Episode 348: If You Had to Start Over: How You’d Build Your Studio Differently Today

If I Started My Pilates Studio Today, Here's What I'd Do Differently

What would Christa Gurka do differently if she were opening a Pilates studio from scratch in today's market?

In this episode of the Female emPOWERed Podcast, Christa reflects on the biggest lessons she learned from building, scaling, and selling multiple boutique fitness businesses. From negotiating your lease and setting profitable pricing to avoiding costly hiring mistakes and investing in the right mentorship, she shares the advice she wishes someone had given her before opening her first studio.

Whether you're opening a Pilates studio, physical therapy practice, yoga studio, or boutique fitness business—or you're already in business and want to avoid expensive mistakes—this episode is packed with practical, real-world insights you can apply today. 

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

•  What to negotiate before signing a commercial lease 
•  Why pricing should be based on profitability—not your competitors 
•  The first business systems every new studio needs 
•  What Christa would not spend money on today 
•  Why working capital is essential for new business owners 
•  The biggest hiring mistake she made—and how to avoid it 
•  Why business mentorship is one of the highest-ROI investments you can make 
•  How technology, competition, and rising rent have changed the boutique fitness industry 
•  The mindset every successful studio owner needs to grow a profitable business 

Key Takeaways

✔️ Your lease can make or break your business—negotiate wisely.

✔️ Don't guess your pricing. Build it around your financial goals.

✔️ Invest in systems and marketing before expensive amenities.

✔️ Asking for help sooner will save you years of costly mistakes.

✔️ The right mentor can help you avoid five-figure mistakes before they happen. 

Work with Christa

Ready to build a profitable, scalable Pilates or wellness business?

🌐 Work With Christa

Explore coaching options, including:

• Fit Biz Community – Business coaching starting at $99/month 
• Fit Biz Accelerator – Implementation and systems coaching 
• Elevate to Exit – Private mentorship for business owners preparing to scale or sell 

Connect with Christa

📸 Instagram: @christagurka

🌐 Christa Gurka Website

SEO Keywords

How to open a Pilates studio, Pilates business tips, boutique fitness business, physical therapy business, studio startup, Pilates studio pricing, commercial lease tips, fitness business coaching, boutique fitness marketing, business mentorship, Pilates studio owner, Christa Gurka, Female emPOWERed Podcast.

Transcript

0:51

Hey there, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Female Empowered podcast. I'm your host, Christa Gurka. I'm so happy that you're here. So happy that you're listening to this podcast. We are on our 350th episode almost. I cannot believe it. I cannot believe it. It's so amazing. So today's episode wa- is entitled If I Started Over Today Opening My Business, What I Would Do Differently. And it This topic came about because I was actually talking to a few of my friends that have owned, grown, some have sold, some have stepped away from their boutique fitness businesses. All of us had grown to multiple locations. Then as you all know, we all had COVID hit, so we all started in the 2000, 2000... somewhere between 2010 and 2018. And it- while it's definitely a different landscape now, all of us have said, "Wow, if I knew this when I was starting I would have done it differently." I just had this conversation with a good friend of mine this morning about it. And with all of the Pilates studios opening, I feel like one is opening every 12 minutes in this, at least in the United States, maybe one every three minutes across the world. I thought, "What would I do differently, and how can I share this information with new studio owners that are starting now that might not know these situations and might be wondering, is this the right decision for them?" And here's what I'm gonna tell you. The right decision, by the way, is the one that works for you. Not the one that worked for me, but the one that worked for you. But I hope maybe some, answering some of these questions today will guide you, excuse me, in the right direction. All right? How does that sound? So what I did

