Pilates Business Podcast

Reflecting on 2024: The Ultimate Year-End Guide for Studio Owners

• Seran Glanfield • Season 20 • Episode 197

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Reflecting on 2024: Wins, Lessons, and Strategies for a Stronger 2025
As 2024 winds down, it’s time to hit pause and reflect. In this inspiring episode of The Pilates Business Podcast, host Seran Glanfield dives into why taking stock of your studio's wins, lessons, and even setbacks is the key to growth in 2025. 

Learn how to uncover valuable insights from your experiences, harness the power of planning, and build a roadmap to success in the new year. Whether you nailed your goals or faced challenges this year, Seran shares practical tips to help you approach 2025 with clarity, confidence, and a plan that works.

Listen now to uncover:

  • The importance of celebrating every win, big or small.
  • How to turn challenges into actionable lessons.
  • Why understanding your numbers and client needs is essential.
  • Steps to craft goals that keep you inspired and on track for 2025.

This episode is packed with insights to help boutique fitness studio owners like you thrive—don’t miss it!


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Speaker 1:

2024 is almost in the rear view mirror, and so I think it is the perfect time to take stock of your studio's journey this year what worked well, what felt like an uphill battle. Today we're diving in deep into the wins, the lessons and the setbacks that we all experienced this year. So grab a pen and get ready to reflect, to learn and to perhaps refresh your strategy as we head into a brand new year. 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 this is the Pilates Business Podcast. And profitable studio this is the Pilates Business Podcast.

Speaker 1:

Welcome back to the Pilates Business Podcast. I'm Saren Glanfield and I'm so glad you're here with me today, and this is a special time of year for all the obvious reasons, but it's also a time of year where we're perhaps beginning to anticipate the next year, and, although you might not be quite there yet, I always like to be a little bit ahead of the game, to help you to think ahead and to make sure that you are prepared for whatever it is that comes your way, and inside of my Thrive group coaching program, we have already crafted our plan, our goals for 2025. My studio owners inside are ready and so ready to go and are able to now really enjoy the holiday season knowing that they have a plan in place for how to kick off 2025. And I thought maybe I might like to give you a little bit of a taste of that as well, and that's what I have in store for you in this episode today. So we're diving into something that is often, I think, overlooked massively in the hustle and bustle, not just of this time of year, but of just generally running a boutique fitness business or any business. Often and that is reflection this isn't about looking back on just what happened. It's actually about perhaps looking a little bit deeper and uncovering some of the insights, some of the hidden ups and downs, the celebrations, the wins, perhaps, but also giving yourself the opportunity to really learn from some of the things that you've experienced this year and perhaps, if you've never done this practice before, some of the things that you might have learned for many, many years in the past.

Speaker 1:

And when we take the time to really understand what it is that creates momentum that propels your business forward, to understand a little bit about what's working and not working behind the scenes of your business, it can be incredibly powerful for the next phase of your growth. In fact, whenever I start working with studio owners inside of Thrive, the very first thing we do is to gather information about where their business is at today, because it just begins sort of this powerful journey to where it is you want to get to, where your goals are and, ultimately, that destination of your version and your vision of success. So in my mind and the way that I love to work with studio owners is that if you want to grow, we have to understand your business and where you've been and how you've gotten to where you are today and then use that to really move forward in a very strategic way. So if 2024 was a bit of a rollercoaster ride where you perhaps felt like you were stretched thin in so many different ways, you're not alone. This is how many of us felt. It was a big year for a lot of you and a lot of you in so many ways. But the good news is that every experience whether you had a great experience in 2024 or even perhaps you were just getting by there are lessons in there to be learned. There are things that we can take away from it and we can apply it to the next phase of growth and we can turn the page of that calendar year with enthusiasm and with a plan for where we want to go. So let's dive in.

Speaker 1:

This is one of my favorite favorite practices when it comes to building a business. I'm a huge planner. I love having a plan. It gives you so much clarity, so much direction. It allows you to let go of all of those to-do lists, those little things that keep sitting on your shoulders and weighing you down. A plan is so powerful for taking away that overwhelm, and so I always endeavor to give my studio owners inside of Thrive a plan, which is a huge component of the way that we work together inside of Thrive. And so where do we start when we put together a plan?

Speaker 1:

Well, one of the things I like to do especially this time of year, I think it's so important is to look back and let's just celebrate the achievements that you, things that you did this year, your accomplishments, the wins and it doesn't have to be huge wins, I don't care if you whatever you multiplication of your revenue was, I care about all of the wins. I care about, yes, maybe there was revenue growth, maybe you had new clients, maybe you had more clients, but maybe also you can reflect on some of the impact that you had within your client base the testimonials, the stories, the things that you saw your clients achieve because of the way that they interact and engage with your business, because, quite honestly, your business exists and so it doesn't have to be huge. These small, even tiny, operational systems or improvements or refinements or processes that you implemented are also, I think, a huge thing to celebrate, no matter what, because I think it's important to recognize all progress and even if it might seem minor to you, or perhaps you might think of it as minor, it's still important to recognize all progress. And even if it might seem minor to you, or perhaps you might think of it as minor, it's still important to recognize. So think back, and think back beyond the last three months, think back to January, february, march and April of 2024. And what it is that you were doing at that time and reflect on how far you've come throughout the whole year. What did you do that was different or new this year? Did you change your pricing model? Did you increase your pricing? Did you add new classes? Did you add new teachers? Did you take time off? Did you create systems to support your team?

