Your first timetable, and why fewer classes is the right answer
The most common mistake in a new reformer studio is not pricing or marketing. It is opening with a timetable built for the studio you hope to be in a year.
It comes from a good instinct: be available, do not turn anyone away, look established. The result is fifteen classes a week teaching to two or three people each, which is exhausting to teach, expensive to run, and reads to a first-time visitor as a studio nobody goes to.
Why a smaller timetable fills faster
The same forty attendances spread across fifteen classes is under three per class. Across eight classes it is five, which in a six-reformer room is a class that feels full. Nothing changed except the number of slots, and yet one version looks like a failing studio and the other looks like a busy one.
That perception is not vanity. A full-feeling class is better to teach, better to attend, and produces the word of mouth that fills the next one. An empty one does the reverse, and it does it in front of exactly the people you are trying to convert.
A first timetable that works
For a single-room studio with one teacher, six to eight classes a week is a sensible opening. Something like:
| Slot | Who it is for | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Two early mornings (7 or 7:30) | People who train before work | Reliable, habitual, and they book weeks ahead |
| Two evenings (18:00 or 18:30) | The after-work crowd | Your easiest classes to fill and your most competitive slot locally |
| Two mid-mornings (9:30 or 10:00) | Parents after drop-off, shift workers, retired clients | The hours nobody else in town is competing for |
| One weekend morning | Everyone who cannot make the rest | Often the class that brings first-timers, because it is the one their friend can also make |
The mid-morning pair is the one new owners cut first and should not. It is the least competitive hour in most towns, it suits the demographic most likely to buy a ten-pack rather than a drop-in, and it is where a beginners class actually works.
Give two of them a reason, not just a time
"Tuesday 10am" is a slot. "Beginners, properly" is a reason to come on a Tuesday at 10. New studios have an advantage here that busy ones lose: you can afford to run a genuinely slow beginners class, and it is the single best on-ramp for people who have never touched a reformer and are quietly terrified of the springs.
When to add the ninth class
One test: an existing class has been at or near capacity for three consecutive weeks and has a waitlist. Not "it was full last Wednesday". Three weeks, with people who wanted in and could not get in, which is a number you should be able to see rather than remember.
Add the new class adjacent to the full one, same day, an hour either side, before you try a brand-new day or a brand-new hour. You are splitting a proven demand rather than gambling on an unproven one.
Publish your first timetable in under an hour, and pay nothing until your studio takes €1,000 in a month.
Start for freeCommon questions
- How many classes a week should a new Pilates studio run?
- Six to eight for a single-room studio with one teacher. The same attendance spread across fewer classes produces classes that feel full, which is better to teach, better to attend, and generates the word of mouth that fills the next one.
- What are the best class times for a reformer studio?
- Early morning and after work fill most easily and are also the most competitive locally. Mid-morning is the slot new owners cut first and usually should not: it has the least competition, it suits clients who buy packs rather than drop-ins, and it is where a genuine beginners class works.
- When should I add another class to the timetable?
- When an existing class has run at or near capacity for three consecutive weeks with people on the waitlist. Add it adjacent to the full class, an hour either side on the same day, so you are splitting proven demand rather than gambling on a new slot.