hi I’m Evan Carmichael and welcome to
another edition of modeling demasters
today we’re going to look at how a
former gym manager and how a dance
instructor mortgaged their home the
started business they felt was needed
then moved everything to Australia and
later how they sold their business for
600 million dollars this is a story of
Jenny Craig and the top three lessons
that you can learn from her success
Jenny Craig is an American weight-loss
guru and founder of Jenny Craig
incorporated Craig was raised in New
Orleans and married Sidney Craig in 1979
in 1983 she and her husband created a
nutritional fitness and weight loss
program in Australia they founded the
company and began offering the program
in the United States in 1985 the company
became a part of Nestle nutrition in
2006 the story begins after Jenny had
her second daughter she discovered that
she couldn’t lose the weight she’d
gained as easily as she had before she
was 45 pounds overweight I knew she had
to change something she mortgaged her
house and used the money to open up her
own gym and call it pathetic the gym
became extremely popular and she soon
sold and went on the hunt for a new
venture that’s where she met Sid Craig a
partner with body contour incorporated a
chain of women’s fitness salons Sid
Craig went to New Orleans to open up a
body contour salon and hired Jenny as
his first employee the rest is history
they got married in 1979 and became
frustrated with their business because
they wanted to offer more nutritional
guidance SIDS partners refused and the
Craig sold the business to them as a
result the deal carried a two-year
non-compete clause in the United States
so the Craig’s both in their 50s moved
to Australia to start their nutritional
company Jenny Craig incorporated they
created 69 centers in Australia and then
moved to the u.s. once a non-compete
expired in 1991 the company would public
and generated seventy three and a half
million dollars in capital five years
later after having expanded to the
United States New Zealand Canada Puerto
Rico and Guam the Craig’s decided to
sell the company to Nestle
600 million dollars
so the next question becomes how can you
model the success of Jenny Craig here
are three action items and you could put
the use into your business action item
number one promote promote promote built
in a better mousetrap is not enough
anymore to get a company off the ground
you need to aggressively promote your
business to make sure your customers
know that you exist from advertising and
public relations to search engine
optimization and social media you have
many opportunities to spread the word
about your company and he should never
take your foot off the gas in the
company’s early years Craig made sure
that exactly 10% of sales was directed
back into commercial advertising each
and every year individual franchises
were also expected to spend 10 percent
of sales or at least $1,000 a week on
local advertising for their own centers
they used traditional advertising on
television programs leverage celebrity
endorsements and created direct mail
campaigns but they also tried many
offbeat approaches as one example Sid
got the company a lot of publicity
during one televised international
cricket match where cameras picked up on
a sign in the crown directed at the
captain of the English team that that
read see Jenny Craig quick
Akshat I know number two offer products
and services I believe the best way to
build a business is to start a service
it’s low cost and gets you close to your
customers your chances of survival are
much higher and you learn what future
services and products your clients need
once you’ve established a base of
customers and know exactly what’s
missing in the marketplace you can
create your products you’ve got cash
flow from your service business to keep
the company running and you’ve got a
loyal group of clients who are ready to
buy Jenny Craig had the same philosophy
her business started with Jenny Craig
centers where they would help clients
establish a workout program offer
nutritional guidance and also give
motivational services her business grew
every year as she added more centers and
people to her team it was a very
successful service based business
Jenny Craig’s big break came when she
started offering prepared food products
as a part of her offering she brought on
board a highly qualified staff of
dieticians psychologists and physicians
to help her create a menu that was
healthy and nutritional in doing so
Jenny’s cuisine became a central
component to her program all of her
clients were required to purchase these
portion and calorie controlled foods
which included over 60 different
breakfast lunch dinner dessert and snack
options Jenny’s cuisine proved so
popular that the company’s gross
revenues from food sales increased to
91% by 1993
it’s important as an entrepreneur to
never give up on your idea every
business owner will face a moment of
crisis which forces you to think whether
it’s all worth it the long hours the
mounting debt the personal sacrifices
these moments will help define you as an
entrepreneur it’s the founders who stare
those home and square in the face and
keep on building who go on to be the
ultra successful entrepreneurs from
losing weight to starting her own
business to not being able to run her
business in America
Craig has proved that with perseverance
anything is possible when the Craig’s
first sold their chain of body contour
gems they did so an agreement to a
non-compete clause they were not allowed
to set up shop again anywhere in the US
for two years and so refusing to wait
two years before they could make their
next move the couple went on a search
for their next destination where could
they begin their new line of fitness
centers what country was similar to the
u.s. in terms of diet and fitness levels
but presented no language barrier the
crowds decide in Australia the friends
thought they were nuts but the couple
never gave up and turned their new
business into a company that sold for
six hundred million dollars
so remember promote promote promote use
products and services and never give up
I wanted to end the video today by
sharing one of my favorite true stories
about Jenny Craig Jenny met Sid through
an ad that Sid placed in a newspaper
looking for a team to open up his New
Orleans body contour salon according to
Jenny Craig Sid run an ad in the paper
I had just sold my business and I was
looking for a franchise I thought it
sounded interesting so I wouldn’t see
what it was all about
thank you for joining me for another
edition of modeling the masters I hope
you enjoyed I’d love to hear your
thoughts and comments if you want to
leave feedback below the video and stay
tuned for the next episode
