When I taught my first fitness class (I was 16 back then) I immediately realized that owning my own fitness studio was my dream. I loved the energy of teaching, I loved to help people get healthy, I enjoyed the fitness community. A lot of things changed over the year (I discovered Pilates, moved to the US, became a Mom to 4 wonderful girls) and finally I had an opportunity to open my very own store-front Pilates studio. Everything seemed like it was falling in place, the timing was right, the location, the referral stream was already in place and … I changed my mind.
I realized that I already had what I was dreaming about for so many year – my very own Pilates studio but IN MY HOME..
In this article I am not going to discuss the pros and cons of owning a home studio as opposed to running a store-front one, this is the decision that will depend greatly on what your financial and work/life balance goals are (and we can get in depth on this one in one of the other articles if you want to.) Instead, let’s talk about 5 HUGE mistakes that a lot of beginner home studio owners make.
Don’t take my word for, I am not the Know-It-All. But I have spoken to a dozen of wonderful Pilates teachers who run Pilates studios from their homes and asked for guidance and advice. Some of them have transitioned from renting a commercial space to being home studio owners, some got tired of working at other studios for nothing, and yet others just fell straight into the home studio ownership. Basically, we have every possible scenario that you can imagine.
Today I am starting a series of articles on How to Set Up and Run a Pilates Home Studio (no fancy titles, just the practical information that we all need.) In the future articles of this series we will cover things like marketing, home studio set-up, personal security and professional growth.
5 Mistakes to Avoid When Running a Pilates Home Studio
Mistake #1. I can teach Pilates to anyone.
When you are just starting out it is easy to get carried away and try to appeal to every client. “Yes, I teach rehab work. Yes, I work with pre-postnatal. Yes, I can give you the gym-style “sweat-and-burn” Pilates…” While this mistake is common among all beginner teachers, it can be particularly fatal for a beginner home studio owner. It’s easy to feel discouraged if clients don’t want to sign up for a package; you start questioning your setting and your teaching style. But that person simply was not the right fit for you.
Courtney Klocke, the owner of Point of Balance Pilates studio in Minneapolis, MN says that “You can not be everything to everyone. It’s exhausting trying to guess who to be for each client. Be who you are comfortable being and be confident in your expertise and your style of teaching. By doing this, you will attract your best clientele. They will expect your brand of teaching and continue because of it. If not, it was not a good fit, move on.”
Mistake #2. I’ll be teaching Pilates from home because I enjoy it, weeee!
Hobbies are things that you enjoy doing and you don’t get paid for them, business is something that you do for profit. Approach your home studio as a business with the same amount of organization and business planning as you would a brick-and-mortar business. You can’t wake up and cancel a class just because you have a headache thinking “Oh, my clients will understand it” or let your dog/cat interrupt the session with some overly friendly behavior. It’s not professional. If you want to be treated as a professional studio owner then you have to behave like one.
“Keep a business head even if you are at home. It’s easier to stay business-minded in a conventional studio setting,” says Sunni Almond, the owner of Studio S Pilates in Temecula CA. She continues to say that “These are your clients, not your friends.” Treat them as bodies that you are teaching but stay out of the head.
Mistake #3. I teach from home, so I can price myself cheaper.
After talking to 12 successful Pilates home studio owners, there is one piece of advice that they all agree upon “Do not cheapen yourself.” Most of them keep their prices 5-10% below local store-front studios to make private sessions more affordable for their clients. Jon Hawkins, owner of Free Range Pilates in London, UK says that he is “not looking to undercut but want Pilates to be affordable and I do not have the overheads of other studios. I charge £60, whereas locally its £70-75. When I worked in the West End of London clients were charged £100 of which I saw £20-25. I had to fight for that extra five pounds and felt the price clients paid was ridiculous. Many clients who took my classes there told me they would love to take privates with me but could not afford that price tag.”
Several teachers including Jennifer Baker Jobson from Charlotte NC and Laura B Grant from Raleigh NC mentioned that their prices are actually a bit HIGHER than local price range because of the expertise and experience that they give their clients.
Mistake #4. I am a nice person.
