Episode 346: The 10% Fix. How small micro changes in your business can add 5 figures in profit to your bottom line

Small Tweaks, Big Profits: 4 Tiny Changes That Add Five Figures

Are you looking for ways to increase profit without raising your prices across the board or completely overhauling your business?

In this episode of the Female emPOWERed Podcast, Christa Gurka shares four simple, high-impact strategies that Pilates studios, cash-based physical therapy practices, and boutique fitness businesses can implement immediately. These small 1–10% improvements can dramatically improve profitability, retention, and client value—without requiring more clients or more hours. 

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

•  How small pricing adjustments can add five figures in annual profit 
•  The pricing strategy you can build into contracts without making future announcements 
•  Why improving retention is more profitable than constantly chasing new leads 
•  How to identify "quiet quitters" before they cancel 
•  The simple question every team member should ask to create natural upsell opportunities 
•  Creative ways to increase revenue without raising your base membership prices 
•  How seven-figure business owners think differently about pricing and profitability 

Key Takeaways

✔️ Small pricing and policy changes often create bigger profit than major overhauls.

✔️ Monitor client behavior early—attendance patterns predict cancellations long before clients officially leave.

✔️ Upselling should feel like helping clients, not selling to them.

✔️ Simplifying offers and reducing decision fatigue leads to better conversions.

✔️ The most successful business owners don't reject new ideas—they ask how they can make them work in their business. 

