Building a Strong Pilates Team: Balancing Qualifications and Experience + 74 Marketing Pillars for Business Growth
This week I had to interview for a new instructor at my studio. This is something I love and loath in equal measure.
The opportunity to bring another person into our team and train them up to be who we need them to be fills me with joy and enthusiasm.
But the time it takes out of my schedule in getting them ready to go live is always a challenge.
Qualifications Vs Experience
I prefer to take on new instructors at my studio that are relatively newly qualified so they are not too stuck in their ways, or full of bad habits. I can then mould them into the teacher I want and need them to be.
However the lack of experience is a real issue when it comes to putting them in front of a class full of clients that are used to having someone that really knows their stuff.
So how do you know if someone has got what it takes?
For me they need to have the personality to get the clients to like them from the offset, this can help enable them to be less critical if their teaching style is still a work in progress.
They obviously need to know their stuff, but I also know that most of what makes a good teacher is time and experience.
The ability to spot the need for a modification from across the room, the knowledge that a hand on a knee or hip can bring a clients alignment into place with better understanding. The confidence to spot hyper-mobility and limit the range of movement a client is working within.
These are skills that are grown with time and not necessarily learnt in a training course.
However a teacher with years of experience that is so set on how they deliver the exercises is of no benefit to me in my studio.
We have several teachers in our team, and although we all have different teaching styles and personalities we all teach fundamentally the same way.
So for me I will take (proper) qualification over experience when taking on a new member of staff. By shadowing our more experienced team members they can learn the rest, and like driving a car, much of the learning happens after you pass your test.
Don’t get me started on what counts as a proper qualification - thats for another time!
How Many Pillars?
The income in your business is like the roof of the Parthenon - it’s supported by pillars.
When you have lots of pillars the roof is very, very secure. Even if one pillar falls down or crumbles, the roof doesn’t move - that’s why the Parthenon has remained standing for thousands of years.
However, if your roof is supported by only one or two or even three pillars then if anything happens to one of them, your revenue can tumble, and your business faces dire issues. That’s why you need lots of pillars.
If your marketing pillars are well into double figures then that means that you’ll have a nice steady, consistent flow of leads into your business. Even if one or more pillars fails it doesn’t matter. You’re resilient enough to cope.
Having plenty of pillars to support your marketing is especially smart when times are changing fast. Things that have worked historically start to wane; new opportunities emerge. The businesses with lots of pillars are the ones best equipped to thrive in situations like that…which is why this is so important.
Broadly speaking, to be super-successful, you need to be well into double figures on your pillar count. Anything less and you’re almost certainly leaving money on the table and placing your income in a less than stable position.
“Stopping advertising to save money is like stopping your watch to save time.”
Henry Ford
Will it work for you?
By my reckoning there are more than 70 different marketing pillars you could be using to tell people about what you do.
Start by looking at how many ways people can find out about your classes/studio/business right now. How many do you currently have in place? 1? 3? 12?
How many more can you add?
You’ll probably have a favourite method of getting new clients, and one that has always been the most successful method for bringing in new leads, but what if that stopped working all of a sudden, how many other things are in place if that fails?
My steps for success
Count up all the current ways you market your business
Think of all the ways you could also use that you’re currently not utilising (click the link below if you need some ideas).
Try adding just one new pillar a week or fortnight or even a month.
Worse case scenario you’ll have 12 new pillars by this time next year. Best case you’ll have tried 52 new ways!
Implementation is the key to success.
Stuck for ideas? Download my list of 74 Marketing Pillars here
