Who is the typical person who attends your classes or who buys your products?
“Whoever wants to,” you say. “We have all kinds of people.”
Yes, of course you do. However, there is probably a certain type of person that makes up the majority of your clientele. By knowing this person, you can run your studio to cater more effectively to them. In doing so, you will get more of them, be able to better serve their particular needs, and make more money in the process.
Here’s an example: One of my clients wasn’t sure if she should raise prices for memberships. She was concerned that she might lose students. So I asked her to describe her ideal student. We went through the processes of imagining a real person. We gave her a name, appearance, decided that she was health conscious, married, a mother of school-age kids, drove a Lexus and regularly had lunch with other holistically-oriented women at an upscale café.
Again, we looked at her original question, “Should I raise my prices?” Now the question seemed to be much easier to answer. The people she was really striving to serve could easily afford the 15% increase she was considering, and in fact, many of them would not even notice it.
The result? She implemented the increase and didn’t lose a single student! In fact, her monthly profit increased by over $1,000 with practically no effort. Had she not taken the time to consider who her customers really were, she may have delayed this increase indefinitely.
This concepts of knowing your customer’s profile can help in other ways too. Consider the studio owner who learned that many of his students and clients are interested in herbal nutritional supplements. He began selling a line of high-quality supplements and found that not only did he earn money from it, but his students really appreciated him making these items available.
They liked buying them at the studio, and in fact, some of them attended classes more often because they would come to buy supplements and do a class at the same time. Even better was that the word got out that he sold these items, and it brought new students to the studio. Overall, the studio owner was able to better serve his customers and make more money at the same time.
So now, it’s your turn. Who is your ideal client, customer or student? (You may have more than one type of ideal client.) What name would you give them? What do they look like? What do they do for work? Married or single? How much do they earn? Where do they live? What do they do for recreation? What problems do they face in their life? What kind of car do they drive? What kind of food do they eat? Why are they taking yoga?
Once you have the profile down, then ask yourself questions about how you can: 1) Better serve them, and 2) Earn more money from them. And don’t feel bad about wanting to earn more from them. Remember, you are making their life a better place to live, and they are glad to pay you for that. You are helping them, and you certainly deserve to be paid for it.
Can you expand the services you provide to them? Can you raise prices on certain things? Can you offer products that they might buy? Try to focus on things that are easy to implement. It’s natural to fear that with some changes (like raising process) that you might turn off some potential customers, or even lose some current ones. This may be true. However, if you have done your profile accurately, you may find the few you lose will be far outweighed by the benefits you gain from everyone else.
When your studio makes more money, you can better serve your clients. One of the areas I often focus on with clients are ways that they can increase revenues through targeting their primary student or client more effectively. In doing so, they are able to increase their monthly profits, while at the same time better serve their clientele. I encourage you to pick at least one way to do this and give it a try.
Coach Al Lipper
Business Coach for Yoga Studios
Destiny: Success
Website: http://www.CenteredBusiness.com
Email: coach@centeredbusiness.com
Telephone: (805) 544-3938
Coach Al Lipper of ‘Destiny: Success’ helps Yoga studio business owners smoothly run and expand their yoga studio business. He helps stressed and overwhelmed yoga studio business owners who spend most their time wrapped up in daily business tasks, who can’t handle any more clients, or who can’t make any more money out of the business. Coach Al helps clients find new yoga business strategies which result in generating more clients, increased profits, and more free time for the business owner. The amount invested was small compared to the results. Contact him today to discuss your yoga studio challenges at (805) 544-3938 or visit http://www.CenteredBusiness.com