Speaker 2:28

So what I did was I asked people in my group what they would like to know, and so I got a bunch of different questions from different people, and I am going to answer them currently for you right now. That's what I'm gonna do. Okay, so here is a great question. If you signed a lease tomorrow and were starting completely from scratch, what are the first few things you would actually do? Okay. When it comes to a lease, here is what I would do, what I would attempt to negotiate. And right now, w- depending on where you are, like at least here in Miami, the price per square foot is skyrocketing. I think the price per square foot in Coconut Grove, where I had my flagship, my original location, has more than doubled since I opened in 2010, and this is why negotiating a good lease is paramount in your business. Okay. So if I were starting over again, the things that I would look at: parking. Does this location have parking? And it doesn't have to necessarily have free parking in a parking lot, but is there parking available? At both of our locations, to be honest, there was not a free parking lot where people could drive in the back and park for free, but there was accessible street parking, and there was a parking garage right next to us that we ended up validating parking for, but make sure there's parking. Two, look at the lease and make sure that and you understand how much you need to sell in business to be able to pay the rent. If you are renting a place that's 75, 80, $90 a square foot, I'm just going to say that is a shit ton of Pilates or physical therapy that you have to sell in order just to pay the rent. That's not even breaking even. That's just to pay the rent. The other thing I would try to negotiate is, back in the day, I w- looked at space where I could have a lot of different services at the same time. Now, I would look at a space and see how can I optimize for group classes, 'cause those are the more, most profitable. So how can I try to get 10 or 12 reformers in a space, because I also do believe that I can teach really well with 10 to 12 reformers and still have really high quality, and maybe be able to do privates in an, in another room or between in that down hours, and how can I optimize? So rather than optimize for three privates and a classroom of four or five people, I would say, "How can I optimize for a classroom of 10 to 12 people and maybe have one private area?" That is what I would look at. I would also ask, which I did in both my locations, for exclusivity in the building at least, that there's not another Pilates, or I would even try boutique fitness concept in your building. Those are things that I would do. I would also try to get as many options as possible that were my options to take in the lease. That's what I would do in the lease. Okay, so the next question: How would you adjust your pricing from day one versus what you actually did? What I actually did was look at the... First of all, when I opened my studio, my very first one was 2008. It was, like, January of 2008, so end of 2007. There were not a lot of Pilates studios around. There were maybe in Miami five that I knew of in all of Miami. Now there's five within 500 feet. I basically just looked, and I also thought in my head "What would I charge?" And so there was no rhyme or reason, and if I were doing this today, I would 100% ask somebody for help in determining my pricing. Okay? What I would do is reach out to someone like me, or there's lots of other business mentorship groups, specifically in boutique fitness and wellness, okay? And say, I'm opening a studio. I need to figure out what pricing I should do and how I should price my services," because the calculators that we use are specific to your business and your expenses. So I am gonna tell someone who pays $1,000 in rent a very different story about their pricing than someone who pays $10,000 in rent. And you have to look at what kind of capacity do you have. So do you have five reformers? Do you have 10 reformers? What are you paying your instructors? So it's really important. I would definitely hire a consultant to help me determine the right pricing for my business to achieve my goals. Okay? That is 1,000% what I would do. Do not compare your pricing to the people down your s- the street. Compare the pricing to what you need to do to be profitable, and then you create your messaging, et cetera, around that. All right? Another question: What's one system or habit you'd build before you opened your doors? That's a good question. That's a good question. I'm thinking about it. I would definitely build a pricing system and a new client conversion system. That's what I would do. So a pricing system to make sure that the pricing that I'm offering works, and then I would also build out, help, have somebody help me build a, an intro offer that converts, and what is that sales process? So how do they get to know us? How do they get to buy that intro? And what are we doing in that intro to make sure that they are going to stay on as customers? So I have to look at the pricing first, right? And then I'm gonna really, if I had a one system that I would create, it is my intro offer and how we're gonna sell the intro offer into a long-term membership. These are really great questions. I love them. Okay. What would you ignore completely? What would I ignore com- I wouldn't do business cards. That's for damn sure. What would I, else would I ignore completely? I wouldn't spend a lot of money on my build-out. I would not put mirrors unless I was getting mirrors from Ikea. Glass is very expensive. I would not pay... I would ignore I wouldn't pay for rose water or things like that. Those things I would ignore. No business cards, no no expensive mirrors or lighting and things like that. And not really expensive amenities right off the bat. Okay What did you spend real time, money, or energy on early at Pilates in the Grove that you now know was a waste? A certification, a piece of equipment, a marketing tactic, a best practice everyone told you to do. Wow, another great question. One thing people told me to do and I didn't pay attention to was have enough working capital. And so those fir- so I, if you've listened to my origin story, I started Pilates in the Grove with $2,400. $2,400. Now, there was four of us, so we each... three of us put in $2,400, so what's that? Let's say five, that's $8,000 total. And then the other, the fourth person, gave us $2,400 worth of equipment. What I would do was have a little more working capital. 