And I bet people who were use to taking money for something can give it away a whole lot easier...the key is to not have defaults from the bad merchants
( I want some of you to close your eyes and then try to picture yourselves getting merchants to GIVE you 10k and charge 1.36..coj.. smh...you would never make it...and stop betting me)