Streamlining and maximizing your offerings so that you become insanely profitable as a pole studio owner

These recommendations are from Katrina Wyckoff’s webinar ”Streamlining and Maximizing Your Offerings so That You Become Insanely Profitable” held on March 16, 2022. Members can view the entire webinar at this link. 

Please note, these are things that worked for Katrina’s studio and may not work for everyone.

We Do Hard Things

Since IPIA has started “Times are Hard” has rung true. First the lockdowns, then the confusion a lockdowns were ended, then presidential administrations (in the US) making things harder for small businesses and specifically targeting the pole industry. If you are finding yourself stretched thin, a strategy to try is streamlining.

Streamline your offerings and maximize them. 

Ask yourself, what classes are easy to run? Which ones have the most attendance?

Cut classes with low enrollment and offer higher grossing classes in those time slots. When you focus your energy, you can make more progress in that area. For more on this, try reading the Pumpkin Plan by Mike Michalowicz

Find Your Flow

There are a number of ways to increase your cash flow.

Your business can’t grow unless you’ve got good cash flow.

Options for increasing your cash flow are:

• Increase prices:

1. 1. 1. Cost of living goes up annually. For traditional businesses a cost of living increase (COI) for salaries is typically 3% a year.

• Increase number of customers:

1. 1. 1. Getting new customers is a great way to increase sales. This is easier said than done, but there are multiple strategies for attracting new customers.

• Increase your average transaction:

1. 1. 1. Run deals with add-on bonuses, for example: buy a 10 class punch card and get a free (or discounted) bottle of grip.

• Increase the frequency of the transaction:

1. 1. Introduce a membership deal where people get a certain number of classes per month and a slightly cheaper per-class rate than a drop in plan.

You may not be the cheapest studio or cheapest product, but cutting prices is a race to the bottom—and a race to bankruptcy. An occasional sale is a great thing, but don’t sell yourself short.

Make a Clear Offer

To make your studio/class/product more enticing, you want to identify a pain point for your potential clients and provide them a solution. Don’t copy someone else’s solution to a pain point, come up with your own solution and tell your customers why your solution is the best solution.

When you make an offer, make sure you are clear on what you are delivering. What is the problem you’ve identified and what is the solution you are providing? State it in clear language. Clear beats clever, always.  

The more you can reduce the time between now and the problem being solved, the more likely people are to buy your solution. Reducing the user’s struggle to get to the results will also be a boon to your solution.

Rejection is Normal

People will always come up with a reason why your offer isn’t right for them.

The 5 most common objections to an offer are:

1. Time
2. Money
3. No value in offer
4. Believe it won’t work for them
5. You’re not the right person to solve their problem

Your advertising and sales pitch will have to explain to the buyer why your product is worth their time, money, and why it *will* work for them. Focus on success stories from your current clients, or even yourself. Also, don’t be offended if your offer isn’t right for everyone. Each and every pole human is unique and that’s what makes the community so special.

 

Not every client is going to go for every offer you’ve got going, but you’ll get the most out of your businesses if you streamline your offerings, clearly explain how you add value to your customers, and accept that there will be a few that “get away.” Focusing your energy will do wonders for your cash flow and your mental health!