'Cause those first couple months one, we didn't pay ourselves, and two, we had other instructors, and trying to make payroll was really hard. We also, we bare-knuckled a bunch of the stuff. But what I do see people spending a lot of money on is a website. Now, look, I do believe you should have a professional do your website, but I don't believe it needs to cost you $10,000. All right? Time and money spending a bunch of time and money, again, on like pamphlets. Oh my God, thank God we don't do those anymore. Brochures, I think that's a total waste of money. Especial- well, we didn't have QR codes back then, so we didn't have that opportunity. I did as little equipment as possible. And, I'm trying to think of some of the other stuff that I spent time on and money that I think are a waste. If anything if I think of anything, I'll come back. But we really bare-knuckled and bareboned a lot of stuff. At the beginning, we built our own website. We I w- again, I would say brochures and business cards, I really don't think you need to be spending money on that. I think that is a distraction, and I think you could spend... I would rather you take that money and spend it on a really good website and then have a QR code to that website. What would you have invested in sooner? Where did you wait too long to spend money or bring in help? For sure in working capital and marketing. 1,000%. Back then we didn't need as much of the marketing as we do now, but I waited way too long to ask for help in the marketing area as well as in business mentorship. So I was, at the time, I was going to conferences for, Pilates and physical therapy. I had worked as a physical therapist on the LPGA Tour. I went and got my TPI certification so I could work on the PGA Tour. I was doing all sorts of certification for my physical degree, but I was doing no training, none, zero, nada, in how to run a good business, and I waited way, way too long. I wish, looking back on it now, that I had asked for help sooner. But I thought asking for help showed, just proved that I was an imposter and a fraud and I didn't know what I was doing, and I thought that was weakness. So I didn't ask for help, but it would've saved me a lot of problems with hiring, how to pay people, how to have difficult conversations, and how to properly market my business. I do say that when I finally got around to asking for help the first thing this business consultant told me was, "You just didn't, you don't have enough working capital, and that's why you feel like you're running around with a chicken with your head cut off and living paycheck to paycheck, 'cause you don't have enough working capital. And so you don't have enough cushion, hence you can't invest in marketing, hence you're not getting a lot of good people in the door, hence this is this vicious cycle." So he, I did take his advice, and I started investing in marketing, and I'll never forget this. My first, it was an initiative in Coconut Grove that was... So it was probably three or four years i- into business Yeah, maybe three years into business. And there was, like, a f- an opportunity and it was to invest $5,000. $5,000 in this marketing campaign that was, like, a Coconut Grove business improvement campaign, and you would be featured as one of the local business. I remember almost throwing up, cause $5,000 at that time was a lot. Now I invest $5,000 at the drop of a hat. But at the time, I don't think I was even paying myself $5,000 a month, right? Let alone investing it in a one-time thing. But when I did it, it Return, the return on investment was amazing. It really legitimized us as a Coconut Grove business. People started talking about Coconut Grove. People started talking about Pilates in the Grove. And so after that, it was the, my first experience of yes, you have to spend money to make money, and spending money in the right way, very intentional, provided a tremendous amount of leverage for us in the community. So if you've got a dollar figure, or I waited x to do that. Okay. So I waited way too long to ask for business help and support, okay? And I'll let's just look at the numbers right now. A one-on-one business call with me right now costs $400 if you just wanna do a one-off business call, okay? I can guarantee you that if you spent $400 to do a one-on-one call with me, I could find $4,000 worth of missed opportunity in your business. I can pretty much guarantee it. If you joined the community membership, which is $99 a month, $99 a month, so in a year you spend $1,000, okay, or 1,200 I can guarantee you that you will either buy back at least $10,000 worth of your time or find $10,000 worth of revenue and profit in your business, okay? If you enroll in our accelerator, which is $10,000 a year, the resources we provide you alone, we provide over 90 white labeled SOPs, okay? So that is, white labeled means you can brand them and your colors and your logo and everything. Every step-by-step check mark for hiring, onboarding, sales, payroll, having difficult conversations, front desk check-in, front desk check-out, like basically every... There's 90 of them, SOPs, that will save you... Those cost me to hire a company to help me, cost me $25,000. So if you learn nothing else in the accelerator, you paying $10,000 to be in that program is alone giving you $25,000 worth of deliverables. Now, take into account how you learn the information on how to implement it, how to execute it, how to get your team to be more accountable, and all of those start to pay off in perpetuity, you have more than 10, 10x your investment. All right? So I want you to think of it in that way versus think of it as an investment that you're not giving back. Okay. Your biggest mistake. Can you give me one or two specific in hindsight mistakes Not the sanitized version, the kind you tell a friend over wine. Oh my God. God. I can tell you one of the biggest hiring mistakes I made.