Resources

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Transcript

Speaker 0:12

Hey there, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Female Empowered podcast. I'm your host, Christa Gurka. Today's episode, we are going to talk about small 1 to 10% changes that you can make in your business to make a huge impact by the end of the year. So your business doesn't necessarily need a huge overhaul. You don't need to throw an influx of money on it. It needs 1 to 10% change every day, 1% better every day, 1% change every day, 1% getting closer to your goal. And that, my friends, is what we're gonna talk about. And I just noticed, if you're watching me on y- YouTube, I have, like... How many drinks do you guys all have on your desk? I have one. I have water. I have coffee. I have two different water bottles. I'm not really sure what's going on with all of this fluid that I need. But anyways, I digress. Let's get back to the episode. So once again, we are gonna talk about today the small, little decisions that you can make because I think sometimes it's like looking at... imagine somebody has to lose 300 pounds, right? It's really hard to where to start. So if you look at your business and you're like, "Oh my gosh, I have so many things I need to fix. I need to change people from 1099 to W-2. I need to adjust the pricing inc- rates. I need to adjust the payroll rates. I need to..." It seems really big. So let's talk today specifically about those small changes, the 1 to 10% changes, that you can make in your business. I'm gonna give you four things, four things that you can do today, this month, before the end of the year, that are going to really help you move the needle in your business. And I'm also gonna show you the exact- impact that it can have even from a revenue and from a work perspective. How does that sound? Good? Excellent. So let us begin. We are gonna begin with number one, the first micro lever, small structural tweaks that's gonna recapture money in your business, Then I'm gonna talk about one price increase that we'll genuinely never have to announce. Then I'm gonna talk about a micro strategy for improving retention, and fourth, the one sentence that turns an upsell into, let's say, clinical reasoning instead of a sales pitch. Four moves, nice and easy. So number one, the pricing micro lever. All right? Let's talk first about cancellation and no-show fees. So we have them all the time, right? And oftentimes what they do is they just, they... We either... They lose the session, or it's a small rate, or it's a percentage of the session, but how about if we think of it in another way? How about if you think of it as a late cancel or a no-show? So we're not talking about an early cancellation. We're talking about someone who cancels an hour before their class or their session. So what about people who do this all the time? So they have had three or more offenses in a 90-day window, which is basically means they do it at least once a month. So what if they not only lose their session, but you actually charge them $10 or $15 on top of that? So what this does is it recaptures revenue you're already absorbing without actually touching your real rate and without punishing or affecting people that are loyal customers. So these are your repeat offenders, the people that are late canceling and especially no-showing. I have no... no-showing is n- not an excuse in my book. So- What happens is, yes, they lose... Let's talk about classes. So even if they're on a package, a membership, they lose that mem- that class, and they get charged a fee. So now instead of raising rates by $10, you just have the people that are repeat offenders in your business absorbing that price increase. So you're taking people, and that are already canceling, which are annoying on your schedule, and so you're like what if they leave?" What if they leave? You don't want those people in your studio anyways. So we talked about adding a 10 or $15 cancellation no-show fee on top of them losing a session. Then what about a small surcharge for people that use credit cards? This is happening more and more. So it could be a $3 surcharge for people that use credit cards, or it could be a $3 surcharge for your most popular classes. That's another thing you can consider, especially This works really well for studios that use a credit system instead of dollar amount. So let's say classes from 8:00 to 10:00 are 8:00 to 12:00, 8:00 to 12:00 are two credits, and classes from 1:00 to 4:00 are one credit. So people think of credits differently than dollars for some reason, even though they're the same. So what you can say is, "Your classes at this time are this much, and the classes at this time are this much." That's another thing. It's the same way airlines and, you pay more for weekends than you do during the week, so the demand, it usually brings a price difference. So again, successful owners don't say, "Yeah, but..." They think, "Oh, outside the box. How can I make this work for my business?" So it's not a, "Yeah, but that doesn't work for..." If you wanna fight for your excuses, that's totally fine. I am giving you information that you can take and you can say that's interesting. How can I make that possibly work in my business?" Successful owners, that's what they do. Another p- micro-pricing lever that you can consider is looking at your intro offer. If you're running two or three different tiers right now, then consider collapsing it into one clean offer and pricing that offer maybe about $10 higher than whatever your current lowest tier is. This is the simplify to optimize principle I've definitely talked about before, just applied at the front end instead of the back end. So you're not raising your price, you're removing the complexity and confusing choices that was dragging your average new client retention rate down. So let's say you bring in 20 new clients a month doing an intro offer, and your blended average now goes from $35 an intro offer to 45. That's $200 extra a month, $2,400 in a year from people