How to Open a Successful Pilates Studio: Insights from the Co-Founder of Upstate Studios
Starting a Pilates studio requires passion, strategy, vision and determination - all of which Gail and Charelle, co-founders of the hugely successful Upstate Studios brand in Australia, have in abundance. In our first episode of our Pilates Pillow Talk webinar series, Gail Asbell joined us to share her insights and advice she’s learned along her journey in turning a personal passion for Pilates into one of the fastest-growing studios in the country. Here are some of the key takeaways Gail shared, to help any aspiring studio owners learn from the success and obstacles she faced along the way.
Did you miss the webinar? You can watch it here!
It’s never too late to make a change.
Both Gail and Charelle initially worked in corporate roles, with Gail in branding and marketing before a personal family tragedy saw both sisters turn to yoga to help them cope in such a difficult time. “We were living in different cities and neither of us actually knew we were both practising yoga as a way of dealing with what had happened, until we started chatting one day and realised we’d both been doing lots of yoga.”
Their personal connection to yoga saw them eager to pursue a future in fitness. Yet they found the existing yoga studios in Australia were either too spiritual, or too physical. They ventured to the US, finding yoga to be more accessible over there, and returned to Australia feeling inspired to bring a fresh take on fitness to their home country. It was this determination which led to the beginning of Upstate Studios.
While they initially thought their plans to open a studio would be something they’d do short-term while they raised their young children, Gail said they “just absolutely fell in love with instructing, and building a community and a team.”
Innovation is important.
Initially, they opened their studio focusing on yoga and hot yoga. However, after pregnancy Gail struggled with pelvic instability, which led her to explore the practice of Pilates. “I went to do Pilates and the experience was variable across studios,” she said. “There weren’t many studios at that time, and a lot were very clinical and physio-based. Straight away I resonated with the practice of Pilates, and I felt the changes in my body immediately. But I didn’t love the physio style of one or two people in a class.”
This experience encouraged her and Charelle to reinvent Pilates in a way that mirrored their innovative approach to yoga. They decided to make the practice more engaging and accessible, by offering modern, big group classes.
Gail said the thinking was, “Let’s take all the principles of this amazing practice and the benefits for the body, but teach it in a different group style that wasn’t around so much.” This innovative approach helped Upstate stand out from its competition, with the already strong community continuing to grow rapidly in size and dedication.
Partnerships for purpose.
Gail shared that working with her sister, Charelle, has been crucial to the success of Upstate Studios. They’re able to work well together while playing to their own strengths, with Charelle focusing on operations and Gail taking charge of branding and vision.
“I don’t know if I could ever have a business on my own. I think it’s so nice to share the journey with someone, and that someone being a sibling is amazing. We really give each other the autonomy to work in our own spaces,” Gail said.
She explained that their shared values, constant support for each other, and their personal connection as well as their professional relationship, has allowed them to create an effective and successful leadership duo.
Strategic expansion.
The rapid growth of Upstate Studios has been both organic, and strategic at times. Initially they decided to expand due to high demand for their class offering, with their original Geelong studio no longer able to house all their committed clients.
“The growth was quite organic to start with. Our Geelong business was really prospering and we couldn’t keep up with demand, so we moved from one location to another bigger location” Gail shared. They went on to eventually open their first Melbourne studio which marked a turning point in their expansion strategy.
She said keeping your purpose and your “why” front and centre when making growth and strategy decisions is critical, as well as building up a talented and reliable team of people who can help you scale your business successfully.
However, Gail emphasised the importance of remembering why you’re growing and expanding the business. “We're both very driven and ambitious and we've always wanted to grow, but we've always done it for lifestyle reasons. It’s so important to us to have time with family and to travel, so we always ask ourselves if we can do this and still achieve the things we want to achieve in our personal lives,” she explained.
“You can get carried away once you get into that growth mode, you can just keep going ‘What's next, what's next?’ So we check in on each other to ask: are we both happy? Is this what we want to keep doing, and if not what changes do we need to make to allow us to have the lives that we want to create? And we acknowledge that there are times where you are 100% all-in on business, and family takes a bit of a hit, and other times where you're all-in on being a mum. It's never balanced, we don't strive for balance. I think it's kind of setting you up to fail. Just know that it kind of ebbs and flows between where you need to put your priorities,” Gail advised.
When deciding whether to franchise Upstate Studios, both sisters were reluctant to go down this path. Despite meeting with franchise lawyers and consultants to work through models of how franchising could look, and recognising it would be an easier route given the franchises would be paying for themselves, Gail and Charelle felt it wasn’t the right direction for their expansion.
“The two biggest things that we held most important to us were the brand and the culture, but also the career pathways we developed - and we wouldn't be able to build a big internal team without being corporately owned. So we decided to not go down that path.” Gail said.
