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Building Successful Pilates Business's Part 3: In a Small Rural Area

nhurd — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:00:00 GMT

Introduced: by Nancy Hurd

Here is the third story of 5 stories on various successful Pilates programs that have one thing in common: They are based in classical Pilates. This next part of this series will be from a Pilates Program in a small rural town in Northern Texas. May I introduce Gina Domme

Building A Successful Classical Pilates Business in a Small Rural Area

By Gina Domme

Gina has been married for 20 years and has 3 great children. She currently holds a Peak Pilates Professional Certification, AFAA Personal Training and Group Fitness Certification, Cooper Institute Group Cycling Certification, 200 RYT with Yoga Alliance through YogaFit, and an Associate Degree in Respiratory Therapy. She is co- owner of Flow Yoga and Pilates Studio in Amarillo TX HYPERLINK "http://www.flowyogaandpilates.com"www.flowyogaandpilates.com

It had been a long time dream of mine to open my own studio. I have been active in the business of fitness for over 20 years: health clubs, personal training, college fitness center, and a Pilates studio. I have always enjoyed helping people in reaching their health and fitness goals, and take pride in being a positive and encouraging role model. I realized I had built up a large enough client base that a studio of my own would be profitable. In the small market where I live (Pop. 180,000) there is no one offering the level of classical palates that I am able to offer. My first step was securing a location, purchasing the equipment, and fulfilling the training requirements that I felt necessary to offer my clients the highest level of training they could receive. I chose Peak Pilates for both the equipment and training, as I felt it very important to go with a highly respected company to provide the key elements in a great Pilates experience: Quality instruction and the very best equipment. Although I had a small list of clients ready to go, it was still a little daunting to jump in financially, especially in a town that is a little off the beaten path. Would people be willing to pay for one session the amount they pay for a month at the gym? Is this town large enough to support a full time studio? Upon opening I realized the answer was a resounding YES! My list of clients grew steadily by word of mouth only, as I have done zero advertising in the local media. Not only has my studio grown, but I have a waiting list for group classes and a full schedule of privates. My clients come from all walks of life: housewives, businessmen and women, CEO's, blue collar, athletes, students, young, elderly, and everything in between. I have realized that, like anything, people ARE willing to pay for quality. To maintain that level of quality, I have continued to seek additional training and add new equipment to enhance my trainings. To anyone thinking of stepping out and opening their own studio in a small market I offer the following advice: 1) Be patient in finding a location-DO NOT overspend 2) Purchase the highest quality equipment your budget allows 3) Invest in your training. And remember, in a small market you will have little to no competition for the service you offer. Believe me, it can be done successfully if you are willing to invest an energy and passion in your business, your classes, and the people to whom you serve. I have now been open almost 2 years and still in the growing phase, but from the very beginning I realized I had made the right decision and have never looked back. I have also been truly blessed in the support I received from my family, especially my parents, who encouraged the pursuit of my dream. How many people get to go to work everyday doing some thing they truly love....I encourage anyone with that dream to take the steps necessary to make it come true. Feel free to contact me for any advice I may offer on any aspect of opening a Pilates studio in a small market..I would love to share what I have learned.

Building Successful Business’s: Five Stories. Part 2

nhurd — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 21:18:00 GMT

Building Successful Business’s: Five Stories. Part 2

Introduced: by Nancy Hurd

Here is the second story of 5 stories on various successful Pilates programs that have one thing in common: They are based in classical Pilates. This next part of this series will be from a Pilates Program within an Athletic Club that caters to clients in their “Silver Years”.

Building A Successful Classical Pilates Business for Clients in their” Silver Years”

By Sandra Arias O'Dell

Sandra is the Head Pilates Instructor for the Spectrum Athletic Club at Hill Country Village in San Antonio, Texas. She is also the owner/operator of Precept Pilates in Leon Springs, Texas. Sandra is Certified through Peak Pilates, TEAM TRX Certified and conducts group fitness at Spectrum. The HCV Spectrum Athletic Club is a Silver Sneaker Club working in conjunction with Healthcare providers to encourage Senior Fitness. This gives Sandra the opportunity to work with Seniors at all fitness levels and abilities. Pilates has proven to be a safe, restorative, low impact fitness option for the Silver Sneaker Seniors. Promoting a healthy active lifestyle and a healthy active mind through Pilates is her passion!

