Are you priced right?

After all , your pricing is a real reflection of the value that you deliver to your clients , and it can truly make or break your position in the market . You don't want a price too high or too low . No , just like Goldilocks , your price has to be just right , and in today's episode , I'm going to be sharing with you how to do just that .

Well , hi there , I'm Saren Glanfield . I'm a business and marketing strategist just for boutique fitness studio owners like you . If you're ready to be inspired and make a bigger impact , you're in the right place . All you need are a few key strategies , the right mindset and some support along the way .

Join me as I share the real-life insights that will help you grow a sustainable and profitable studio . This is the Pilates Business Podcast . Welcome back to the Pilates Business Podcast .

I'm Saran and I'm thrilled that you're here with me today and we're talking about the topic that just comes up every single time I click record on my Zoom calls with my studio owners that I work with inside of my programs , and that topic is pricing .

And as we talk about this , we are heading into that time of year where we see things starting to pick up again .

We're thinking about how we can perhaps continue to keep momentum in our sales and our revenue through to the end of the year and perhaps even beginning to think about what next year might hold , and one of the things that , as we think what might come down the pipe at us every time we come to the planning stages pricing is a big question that I encourage you

to think about at least once a year . Are you priced right ? Is my pricing reflective of the value that I add ? Am I making the margin that I need to make ? Am I positioning myself effectively in the market ?

And as a Pilates teacher when I was teaching a long time ago now , but when I have these conversations every single week with studio owners inside of my coaching calls , the question of pricing it truly is something that comes up over and over again . What's the right price ? Is pricing at the right level ? Am I making enough money with my pricing ?

Am I too expensive , too cheap ? What's the right price ? And it's really challenging to establish pricing for yourself . I think this is something that is kind of an unexpected thing . That kind of comes up when , as a business owner , we are setting the value , we're setting the price point of our own services .

And , having worked with hundreds and hundreds of studio owners , I think many of the studio owners that I work with face this same kind of underlying challenge of trying to figure out where that price is , it feels good for them and works for their business model .

So we're going to tackle this today in this episode , and at the end of the show I will have shared with you the impact of that personal factor that really does influence your pricing strategy . We're also going to talk about how to price your service effectively and how to handle price increases or price changes with your clients . So let's dive in . First up .

I want to talk about a factor that comes into play when a business owner is pricing their services , and this factor is especially relevant when the studio business is just getting started , but I will say that it's also highly relevant at any point when you're running a business .

But when you're setting prices for the very first time or maybe doing a big overhaul in your studio offerings or membership structure . That sort of personal trait of how you think about price and money and exchange of value really really influences where you set your prices .

And this is really to do a lot to do with confidence , with the way that you think about your business , the way that you approach your business and the mindset around all of that .

And I've said it before on this podcast , I'll say it again your mindset around your business is something that I encourage you to spend some time on , because having that right mindset really is a huge factor in your long-term sustainable success , especially your mindset around money and pricing .

And when you're launching and opening a studio , it's very , very , very , very exciting . There's a lot to do , a lot going on . The to-do list and the checklist are vast .

It comes with a little bit maybe a little bit of worry , a little bit of fear as well , and so when you're just starting out , there is a temptation , honestly , to perhaps undercut your competition to attract clients , and that sort of temptation is really really strong because you want to just get people in the door , you don't want to be priced too high and you

want to make your services available to as many people as possible , and I see this happening a lot in the very early days of studios opening . But the problem with this is that unless you've crunched the numbers and you know that you are profitable at these levels , you will find that it's not sustainable in the long term .

Those price points may not be sustainable . So , as we're going to talk about in a moment , you do have to consider the hard costs and your expenses when it comes to pricing your services correctly . Definitely , you want to sit down , crunch the numbers and make sure that you are able to create profit in your business .

I know that kind of goes without saying , but it's really important to sit down and know exactly what your margins look like , and you might want to make sure that you are able to set your prices at a place which makes it so that it's worthwhile for you to be running your business .

So if you are pricing just based off of where you see competition pricing , I would hold off on using that as your only source of reference .

I would encourage you to definitely sit down , review your specific expenses , make sure you have a nice profit margin built in that you are happy and comfortable with , because if you only price based on where you see competition . It's possible that you might be losing money on your business , in your business , because every business has different levels of expenses .

Now , the other thing about setting your price point too low in the beginning is that you actually risk bringing in clients who are just looking for that low cost pricing option not necessarily the value of what it is that you deliver in your studios .

