Pilates Business Podcast

Stop Being the Bottleneck: How to Build a Studio That Runs Without You

• Seran Glanfield • Season 24 • Episode 235

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On this episode of The Pilates Business Podcast, host Seran Glanfield dives into the systems and structures every boutique fitness business needs to run smoothly — even when you’re not there. 

If you feel like you are your Pilates studio (answering emails, fixing schedules, handling payroll, and putting out fires), this episode will show you why that approach is unsustainable and what you can do about it. 

Seran shares how building the right systems not only reduces chaos and burnout but also improves client retention, empowers your team, and sets your business up for real growth. This is the path to a Pilates studio that feels lighter, more sustainable, and much more profitable.

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Speaker 1:

Let me ask you something If you step away from your studio for a week, does everything keep running smoothly or does it feel like the wheels might fall off? Most studio owners that I talk to feel like they are the system. They're the ones who are answering the emails, dating the schedules, checking on payroll and even remembering birthdays, and while that works in the short term, it is typically unsustainable in the long term. So today I want to share with you what it really takes to build systems and structures that give you back time, take down the chaos level and let your studio run like well an actual business, not just an endless to-do list. Well, hi there, I'm Saren Glanfield. I'm a business and marketing strategist just for boutique fitness studio owners like you. If you're ready to be inspired and make a bigger impact, you're in the right place. All you need are a few key strategies, the right mindset and some support along the way. Join me as I share the real-life insights that will help you grow a sustainable and profitable studio.

Speaker 1:

This is the Pilates Business Podcast. Welcome back to the Pilates Business Podcast. I'm Sarah-Ann Glanfield and I'm so glad that you're here listening today, because we're talking about something that really does separate a business that feels heavy and overwhelming and reactive, from one that feels light and empowering and growth-orientated and that is systems and structure. Now, the truth is that your passion for teaching movement is probably what brought you into this business in the first place and, like me, you probably loved movement. You loved what movement did for you and you wanted to share it with others, and you've invested your time and your energy in developing your skill set as a teacher or as a business owner who shares that passion for movement with others. However, passion alone will not keep the doors of your studio open. When you don't have systems, your business will probably feel a bit like it's constantly sort of slipping through your fingers. You're juggling a lot, from yes scheduling to payments, to client communication, to staffing issues, and, instead of growing, you might find yourself just constantly putting out fires or just patching things up right.

Speaker 1:

And I think I've learned a lot over the years, both from working with studio owners and small businesses and entrepreneurs, as well as what I've been able to achieve in my business, and that is that the danger when we avoid systems or perhaps don't have time to implement them is that we become the bottleneck. We become the go-to for all the questions. We become the person that everyone needs to come through to be able to make a decision. If you don't reply to that email, that client won't get booked. If you forget to send payroll, your team won't get paid. If you're not constantly on, the whole machine grinds to a halt.

Speaker 1:

And you guys. That's not why we got into this business at all. You probably wanted to start your business because you wanted to have flexibility right. And when we are in a place where we are the bottleneck, that doesn't lead to growth. That just leads to exhaustion and burnout and perhaps a real, often, feeling of resentment at some point towards your business or your clients or even the people that work for you who have perhaps more flexibility than you. So that's not what we wanted when we started our studio.

Speaker 1:

So if you're finding yourself listening to this and thinking, oh yeah, I think I'm in that place, then I'm glad you're here, because I want to shift a little bit of how we think about systems and what we think of as systems in our business. These aren't just boring checklists or even super rigid procedures, but they really are sort of the foundation of your ability to have a flexible approach to your work-life relationships, and the more structure you have, typically we find, the more flexibility you get back. And I've certainly found that in my business and I've observed that with the studio owners that I've been working with for many, many years the when we, when we, when we, we aren't sticking to the plan, when we aren't building processes in our business, then we do find that over time it builds and builds and builds to a point where you know you, as the business owner, are slammed and you're watching other people leave the studio and smile happily as they skip off down the street while you're the one still with hours left of work to do. Right, and that's not a business that is going to support you long term or sustain you or fulfill you long term either. But what I want you to know is that it is possible to create and design and build a business that does support you, that is fulfilling, that does give you that flexibility, and it's not one that drains you.

Speaker 1:

Now, most studios start out with that enthusiasm. Right, you don't start a business and think right, the first thing I'm going to do is write my operations manual. Right, the first thing you do is probably think about your teaching, your clients, the experience right and that is so incredibly important and it works right. You know your clients, you know your teachers, you know the schedule. You're right there in the mix and this is an important it's so important to be in your business. But as your business grows and as your business evolves, and as we know what works in our business from being there hands-on, then what we find is that there are some limits that often get hit by, either with your time or your energy, and that's when the cracks really start to show. That's when perhaps it might get as bad as a team member forgetting to sub a class, or clients slipping away because no one followed up with them, or perhaps there were some missed payments. Every kind of mistake perhaps eats away at your time. You find yourself putting out even more fires. Perhaps it impacts your energy, too, and your desire to want to continue as a business owner, and maybe even your reputation amongst your clients as well.

