Empty Classes on Your Studio Schedule? Here's What to Do

I'm going to share with you what you can do to get those attendance numbers up to increase revenue long term and continue to make a difference in the lives of more and more people every day inside of your studio business . Well , hi there , i'm Sarah . In 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 Sarah and thank you so much for joining me here again today . We're talking about a topic that is pretty pertinent right now for the studio owners that I'm working with .

In fact , i've been talking about this with the studio owners inside of Thrive for a couple of months now , because we've been preparing ourselves for this seasonality that we see in our industry where , due to changes in schedules , changes in routines and the fact that people like to take vacation , we're seeing probably some decline in terms of attendance .

Your schedule is probably pretty fluid . People might be away a lot more than they normally are , people might be managing changes in terms of their demands on their time , if children are out of school and so on .

We find that this time of year we do see a lot of an impact , i would say , on the attendance and perhaps even the regularity of your clients' visits to the studio . Like I said , there are things you can do to help prevent the impact that that might have on your revenue . We've been talking about some of those strategies inside of Thrive .

I wanted to share with you today just a few of the best practices that I would recommend you think about , not just for when it comes to the summer months and perhaps that level of seasonality , but just longer term as well , and thinking about how you can continue to grow your studio and how you can help and fill your classes , because as a studio owner ,

especially if you're a studio that offers many classes , and it is something else .

It's a topic for perhaps another episode , but it is something that can help to generate more significant scalability to your business , and so often , if you are offering classes , that the sustainability of those classes with it as a revenue stream in your business it depends upon higher attendance numbers in your classes , and empty or low attendance classes do directly

impact your bottom line can be scary situation , especially if you're hiring other teachers to teach those classes , and so we often see a lot of stress and anxiety around what what that looks like , how many people need to be in a class , how much you should pay your teachers , how you should pay your teachers , and so on . And so classes great .

This another level of complexity to your business , especially if you are transitioning from teaching one on one into teaching classes , and so what we want when we're offering classes on the schedule is we want those classes to be at a level of capacity that allows you to make a profit in your business , and I'm going to talk a little bit about how we can make

sure that that is a reality for yours , to you . So , before we get into all of the strategies and those best practices . Let's talk really quickly about what capacity full capacity or full classes and occupancy really means . Because if you've been following me for any length of time , then you will know that I'm a big fan of data .

I love looking at the numbers and it's really important . I highly recommend that you get as comfortable as you possibly can with tracking the data inside of your business , because it really does drive a lot of the decisions that you make every day and every week and every month and every quarter and every year inside of your business .

And when I talk about numbers , i'm not just talking about revenue , i'm not just talking about profit . I'm not just talking about your expenses . I'm talking about some of those other key data points that help you understand what's going on underneath the hood of your business .

And one of the common mistakes when it comes to classes , when it comes to how many people you can fit in your class as the capacity , what is considered a full class or an empty class really is one of the common mistakes is that when I work with studio owners , it's often that they see every class . There's a misconception .

I should say that unless a class is full , it is not a good class to have . People are not happy unless the class is full , and this is an unfortunate , i would say , misconception that often makes studio owners feel like their studio is not performing well . And what we look at ?

when we look at , we look at big picture class schedules and we look at the occupancy of those classes . So that means how many people are in those classes , and we look at the capacity of those classes , which is how many people you can have in those classes .

Those two numbers are not necessarily the same , and nor should they be , and that's the part that always is a bit of a shock . If you have got , say , let's say , for example , you've got a yoga class and your maximum capacity in that class is 20 people , then should your goal be to get 20 people in this class ?

Of course , i mean , wouldn't it be wonderful if that was the case ?

But the reality is that your average class size probably will not be that level over the long term And perhaps because of that , that should mean that your goal may not be to have a full class , because having actually full classes and a waitlisted classes actually brings its own issues and challenges of its own , and so what we tend to think about is okay .

Well , what is the number of people that we should aim to have in our class , where we are profitable , where our clients are happy with the experience that they have and that makes our classes accessible to people ?

