A new start after 60: ‘I risked my house to launch a chain of 24-hour gyms’

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Bob Cheek was in his 60s and worrying about his future. Then he hit on a scheme that would make him millions

hortly before he turned 65, Bob Cheek took a plane to the US and turned up at a 24-hour gym in California. He had read about this new type of gym in a magazine, back in Australia, and ended up outside one in San Diego, wanting to see how they were run. He knocked on the door; a man opened it and told him he couldn’t come in because he wasn’t a member.

Cheek had enjoyed a varied career. He grew up on his parents’ farm in northern Tasmania, then became a professionalplayer. When that career was coming to an end, he switched to journalism, becoming editor of a paper in Tasmania. He also “dabbled in a few things in business”. While many of his footballing peers went into running pubs, he was more interested in fitness, and invested in gyms “with varying degrees of success”.

My life has got better as it’s gone on: my 60s were one of the best decades of my life and my 70s are even better The first opened in March 2009, and Cheek knew from the start it would be a success. It was far cheaper than most gyms and appealed to a wider range of people, including those who worked shifts and wanted to exercise at less common times. He says 700 people joined before it even opened. “I went into the car park that first night and saw it packed, and it was just an incredible feeling. So we kept building them.

 

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