Speaker 1:

One of the things that I think I want to make sure that I share with you today about how you can think about structure is that this is not about control, and I think a lot of folks, when we think about structure, we think about it as being a very rigid controlling procedure that we have to follow right, and I know that many of us are not about that at all, and it's not about that. Structure isn't about control, structure is about consistency. Okay, so when we think about consistency, think about your experience. When you say, let's just pick something we probably all know very well and experience we've all been through, which is when you visit, say, starbucks, right, you walk into Starbucks, you know what to expect. The predictability is what builds trust, and that's what we're looking to have in our business as well A processes that exist to make sure that minimum standards, quality of teaching or the client experience are upheld.

Speaker 1:

And without systems, um, your experience will probably depend on. Maybe the client experience will depend on the mood of your teachers, or if there is the person at your front desk was frazzled when they showed up on time, or if they just started yesterday and had zero training, they're not going to know anything about experience procedures. You want your team to follow etiquette. You encourage them to have. Then your studio becomes this more sort of reliable, trustworthy, consistent experience, and that consistency is often what drives retention, and so there are a lot of ways that systems in your business can really support your business growth as well as give you back time.

Speaker 1:

And the thing is without systems, truly and honestly, you cannot grow. I wish I could sugarcoat it a little bit more than that, but it's the truth. If everything depends on you, your business truly will hit a ceiling, and I know this is something that you know, I have come, I come to realize, I have come to realize over and over and over again in my business personally, and I've seen it as studio owners have evolved through different seasons along their business journey and what we find often is that that first sort of ceiling is hit with some level of perhaps marketing and impact on marketing, where that becomes the first sort of. I can't add more into my plate, but I need to do this, I need to get help, or perhaps there is some support around client experience and client support and obviously the teaching as well.

Speaker 1:

Without systems for finding and recruiting people, without systems for onboarding and training your team and without systems for consistently perhaps engaging with your team, it tends to not work out so well either, because you're again going to be the one to answer all the questions and be the one to follow up and check in and make sure, and you end up being like this micromanager and that, oh my gosh, you guys, is so draining, right. But imagine if a new client came into the studio and you didn't have to think about what they do next, because you know that your systems and your team is going to make sure that that client gets a warm welcome into the studio, that they're going to get a reminder before their first class, that they're going to get a follow-up after their session, and you are not the one sitting at the computer checking in, trying to find their number or trying to get their email address out of the system. This is all happening without you even touching anything, right? And so you see that when you add up all of that time and you add up all of the new clients that you might want in your business, you add up the minutes and the hours and even the days that you might be gaining back from implementing systems. It is so impactful. So it's not about necessarily this strict, rigid protocol, but all about taking away the personal touch. And automations can be very powerful when they're done right. They can also be not so great when they're not done right, for sure. So there is a right way to use automations in your business, but when you do and you do them well they do create space for you. Okay, to build those relationships with your clients and create space for you in terms of giving you back time, right, and so there is a win-win here, you guys, and it does often require a little bit of investment upfront.

Speaker 1:

Typically, when you're developing a system, you're building a system out. It certainly does ask you to take some time to think through what you want that experience to look like, what you want that process to look like, what you need to be able to make that an efficient system. Once you have that in place, though, then you find that you're able to scale. Now, when your business feels chaotic, it often is not just about late payments or messy schedules. It's also that mental weight that I've touched on a little bit already.

Speaker 1:

So you're lying in bed at night and you wake up remembering that thing you forgot to do. We've all been there, right? But if this is happening a lot, and it is impacting your being outside of the studio as well, then you're likely not showing up in your studio space as your best self. Perhaps you're teaching the class and you're secretly thinking, oh my goodness, I've got so much to do, I need to get this over with, to move on to the next thing. And you're constantly in this sort of on this sort of hamster wheel, and that's exhausting, right.

Speaker 1:

And what we find is that when we have systems in place, right, and processes in place, it reduces a lot of the decision fatigue, right? So when there's a structure in place, you're not wondering, oh my gosh, did I remember to do that? Did I remember to ask that person about that? Did I? I need to check up on that? Or two weeks later, you're thinking, oh no, I totally forgot that this is done for you because you have a system in place, and that mental clarity truly doesn't just help your business. It doesn't just give you a little bit more inspiration and creativity when it comes to your business and how you show up in your business, but it also helps you show up as a better leader for your team, probably a better teacher for your clients and probably possibly a better human all around. So systems are when we are sort of avoiding investing in systems. There is this trade-off. That does truly happen and, while we might not want to acknowledge it or even admit it, at times it is there, and so we want to make sure that we're choosing and you do choose to have some structure in place in your business to support you in the way that your business deserves to support you. Okay, now, systems are also a leadership tool. So I just mentioned that. It makes you having a systems, makes you a better leader, and systems are a tool to help you to develop a great team.