Speaker 2 15:21

The biggest mistake I definitely would say that I made was starting my people as 1099s and not W-2s. Because when I had to go through that transition of transitioning people from 1099s to W-2s, it was very painful. And having W-2s is a way to build a brand. If you want to sell your business at some point down the road and make it a valuable asset, your buyer is going to want to see that you have W-2 employees, not 1099 contractors. Okay? And I know there's a lot of people out there still giving the advice that people should be 1099s, and I'm sorry to tell you, that is not the right advice. Are there way, are there spaces for some people on your team to be 1099s? Maybe if they w- teach one class a week, and they have a full-time job somewhere else, and you cannot dictate or do anything in terms of when they can be off, what they can do, taking social media pictures, all that stuff like that. You cannot give them performance reviews. So possibly. Is it still happen in certain situations? Yes. But my biggest, one of my biggest regrets is hiring people as 1099s and not W-2s, when I'm talking specifically about instructors, administrators, physical therapists. So now the reason that happened was because of this one hire that I made that basically almost took my business down

Speaker 18:39

I hired somebody who was moving to Miami. She was going through a divorce. She was referred by another clinician that was working at the studio, someone who had worked with us for a long time, that I trusted very much. I interviewed this girl. She was amazing. She even sent me a letter probably two months into working "Thank you so much for taking a chance on me." It was, it's I'm so happy working here. Let's fast-forward, if you watch Seinfeld yada, ya- no. Is that Friends? Friends is yada, yada, yada. She ended up trying to get the rest of the team together to eventually bring a lawsuit against me for misclassification of contractor to employee. So that's a hiring mistake that I made. She was also telling people she was stealing from the company. She was also telling people that I was stealing from the company, and that I was not paying rent, and we were gonna get kicked out of our building, which was a lie. Let's see. Another mistake I made. Oh, I tried to open a satellite site within a gym, and I took five reformers. I moved them in on the weekend. As we all know, we moved our equipment ourselves. I built out this little... It was probably maybe 100 square foot space maybe. No, it was probably 300 square feet, and I put five reformers in there, and I was getting ready to start. And I, I knew from the beginning, even my relationship with the owner of the gym and how this was gonna work out and the revenue split we were gonna do and everything, I had a sense that I was like, I don't think this is gonna work out." And it ended up not working out. It was terrible. But my ego was like, "Oh, this will be my fourth va- fourth location, and I'm gonna be in this new t- part of town, and so many people are gonna be there." And, my ego was the one that said, Do it," even though my gut was telling me not to, and that turned out to be a royal mistake and definitely cost me tens of thousands of dollars. So everybody makes mistakes. Definitely a hiring mistake, pricing mistake, culture mistake. My payroll at one point got up to 50% of my revenue, and so that was a huge mistake. So we all make mistakes. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Be afraid not to admit your mistakes and make changes based when you already know that was a mistake, and I gotta cut it, right? So you gotta cut your losses fast, okay? What is fundamentally different about opening a studio today versus when you started Pilates in the Grove? What's fundamentally different is technology, for sure. So back in the day we used to even have two people at the desk, 'cause I was like, "Oh, it's busy." And by the way, it's busy when? For 10 minutes, as the class comes in and as the class goes out. But I was like, "We have to have two people at the desk at all times." Now, there are studios that don't have anyone at the desk. You get in and out with a QR code. So having digital access and technology access is definitely different today than it was back in 2008, 2010. Social media. Social media was just starting back then. Okay? So social media is huge now, and you have to learn how to navigate that part of social media. Obviously the competition. Like I said, in 2008 when I started Pilates on the Beach, there may have been five Pilates studios in Miami, and they were the big ones, like Stott and Balanced Body, like Polestar. They were big names. They were... There were very few small independent studios. And now there's literally five on every block, so the competition is huge now. And then I would also say rent. Rent is very expensive. And so one of the things I would look at is making sure... I think it's one of the reasons it's so important to have your pricing down. Understand your numbers