Turning School Holiday Challenges into Opportunities: Expanding Your Pilates Studio with Chair Classes for Seniors

Where I live it’s been half-term for the schools this week, so my routine has been completely thrown into disarray.

As much as it’s nice not having to rush around in the morning to get to school, I find it’s no less stressful as I am very much a routine person. (You may have already started to see that in my list making practices).

My daughter is turning 16 next week, so I no longer have the stress of finding childcare for her in the school holidays, but I remember the stress it used to cause trying to get her booked into drama camp, or dance clubs or workshop days just so I could go to work.

I was a single mum for a long while when she was growing up so there was only me to shepherd her around whilst trying not to let it impact my business.

How do you manage the school holidays?

Working in the wellness and fitness industry means that not only does your own work and life balance get challenged by school holidays but your client attendance can be affected too.

How often do you see a slump in classes during the summer holidays or Christmas break? Do you still run classes through these times or do you close? There’s pros and cons for both.

If you don’t have kids yourself, you may find yourself relatively unaffected by school breaks at home, but I’d imagine your business will still see a knock on effect.

Some instructors simply close their business for Easter, Summer and Christmas, and when I’m exhausted, part of me wishes I did that too.

However the majority of the client base at my studio are 50-65 yr old women, and they actively avoid going away in school holidays. I know that they would be very disappointed to have no classes for a chunk of time each year.

It’s possible you might find clients lose their momentum, and don’t come back after the break.

How could you work the holidays in your favour…

If your client base is predominantly mums of school age kids it could be beneficial to consider doing child friendly sessions, where (well-behaved) kids could sit at the back of class with a book or device while mum does her class/workout.

You could also consider putting on an extra or replacement evening or weekend class in the holidays, to allow the parents that usually come in the school day to get a class in.

Ask your clients what would work for them. You might be surprised at what they suggest.

I’m not saying these are necessarily permanent arrangements (although this could be an option if it works for you), just don’t be too closed minded about the way you deal with challenges presented to you.

Is there untapped income in your business?

Recently I took a call from a lady that was unable to get to the floor, she was asking if there was any way she could come to our classes. (We are predominantly a mat-based Pilates studio).

For the first time ever, I had to say “I’m sorry, I can’t help you”. I just didn’t have anything suitable to offer her.

In a group mat-class it just wouldn’t be feasible (or indeed possible) to modify every single exercise for her.

This conversation played on my mind for a good few months. It really bothered me that this lady (in her 70s) was in need of my help, and I couldn’t provide it.

I started to think about how many other people there are in the locality of my business that I was doing a disservice to by not being accessible to them.

I’m not saying we need to offer something for EVERY body out there, but these are people I knew I could help.

The elderly generation are very much in need of mobility in their lives, but sadly many live alone, and often have a very sedentary existence.

I started to think about the possibility of offering a Chair Pilates class at my studio.

I selected a date, a Thursday, about a 6 weeks away, a time, (mid-afternoon, currently dead time in my studio), and set about advertising a Try Chair Pilates workshop.

I went old school; I put posters up in the places these people might be (community centre, the library, Tesco notice board), I put an advert in the local magazine, and I put a post on Facebook.

Within a couple of weeks I had filled 10 of the 12 available spaces.

Following the workshop, I put an offer to all attendees to book 4 classes at a time, with a recurring payment to guarantee their space in a class every week. We had 8 people sign up!

I repeated the exact same process the following month (on a different day) and had 8 turn up, 7 of who have signed up to the recurring payment.

This generated £600 of additional RECURRING monthly income from an idea that came from turning someone away!

You can bet I’ll be doing another workshop in the New year for a third weekly class!

What could you offer in your business that you aren’t already that could access a completely different target audience?

urn ou obstacles into opportunities and your problems into possibilities.Roy T. Benn

"Turn your obstacles into opportunities and your problems into possibilities." - Roy T. Bennett

Will it work for you?

As always, its not just about having the idea, its about putting it into action.

Had I not have put a date in the diary and started pushing the workshop, I wouldn’t have had those 15 people ringing me asking if I had a class suitable for them.

I took action. It might not have worked, and if it hadn’t I wouldn’t have lost anything, but now I’m just wishing I did something sooner!

My steps for success

• Have a look at potential client pool that you’re not tapping into.

• Think of an offering that could utilise your skills specifically for them.

• Set a date to put on a trial or workshop to test the waters.

• Have an option to move it into a regular offering.

Implementation is the key to success.