Speaker 1:

Now, what we know about management and team management is that your team probably wants clarity. They want to know what's expected of them, they want to know how to handle late cancellation, they want to know how to interact with a client that wants a refund. What should they say? And if you haven't trained them, told them or shared with them these processes or these boundaries even in some cases then they're either going to go on a whim and tell whatever they think, or they're going to come to you and they're going to ask you, they're going to text you, they're going to call you, they're going to put on hold until they can find you, and this can impact your business in so many different ways. And so without that clarity and those processes are the clarity then you often create a little bit of frustration for your team, and they don't have often the quite the buy-in that I know so many of you as studio owners want. They don't have that for your business because they don't have the information they need to be able to make any decisions necessarily.

Speaker 1:

So systems aren't just about helping you get more time out of your business. They also help your team to be more efficient as well, and so you can think of them as an act of leadership. They empower your team to do their jobs confidently and consistently, without the need to ask you for every single thing, for every single detail, and the clearer that your structure is, the stronger that your leadership will be, and they will come to you only for the things they really, really need, right, and so this is as simple as just to give you an example of having an onboarding process for new team members. What are the frequently asked questions, the FAQs that you know you want your team to have the correct answers to? It can be everything from what I just mentioned, like cancellation policy, or what happens if a client shows up five or 10 minutes late to class. Can they still join or not? How do you handle people who talk in class or not, right, how do you handle people who talk in class? These are all sorts of things often that come up and if we haven't talked it through with our team, then they're not going to know how to handle it. And if you haven't shared the way that you would like that to happen in your business, then they might go on what they've seen happen elsewhere, which may or may not match. So we want to make sure that we have systems like that in place onboarding for your team, an ongoing training for your team to give them those, to share that with them, those processes and procedures that you have in your business and that make it all run smoothly to deliver that very consistent experience.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so I know that you're probably thinking okay. Okay, so I know that you're probably thinking, okay, great idea. Yes, I have a bit of an onboarding system for my team. Um, I'm not really sure if it's comprehensive. That's not really what I had in my onboarding process for my team. What else is missing from it? Um, there's a lot of different systems that you will want to implement in your business and systems that often aren't just about the behind the scenes. That are often systems associated with, with marketing, with, with subbing, with teacher training, with client experience.

Speaker 1:

And the answer is to the question that you're probably thinking of where do I start is the answer is you don't start with everything at once, and there is a method to building systems in the right order. And and that's what I work on closely with my clients inside of my Thrive group coaching program, because when you prioritize correctly, you create momentum fast. And this month inside of Thrive, we are heavily focused on building out those structures of those systems and those operating procedures. So I'm so excited because there's so much good stuff and everyone is loving having this clarity in their business. It really is so freeing for owners. So quick recap for you guys winging it really is not the way that we want to run our business long-term. Yes, it works in the short term. Every now and again, I encourage you to wing it right For sure. But if that is how you're running every part of your business, it will create chaos for you and inconsistency that will eventually erode trust within your client base as well as your team of teachers.

Speaker 1:

Systems, on the other hand, give you the ability to scale. They're the key, you guys. They allow your business to grow without everything falling on to you and your shoulders. So don't think of structure or plans or processes or protocols as boring. Actually, they're kind of the key to having the flexibility that you want, not just with time, but but with your energy, with your mental load. It helps make your team more efficient, a high performing team, and it creates a client experience that is consistent and of the quality that you probably want.

Speaker 1:

So here's the big kind of shift that I want you to take away from today's episode, and that is that systems aren't the enemy of creativity. They are not going to stop your passion. They're actually, I would call, sort of the safety net of your business. They give you a space white space often that we are missing to really thrive in the parts of the business that you want to dedicate more time to, or more energy to, or more mental capacity to. And if you're listening to this right now and you're thinking, yes, I am so over, feeling like my business is in complete chaos but I don't know where to start, then know that that's exactly why I created Thrive, my group coaching program. Inside I walk you step by step through the building of the kinds of systems and structures that make your studio not just successful but sustainable. We have templates upon templates and guidance and plans inside, and you can learn more at spring3.com. Forward slash thrive because, at the end of the day, truly your studio should feel fulfilling to you in every single way, and that includes giving you the flexibility that you want to enjoy your life wherever that, whatever that means for you.

Speaker 1:

So I hope you found this episode fun and enjoyable to listen to. I really enjoyed sharing it with you and if you did enjoy it and you would like to follow, please go ahead and do that. Wherever you listen to this podcast and a review is always a nice thing, so I would appreciate if you take the time and hit that five star and let me know. Speak to you soon. Did you love this episode and want more? Head to spring3.com and check out my free resources that will help you run a profitable and fulfilling studio business. And before you go, one last reminder there is no one way to do what you do, only your way. So whatever it is that you want to do, create or offer, you've got this. Thanks again for joining me today and have a wonderful rest of your day.