If you have classes that are very full all the time , it actually has a detrimental impact on your client's desire to purchase certain offers , memberships and so on . So the number that we kind of aim for is what I say is that when a class is , when you have a sort of around an 80% occupancy in your classes , on average you have a pretty full schedule .

Your classes are full . Because , let's face it , when we look at numbers , it's very easy to think about that sort of 20 person yoga class .

If I had all of my classes , my five classes a day , every day of the week , being full at 20 people , then , oh my goodness , look at what that looked like in terms of my revenue , my profit , and you start to daydream about these things , and oftentimes people are running their numbers and thinking about how much money they could make in their business .

Those are the numbers that they're running , but the reality is , like I said , that is not necessarily the case Because , just like I learned when I studied economics , there is no such thing . There's no perfect market . All markets are imperfect . And because we are human beings , we do very human things .

We cancel classes because our kids are sick , or we cancel classes because we get stuck in traffic , or we don't make it because we oversleep right , we all do these things because we're human beings And so we need to allow for that in terms of when we are making projections in our business , in order for those projections and those expectations to be real and a

reality for you . So when we're thinking about the goal for your occupants to be , for how many people you kind of want to be in your classes , that would consider them a fall . Take that into account . Okay , so this looks like somewhere between 70 and 80% typically .

But again , if you've got very small classes of , say , maybe four or five people , obviously that might look very different for you . And so when I talk about classes , for the most part we're talking about larger classes of , say , 10 to 12 plus smaller classes .

If , say , for example , you're offering small group equipment classes , say you have four or five reformers , it's going to be quite a different conversation because these have different impacts on profit and revenue and so on often . So , like I said , every studio is different and what you consider a class might not be what other people consider a class .

So just take that into account . Now that we kind of got our expectations set in terms of the number of people we should sort of hope to have in our classes , perhaps that helps take the pressure off a little bit and make you feel a little bit better about where you're at inside of your studio .

Now that we understand what we're aiming for , let's talk about what you can do to drive those numbers up and get that revenue . You need to have a thriving , profitable studio business . So I've got five kind of best practices here that I wanna share with you .

First of all , the very first and honestly the most important is that you deliver a very consistent experience to your clients that is rooted in your studio values , and this comes down to knowing who you are , what you do and why you do it and what's important to you . And then you wanna infuse those values into the experience that you deliver to your clients .

And if you're not giving every single class and you wanna make sure your teachers are doing the same thing . So if community and belonging are important to you , then make sure you know your clients by name , make them feel welcome , learn things about them and their lives outside of the studio .

If creating a safe space that is calm and reflective is a value of you and your studio , then deliver bliss in every single session . When you really know what's important to you and you deliver on that experience authentically each and every time , you will wow your clients and they will keep coming back over and over and over again .

The challenge that we find I find that we have in often in these situations is that inside of your studio , you know what it is that you do so well , and your clients that are already coming know really well too , and sometimes it's helpful to do two things .

The first thing is you might wanna remind your existing clients about all these special things that you're doing to help them have a wonderful experience , because what we know is that over time , people become less aware of some of these special things , and so it can be helpful to remind them .

The second thing is that you know often we don't share what's amazing inside of the studio to people outside of the studio And this is often one of the biggest challenges that studio owners have is that inside their studio they know that what they do is fantastic and has an impact on their clients , and their clients tell them all the time .

But outside of the four walls of the studio no one else knows , and until people come in they don't know , and unless you tell them about that then they don't come in . So it's sort of in the .

You always get stuck in this catch-22 situation and we wanna make sure that we're being very proactive about letting people outside of our immediate world , the community that you already have , know .

We'll let them know what it is about , what you do that is so unique and special , so that they can get excited about it and perhaps come along and book their very first session with you inside of the studio .

Knowing what you wanna focus on and what you wanna talk about with your clients is important , and reminding about that and delivering on that every single class is obviously one of just foundation to making sure your retention numbers stay sky high .

