Unlock the full potential of your pole and aerial arts studio with my specially curated FREE three part guide series.
We all love the foundations!
We love the foundations of the disciplines we teach – after all, that’s what we spend most of our time on when teaching beginner polers or aerialists as they start their journeys in our studios.
We know and appreciate the importance of getting the basics right in the movement disciplines we coach. The foundational grips, body positions, pathways in pole dance, aerial hoop, silks, sling etc.
When it comes to our studios, what are the basics here?
Is it paying the rent or lease on your premises?
Working out your timetable? Or how to advertise your classes?
See, a lot of us as studio owners, or those who would like and are planning to be, actually do not know what the basics of a successful pole or aerial arts studio are. And I will be honest with you, this also took me a few years to work out and I hadn’t put this into writing and an actionable system until I was a few years into running my studio Momentum Pole & Aerial.
The basics of a successful studio all come under the umbrella of business strategy for your studio. (WTF does that mean I? hear you think – DW, we’ll get into it).
Strategy used as an overarching term here means all the processes, plans and actions you have in place or need to put in place for you and your studio to achieve your desired results. BTW these can be anything from wanting to work less, to more time for life, to actually training all the time, growing the studio, making more dollah, or selling the thing. You decide what your desired outcomes are.
What I’m saying is that the basics of your studio depend on what it is you want to achieve with it. Once you know what you want to achieve with your biz, you then make a plan, develop your studio accordingly, and execute what you need to execute to get your desired outcome. Bit fluffy and not very concrete but these are the key aspects of the basics for your studio.
We can further break these down into 7 areas, to take the woolliness away and make the whole thing a bit more tangible.
So here are the 7 key areas that make up the basics of your business, aka the 7 things that you wanna focus on to know WTF is going on in your studio, what you want to achieve with your studio, and how to make shit happen:
1. Identifying your Studio Values and Behaviours
We need to know these, and they can be different from our own. You are not your studio, remember. One is a business, the other is a person 🙂
2. Operations in your Studio
Make a list of all the processes that happen in your studio day in day out to make the machine run. What services and products do you offer? Who does what? What needs to be where, when? How does this translate money-wise? What and who costs what? What and who generates what?
3. Do your Studio and Marketing Research
Who is your audience and how do you market to them? What are the opportunities you can capitalise on? How do you position your studio within the wider fitness landscape of your local area? Which relationships are fruitful to your studio? How do all of these impact your studio and its profits?
4. Geek out over a little Growth Analysis
In plain words: what are the external factors that impact your studio? What level of control do you have over these? If you cannot control, how can you manage potential negative impacts? Can you plan and put contingencies in place? Think PESTLE (political, economic, sociological, technological, legal, environmental) and SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis.
5. Ways of Optimising your Studio and Service
Humans. How do you work with and alongside them? What is your leadership style? How do you go about recruiting teachers and admin staff? Are there weaknesses in the team that can be addressed with relevant training? Are there any resources or expertise currently missing and how can you fill these gaps?
6. Get comfortable thinking about Sales
Listen, we all just wanna teach, but it does not matter if we are the bestest pole or aerial coach in the world – if no one knows that we and our classes exist, no one is going to book them. If people know we and our classes exist but don’t know how to buy our service, we won’t make any money. Working out a sales strategy of how you generate revenue and do so steadily over the course of the year – game changer for the longevity of your studio.
7. Work our your Stage in Biz
Be aware of which stage in business your studio is at. Are you a start up getting up and running? Is your studio established and growing or scaling? What is your role within your studio? How involved are you and do you want to be?
You see, clarity in business allows us to see what’s going on, prevent and manage overwhelm, identify what work is needed where.
And this my friends, is what I consider the basics in studio owning. I can know my outgoings for all I want, but if I lack the insight into my studio values, my team, or the audience I market to, if I have no idea of external risks, or what my studio is selling, then a lot of the stuff we tend to worry about is meaningless.
So if you have taken away anything from this short and snappy read, it is that basics in studio owning, just like basics in pole or aerial training
Â
Especially in times of low energy, injury or stagnation, a return to basics can serve as a little check in. Do the same for your studio as you do for your body and training progress 🙂
Fancy geeking out more about the foundations of success in teaching and studio owning? Then listen to a free pod episode I recorded on the very thing on Spotify here!
Anna x