Speaker 1:

All of these things are worth celebrating, and once you've recognized those accomplishments, the next step is to then think about and reflect on how these wins contributed to your overall business growth, because understanding why something worked well can really help you to perhaps replicate that success in the future. And I'm all about rinsing and repeating. So something went really well for you last year. Then I'm going to say, hey, let's see how we can improve it and refine it and perhaps make it work again for you over and over and over, because I don't want you reinventing the wheel every time you come to a new calendar year. Right? So we want to make sure that you are learning from what you've been able to achieve and maybe doubling down on that. So, for example, if you already nailed social media in 2024, then hey, what about that word? Let's review it, let's analyze that and then let's take that forward into 2025. What worked well, what didn't work well, and what do you want to do more of Now?

Speaker 1:

I also want to give you the space and the encouragement to reflect about not just your business wins, but also about your personal wins, because for so many of you who have your own business and you're wearing a lot of the hats you dedicate a lot of your life and your energy to your businesses, and what that means is that we can't ignore how intertwined your personal and your professional life is. This isn't a job that you get to go to from nine to five. You're thinking about your business often the weekends and after hours, and you're talking about it with your spouse, and so it's important to also reflect on how your role and you have grown this year as well, amongst what perhaps your business might have done. So perhaps you became better at delegating, perhaps you became better at understanding and tracking your numbers, perhaps you finally got over that fear of showing your face on social media, and you did it, and you did it anyway, and even though it didn't feel comfortable, you did it anyway, and I think that is always something worth celebrating. So, definitely, we want to be celebrating those wins and reflecting on your accomplishments.

Speaker 1:

But what's next? Well, I do want to take a minute to look at, perhaps, some of the things that didn't work. This is important to reflect on as well. We're not just here to think about the good and the woo and the happy. I want you to learn from the things that didn't work, because there's always lessons there too, and things won't work in your business. If you have things that only are successful in your business, then you're probably losing out and missing out on opportunities, because we need to try and test things and we need to be prepared for some of those things to not perhaps work out quite as we had liked or wanted to. And these things happen in all businesses. And the most powerful thing that you can do and what I have observed from the most successful business owners that I know, from people who have studios to multinational corporations, is that when things are, when you try new things, when you try new tactics, when you try new strategies, that you don't go and dismiss it if it doesn't go to plan, that you learn from it, you refine it, you alter it, you change it and perhaps if, once you changed it, you might test it all over again. So there might've been things that didn't work out so well, and that's okay. We're all here to learn.

Speaker 1:

But I want you to think about, perhaps, what got in your way, what didn't. What came up, what challenges came up that you didn't anticipate? What other challenges came up Did you? Did you face that perhaps got in your way of growth, or things that came up that perhaps held you back a little bit, that was frustrating for you. You know, maybe you wanted to host a workshop that didn't get fully sold out, maybe you added a class to your schedule that never took off.

Speaker 1:

These are all things that we can learn from, and we can only learn from them, though, if we take the time to just reflect on the things that we did at that time and perhaps, in reflection, what may have been done could have been done differently, or you might like to try again differently in the future. So, was there a time when class attendance dropped? Was that to do with the season that you're in? Was that to do with the change in team? Was that to do with another studio opening? These are all things that could have contributed to that, and these are things that we want to make sure that we're aware of, because, as we turn the page of that calendar year, we want to take those lessons with us so that we can be better informed and more strategic about our growth in 2025. So it's important to learn about those setbacks, understand what happened, but not to dwell on them, not to beat yourself up about it at all, but to actually just keep moving forward and take that lesson with you as we move forward. So we definitely want to take some time to learn from what didn't work didn't work as well as you might have wanted.

Speaker 1:

Now, we do want to make sure that we also, at this time, think about what numbers are telling you. And so, as you look back on the calendar year and you know we're in December right now, so you might not be completely towards the end of the year, so you might not be completely towards the end of the year, but you probably have a pretty good idea about how your numbers are looking I do encourage you to take a look at your financial performance, have a look and see how it compares to prior years, look at trends, look at your expenses for this year, your profit margins and so on, for sure, but also perhaps have a little bit of a deeper dive into what else happened and what you can glean from the data that you have throughout the year. So, were there any unexpected expenses? Were there any unexpected revenue drivers? These are all things that we might have come across. Were there things that surprised you about your data and your numbers this year? Not just revenue, but also things like how you got new clients, what marketing worked, and so on. These are all things that we want to understand a bit better, and now is a fantastic time to go and check your numbers, and this is something, again, I encourage all studio CEOs to do. This is you. If you own a business, take a look at your numbers, get to know them, understand them. It will be so powerful for your business growth. So we definitely want to look at the numbers. That's another area of reflection for 2024.

