Balance. Adaptability. Mindfulness.
You need all three qualities as a Pilates studio owner. Not for leading the classes, but for scheduling them. A badly optimized Pilates class schedule will make your studio fall over faster than a slanted studio stage, but a properly balanced one will strengthen your studio’s core customer base and encourage growth.
So we’ve brought in two experienced Pilates studio owners help you find the best ways to optimize your Pilates class schedule. First, we have Kristen Zhou, owner of Sliving Pilates Studios in Toronto, Canada, and Eszter Krisztián, owner of Unbothered Wellness in Waipu, New Zealand. They were kind enough to share their hard-won insights on class schedules.
Let’s get started:
Are you new to a location and wondering what Pilates class schedules work best for the area? Your competitors probably asked themselves that same question. So why not learn from what they’re doing right—and wrong? Do some competitor and market research.
“In the beginning,” Kristen says, “I was looking at a competitor’s schedule. But I wasn’t just copying their schedule verbatim. I was analyzing their attendance rate. If I saw low attendance on some of their classes, it wouldn’t make sense for us to do the same.”
It’s tempting as a new Pilates instructor to open up as many classes as possible. But that’s exactly what you shouldn’t be doing.
“New studios tend to overcommit,” says Eszter. “In a perfect world they would have X number classes at Y schedules, but they end up not being able to fill those spaces because there’s too many choices. Better to start with a smaller number of classes and slowly expand as needed.” Don’t assume your studio has to have a class in a specific timeslot.
Use your own mood as a gauge. “If I start resenting that time slot, it’s a sign that it’s not working for me or my clients. It’s a balance of what the client needs/wants and what the studio is able to provide. Sometimes students would request classes at a schedule that doesn’t click.”
Not every class will perform the same across locations, even if it’s the exact same time slot. That’s a lesson Kristen learned early on.
“We once had 7 AM classes for both of our locations: one downtown, another in midtown. The downtown location’s class wasn’t doing well, mostly because people have to drive to get there. There’s travel time to consider and people also need time to get prepared. But the 7 AM classes were way more popular for our midtown location because most students lived right around that neighborhood and could simply walk over first thing in the morning.”
As a new studio owner, Eszter was busy-busy-busy. But that tight schedule was taking a toll, and it eventually affected the availability of her classes.
“I was doing too much, so I restructured our classes to follow New Zealand’s school season, which was four 10-week terms in a year. I would take it easy in between terms and give our students time to recharge, too.”
As to the issue of burnout itself, Eszter observes, “Burnout seems to be fairly common among Pilates instructors/studio owners, although it depends on how big the studio is and how easy it is to pass classes on to other people. But never sacrifice your own health to please your students.”
Not all Pilates classes are created equal. There are Mat Pilates classes, Reformer Pilates classes, and Studio Pilates classes, each with their own ideal occupancy levels.
Kristen shares that, “Reformer Pilates classes are limited to the number of machines you have in the studio. Most boutique reformer studios in Toronto run at around 15-20 machines, while big franchise studios have more than 20. Mat Pilates classes have more attendees on average (15-30), and can usually squeeze in more if there’s room.”
“There’s also Studio Pilates to consider,” Eszter says. “Studio Pilates classes are normally small and intimate (1-5 students) because they focus on one-on-one coaching and spending lots of time with an individual.”
The type of class will also affect the kind of promotions you run to draw in new members. According to Kristen, “Many mat studio owners offer the first couple of classes for free, because they can afford to make room. Reformer classes are never offered for free, because that would be giving up an expensive machine to a non-paying student. Reformer classes usually give discounts instead, or “$100 for 3 classes” deals.”
Whenever Eszter wanted to get people to move to a specific class, she’d play around with the name.
“Changing the title of the class can really help,” Eszter says. “If you normally run “all levels” reformer sessions that are getting kind of busy, then adding a 6 PM slot named “pop up session” will make people think it’s a limited-time session that they should try before it disappears. Likewise, a normally empty 1pm session can be renamed something cool like “Lunch Hour Express,” while a 4 PM session could be called the “Happy Hour” session.
Also try using the session name to promote a theme. Naming a session “Moms and Tots” may drive interest for that market. “Level Up” session might attract people who want a tougher challenge.
Your Pilates studio management software might allow you to rename a session on the public schedule on a one-off basis. So you can experiment with a limited run of the new class and then just go back to the regular class name moving forward if it doesn’t work out.
It’s tempting to make big, rapid changes to your class schedule to find that sweet spot. Especially if you’ve got bills looming. But according to our experts, slow and steady is how you win the race.
“We originally started with the times we knew would get traffic,” Kristen said. “The from there we would slowly add more classes to the less popular times in the schedule. It might not be a full class, but at least there are people attending. You would then do what you could to fill those new classes out before introducing more.”
Your waitlist is a valuable customer service tool, but it can also be a very effective business tool. At least, it is the way Eszter does it.
“I use waitlists as a gauge. If a class is consistently getting waitlisted, then it may be a sign that more classes are necessary.”
Once you’ve identified the opportunity, the challenge is then finding a slot these people would be able to attend. But that’s also where waitlists can help.
“One thing I like to do is put up a new class with a one-person limit, then enroll myself so that it’s full,” Eszter shares. “Then I announce the class and invite people who are interested to join the waitlist. If nobody signs up, then I cancel the class and nobody’s credit is used up. If there is interest, then I update the class details and automatically enroll everyone that’s on the waitlist.”
Students sometimes make their decisions with their wallets, and you can use that to help optimize your Pilates class schedules in a more balanced way.
According to Kristen, “You can sometimes use prices to help influence class distribution. Make off-peak classes cheaper and peak classes more expensive. This can help steer traffic to your new class offerings.”
However, Kristen warns that this might not be practical for everyone. “My Pilates studio management software is set up to be based on membership credit: all classes use up the same amount of credits. If you want to use this tactic, you’ll have to make sure your Pilates studio software is set up to allow unique prices per class.”
We hope that Kristen and Eszter’s tips inspired you to make changes in your Pilates class schedule. There were a lot of useful levers you can pull, from changing your prices to changing class names and everything in between.
But no matter what idea strikes your fancy, remember to take it slow. Too many rapid changes too fast could end up confusing your customers and driving them away. Be mindful with the changes to your class schedule. Ease into it the same way you’d ask a new student to ease into their first Pilates experience.
You wouldn’t want to injure something (i.e. your business)!
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