I operate a Pilates Studio at the Spectrum Athletic Club at Hill Country Village in San Antonio Texas located at 281 and 1604. The studio is equipped with a Cadillac, two Reformers, two Wunda Chairs and two spine correctors. In addition to a Pilate Studio they also offer several Pilate Mat classes, all levels, during the week, I teach two of them as well. Our club offers a program called Silver Sneakers. The SilverSneakers® Fitness Program is an innovative health, exercise and wellness program helping older adults live healthy, active lifestyles. Pilates is an excellent way to promote Senior Fitness and I have the privilege of doing so every week. The restorative nature of Pilates is perfect for my clients. There are many fitness and ability levels when working with seniors and each one is given one-on-one attention. I have seen amazing progress and changes not just in body but in mind. The mind leads the body and when you age I have noticed a tendency towards fear and trepidation. Many of my clients used to be athletic and as they've aged they've not only lost mobility, strength and coordination but sadly also their confidence. When I ask a Senior Client to stretch on a moving carriage versus what they are used to which is usually a stable floor there is a whole mind / body evolution that takes place. Fear automatically kicks in and there is hesitation but when you present a strong energy to them and literally hold their hands through the process you see confidence restored and the mind is renewed. That is probably the most rewarding part of what I do. The Reformer does more that just reform the body, when you work intuitively with a client is also reforms the mind!

Instructor Burnout: How Much is Too Much?

Connie Borho — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 03:32:00 GMT

I am an admitted workaholic. Thankfully, I absolutely love what I do, and am totally passionate about teaching and helping people feel better about themselves. However, I am always striving for the balance of work and everything else in my life. And I’m always walking the fine line between that balance and burnout.

Starting the month of November and extending through April and into May, Florida’s population almost triples. So does my client base and the length of most of my work days. Two years ago there were days that I started teaching at 6:00 in the morning, and didn’t stop until 9:00 at night. By the time May rolled around, I was totally burned out. I remember thinking to myself, “If I say ‘press the carriage out and pull it in’ one more time, I’m gonna be sick.” I had no time to myself, wasn’t working out, and time out of the studio was spent trying to catch up on paperwork and housework. I felt like a hypocrite! Here I was talking to other people about health and wellness, and I wasn’t even close to being balanced.

Luckily, that summer I finally hired some great teachers to take over in my studio, and I gladly took a lot of time off and did a lot of soul searching. When November came around again, I swore I wouldn’t make the same mistake. I took a good long look at what worked for me, and what didn’t. One of the things that didn’t work was too many early mornings in the work week. The year before I had two 6 am mornings, and I swore I wouldn’t ever take another 6 am client again. The earliest I will start working now is 7:30, and I limit those to only twice a week. I’d rather work one extra hour in the later part of the day. I’m simply apologetic when I get requests for those early hours, and politely tell people that I’m not available.

I used to work all morning until early afternoon, take a couple of hours off, and then start up again at 4:30 and work until 8 or 9 pm. Now I’m limiting my nighttime training to twice a week (and not on the early morning days). Previously, I trained primarily one-on-one. I found out that on the days that I would do only one-on-ones for the entire day, I was totally exhausted, mentally and physically. However, if I broke up the day with a small group training or a group exercise class and was able to distance myself from my clients a little bit, I had much more energy left at the end of the day.

Last year I would teach all weekend at Teacher Trainings or presenting at conferences and then head right into the work week, having had no time off at all. Now I make myself take at least one day off after the weekend and do something totally unrelated to fitness. And I take the advice that I’m constantly giving my clients…I started scheduling my own workouts into my week.

It took some time to balance everything out, and to find what works best to keep me balanced, and what is realistic financially. But I feel that I am able to give more to my clients, and feel better about myself. I’m healthier and happier. And I’m finding ways to earn the same amount of money and work less, like doing more group classes, small group trainings, and retail. In some of my other blogs you’ll find details on some of those strategies.