Speaker 1:

Now the next thing we want to look at is our clients, so we want to take the time to think about needs and habits and wants perhaps might be changing. The consumers within our industry are more informed and educated about health and wellness than they have ever been, and what we're seeing amongst many, many studio owners is that what they are requiring of you and needing and wanting from you is also adapting and changing. So I really encourage you to be very observant of your clients and perhaps take a time to reflect on conversations you may have had, feedback you might have gotten from clients and take note of perhaps some of the recurring themes. Perhaps, if you have a variety of services that you offered, was there services that were more popular this year than ever or less popular than ever. It's important to be open to feedback and to ideas from your clients because it can really guide improvements in terms of service quality and that ever important client experience, which, of course, is the cornerstone truly of the success of your business. So we want to make sure we're aware of our client behavior, we're aware of what they're looking for and how you can continue to fill and meet their needs.

Speaker 1:

Now retention as you know, I'm a huge, huge, huge proponent of being as proactive about retention as possible in your studio business. This is a strong indicator for your revenue growth year over year. So it's important to dive into some of those details and look at whether your clients are stuck around, how many of them have, what your lifetime value is for your clients, and it's important to look at some of those nurture activities as well and make sure you're not leaving behind missed opportunities. Okay so, client engagement and retention is always, always critical to continuing to grow your business. It's not just about lead generation and Facebook and Instagram ads. It's about both lead generation and retention for your business. Okay so, don't ignore both of those, or either of those. I should say so. Client retention, engagement is something I encourage you to reflect upon. Think about how you might be able to improve the experience you deliver to your clients. This will help to ensure. And so, finally, once you've learned about what's going on in your business, what's happened well in your business, perhaps some of the things that might have held you back, you understand a bit more about your numbers. You're thoughtful about the client experience.

Speaker 1:

Then it's about setting goals for 2025. A lot of goal setting with my studio owners inside of Thrive. It's a habit I encourage them to do develop. We do it from the very beginning, because if you don't have a destination, you don't know where you're going, you don't know what you want from your business. Then you're going to find yourself sort of spinning your wheels or perhaps taking the long way around, spending time in procrastination, which is never fun in limbo, which is even less fun and perhaps not making any headway at all. So we need goals, we need a direction, we need to know where we're heading. We need a destination, and so I encourage you to take the time to think about where you want to be 12 months from now in your business, what that looks like for you, and then you want to make sure we set smart goals, and smart goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound, and so you want to make sure that, as you're setting goals, you're not just being very generic and saying I want more clients or I want to grow my business. These are not specific enough, these are not measurable enough, these are not terribly time bound either. So it's important to get really, really clear on exactly what your goals are and how you will measure success when you get there.

Speaker 1:

So break those goals down, if you need to, into more specific and measurable and attainable and relevant and time bound milestones or goals, and I encourage you to leverage the insights that you've gleaned from this exercise, from reviewing 2024, into what you anticipate and expect your business to look like and do for you in 2025. And it's really an important exercise to go through this process of both reflection but also of goal setting, because the two really do work so incredibly well together. Your past experiences really will inform the future of your business. So, so deeply. So, please, please, please, carve out some time for this. It doesn't have to be stressful, it doesn't have to be intense. It can be just you and your notebook and reflecting on some of the things. If you do do this and you do take the time to reflect upon your wins, the things that held you back, a little bit about your numbers and what the data is telling you, and then on your client experience, you will be ahead of the game as you head into January of 2025. And if you do go about doing this, then I really recommend you just take the time to write it down, because doing this as you're walking the dog or driving the kids to school or doing the grocery shopping and trying to do it as you're doing something else, you might find it to be not quite as successful as you might want it to be. And so, inside of Thrive, we carve out time, we do this all together.

Speaker 1:

I take my studio owners through the process of reflection and of goal setting for 2025. So, like I said, they all have their plan. I want you to have a plan too, because I think that that is how you're going to stay competitive and grow and take advantage of the enormous opportunity that exists in our industry as we head into another new year. So, as we wrap up, please, please, please, take the time to reflect and, instead of seeing it as a year-end task, make it a habit that you do on a regular basis in your studio. It truly is a very powerful tool for growth.

Speaker 1:

Celebrating your wins, learning from your setbacks, understanding sort of the picture the financial picture of your business, and then thinking about how your client experience and what you might be able to do to improve and refine that it can really change the way that you run your business. It can really inspire you actually is what I found. It's sort of very, very clarifying to go through this exercise, and it's not about dwelling on what, perhaps what didn't go perfectly. It's about perhaps recognizing the full scope of your business and of what you have accomplished and what is possible for you going forward into 2025. Remember, growth happens when we take the time to very intentionally learn from our experiences. So take what you've learned this year, refine your strategies and start the new year with a refreshed and inspired mindset. I'm so excited for you and I cannot wait to see what you accomplish in 2025. So I hope this is helpful to you as you move into that next phase of business growth.

Speaker 1:

And, if you enjoyed this episode today, I'd be ever so grateful if you could pop over and, wherever you're listening to this, just rate and review the podcast. It would mean so much to me and will help to get this out there into our community that more people and more teachers and business owners and studio owners, just like you, can feel empowered, encouraged and supported on their journey in our industry. 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.