And so if you're purely relying on price to pull people into your business , then you're going to seek , or you're going to find that you are going to get price discount seekers , I should say folks who are very , very overly possibly overly conscious of price , which means that when you need to raise prices in case you do you might find you very quickly lose

clients , and so you don't want to lock yourself into a position in the market that you can't get out of later on . And being the Walmart of the fitness world is maybe not quite the best for a boutique fitness studio business model .

But the good news is I find that as you develop and build your business , that perhaps that concern around pricing , once you start to get people in the door and that they enjoy what their experience looks like , your confidence will grow , and so you want to make sure that you are not going to lean too much into that fear , initially , about pricing too low .

You want to make sure that you are pricing at a point that is profitable for your business . Okay , okay , so there are lots of different ways to price your services and lots of different factors that determine whether your business succeeds or fails .

Things like how you lead the market , in which you sell your marketing efforts , of course , and many other things are at work to help or hurt your business's health and sustainability , and service-based businesses , in my opinion , should never seek to compete on price alone .

If you set your pricing up simply to be lower than everyone else's , what type of client you'll attract will probably not be the type of client that you want to keep . Customers who bargain hunt are the first customers to go elsewhere .

They're very price sensitive , so when they have the opportunity to get something similar elsewhere , they will leave your business , no matter how good you are , how qualified you are , how much experience you have , and so those types of clients are probably not going to become that loyal , long-term brand evangelist who comes to you over and over again , shares the

amazing experience that they have at your studio online sends referrals your way , and so when you price too low , you really do risk attracting the wrong kind of client . Now , on the flip side , when you price too high , you risk not being able to attract enough clients to cover your costs .

So , either way , whether you price too low or too high , your business will not be built to last without really really nailing this pricing piece . So I know what you're thinking how exactly do I do that ? Well , it truly is a bit of an art and a bit of a science .

So when you're figuring out what to set your prices at , there is lots of different things to consider . Some of them are concrete , calculable numbers from your business that you absolutely need to take into consideration . This is the science part .

This is the part where it is about what does your total expenses look like , what are your variable costs , what are your fixed costs and what is your profit margin that you're targeting .

And then you'll obviously need to take into consideration , depending on your pricing model and your business model , the number of people that you can have and the capacity of your studio and so on , and you'll need probably a spreadsheet to help you and a calculator to get this part figured out , and so you want to make sure that you have that part down and

that's the science part right Now . When you've got your costs covered , then you want to consider profit right , and the reality is that this industry is an industry where , I have to say , I see huge ranges of profitability in studio businesses and it really does depend on the scalability of your business and what your price point is and where you're located .

I've had many bookkeepers come onto my podcast and come into my coaching programs to talk about this specific topic , and every time I say what's the average , what's the target profit margin ?

And they say to me well , I see everything from a 5% profit margin to a 40% profit margin and again , it really does vary depending on the business model , the scale of the business and the scope of the business . So you will need to determine for your business what your target profit margin is and that will be where you then lead to set your pricing .

Now , when it comes to your whatever that number looks like , it might lead you to a place of oh my goodness , will people buy at this price point ? And when it comes to pricing , I always think when it comes to pricing and you're coming to the selling part of that customer journey , it's really important to think of your pricing also as a marketing tool .

So this is where we start to move into the kind of art part of your pricing packages pricing your packages , because when it comes to positioning yourself in the market , perceived value plays a heavily a big part when it comes to pricing as well . And so this is where things kind of get interesting .

Yes , you want to make sure that you are not charging a price way out of line with competitors in your market , but you also want to make sure that your price is reflective of the experience and the value that you deliver . So what experience do your clients have inside of your studio ? What benefits do they receive ?

What else do they get from you , and what can you do to increase the perceived value of what you have to offer , so that folks who come into your studio see that it is an absolute silly to say no , right ? And so you want to make sure that you're not just selling one session .

You're actually selling a lifestyle , health , vitality , youthfulness , a community , this whole experience , and you can and should charge a premium for that .

And so the key is , once you're able to really articulate the value of what you have to offer through your branding and marketing messaging , then you can get really strategic about how you incorporate that kind of language into your marketing and then into those conversations you're having around price as well .

So much of your ultimate success is about marketing messaging and positioning Truly it is , and if you're without that part , then there is really only one way to kind of win the pricing game , and that is really to be the cheapest in town , and we've already established that is not a good idea .

So you absolutely have to combine price with strategic brand messaging to be able to drive sales in your business .