another edition of modeling demasters
today we’re going to look at how a
former gym manager and how a dance
instructor mortgaged their home the
started business they felt was needed
then moved everything to Australia and
later how they sold their business for
600 million dollars this is a story of
Jenny Craig and the top three lessons
that you can learn from her success
Jenny Craig is an American weight-loss
guru and founder of Jenny Craig
incorporated Craig was raised in New
Orleans and married Sidney Craig in 1979
in 1983 she and her husband created a
nutritional fitness and weight loss
program in Australia they founded the
company and began offering the program
in the United States in 1985 the company
became a part of Nestle nutrition in
2006 the story begins after Jenny had
her second daughter she discovered that
she couldn’t lose the weight she’d
gained as easily as she had before she
was 45 pounds overweight I knew she had
to change something she mortgaged her
house and used the money to open up her
own gym and call it pathetic the gym
became extremely popular and she soon
sold and went on the hunt for a new
venture that’s where she met Sid Craig a
partner with body contour incorporated a
chain of women’s fitness salons Sid
Craig went to New Orleans to open up a
body contour salon and hired Jenny as
his first employee the rest is history
they got married in 1979 and became
frustrated with their business because
they wanted to offer more nutritional
guidance SIDS partners refused and the
Craig sold the business to them as a
result the deal carried a two-year
non-compete clause in the United States
so the Craig’s both in their 50s moved
to Australia to start their nutritional
company Jenny Craig incorporated they
created 69 centers in Australia and then
moved to the u.s. once a non-compete
expired in 1991 the company would public
and generated seventy three and a half
million dollars in capital five years
later after having expanded to the
United States New Zealand Canada Puerto
Rico and Guam the Craig’s decided to
sell the company to Nestle
600 million dollars
so the next question becomes how can you
model the success of Jenny Craig here
are three action items and you could put
the use into your business action item
number one promote promote promote built
in a better mousetrap is not enough
anymore to get a company off the ground
you need to aggressively promote your
business to make sure your customers
know that you exist from advertising and
public relations to search engine
optimization and social media you have
many opportunities to spread the word
about your company and he should never
take your foot off the gas in the
company’s early years Craig made sure
that exactly 10% of sales was directed
back into commercial advertising each
and every year individual franchises
were also expected to spend 10 percent
of sales or at least $1,000 a week on
local advertising for their own centers
they used traditional advertising on
television programs leverage celebrity
endorsements and created direct mail
campaigns but they also tried many
offbeat approaches as one example Sid
got the company a lot of publicity
during one televised international
cricket match where cameras picked up on
a sign in the crown directed at the
captain of the English team that that
read see Jenny Craig quick
Akshat I know number two offer products
and services I believe the best way to
build a business is to start a service
it’s low cost and gets you close to your
customers your chances of survival are
much higher and you learn what future
services and products your clients need
once you’ve established a base of
customers and know exactly what’s
missing in the marketplace you can
create your products you’ve got cash
flow from your service business to keep
the company running and you’ve got a
loyal group of clients who are ready to
buy Jenny Craig had the same philosophy
her business started with Jenny Craig
centers where they would help clients
establish a workout program offer
nutritional guidance and also give
motivational services her business grew
every year as she added more centers and
people to her team it was a very
successful service based business
Jenny Craig’s big break came when she
started offering prepared food products
as a part of her offering she brought on
board a highly qualified staff of
dieticians psychologists and physicians
to help her create a menu that was
healthy and nutritional in doing so
Jenny’s cuisine became a central
component to her program all of her
clients were required to purchase these
portion and calorie controlled foods
which included over 60 different
breakfast lunch dinner dessert and snack
options Jenny’s cuisine proved so
popular that the company’s gross
revenues from food sales increased to
91% by 1993
it’s important as an entrepreneur to
never give up on your idea every
business owner will face a moment of
crisis which forces you to think whether
it’s all worth it the long hours the
mounting debt the personal sacrifices
these moments will help define you as an
entrepreneur it’s the founders who stare
those home and square in the face and
keep on building who go on to be the
ultra successful entrepreneurs from
losing weight to starting her own
business to not being able to run her
business in America
Craig has proved that with perseverance
anything is possible when the Craig’s
first sold their chain of body contour
gems they did so an agreement to a
non-compete clause they were not allowed
to set up shop again anywhere in the US
for two years and so refusing to wait
two years before they could make their
next move the couple went on a search
for their next destination where could
they begin their new line of fitness
centers what country was similar to the
u.s. in terms of diet and fitness levels
but presented no language barrier the
crowds decide in Australia the friends
thought they were nuts but the couple
never gave up and turned their new
business into a company that sold for
six hundred million dollars
so remember promote promote promote use
products and services and never give up
I wanted to end the video today by
sharing one of my favorite true stories
about Jenny Craig Jenny met Sid through
an ad that Sid placed in a newspaper
looking for a team to open up his New
Orleans body contour salon according to
Jenny Craig Sid run an ad in the paper
I had just sold my business and I was
looking for a franchise I thought it
sounded interesting so I wouldn’t see
what it was all about
thank you for joining me for another
edition of modeling the masters I hope
you enjoyed I’d love to hear your
thoughts and comments if you want to
leave feedback below the video and stay
tuned for the next episode
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