Small Business Q&A: Jazzercise Marietta East Cobb

Dancers stretch and move to contagious rhythms and beats of current and classic radio hits during 32 hour-long classes each week at the .

Jazzercise routines are choreographed by professional dancers and taught around the world by certified instructors.

Jazzercise franchise owner Cathy Mobley said you can burn 600 calories during a one-hour class.

Dancing has helped Mobley be young and healthy past her 50th birthday.

Patch readers recently voted Mobley's studio in East Cobb.

"We're  a network," Mobley said. "When I saw that there was a readers' choice for workout places, I got on Facebook and let my customers know. ...

"We enjoy supporting each other. Cheryl Burke, professional dancer on the TV show Dancing With The Stars, is our corporate spokesperson. She loves Jazzercise. And when she's on the show, we all support her by calling in our votes."

Mobley is a native of Vicksburg, MS, and moved to East Cobb after earning an accounting degree from Auburn University in 1989.

She has taught Jazzercise classes in the Fountains of Olde Towne Shopping Center since 1996 and moved into the current 1,800-square-foot space in 2006.

As an independent franchise owner, Mobley is responsible for finding and hiring instructors as well as guiding them through the corporate certification process.

Mobley also oversees the marketing and accounting and manages her eight instructors, who are independent contractors as she is. She is also a personal trainer.

Q. What's the best thing about your job?
A. All the people here. I love hearing their health success stories. There's a lot of positive feeling here.

Q. What is the best thing about East Cobb?
A. Everything you need is right here, good places to work out, shopping, good restaurants. We truly are a great community.

Q. Why did you choose to open your business in East Cobb?
A. It's where I live, and, like most communities, there was a need for Jazzercise.

Besides the dance workouts, we offer personal training and Junior Jazzercise for girls 5 to 10 years old and summer camps for the juniors.

Q. Why did you pick this kind of business?
A. Love of dance and exercise. I feel I'm one of the lucky people. I do what I love and get paid and make people happy.

Q. What are some of the services you offer that people don't know about?
A. People may not know that we offer low-impact classes, and we also have 30-minute workouts. In April, we'll be adding a total of four more classes: two low-impact and two 6 a.m. start times.

Q. How long have you been in business?
A. I'm just starting my 20th year.

Q. How did your business get started?
A. It was a natural progression. I became a certified instructor in 1992. Then I started teaching classes at , where I took my first Jazzercise class.

I worked at building my business, adding customers, adding classes, adding instructors. I held classes at and until there were enough customers to support my own location.

We find that we can add a class at most any time and any day and someone will come to it.

Q. Do you have advice for anyone who'd like to start a small business in this area?
A. What worked for me, in the beginning, when my business was small, I focused ALL my efforts on my customers. I made sure they were happy, achieving what they wanted with their fitness, having fun. And they said good things about the classes. Word of mouth is how we get most of our customers.

Q. Is there anything else you'd like our readers to know?
A. Jazzercise is not old even though it was founded in 1969. Founder, professional dancer Judi Sheppard Missett, is always working to be the leader in the fitness industry. The routines and exercises are always evolving. It's fresh.

I love the energy in the room when people are here having fun and feeling good together.

Cathy Mobley
certified instructor
Jazzercise
jcls.jazzercise.com/facility/jazzercise-marietta-east-cobb-fitness-center
736 Johnson Ferry Rd.
Fountains of Olde Towne Shopping Center
770-971-4970