Instead, they acquired capital from the Cotton On Group’s Innovation Fund, allowing them to scale Upstate nationally, and sharing their positivity across the country. This allowed the sisters to continue their commitment to creating career pathways for fitness professionals (largely women), in an industry that normally only offers casual and part-time roles without job security or benefits.
Building and valuing a strong team.
Gail credits the Upstate team for contributing hugely to their success - though this commitment goes both ways.
Upstate Studios takes an innovative approach to employment, offering full-time opportunities for their staff - which, as mentioned, is very rare in the industry.
“When we did start to grow the business, one of our very first instructors told us she needed sick leave and maternity leave. So we’ve been on a mission to find other roles for instructors in our team,” Gail explains.
“As we started to hire instructors, most were either casual or contractors,” Gail said. “The reality is that to be full-time you can't just teach a lot of classes - that's too physically demanding. But as a casual contractor, how are you getting sick leave and annual leave and maternity leave? When we did start to grow the business, one of our very first instructors told us she’d have to explore other roles and options in the industry because she needed sick leave and maternity leave. We didn't like being in an industry where the hiring patterns left us unable to support females in their career pathway, so we’ve since really been on a mission to find other roles for instructors in our team, whether that's in customer service or in events, retreats, marketing, sequence trainers. Now we've gone from four or five full-time employees, to now 50 full-time instructors.”
Gail explained that creating these career opportunities and job security has become a big part of their mission, with the result being that they now have a long waitlist of instructors wanting to join their team. The value they place on their team, as well as their commitment to training and upskilling their employees to keep them engaged and motivated has really set Upstate apart in the fitness industry, and ensures they have great staff retention.
“I think because we're offering a lot of training, mentoring and career progression, and trying to pay as well as we can. We’ve attracted just an awesome team of people who want to come on the journey with us, which is so exciting,” Gail said. “We want to take people on the journey with us, and we’ve got staff who have now been with us for years. It's just awesome to share the growth with them, that's very cool.”
The results speak for themselves…
“MindBody shared some data with us, they were looking at the rise of Pilates globally. They looked at global bookings for group Pilates classes… Upstate Geelong was number one, and Upstate Fitzroy was number two. Pilates is having such tremendous growth, now there's people starting to nip at our heels in the US but for now we've got four out of the top 10 studios globally, which is just insane when I think back to where we started,” Gail shared.
“It has been quite organic, but we just feel super grateful that we loved instructing from the day we started. We love building community, it's so close to our hearts. It’s our team and the community that really push us to keep going and doing as best we can.”
Gail’s top tips for aspiring studio owners.
- Follow your passion. Gail and Charelle’s deep personal connection to movement shows how genuine passion can drive innovation, success and growth.
- Differentiate yourself. Take an innovative approach to your service offering and business model. Upstate’s modern, unique approach to Pilates helped set them apart in a competitive industry.
- Build a supportive team, and value them accordingly. Create opportunities for growth and reward for your staff, and actively work to attract and retain the people that matter.
- Regularly assess your goals and priorities. Don’t expand for the sake of expanding, or let growth take control of you. Keep your ‘why’ and your mission front and centre of all business decisions, and prioritise both your professional and personal goals when planning for the future of your business.
- Choose your location wisely! Gail emphasised just how crucial choosing the right place to open a studio can be in Pilates. “Finding the right property and location is so important! The whole process of the fit out, the permitting, and everything else you need to go through, that’s probably the most challenging part of scaling,” she said. “Location and getting the right lease is critical. Once you sign that lease, you’re often locked in for a long time - and if you get a bad deal, it can be really hard to fight your way out of it. Think about the right location from a consumer point of view.”
“I’ve spoken to other studio owners over the years - some of them had awesome businesses, but such a bad deal on their property that it was very hard to be financially viable. Sometimes you do have to say no to a great property if it’s not the right deal,” Gail advised. - Plan out your finances! “You have to do the due diligence of having a financial plan. It breaks my heart to see startups that, a year down the track, have failed financially, despite having the best studio and class experiences. You have to make sure you know your cash flow, and your profit and loss are sound. And if that’s not your forte, then work with someone who can give you a hand to crunch the numbers. Because at the end of the day, you’ve got to be financially viable,” Gail emphasised.
Gail’s belief that “there is room for lots of us in business” means she so generously shared her own learnings, strategies and wisdom - and she plans to continue putting her advice into practice! Upstate Studios has focused all their growth in Victoria strategically until now, but after several more studio openings set within the state this year, they plan on expanding interstate shortly afterwards! Keep up with Upstate’s continued growth and success by following them on Instagram at @upstate_studios or you can follow Gail at @gail_asbell.
For more invaluable insights from leading industry success stories, keep an eye on the @unitehealth socials for upcoming episodes of our Pilates Pillow Talk webinar series! You can expect things to get hot, spicy and oh-so-revealing… Watch this space!