who are going to buy anyways, right? So again, looking at your intro offer and can you make them less confusing and can you bundle some of that stuff together so the value seems higher, right? When we did... We'll talk about this a little bit. I'm doing another episode about intro offers that convert. But when you do this, you, you can kinda separate out things that you do anyways, but price them a little bit, but s- but kinda list the value out. So I'll give you an example. Our... when people come into Pilates, when they came into Pilates in the Grove, their first session, they always got like a five-minute tutorial before they started their class. Their instructors were supposed to do that. It was built into their first session. So they got free grip socks, they got... There was... It was natural, a five-minute tutorial, and then sometimes like a special goodie basket, and usually our goodie basket was a bunch of stuff that we had over purchased and weren't selling. So let's say now you say, oh, free tutorial valued at $25. They're getting it anyways. Pair of grip socks, right? Valued at $25, It costs you nine or 10. Then you're like the class, and then you're getting... Maybe you can bundle, like we had a Pilates 101 series that I think we filmed during COVID that was basically about form and something like that, so you get that video in there. And then you get, maybe you get like a little you can choose from a gift, and you could say that's like another $25 value. And so these are things that they would get anyways, but if you list them out individually, the perceived value from the client is higher. So just little examples of stuff like that you can do. The third lever, we talked about this also, was that small surcharge for credit card fees. So most people now use their credit card. I know I do. One, I don't carry cash around with me hardly ever anymore, but I'm also using my credit card because I want the points. I love points on my credit card. I use them to travel. I use them to pay for hotel upgrades. So I want the points. So oftentimes, if you say we're gonna add a 3% surcharge, most people don't balk at that because they want the points anyways. So whereas this is something that I will say I've changed my mind on. I used to say it's just the cost of doing business. I don't believe that anymore. So I think you can add a small surcharge to people that use credit cards, or you can also add a small surcharge for certain classes. Let's say you have a class or a series or an instructor that's always sold out with a wait list. Always. So you can say, "We are now gonna add a small $2 surcharge to these classes." Or even $1. Let's say you have $1, you have 10 reformers, that's $10 a class. That person teaches 10 classes a week, that's $100 a week All right? That's $5,000 a year. You can use that to help give that instructor a raise, or you can put it in your profit account. So again, little ways where you're not actually technically raising prices all the way across the board. People have a people have a choice. It's the same way we talked about this earlier. In hotels, the weekend rates, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, are higher than Monday through Thursday, right? So maybe your Monday, Wednesday, Friday classes at 9:00 AM are gonna be a little higher than the Tuesday, Thursdays at 5:00 PM. I don't know. You can look at your schedule. So again, once again, these are three little micro levers you can use to add five figures worth of profit, 'cause those things are already happening, into your business each and every year. Take what you like, leave what you don't. The second lever, the price increase that you never have to announce. This is something that is becoming a little bit more popular, and it's a way to let your people know about price increases when they sign up. So you can build in a 3 to 4% annual increase directly into contracts and packages. So basically what you're doing is you're disclosing it upfront rather than at the end of the year or in the middle of the year, whenever you increase prices, sending out an email that says, "We're increasing our prices." So you build into your contract there will be a 3% annual escalator when renewed on this date, after 12 months, at the end of your package whatever your language is. So it's never technically announced. People sign it at the beginning. It's the same way when you would sign up for a service, and you're like, "First month's free," and then your n- second, next month's are XYZ, and it go... And your rent your lease every year says there would be a 3% annual increase. It's built into that contract. That's the exact example you can use on doing this exact same thing. And once again, I don't want you to be like, "That's a f- stupid idea. My clients will hate that." How do you know? Number one, and two, once again, if you wanna fight for your excuses, that's totally fine. I'm here to lay out ways that you can think outside the box. Take what you like, leave what you don't The other thing, it just reminded me if you're doing a founding member rate, say that this founding member rate is good for one year of from the signed contract, and then after that they will join everyone else. Unless you have a s- a system where it doesn't matter if people stay at the founding member rate. So in other words, let's say you have an online platform, or you have a big box gym, which most... I don't think we have listeners of big box gyms. But people like at Lifetime or Crunch Fitness, if they have a founding member that's on $99, it doesn't really matter 'cause they can always get more members in. Or if you have an online platform where you're teaching online, and you have someone in a founding member rate that's $40 and now your rate's up to $99, it doesn't matter really 'cause you can always get more people in. But if you're a in-service, in-service, in studio brick and mortar where you have a limited amount of spaces, if you keep people at founding member rates, they take up a space that you can't fill with somebody else. So