She gave notice, but I didn't panic
The Art of the Pivot, business-owner edition
Our studio manager gave notice on a Monday. By Wednesday, I had decided not to replace her role.
Of course I’m disappointed. I love this person dearly, and over the past two years, she has assisted me with documenting every operational detail of my studio. But despite my disappointment, I am genuinely excited for her future.
Still, the prevailing reaction when a right-hand team member leaves is usually panic. But not me, not this time. Rather than anxiety, I feel opportunity.
This is partly due to having been around this block a few times. Resignations are a normal and natural part of the business lifecycle. In the past, I took them personally and left the meeting deeply gutted. But it’s different these days.
All of this happened nearly three weeks ago, and we have just two more days together.
In the time since her notice, we built an abbreviated, instructor-specific SOP from a longer one, created QR codes for opening and closing duties, shift-end tasks and late cancellations, held a team meeting that went better than expected and coached our instructors on using the app for client management.
The transition is well underway. It turns out to be a smaller effort than anticipated because everyone is leaning in together.
That result is not nothing. It is the result of teamwork: an old-fashioned notion in this era of AI-generated employees and volume-happy private equity studios.
It is also the thing that makes a studio like mine different from many of the new ones cropping up around Austin.
The part I have been circling around
Our Q2 numbers told part of the story. The other part is this: my studio is in a deliberate evolution. Not a response, and not a retreat. Rather, I’ve made an intentional decision built on an honest read of what is happening in this industry and the climate Somaspace was built for.
The boutique fitness market is being reshaped by private equity at a scale most independent studio owners are starting to feel. Studios that have been lean for years are being outspent on marketing, facilities and the appearance of scale.
The instinct is to compete on those terms. I am choosing not to.
The decisions being made at Somaspace right now require patience and a willingness to move differently than the market expects. But we’ve always been an outlier. And in all honesty, the next steps pass my gut-check.
The insight brought by a resignation
Before our studio manager resigned, we had already started moving the desk off the desk and into the studio, particularly for our intro clients.
The conversations that came from that shift were different. An instructor converting an intro client to a long-term pricing option is different from a follow-up from the front desk. Moving this conversation back to the instructor is a natural next step, as that’s where the relationship begins.
This is not a new idea. Many studios still operate this way, and it’s how Somaspace ran things from 2015-2022.
So why did we make a shift in 2022? The desk role grew largely from my desire for more support. It gave me much-needed space to host more GYROTONIC® coursework and build a studio coaching business. It also provided the simple luxury of help. Help with all the things: process documentation, team coverage, client management and just being my eyes-and-ears when I’m off-site.
But it also created a distance between the instructor and client. It detracted from our high-touch approach. And our instructors became increasingly oblivious of the actions needed to ensure their paycheck.
Redistributing those responsibilities is allowing us to course-correct. And with the admin payroll burden removed, it’ll help our margins considerably, too.
For the studio just starting out
If you’re in the early days of studio ownership with no front desk, I understand exactly what your days look like. You are doing everything: teaching, following up, scheduling, checking clients out, answering texts.
Most people treat this as a phase to outgrow as quickly as possible. But after 17 years of trial and error, I say stay the course. It might just be the best model for financial sustainability.
That’s all for this week. We’ll see what the next one brings.
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-Amanda