Setting Financial Goals for Your Fitness Studio in the New Year

With the new year right around the corner, now’s the time to reflect on the past while also envisioning what lies ahead. Among the many business-focused resolutions you might have, setting financial goals for your fitness studio should be high on the list.

Not sure where to begin? Here are some steps you can take to position yourself for profitability in the upcoming year.

Build on your original vision

Every fitness studio needs a vision or mission statement that can serve as a guide when setting financial goals. Think about why you started your business in the first place and what you wanted to achieve. How has that vision evolved? Are you hoping to stay small with a high level of client interaction? Or are you looking to expand to multiple (or many) locations? Consider your big-picture goals first. Only then will you be able to set tangible financial goals to help you achieve them.

Set goals for the year ahead

Chances are, you have a long list of dream projects for your studio. Whether it's purchasing new equipment, hiring additional staff, or opening a new location, you'll need to analyze the potential costs and profitability of each goal. Recognizing that you may not be able to accomplish everything in the near future, set your priorities and look closely at the anticipated returns of each investment. Here are six steps to forecasting revenue at your business.

You may want to start with specific areas of your business that performed better than expected over the past year. Are certain types of classes more popular than others? Are you getting more requests for personal training or virtual programs?  Have you identified which times have the highest attendance? Look at what's already working as you consider what’s next.

Next, set targets and timelines to help develop your goals. For example, maybe you want to increase members by 10% by the end of the second quarter or create a monthly newsletter that reaches a subscriber list of 5,000 by the end of the year. Whatever you decide, get specific. Once you know what you want to achieve and when you want to do it by, you can then outline what you need to do to make it happen.

Achieve your goals

Now that you've outlined goals, you'll need to determine the most effective ways to achieve them. For example, do you need to:

• Hire additional team members to support membership growth?
• Invest in AI to alleviate a busy front desk?
• Open a new location to expand customer reach?
• Add virtual or in-person classes to take advantage of new fitness trends?
• Adjust class times to spark the interest of new customers with varying schedules?
• Buy or lease new fitness equipment to accommodate a growing number of clients or to offer new fitness types?

The actions you decide to take will depend entirely on what you're looking to achieve. Again, get specific when setting these plans in motion and outline concrete action steps and timelines to keep your team organized and on track.

Invest in your business

As the new year begins, add your designated projects to your annual budget. If you need more income to cover expenses, evaluate your options. Will you need to raise your membership fees or add services to bring in funds to pay for new equipment or staff? If you want to expand your customer base, you may need to increase your marketing budget. You may even be interested in a cash advance to help manage short-term cash flow needs to make certain investments into your fitness studio. If so, Mindbody Capital can help with that.

The new year is a time for reflection and goal setting. We hope the tips above encourage you to take time upfront to outline a plan to set your team (and business) up for long-term success.