founding members, they're good for three months, six months, 12 months, and at the end of that, you sign it into your contract that they automatically get upgraded into the regular studio or business pricing. So let's review those. The one you never have to announce 'cause you build it into the contract. So you build a small annual escalator directly into your contracts and packages, 3% maybe if you want, 3 to 4%, disclosed upfront and in writing, And here's why this matters. Nobody then experiences this as, "Oh, Sandy raised my rates." They agree to it when they initially sign their contract, They agree to it before they even hit it. So they're saying, "Yes, I agree to it," and then by the time it actually lands, it's already been a term that they start, not a conversation that you have to start. It already happened months ago or maybe 12 months ago, a year ago, all right? And here's the part that really surprises a lot of people. So almost nobody mentally compares what they paid 14 months ago to what the package costs today. They compare today's price to today's market, not to their history with you. And the increase is not a decision you make and h- have to announce later, it's already scheduled. So at the end of three months, they're going up to the regular rate. At the end of six months, at the end of 12 months. There is nothing to necessarily break the rules about because they've already signed it. It's gonna happen on this date, and then that month automatically the pay the price differential goes into effect. So those are two additional pricing micro levers that you can choose in your business that will naturally give you a 3 to 4% increase year over year. So now we're gonna move on to another framework, another micro lever that you can pull in your business So the next micro lever is retention. Now, this is a big one 'cause I do believe that we should focus equally on retention as we do on getting new clients in the door. All right? So we want to focus on moving our touchpoints a little sooner than later. So oftentimes people don't do a touchpoint, a follow-up touchpoint. Once they sign, once they go from intro offer to member, they either fall off the retention cycle or they're not doing check-ins until 30, 60, 90 days. But I would say, one, there's... You can look at it. You can see where your churn actually happens. So if you look at your numbers in your scheduling software you usually can see, and you can do this with Plan of Cares too if you're a physical therapy business. So you can say, Oh, we see that people fall off after visit four mostly, or after visit six, or after in, in a studio, maybe after visit two." So what you wanna do is move those touchpoints from 60 to 90 days out up until seven days, 10 days, 15 days, so you're really giving them reason to stay committed before they decide to churn or opt out. Track frequency. Are you seeing that they're going from three days a week to one day a week? It's not just absences. So if you're watching their utilization, their attendance go down, This would be more for studio-based or even in PT if you're seeing people like, oh, they used to be very consistent twice a week and now they're canceling one day a week and now they're- it's canceling every other day. Their behavior is telling you that they are moving in the direction of coming in late. It's easier to act on a warning sign than it is once they're already gone. So can you adjust your reach out, your re-engagement, your retargeting? So rather than waiting until they haven't been in 90 days, how about we talk to them when they haven't been in seven days? Are we moving our personal touch points to earlier? Move your check-in se- sequence from 30 days or 60 days or 90 days up to seven days, 10 days, 20 days, Most of your drop-offs happen way before you even notice it, Watch their behavior. Are they starting to decrease in attendance, where they're not coming two or three times a week? So doing things like a text reach out, a in-person in the studio, having your administrative team specifically say, "Here's a list of people I need you to talk to this week." Asking them, Hey, I noticed, you- you've been down a little bit. Is there anything we can do to help you stay consistent? Are you interested in us giving you advising you on a new instructor? Do you wanna try this new class time?" Watching their absences as much as watching whether they've churned or not. So a client that used to come two to three times a week that's now coming once every other week is giving you a much, much earlier sign that they may be starting to opt out or phase out, and it's much easier to catch them before they've actually disappeared. So it's much easier to try to retain them in than re-engage them on the way back. So the fix, check your re-engagement and your retention strategies, move your check-in times earlier track that. Retention is huge. It is much easier and less expensive to continue to sell to people that have already bought from you, rather than continuing to get new leads in the door. Fostering and nurturing new leads is much harder and much more expensive than continuing to sell to the people that are already buying from you so let's look at the... Let's look at numbers really quick, 'cause you know I always love a good number. so if we put numbers on the retaining people that are showing you through their behavior that they're maybe opting out soon, so if you move your check-in session to session three versus 10, and you keep two extra clients a month who are quietly quitting, I'm doing that in air quotes, who would have otherwise quietly drifted out, and your average client is worth, I don't know, let's just for even numbers say $200 a month, right? That's $600 a month. $600 a month that you're saving by saving th- three of those clients. So 600 times 12, what's, that's a lot of money. That's se- what, 72? Am I wrong? I don't know how to do math in my head very w- much. So that's seven grand a year. and then if you do that in perpetuity, so gr- think about that, right? It's worth the