The question successful boutique fitness studio owners all must answer

Wednesday June 12, 2024

The passage of time has been blowing my mind these past few days: 10 years ago this month, my contract in Singapore was extended an additional 5 weeks so I could continue to work with a few cycling instructors in training who were on-the-border of being class-ready & worth the drop-in cost of the class. The clients saw the value in ensuring that the instructors delivering their product were fully-baked & ready to be the answer to the question we all need to answer; “I already have a gym membership with group classes included; why should I pay extra to come to your studio?”

We were the first indoor cycling studio riding to the beat of the music to open in *Southeast Asia (XYZ Hong Kong opened in August of 2013) & our 2-week unlimited first-timers trial class purchase was approximately SGD $179 (USD $132 today); we needed clients to “make us a habit” & to do that, we needed to ensure a robust schedule of instructors worth the time & money, should clients opt for a class package rather than the more costly unlimited 6 month minimum commitment of an unlimited membership.

 We offered a metrics-and-music-focused ride, a choreography & weights-focused ride & an on-off-bike HIIT Bootcamp, taught by personal trainers. 

3 class types so clients could have multiple verticals with us to train. 

2014. CBD Raffles Place Singapore; a corporate area. 

No Lululemon store yet (that would come later that year to Duxton) & no Classpass (Guavapass would begin first in 2015 & be acquired by Classpass in early 2019).

If you're familiar with Singapore now, you may or may not remember that back then, there were gyms, there was Yoga Movement & there was U-Fit, along with the box gyms, of course. That was about it.

 I'm back in Singapore for a few days this week to catch up with colleagues in the region, which I'll share more about another time. 

Most importantly, I leave you with a repeat of the same sentence as above:

“I already have a gym membership with group classes included; why should I pay extra to come to your studio?”

Click reply - I would love to hear your answer.

Have a great rest of your week!

Noël

Connection

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