Unlocking Pilates Studio Business Success

Running a successful Pilates studio isn’t just about delivering a great workout—it’s also about understanding how your business is performing. Metrics may sound intimidating and unsexy, but they’re important tools to help you make smarter decisions… on the way to making more money! And according to a recent report by the BFS Network, the most successful studios aren’t doing anything flashy—they’re simply consistent with the basics.

Let’s break down the key business metrics that separate top-performing boutique studios from the rest—and how you can start using them today.

The F.E.R. Formula: Find, Enroll, Retain

The BFS Network uses a simple formula to describe the journey of a new client:

Find them → Enroll them → Retain them.

Here’s what that means:

• Find: Successful studios bring in 10–50+ new leads every month.
  

• Enroll: At least 30% of those leads become paying members.
  

• Retain: They keep those members around—losing less than 5% of them each month.

This system isn’t fancy, but it works. If you track these numbers monthly, you can spot where you’re doing well—and where there’s room to grow.

What Is Retention—and Why It Matters

Retention refers to how many of your clients stick around month to month.

If you had 100 clients in May and lost 5 of them by June, your monthly churn rate is 5%, and your retention rate is 95%. The higher your retention, the better—because keeping an existing client is usually much cheaper than finding a new one.

🧮 Example:
Let’s say you have 80 clients going into June, and 4 cancel before July 1st.

• Retention rate = ((80 - 4) / 80) × 100 = 95%

Tracking retention helps you understand if your classes, instructors, and customer experience are good enough to keep people coming back.

What Is Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)?

Your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is how much you spend to get one new paying customer. This includes marketing expenses (ads, events, referral bonuses) and staff time spent on sales.

🧮 Example:
You spent $500 on ads in a month and brought in 10 new clients.

• CAC = $500 / 10 = $50 per customer

If your membership costs $200/month, a CAC of $50 might make sense—you break even after the first month. But if your CAC is higher than your first month’s revenue, you’ll need a longer retention time to make that customer profitable.

Consistency Over Flashiness

One of the clearest messages in the BFS Network report is that the best studios don’t rely on fancy marketing hacks or big influencer partnerships. Instead, they do the basics—really well.

In fact, 44% of profitable studios say referrals are their best source of new leads. That means word-of-mouth is your most powerful (and cheapest) marketing tool. If your clients love their experience, they’ll bring friends. So, focus on creating a referral-worthy experience every time.

Location Affects Revenue—but Not Always Overhead

Urban studios tend to charge more and bring in more revenue per client than suburban ones. But interestingly, their rent per square foot isn’t dramatically different.

Here’s what the data shows:

• One-third of city studios charge $250+ per month.
  

• Only 22% of suburban studios charge that much.
  

• Over half of urban studios generate $200+ in monthly revenue per member.

This means that in cities, people may be more used to paying premium prices for boutique fitness—and they expect high quality. If you're in a suburban area, it's still possible to charge more, but you’ll likely need to clearly communicate the value you’re offering.

Pilates Studios Are Leading in Profitability

Pilates studios—especially those offering private or small-group classes with premium equipment—tend to have higher profit margins than other modalities.

Why? A few reasons:

• Smaller class sizes = more personalized attention (and higher rates)
  

• Studios can operate in smaller spaces = lower rent
  

• Pilates clients are often willing to pay more for specialized instruction

Compare that to yoga studios, which often operate in larger spaces with lower-priced memberships. Many yoga studios make under $500K a year and operate on slim margins, often less than 10%.

If you’re a Pilates studio owner, this is good news—but it’s also a reminder to price your services in line with the premium value you provide.

The Power of a Strong Team

The studios with 20%+ profit margins almost always have one thing in common: a dedicated manager.

• 67% of high-profit studios have a manager.
  

• Only 33% of low-profit studios do.
  

• A quarter of high-profit studios pay their manager $75K or more—an investment that pays off.

Hiring a strong manager or lead instructor helps you offload day-to-day tasks so you can focus on strategy, growth, and client relationships.

What’s Missing

Interestingly, the report doesn’t touch on instructor quality or recruitment.  My hypothesis is that one of the key factors influencing retention is instructor quality, and very little objectively useful information exists on training, recruiting, and formulating a clear teaching philosophy and brand.  You can read more on my thoughts on how to nail an intro Pilates class, and then what components make up A Great Pilates Class (Part 1, Part 2).

Final Thoughts

The takeaway from the BFS Network data is clear: success in boutique fitness is less about being trendy and more about being consistent.

Know your numbers. Track your retention. Watch your customer acquisition cost. Invest in your team. And focus on building a studio that people can’t wait to tell their friends about.

You don’t need to be perfect—you just need to get a little better at the unsexy things every month.

For more insights, check out the full BFS report here:
👉 What Sets Top-Performing Fitness Studios Apart

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