The second thing is we wanna make sure you've got an introductory offer that is very strategically marketed , and these sort of introductory offers , as you know , are one of the best ways to get new clients to come in and give your studio a try right , and I prefer to think about this not just as a price point but as an experience as a whole , as a journey

that you're offering to new clients And the price point and that perhaps that discount is just one part of the entire experience that shows them or showcases I should say to them what it is that you do that is special and unique , and so you wanna make sure that your introductory offer really does give clients the opportunity to experience the full amazingness of

what you offer inside of your studio . Number three you definitely want to make sure that you are using all of your network and all of your community to pull in more people into your studio , and so we know that word of mouth marketing is just so important . Every single week we talk about it .

Every single month it's up there in terms of how people hear about you , and so we want to make sure that your clients you're giving your clients something to talk about with their friends , and so that might mean that you are having an events .

You can offer , workshops and giving people the opportunity to invite their friends into your studio , asking for testimonials , talking about referrals , talking about people who've bought their friends in , talking about how wonderful it is to have friends work out with you , move with you , and how that is really a fun thing to do .

It can all help to really plant that seed of why your clients should bring their friends , their people , into your classes .

The fourth thing I really recommend that you do , especially if you've got classes that are struggling a little bit And this can happen often in certain seasons , like I said , you know , the summer season is often that season where you should make specific invitations for people to come into classes .

Oftentimes we let that class that is , you know , struggling a little bit , sit on the schedule and we watch it and we wait and we hope and we pray And it doesn't . Nothing ever happens right . And the reason is , if you're not putting energy into filling that classes , it's going to be even more challenging to fill it .

Where your focus goes , the energy will flow . And so if you put a focus on the class and you're talking about it , you're talking about the amazing instructor and how great of a class it is you will find that it does fill . You will find that over time people will be aware of it , people will find a way to get into that class .

If you're not talking about that class , then you know it's probably not going to work out right . So you want to make sure that you are highlighting that class , you're highlighting the benefits of coming to that class , perhaps that one that is struggling a little bit .

Naturally , there are times of the day that do better in terms of classes and times of the day that perhaps aren't so convenient . So you want to make sure that your classes are scheduled at times that work well for your clients .

Okay , so you want to communicate specifically about the classes that have spots available and give people a little bit of awareness about that , encourage people to come and perhaps even make some personal invitations to some people who you know might want to come to a couple of extra classes .

And finally , you know what we know is that , yes , we love social media as a marketing tool , but it is not the only marketing tool .

As I just said , you've got a lot of different ways to communicate with your clients and by far the most effective in terms of generating revenue and sales in your business is going to be your email marketing , and that really truly has shown time and time again that that is really how people typically make or choose to make a purchase from your studio is through

the emails that they receive from you . And you want to make sure that you're not only sending emails when you want to sell people something .

And this is always a bit of a challenge , you know , and luckily for the Thrive members that I work with , i share with them for emails every month that they can use to nurture their clients each and every week , and they share those emails with this their clients And we sprinkle in there some promotions as well .

So they have a whole toolkit of marketing , of marketing assets that they can use in their studios And it really does take the pressure off .

It helps to take back or win back some time for those studio owners And you know we're not all writers , and so the Thrive members that and they do mostly utilize those emails , those articles and those social media captions that really help to written , really to nurture clients inside of their studio .

So one of the things that I recommend is that you do email your clients on a regular basis . You're not just promoting things or asking for a sale , that you are talking about some of those other things that are important . Like I mentioned already , the experience people have in your studios perhaps just sharing some client success stories , and so on .

So you want to make sure that you are utilizing that most effective revenue drive from your business and that is your email marketing .

So there you have it Just some of the five best practices that I would recommend you use to maintain attendance or increase attendance in your classes , because the only way to really sustain a profitable and thriving studio business and to positively impact all of those wonderful people along the way is to have your schedule filled and your classes filled with clients

who love what you do and that come back over and over and over again . And the five strategies that I shared with you today can really help to make sure that you are attracting and nurturing and retaining your clients so that every class on your schedule is at full capacity .

So I hope this is a little bit helpful to you as you think about how you're going to manage your class attendance over the next few weeks and months . And , if you love what you heard today , i'd be so appreciative if you could go to wherever you're listening to this and share a quick rating or review of this podcast .

It would mean a lot to me and would help to get the podcast out there into our community , so that more people just like you can get support and insights and feel encouraged 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 .