Business Growth in an Opportunistic Economy

Connie Borho — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:17:00 GMT

People think I’m crazy sometimes. Like now for instance. World-wide recession and I’m expanding my Pilates & Yoga studio…after opening a second location at this same time only a year ago. I have to agree that, sometimes, I am a little nuts, but in this instance I am jumping on an opportunity that wouldn’t have been possible in a better economy. I’d like to share with the Peak community the steps and thinking that led me to this insanity, in the hopes of inspiring other studio owners to be as crazy as me – and to actually grow their businesses in this opportunistic economy.

My flagship studio is located in the front portion of a four-sided outside “walking mall” centered around a courtyard, with a large grocery store at one end. I’m sure the center was the height of style in its day…today it’s old-fashioned and needs a major face-lift. Because there are four sides, the back portion of the center has no main street frontage and lately sees very little foot traffic because most of the storefronts are empty, as one by one the businesses that were there have gone out of business.

Because I leased this space 5 years ago, at the height of the Florida real estate boom, and am located in the front portion of the center, I am paying top dollar in rent. I have street frontage, 1700 square feet, cut into two rooms, one for mat classes and one for the equipment. A lot of my revenue is from group equipment classes, as well as from Peak Pilates teacher training programs and continuing education workshops; but whenever either a group ex class or workshop was going on, there was no room for private and duet training, leaving my other teachers without space. Last spring, it was really becoming a problem as our snowbird season was in full swing…and so was my workshop season! We were bursting at the seams.

My lease had one more year to run, and I was facing the fact that if I wanted to continue to run my business as I wanted to, I was going to have to start looking for a larger space. However, we are located in an optimal location, on a main road leading straight out to the beaches where a lot of our snowbirds live during the winter who continue to send us new clients year after year! I did not want to move! At the same time, I was tired of paying such high rent and needed more space! Dilemma!

One day, I watched yet another tenant moving out from the back of the center and it occurred to me that it was almost empty back there. I took a walk and peeked into windows and decided just for the heck of it to call the rental agent to inquire about the rents on these shops. This guy couldn’t have been happier to hear from me, his excitement was obvious! In fact, he came right over to show me all the options.

In the back corner of the courtyard shops there has been one storefront that has never been rented as long as my studio has been there. The rental agent told me that it had been a dance school, and before that had been a “ladies workout center”, and was 4,000 square feet. Because it was so big, I almost didn’t look at it, but he said, “the landlord would be very open to making a good deal on this space, especially if he would be able to rent the front space (my current studio) to someone else.” Hmmmmm. That had me interested.

We went in, and needless to say, after being empty for 5+ years, the place was a wreck. But the potential was huge. With the wheels turning in my head my question was, “How good a deal?” After 3 months of negotiations, we finally came to an agreement. I had a lot of renovations to do, but it is a GREAT deal! I will be paying half the amount of rent I am presently paying, and will have over twice the amount of space! In fact, space enough to spare…which again got me thinking.

Because I had renovations to do, I wouldn’t be saving any money my first year, and wouldn’t be reaping the financial benefits of this new space until the second year. So I decided to do a craigslist rental ad directed towards dance schools to see if I could get a dance teacher to sublet the 1500 sq. ft. dance studio I was building. The first day I had the ad up, a dance teacher called who couldn’t afford the large rent on her present space. She came right over and signed a sublease for the two nights I don’t have classes in the room and for Saturday afternoons, when we only have privates. She would now be paying half my rent, and not impacting my programming in the least! A win-win situation!

The purpose of this blog is to get other studio owners, and potential owners, to start thinking outside the box. There are opportunities in this economy that, if you look for them, can provide you the means to not only survive this economic downturn, but to grow during it. Renegotiate your lease; people do it all the time, especially now when there are so many open lease spaces. Don’t be afraid to ask for special deals, like free months or buildout allowances; everyone else is doing it. Figure out a way to maximize the space you do have. Can you sublease or lease-share with another modality, like a dance or karate school? Get creative with programming to maximize hourly revenue by holding group classes or “boot camps” (and yes you CAN boot-camp Pilates).