when you're starting this business. This is a business that should pay you a salary. So if you're working for $40,000 a year, why have all the stress and the risk? Go work for a studio and make $80,000 a year. So be smart about how you structure your business model. There's less room for error nowadays. So if you were s- if you are starting out now, the advice that I would give you is please Ask for help sooner. All right? If you joined, for example, I don't know what all the price points are of all the mentorship programs out there. There's a lot. Where I think mine is different is I have actually done the thing that you are trying to do. I have opened a studio. I have closed a studio. I have sat in every single seat in my business. I have opened multiple c- locations. I have transitioned people from contractors to W-2s. I have, at the height, had over 25 employees in my business. I have hired marketing people. I brought them in-house. I've used agencies. I've given agencies five, five figures, tens of thousands of dollars that didn't work out, and ultimately, I crossed the finish line with a successful exit. So I know what you're doing each and every day. Plus, I'm a mom, the primary parent, and I have children that I've been raising alongside my business. But what I say is that is my expertise and if you invest $1,000 for a year in my program, you will learn more than you ever thought about the backend of running the business. So if you are a high achiever, and you're like, "I will do the work. I just need someone to show me the way," you are my people. I would love the opportunity to work with you, okay? If you are someone that's "I have it all figured out. I'm gonna do this. I f- I'm gonna do that. I r- I know all the answers," then please do not join my membership because I cannot help you if you have all the answers. All right? I can help the people that are like, "No, I know that I have a great product. I wanna get it in front of as many people as possible. I am prepared to do the work and answer the hard questions." You ladies, you are the people that this program is meant for, and at $99 a month, $99 a month, you have to sell one private session in order to break even. You will be guaranteed a hun- 10 times, 100 times your investment. Okay? We had a business owner start with us in 2022. At the time, she was doing $350,000 in revenue working five days a week. She had three small kids at home, and she was beyond burnt out, okay? Fast-forward to 2025, so three years in the program- She spent $3,000 with us, okay? Three years in the program, she doubled her revenue, so she went from 350,000, so to 700,000. She's down to working only one day a week treating patients one day a week, okay? And she's at an 18% profit margin. So if you do that math, that is like a $300,000 return on your investment, okay? So 300 times return on your investment, maybe. I can't... I don't- I'm not really good at math. But the point is, if you're the type of person that's "I just need some guardrails. I don't know what I don't know. I need someone to just tell me the direction," I would love to be that for you. Like I said, I have sat in every seat in this business. I know what it takes to go from a solopreneur to having a few team members, and if I can save you one mistake, one hiring mistake, or one pricing mistake, that will easily add five figures of profit back in your business, this is worth it, okay? These are the things that I wish I had known or I had access to when I was starting my practice and my business. Pricing looking at profit margin, understanding financial documents, okay? I don't have an MBA. I learned all of this stuff by making sure I was in the room with people doing what I wanted to accomplish. I asked the questions. I did the work. I've learned from my mistakes, and if I can help anybody out there make one less mistake, then that's what I'm here for, and that's what I would love to do for you and your practice. So if you own a p- Pilates studio or are just opening one, a physical therapy practice a yoga studio, and you want to break through the noise and have less mistakes and less chance of burnout and less crying in your car at the end of the day, I would welcome you to visit my website, www.christagurka.com, and look at the Work With Me page. We have options, like I said, as low as $99 a month, okay? And then all the way up to my Elevate to Exit program, which is my one-on-one mentorship, which gets people ready for exit. There is a spot for you, and I'd love for the opportunity to work with you and help you achieve your goal and have your business thrive, not just survive. All right. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you have any other questions, if you have your own questions about what I would do differently, go ahead and DM me over on Instagram. I'm @christagurka, and I answer all your questions. So DM me, let me know what your question is in regards to what I might do differently. And until next time, my friends, bye for now.