Unlocking Recurring Revenue and Teacher Pay Growth
Two biggest challenges for Pilates teachers and studio owners are time management and money. In an appointment-based industry, it’s tough for teachers to batch their hours so that hourly pay works for them. And for studio owners, you lose money from a thousand papercuts with cancellations and package extensions that are extremely hard to quantify and keep you stuck, not earning much.
This article shares actionable steps to improve your time and money management. It’s a matter of changing your behavior and how your clients behave. And anytime we ask for behavior change, it can be challenging. This is precisely why using an external tool like the Profit Habit Tracker, which you’ll have a chance to access below, can help you change your behavior so you can not only measure your progress but maintain steadiness when doubt creeps in.
Understanding Recurring Revenue
We all have revenue peaks and valleys. Teachers know the feeling when their clients happily tell them about their vacations, knowing it will affect their take-home pay. AND studio owners watch their bank accounts rise and fall around high and low seasons.
Revenue fluctuation is not good for your health when in the health business, and creating recurring revenue is the solution.
Once recurring revenue is set up, the revenue dips reduce, and you can forecast how you spend money. That recurring revenue money helps give teachers a raise. When teachers know their raises are tied to recurring revenue, they are motivated to keep their clients long-term.
Changing to or developing recurring revenue in your business may require you to change how you sell or conceptualize your services. It will also change how your clients buy from you. This is where fear of change rears its head. Change is hard, and we try to talk ourselves out of it. This is why leaning on a tracking system like the Profit Habit Tracker helps us stay the course even when we feel nervous about change.
Recurring Revenue Maintains Year-Round Income
Recurring revenue models are monthly payments agreed to by clients. Any service can be sold as a recurring revenue model. So you can have some fun with it!
The most important thing is to make 90-95% of your business income recurring revenue. That is when everything changes. This does not work halfway.
Here are some ideas for 3 to 12 month terms:
Client Memberships
Private Pilates, Semi-Private Pilates, Group Reformer Classes or Mat Classes: attending between 4-12 times per month
Teacher Training Mentorships
Mat Teacher Training: includes teacher training, observation, self-practice, and practice teaching hours.
Comprehensive or Module-Based Teacher Training: includes teacher training, observation, self-practice, and practice teaching hours.
Workshops + CEC Trainings: includes all the CEC courses for a year or a series of workshops. Or a single workshop with follow-up support like Q + A.
Retainer Recurring Revenue
Hold the 10 am Tuesday and Thursday spots for X clientele for a year.
Here, the client pays for the time slot, and they can either use it or lose it. This works well for clients who are highly attached to their time and tend to travel a lot. If you hold that time for them, and they are traveling more than 4-6 weeks a year, a retainer is likely a good option for you. Why? Because they can likely afford it, and it’s not fair to you to lose that much money or have a random gap in your schedule. There I wrote it!
Online Education and Courses
Design a 6-week “Reduce Your Persistent Pain” course or “12 weeks from Post-Partum to Strong Mum and Tum.”
VIP Days or Retreats sold for 6to 12 month terms
Create studio or location-based VIPs or retreats that are paid via membership.
No more early bird specials or steep discounts to sell these. Just a simple monthly fee.
It can be FUN to create these offers! And it’s a surefire way to give you and your teachers a raise. Let me explain.
Recurring Revenue Studios Support Career Teachers
Paying teachers a reasonable wage is hugely important in the Pilates industry, particularly if you value Pilates as a viable career and not a hobby.
One of my biggest joys as a studio owner was being able to tell a teacher, “After the introductory special, your new client just signed up for privates with you 2 times per week for the next year!” Being able to say that to my teachers instead of “They bought a five-pack” changed everything with my teacher turnover. Why? Because my studio offered them consistency in their hours even through low seasons, which my competitor studios could never offer.
Recurring revenue does three things:
It allows you to make consistent revenue so you can pay your staff more.
If you can’t pay your teachers more, it can show you a clear runway for how that staff can earn more.
It reduces client cancelations and allows teachers to have fewer schedule gaps.
Finally, career teachers deserve studios with recurring revenue so they can show up and teach at their best without worrying about financial insecurity if they take time away for caregiving responsibilities or illness. When your studio offers this, you’ll attract more career teachers.
The Profit Habit Tracker - A tool for recurring revenue growth
Knowledge is excellent, but implementation is where the magic happens. When you create behavior change, like shifting to recurring revenue in your business, it takes a minute to see results, which can feel scary. Sometimes, the visual representation of your effort is what propels you forward.
The Profit Habit Tracker measures your progress in real time and allows you to practice (much like Pilates) the foundations of profit generation through recurring revenue.
After using the Profit Habit Tracker, you’ll learn how it FEELS to prioritize profit in your business and truly embody the value of recurring revenue.
Download the FREE Profit Habit Tracker here if you’d like. Then exhale, knowing you’re taking action towards more sustainable and creative strategies to support your Pilates studio and career.
Anne C Bishop is co-founder of the Embodied Business Institute with Chantill Lopez. Anne is a licensed Pricing Overhaul® Coach, has owned a profitable Pilates Studio for 20 years, and received her Master’s in Education from Harvard University.