All right , and I know that this is something that is often the missing piece of the puzzle , and the reason being is that this is actually a bit of deep work that is required for you to dive into and to sort of peel back the layers of the onion around what it is , the experience you truly deliver , the outcomes your studio gets your clients and what they're

experiencing when they come to your sessions , because guess what ? It's way more than 45 minutes of exercise . Okay , so we want to think about pricing in the context of how you actually position your business as a whole in the market , and that means you've got to always have pricing alongside strong , solid , strategic brand messaging .

So , last but not least , I wanted to really quickly chat with you about how to handle price increases with your clients , and every year I encourage my coaching clients , my studio owners that are inside of Thrive and my marketing intensive program to strongly consider price increases and to think about where they sit in the market that they are in and whether or not

their margins are where they need to be . And I would say once a year is a great cadence to look at this .

But oftentimes , depending on where a studio is at and what their costs look like and whether or not they've been increasing on a regular basis or not , then obviously , of course , inflation plays a big part , and it has played a big part in this decision over the last few years as well . So we want to make sure that we are keeping up with that .

We want to make sure we're maintaining that profit margin , which means that we want to think about and check whether or not we are , which means you need to be looking at your numbers on a regular basis with your bookkeeper and making sure that your income , what's left at the end of the day , is what you want it to be , based on your targets .

So , when it comes to raising prices , there are a few different ways to do this . It doesn't necessarily just have to be a blanket increase across the board .

You can be very strategic and intentional about how you want to raise your prices to encourage people to perhaps purchase a longer term commitment package , or perhaps to be in a different price point that you would like them to be in .

So there are ways to do it that actually can be very helpful to your business and that can actually feel like a really good deal for your clients . And again , how do you do that ? Well , that all comes down to the way that you communicate your pricing increases , and that is strategic brand messaging .

So you want to make sure that you are super clear in your communication .

Most people tend to get very skeptical around any conversations around pricing , so you want to make sure that you're very clear and transparent in your communication around pricing and you want to make sure that you're crafting that messaging , what you're sharing that communication around your price change , very , very carefully .

There are a lot of things that you can do to really support your business during any price increase . That means that you probably won't lose clients .

In fact , very , very rarely do the studio owners that I work with inside of my programs lose clients through price increases , and actually what's really fascinating is that my studio owners come to me and tell me that their clients have told them that they've been waiting for this to happen , because they thought that they were waiting too long to raise their prices ,

and so they actually welcome it . It's an amazing thing to see what happens when you actually are able to position the price increase in a very specific way actually is seen as a good thing from a client's perspective , unbelievable .

So we want to make sure that you're really thoughtful about how you introduce this price increase , what you're telling people around that , and it can work wonders for your business , actually for so many reasons .

Now , one thing I would caution you against , though , is any large or significant price increases , because anything too significant will lead people to question why that is such a big jump , and so you want to be very careful about that , and I will say that if I've seen , maybe once or twice , some studio owners really significantly increase their pricing , and that

has caused sort of that has been detrimental to their active client numbers . So it's very rare that people increase significantly enough that it does cause an impact on their business . But I will say , be mindful of that .

I would always rather see you incrementally increase your pricing versus sort of wait too long , many years , and then feel like you have to do a big jump up to kind of play catch up . All right , so there you have it . I wanted to have a quick chat with you all about what you need to know when it comes to pricing .

It is not something to be scared of and in fact what I see is that when you have the tools to be able to talk about pricing in a way that you feel very confident around , then a lot shifts in your business .

And all of that really comes down to communication the way that you introduce your business , the way that you articulate the value and the impact that it has on your clients' lives and the way that you introduce the different options to your clients .

And this is a topic that comes up often inside of my coaching program instead of Thrive , and inside of my marketing intensive program as well .

We talk a lot about the different ways that you can introduce your pricing and different strategies that you can use and different language that you can use , as well as big no-nos that I recommend when it comes to having those pricing conversations , whether you're simply introducing or recommending pricing to a client or whether you're increasing your pricing in your

business overall . So if you want to learn a bit more about what it looks like to be a member of my coaching program , you can go to spring3.com . Forward slash thrive . I'll also link to it in the show notes . So I hope this was super helpful to you as you go about building your boutique fitness studio business . I mean it'll help .

So let me know what questions you have and if you love what you heard today , please take a quick minute , go to wherever you're listening to this and rate and review this podcast .

It would mean a ton to me and I'd like to get this out there into the community so that more people just like you can get the help , support and encouragement they need on their journey in our industry . Did you love this episode and want more ?

Head to spring3.com and check out my free resources that will help you run a profitable and fulfilling studio business . And before you go . One last reminder there is no one way to do what you do , only your way . So whatever it is that you want to do , create or offer , you've got this .

Thanks again for joining me today and have a wonderful rest of your day .