work. It's worth looking at these tiny little things that can make a huge difference All right, so we are now gonna move on to touch point four. So we talked touch point one was about little pricing micro levers. Touch point two was about a little bigger pricing levers. Touch point three was about retention. And now type touch point four is gonna be upsells. You'll see it at ACV, average cart value, is, like, how much are they buying at one time? So how much can we upsell, right? If you ever worked in a restaurant, they call it an upsell. Rather than selling your house vodka, you would sell... that's why good servers will be like, "Oh, do you have a preference in vodka?" Because the house vodka is I don't know. When I was bartending it was, like, Popoff or Smirnoff, and now I don't even know what house would be now. But maybe Absolute. And then premium would be, like Grey Goose or something like that. So that's an upsell, right? So in our studios, upsells don't have to feel sleazy. It can really come down to just training your team or provider on asking one specific session, one specific question at the end of every session. Did anything feel off today?" That's it. And that one session, that one sentence, I don't know why I keep mixing up those words, does the work an entire sales training usually tries to do, because it removes the guesswork of waiting for a client to volunteer something on their own. Most clients won't necessarily bring up a nagging shoulder or what's been bothering them, unless you ask. So at the end of a private session and you're saying, "Did anything feel off today?" and they're like, "Yeah, my back really was a little bit off," you can do upsells. Maybe you have a sauna in your place. A lot of people have that now. Great. Can you offer them a sauna session? Maybe you have that with maybe you have red light. "Would you like to do a red light session today?" Maybe you have, CBD balm, right? So you can say, "Oh, the next time, would you like to add CBD f- when we do the soft tissue work? That has some really great anti-inflammatory benefits." If it was a private Pilates session, could you say, "Oh, would you like to schedule a session with one of our PTs? They can work on that for you, and in one session you'll be better." Do you do dry needling? Can you upsell into dry needling or cupping, or do you offer massage at your place? So you w- don't wanna think about it in terms of, Oh, I'm selling them something they don't want." No, they said, Oh, my back felt off," or, "My sho- shoulder felt off," and so you're giving them services that you already have that will help them feel better, So be- we call it an upsell. I bet you if we called it something else and didn't have the word sale in it, some people would not feel as bad about it, right? Other ways that you can upsell. You can... So say someone comes and they're wearing regular socks and they're slipping. You can say, Would you like to purchase a pair of grip socks? And would you... If you buy three, you get 10% off," right? Those are little upsells, There's little things like an upsell could be maybe you have an on-demand library and $199 a month gets you, I don't know, eight classes in the studio, but for $229 a month, they c- also get access to the online library, which does one live class a month. Whatever it is. Are you thinking outside the box, and are you thinking for, oh, another way, I just had this idea pop in my head, $199 is regular membership a month, right? $229 you get access to the schedule 48 hours before everyone else does. It's like Prime, right? Amazon Prime. You get free delivery, So having these little things, having these little touch points of how you can upsell people, right? How you can retain them longer, how you can do these little micro pricing levers where it, you automatically increase their membership 3% every year, just like your lease goes up, And or maybe adding a surcharge for credit card fees, or maybe charging on top of the fact that they lose, they get an extra 10 or $15 if they no-show or late cancel within an hour. All these little things, these little tiny micro actions- can add, again, five figures in profit, it's not rev- it's profit because you're already doing these things, so these are adding more, five figures in profit to your bottom line. So I want you just to think about... I really don't want you to listen to this and be like, "Those are stupid ideas. My clients would never go for that," or, "I feel bad doing that." Seven-figure business owners don't think like that. Seven-figure business owners think, Huh, that's an interesting idea. Let me see how I can make this work for my business." They don't fight new information. They figure out how they can integrate that new information to win for them, and their business, and their team, and their clients. So it is a win-win all the way around, right? So that's what I want you to think about. Put yourself, think, feel, and act like a, what would a seven-figure CEO do? And that is what they would do. So if you wanna be a high six or seven-figure CEO one day, start thinking, acting and behaving like a seven-figure CEO. All right? So I hope you enjoyed this episode. Go back and listen to it again when you can maybe write down these ideas in paper and pencil, and then see how they can work for you. See how they can work for your business. See how they can help. I'm telling you, if you do the math, you can add five figures in profit to your business by making a few small tweaks here and there. Pulling the right lever can have the biggest impact on your business. So that is all I have for you today. I hope you enjoyed it. If you're interested in learning how you can actually implement these in your business, and you wanna join one of our mentorship programs, I invite you to go visit my website, www.christagurka.com. You can go to the Work With Me page. We have a variety of mentorships to choose from, depending on where you are in your business and the kind of room you wanna have access to. And until next time, my friends, bye for now.