It’s not bad to be nice, but in a business settings you have to be strict with what you do and do not tolerate. Keep your cancellation policy in place, notify your clients of what is permissible and what is not. Don’t let your clients be late for their sessions or change your personal life to fit your client’s needs. Jennifer Baker Jobson has a strict cancellation and studio policy agreement that she goes over with all of her clients during the first session. “Think about your client as your kid. What kind of interactions do you want to have with them? It’s a cultivated thing. If I cultivate the atmosphere of disrespect among my clients then they will continue to do that…If a client is late then I will not extend their session. Sometimes teachers would do that [extend the time] if they don’t have somebody right after this person. But they cultivate that atmosphere and relationship that when they DO get the next client at the back of the hour, they have already trained the first client to disrespect them.”
Mistake #5. Any marketing is good marketing.
It is absolutely NOT true. Some things will be a complete waste of time and money if you re trying to promote your home studio Devra Swiger who has owned three home studios in different states and is currently the owner of Ab-solutely Pilates in Huntington Beach, CA says that she has tried all sorts of creative marketing for her business. “I spent a lot of money on flyers and they absolutely did not work. I remember going around Christmas time to PT offices with a basket of Pepperidge Farm cookies, a ribbon and a card. I thought it was such a great idea but I didn’t get a single client. Plus it was very expensive.” Jon Hawkins says that his biggest mistake was “spending good money on a couple of local magazine adverts that brought in no business. That budget would be much better spent utilizing my existing customer base to offer them referral incentives or would even have paid for a Wunda Chair.” Practical marketing strategies will be a topic for a different article but if in doubt about what to do please ask questions in the comments right now.
Do you currently teach Pilates from home or are you considering it? Share the mistakes that you made or ask for advice.
If you loved this article please share it with your Pilates colleagues!
Don’t miss the rest of the series on How to Set Up and Run a Pilates Home Studio. Subscribe for our free newsletter to stay up-to-date.
This is wonderful article! I’ve owned two home Pilates studios, and all of these tips on mistakes to avoid are spot on! They are great reminders for home Pilates studio owners and they are wonderful advise for those that are thinking about opening a studio in their home. Thank you for writing this series of posts on running a home studio! 😉 Can’t wait to read more and share with others.
Thank you Leah for stopping by! You are always an inspiration to me! BTW, I love your video series for Pilates teachers How to Create Awesome Modifications in 4 Easy Steps
I would love to see your modifications. Do I have to join?
Avril
I have been teaching at home for a couple years and my clientele goes up and down. I also am teaching at a Physical Therapy studio; My question: I am trying to build a web site to help draw clients. Is this a good idea?
Hi Donna, I will be covering this question in more detail in the next parts of the series but website is a must as long as it is done right. All of the studio owners that I have interviewed have websites and they all get a steady stream of new contacts from their websites. Courtney Klocke from Point of Balance Pilates Studio says that it is her main source of new clients right now (BTW, I have created her current website.) You need to create a website that will be search engine friendly (meaning, that it will appear in the top search results on Google and other search engines.) If you need guidance as to how to create a website, what services to use etc. I will be happy to talk to you. You can contact me here
These points are all spot on!
I had my studio in my home after 2 1/2 years renting tiny rooms commercially, it was great!
But, moved into a big commercial space after 2 years thinking the studio would be even better….. 4 1/2 years later I homed back home and couldn’t be happier! Will not be moving out again!!
This article demonstrates how we must stay professional right from the get go!!
Great work!!
Thank you for sharing Nicole! Welcome back to the home studio owner club 🙂
Hi.. i just want build my home studio.. is good i start with one reformer, one trapeze and one ladder barrel ?? How big room i need to be comfortable. I have limited space. Pls advice
Hi Mimi,
When I used to teach from my home studio I only had 1 Reformer and small props because I had very limited space. I like Chair for the home studio use because it has very small floor footprint and you can easily move it out of the way if you need more space. Reformers with Tower conversion or Cadillac/Reformer combos work well.
As fas as the space goes, you need to have several feet around each peace of equipment to move comfortable and be able to assist your client in any position.
The choice of equipment really depends on the clients that you are planning on teaching. You can always start with 1 piece of apparatus and then add on as your home studio grows.
Have made all those mistakes.
Let people cancel without charge.
they arrive late and yet I give them the whole session
I’ve become too friendly and personal
The session runs late as at end of session it becomes a chat.
When I get more new clients I will be applying the rules!
Hi Avril, probably one of the most difficult and border-line impossible things are retraining your current clients to a different studio policy. I hope that you will be able to change your clients attitude and they will learn to respect your time.