The teachers and studios that are going to not only survive, but actually thrive, in this economy need to be flexible and forward thinking, and willing to try new ways of doing business. They need to be more pro-active in going after business opportunities as they present themselves. Pilates teachers are nurturers, not usually associated with aggressive business techniques. We all need to continue to bring quality training and teaching to our clients, but also to educate ourselves to become more business savvy. If we don’t, we won’t be in business at all!

I’ll let you know how our grand opening goes!

How to Survive in a Tough Economy

admin — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:58:00 GMT

Connie Borho, the Director of Balance Pilates & Yoga Centers and a Peak Pilates Level III Teacher Trainer has submitted this excellent article on surviving in tough economic times.

No matter where you are in the U.S, or the world for that matter, the state of the economy has been all over the news, and the news hasn’t been good. Before the U.S. presidential election, it seemed that every headline was about how bad the economy is and how it is only going to get worse. This challenging economic situation is making people reevaluate what they spend their money on and what they spend their time on. Pilates and Yoga Centers all over are finding it difficult to communicate to their students that their personal training or group classes are even more valuable to them in this stressful time, and these centers are losing clients and money just like any many other businesses. However, this hasn’t been the case at my studios, and it doesn’t have to be for your studio either.

First of all, you have to change how you perceive the economic situation. I have decided that this economy is an “opportunistic” one. You look for opportunities…and you capitalize on them…and bring more students and more clients into your studio. Secondly, you have to resolve to invest in marketing and sales strategies that will drive more students or clients to your services. This means not only getting new clients to walk in the door, but also to keep your current clients seeing the value of their lessons, and then to get them to purchase additional classes or services beyond what they already have. Easier said than done you say? It’s really not…if you try some simple things that have really worked well for other studios.

Secondly, you have to spend at least an hour a day working ON your business instead of IN your business. Pilates and yoga teachers aren’t usually the most “natural” business people; we’d rather be hands on with students than spending time with things like accounting, sales strategies, and marketing. This one hour a day has made the biggest difference for me in how I organize my studios, and on how we have created strategies to drive sales.

In the last 6 months we have really focused on marketing big time. We have revamped our website, which is totally user friendly and can be updated in seconds. In addition to pages about our studio, classes, rates and the like, we also have created pages for interactive type of things like blogs and quotes and recipes, and fitness tips and such. We have lots of pictures of many different types of people—young, old, fit, heavy, male; in positions that won’t intimidate the viewer, but rather will make the typical website visitor feel that they could accomplish it too! People say that the website really drove them to the studio.

We are sending out email newsletters twice a month that have kept existing students excited about coming programs and purchasing new items, has brought clients back to the studio that had stopped coming, and brings more new students into the studio than any other marketing technique that we’ve tried. We have collected email addresses in many different ways. Of course our students all give us their emails upon registration. All my teachers have combed their email address books and integrated them to our list. We run raffles at different events and collect email addresses on the entry tickets. We ask our students to forward the newsletters to their friends so that they can sign up for it.

These emails are short with a theme of the month and with special offers as coupons at the very end of the email. These have worked very well in getting our existing clients to buy more. We really haven't given anything away, in fact the biggest offer so far was for 15% off any package of 10 or more of either group classes or personal training or duets. We offered that right in the middle of December, and sales blew up. For this month we are focusing on the MVe chair classes, and the offer is to buy a package of 5 chair classes for the price of mat classes. They can buy as many packages as they want, and the expiration dates are adjusted to when they activate each package. People are crazy about it, and all MVe classes are full, with people who may not have tried this class before this offer started a buzz. We have different "themes" for each month to keep enthusiasm up.

We have definitely been concentrating greatly on group ex classes, but to tell you the truth, our personal training has started to pick up again! We do have a policy that in order to get enrolled in group reformer or tower classes people have to take a "minimum" of 2 personal training sessions before they are allowed to register, so that helps drive personal training alot. We do not have a special offer to cover this, although I know that some studios do have special introductory offers. I thought about it, but all the fitness marketing gurus swear that if you do this you devalue your programming, so I haven't bent yet. And it is paying off.

Signs are another important marketing tool. Colorful, large signs, with a catchy logo and your website address will help people to find you. With your website address you provide an “inside” look opportunity for people to see your studio to become familiar with it, which helps to create a comfort level for new clients before they actually come in to speak to you about sessions. The more comfortable a new client is when they first come in, the more apt they will be to actually sign up for classes or training.

