Printable · UK studios
The studio opening checklist
Everything between now and your first class, in roughly the order it needs doing. Timings are typical rather than strict — equipment lead times and your lease will move them. Print it and ignore whatever doesn't apply to you.
6–9 months out
Decide what you are
- Pick the model: group reformer, mat and small equipment, hybrid, or clinical
- Sketch the timetable you want to run — it sets your space and your revenue
- Rough the numbers: rent, equipment, instructor cost, and what a member has to pay
- Decide whether you are teaching on the timetable or running the business
4–6 months out
Make it real
- Register the company and open a business bank account
- Public liability and professional indemnity insurance; employers’ liability if you hire anyone
- Talk to an accountant about the VAT threshold before it becomes a surprise
- Shortlist premises — check floor loading, ceiling height, changing space and parking
3–4 months out
Sign and order
- Sign the lease
- Order equipment — commercial reformers have long lead times and set your opening date
- Buy the domain and secure the social handles
- Start your Google Business Profile verification — it is slow and it blocks nothing else
6–10 weeks out
Get findable and start selling
- Website live, even as a single page — this is when the list starts building
- Sign-up page collecting founding-member interest while the fit-out runs
- Booking system and payments set up and tested with a real card
- Memberships, class packs and your intro offer priced and built
- Listings on Google, Apple, Bing and Facebook, consistent everywhere
4–6 weeks out
People and programme
- Hire instructors — cover is the thing that breaks a new timetable
- Finalise the opening timetable and put it on the site
- Photography: the room, the equipment, the coaches
- Book the launch: an open day, taster classes, or a founding-member window
Opening week
Go
- Full site live and taking bookings
- Founding-member offer running
- Review requests going out automatically after every session
- Somebody on reception who knows the booking system
The middle two sections are the ones people leave too late
Getting findable and selling before you open is what separates a booked first fortnight from an empty one. If you'd rather not build that half yourself, it's what I do.
See what that involves