How Much Does it Cost To Open a Pilates Studio?

If you’re in the early stages of planning to open your own independent Pilates studio, you may want an idea of the typical costs for opening and the aspects you need to consider.

Costs of opening a Pilates studio

Broadly speaking total costs for establishing an independent Pilates studio vary depending on the scale of business you had in mind, investment levels can start as low as $50,000 and go up to as much as $500,000 or even higher.

If you’re looking at a sizeable venture that could bring in a very high income, then you’d be looking at the higher end of this scale. You’d need a space in excess of 150 square meters, dozens of high-quality wooden or metal Pilates reformers and other equipment. You’d need an upmarket attractive studio and convenient location to create the ultimate workout experience for your members.

However, you could also keep things small, with a simple studio of around 40 square meters or less, and just a few pieces of Pilates equipment. You would then be in for a more modest layout costing $50,000 or sometimes even less.

Elements to consider

When deciding on your approach to your Pilates Studio you’ll need to consider elements such as:

• Buildout/fit-out/construction costs

• Building plans/blueprints

• Cost of negotiating a lease and getting a commercial lease in place

• Town planning/local government costs to ensure the business has the right to operate from the premises

• Rent in advance

• Utility bonds and costs for connecting utilities to the premises

• Signage

• Pilates Equipment

• Computers

• Legal costs

• Insurance costs

• Accounting costs

• Loan establishment costs (if taking out a loan)

• Office supplies

• Printing costs for promotional material for the launch of the business

• Branding and graphic design

• Website development

• Photography costs

• Staff recruitment costs

• Staff training costs & wages

• Uniforms

• Pre-launch marketing costs

• Wages for pre-launch marketing

• Working capital for wages and other expenses for the first few months of trade

While this list might look like a fairly straightforward checklist, you need to bear in mind the time and effort involved in sourcing and vetting suppliers as well as the time it takes to research each aspect, working out and documenting processes, procedures and paperwork and organising business set up.

And of course, there will be hiccups and mistakes along the way. It’s all part of the learning journey when you start your own business.

Consider the alternative route

If that sounds daunting, you may want to consider the alternative to striking out completely on your own and look into owning your own studio as part of our franchise network.

When you buy into a franchise, you acquire the years of experience and the proven operating system of the franchisor. A great deal of time and money is spent in trial and error by any new business, but a proven franchise gets rid of many of those start-up problems, allowing anyone to open a franchise despite little or no previous experience in business or a specific industry. Much of the work needed to launch a business idea has already been done. Products and services are established and tested, branding and trademarks are registered, and data is collected on what locations and demographics work best for the business.

The franchisor has already worked out the pitfalls and created a solid scalable foundation and roll-out methodology - everything from equipment and site selection, to marketing, pricing, and product or service range,  so that you don’t have to rely on guesswork or learn from mistakes. Have a look at our blog Ten Good Reasons to choose a Franchise to see why a franchise could be a better option.

With a Studio Pilates franchise, you are given access to experts who will assist you in each of these key pre-launch areas as well as providing advice, support and education on how to operate a lucrative Pilates studio business on an ongoing basis. This is something that is much more difficult when going it alone and you may end up spending years figuring out the right way to do certain things and waste tens of thousands of dollars in the process.

Investing in a franchise can truly fast-track success. A franchise allows you to realise your dream of being a business owner, while maintaining greater financial freedom and flexibility with your time.

We may be biased but we believe that Studio Pilates is the best Pilates franchise going. Read why here, and once we’ve made our case, why not take a look at some of our franchisee interviews and videos to get some different perspectives?

Read more blogs about opening a Pilates Studio here.

If you want to find out more about the costs and potential rewards of a Studio Pilates franchise, book a no-strings chat with our Franchise team or email joinus@studiopilates.com.