We are holding open houses at both studios on Saturday afternoons once a month, doing demos, free classes and posture screening. Again, this creates a comfort level and excitement, as well as providing another opportunity to casually introduce our programs to people.

I am doing speaking/workout demo engagements with chiropractors and handing out literature and flyers about the studios. This has been quite successful as well in getting new clients, as well as in touching people that might not have been exposed to pilates or yoga otherwise.

Of course, I also have extremely high-quality instructors, all Peak trained. Continuing education workouts once a week mandatory to all teachers help keep teachers fresh and enthusiastic which then helps to keep clients happy and wanting more more more. I also spend time with the teachers to coach them on customer service, and on selling skills. Because, let’s face it, it is our teachers that actually make the sales happen…or not.

These are just a few of the many ideas that we have tried to take advantage of this “opportunistic” economy. We are holding our own down here in Florida, and even managing to grow a little bit. With my commitment to put a little more energy into the “business side” of things, and to get creative with marketing, hopefully, it will continue!

Breaking-through Limiters

admin — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:29:00 GMT

By Zoey Trap

As we say goodbye to 2007 and look ahead to 2008, it becomes a time to look at where we are in our lives. A large part of our life is teaching, it becomes our passion and we share the joys of healthy movement. Just as we strive to help our clients reach new goals, we must also take the time to and revaluate our own.

Teaching Pilates can be quite comprehensive. It is deep and broad. It is nuanced and bold. It is both a science and an art. But it is also education and business. Of course, there are parts of our jobs that we love (teaching), as well as parts we may loathe (book-keeping). Acknowledging which parts inspire us and which tasks terrify may in turn empower us.

As a right-brained person, I have never been delighted by numbers or complicated details. I love working with ideas and movements on the creative side of things, but then to shy away from any solid financial planning. Realizing that two years ago made me stop in my tracks.

First, why didn’t I like the numbers side of things? Obviously if I loved numbers I would be an accountant or an economics expert, however my hesitance went beyond that. It came down to the fact that I had to sit down, be still, get organized, and have someone to explain to me what the numbers meant since I really didn’t get a "picture" from them - and we right-brained people love our pictures!

Next, I had to think about how not knowing the financial side of things limited me as both a teacher and a business owner. That part was actually easy. I knew that not knowing details limited my ability to budget for marketing, equipment purchases, tax-time, etc. I knew this would also provent my business from growing.

So with the problem and possiple impacts identified, I had only two choices: Do nothing, which never suits me, or take the time to act! So I acted. I hired an accounting expert to talk to me in simple terms about what the really numbers meant. I began to understand what was making me money, what wasn’t, what opportunities I was missing, and where I really was financially with my business. I began to read basic books on the subject of entrepreneurship. Today, while I am not a business expert, I am at least comfortable discussing things like returns on investments and margins.

What did I do with that information? I took control of my future. I wasn’t happy with running a small, one-instructor operation and had always dreamed of going back into the studio business. I had to plan whether or not I wanted to build it so they could come. And I did. And so did they!

I started small with just two TWSs. Next came a convertible chair, a ladder barrel and spine corrector. In the meantime, I was working out of my home -- a safe and low-risk strategy. Soon enough, my business was too big and it was time to move. Knowing the numbers side of things helped me to make good decisions. I could figure out how many pieces I needed to have in order to maximize income potential. I finally learned how much I could really afford to pay for equipment and rent.

After doing some demographic research and lots of "shopping around," I found a small studio space. While we couldn’t afford advertising, we had a plan in place to build referrals, word-of-mouth, and capitalizing on public relations efforts. At 900 square feet with four TWSs, a Cadillac and four MVes, we were finally open on a much larger scale.
A year later, we have moved again, this time into 2500 square foot studio and we are watching our dream grow larger both one day at a time and one client at a time. We know what we will spend on equipment this year. We are aware of our budget for charities and advertising. It is nice to see the future through a different perspective. And, while I have to admit I still don’t LOVE numbers, I no longer loathe them, rather I see them as an important part of my dream. Dream big! If I can do it, you can too!

- Zoey Trap, Peak Pilates Master Trainer