Good luck getting new clients! (don’t miss a piece on marketing in the next couple of weeks :-))
Hi, it is a great article for everyone! I own my Pilates studio since 11 years and had a studio at home and now I rent an office space. My cancellation policy for private and semi-private clients became very strict only this year and I stick to it (without exception). I have a flexible system for my group classes (clients can buy a 10 class card ahead which is valid for 3 months) – if they are sick, they won’t loose out – if I (or my child) is sick, I don’t need to complicate the whole administration. Nobody looses out and clients appreciate the flexibility.
The most difficult part working with people is to make them understand that they exercise or come to Pilates for their own benefit.
The best marketing for me is my website and client referrals but also working together with other health professionals.
Recently I got the question if one earns enough when working as a Pilates teacher – firstly what is enough? I would not exchange my work for anything else or for security (of a regular income) because I love what I do, but I had to learn to be also a business person. We hardly learn this in our Pilates teacher qualifications – all those little hints how to run a business, Tax, VAT etc.. Recently a Pilates studio closed here in Windhoek because the teacher couldn’t cope financially. She is a very good teacher but she had outstanding invoices for over 2 years.
One needs to be very organized with his/her own finances because you always have to pay rent, VAT, TAX, any other teachers (if you have), equipment…education!
I generally learned to keep my costs low so I have more freedom – especially if you have a family. High overhead costs can ruin your business.
Birgit, thank you so much for your detailed comment! I think your advice to keep overhead costs down is spot n regardless on whether you are running a home or a store-front studio. Sometimes we, teachers, get so excited about a new piece of equipment, a renovation project in the studio or a super expensive workshop that we had to think about the business aspect of running a studio.
Thank you again for stopping by. BTW, you have a beautiful website for your business 🙂
Wow this post is awesome! I already read things about “how to manage your Pilates business” but they were always full of not-so-helpful arguments. Now this is interesting and new!
I also am making all these mistakes hahaha! But that’s the way I am (too friendly, not strict enough, etc). I’m naturally generous and I have a very very very hard time sticking to my policies. And you’re right people arrive late to classes, cancel at the last minute and expect me to offer them another session, negociate my rates while I’m already the cheapest studio in town (does that happen to anyone else btw?),… But I’m working on myself to become meaner :)! I find it sad though that you have to behave like a cold person so that people don’t get too invading!
Anyways, I’ll follow all these advices for now on!
Hi Lucie,
I am glad that you found this article helpful (BTW, in the next couple of days I will release a complete guide to running a Pilates Home studio, keep following the blog for the updates.)
One of the instructors that I talked to had a great analogy about discipline. Your clients are like your children. If you do not set boundaries or discipline them then they will not respect you. Imagine if you allowed a child to eat ice-cream for every meal and play video games all day long. Yes, short-term the child will be over the moon but we both know the consequences of this behavior. When you discipline a child you act out of your best intentions and you don;t feel like a mean person. You just show them how o behave.
I think the same goes for your clients. Don’t think that you are mean by instilling your policies. You are creating discipline in them that will help them lead a healthier lifestyle. When they value YOUR time they will also value more THEIR time with YOU.
Hi –
I am in the process of finishing a corner of my basement so I can put in a Cadillac/Reformer combo and a Wunda chair. I would love to receive your guide to running a Pilates Home Studio.
Thanks for all the advice!!
cheri
Hi Cheri – good luck finishing up your home studio. The Pilates Home Studio Guide has already been released and is available to all PRO members of PilatesBridge. The guide contains over 90 pages of practical materials to guide every step of setting up and running a Pilates studio from home. You can get see all the topics covered in the guide here – http://pilatesbridge.com/pilates-home-studio-guide/
Thank you for this article, it’s very thought provoking, especially as I am considering opening my own space inside my home. My question would be ‘do clients mind working from inside your home’? I worry that if I pursue the build and the expense of buying the equipment I might be faced with difficulties teaching at home, particularly as I will be inviting people into my home (no separate door). Or does the price reduction that John mentions help with this?
Thank you
Nathalie
Hi Nathalie,
The biggest difficulty with running a home studio is marketing it. I find that most people do not mind coming to a private home studio, at least it has never been an issue for me personally.
hello, what kind of advertising do you recommend? How to thank my excisting clients for there royalty and spend few money?