9 Steps for Opening a Profitable Pole Dance Studio
Pole fitness studios offer a fun way to get fit—without necessarily feeling like you’re exercising. It’s the ultimate total body workout.
With more and more women looking for local pole classes, this is a great type of studio to open.
But if you’re opening a pole dance studio for the first time, you can get lost in all the intricate details that need to be sorted out.
In this guide, we dive into the steps to follow to ensure that your studio will be a success.
What’s in this guide:
Why open a pole fitness studio?
Officially a sport since 2006, pole fitness is still gaining in popularity and represents a great business opportunity for a boutique studio.
Dance is now considered a form of therapy, and pole dancing in particular is effective for improving one’s self-concept as it relates to sexuality. Because this form of fitness combines creative expression, sensual movements, and power exercises, it can be used to gain confidence, redefine societal norms of female sexuality, increase mental well-being, and—when combined with talk therapy—help heal sexual traumas.
9 steps to opening a successful pole dance studio
Follow these steps to open a pole fitness studio your clients will love.
Step 1. Research the local market
You’re going to want to make sure that there’s a need for a pole dance studio in your area.
While there isn’t data specifically for pole dance studios, according to Bloomberg, in general fitness studios tend to be located in areas with a higher-than-normal amount of college grads and creative professionals. Proximity to public transit centers is another positive indicator.
Here are some signs that your studio might succeed:
- There is no pole dance studio in your town.
- There is no pole dance studio within a 20-mile radius.
- You live in an urban area and the nearest pole dance studio is lacking in some area.
When checking out existing studios in the area, make sure to read online reviews and sign up for a couple of classes. Unless the studio is over 20 miles away, the location won’t be enough to win market share. You’ll need a differentiation strategy, meaning you should be able to offer better classes, workshops, prices, and/or customer service.
Step 2. Set up the legal aspects of your business
Next, it’s important to cover your bases and manage the legal aspects of starting a business.
You’ll need to start on a business name and incorporate it in your state or province. You will also need to purchase liability insurance, as pole dancing is prone to injury.
Step 3. Choose your studio space
Now comes the fun part: choosing your studio space!
The more densely populated your area, the more pole fitness studios your city can support. Suburban or rural towns will probably only be able to support one pole fitness studio per zip code. Be willing to make modifications (such as installing flooring), so you can prioritize location above all else.
Look for a studio space where one instructor and eight to fifteen dancers can comfortably fit.
Once you’ve chosen your studio space, you’ll also need to work with the city or county government to register your business, pay local business taxes, and get the appropriate business licenses.
Step 4. Purchase equipment
Before you can open your studio, you’ll need to get it ready with the right equipment and installations.
Here are the essentials:
- Flooring – If the studio doesn’t already have wood flooring, you’ll need to install it. Here are some great flooring options for dance studios.
- Poles – Of course, you’ll need to purchase poles. Lupit and X-POLE are popular brands for studios.
- Mirrors – You’ll also need to install floor-to-ceiling mirrors at least in the front of the studio, if not all around.
- Lighting – Set the mood of your studio with lighting installations. You might want to add black lights or other type of lighting that you can turn on and off for specific classes.
- Crash mats – Crash mats should be available so novice dancers can use them if they choose.
- Water – It’s also a good idea to have a water jug and paper cups, or a water-bottle refilling station.
- Retail products – You might want to offer pole dance clothing, shoes, and accessories for sale in your studio. Dragonfly and PoleActive are great options to consider.
- Retail shelving – If you choose to offer retail products, you’ll need the appropriate shelving or clothing racks to display them.
- Point of sale – To sell products in person, you need a point of sale (POS) system that connects to your phone or tablet.
Step 5. Get the right software
You’ll need an all-in-one platform like WellnessLiving to help you run your studio. WellnessLiving offers a website builder, membership sales, appointment booking, events management, retail POS, staff management, and more.
By consolidating your business tasks under one roof, you don’t have to fuss with complicated software integrations.
Spotify only offers consumer streaming rights. So, you’ll also need a music streaming platform licensed for business use, like Soundtrack Your Brand.
Step 6. Hire instructors and create your class schedule
The next step is to figure out which pole dancing classes you want to offer. It’s a good idea to start by assembling your team of instructors, and then consult with them about which types of classes they’d like to offer.
A small studio might offer one class a day to begin. You can always ramp up to more daily pole sessions from there.
Step 7. Create a marketing plan
Next up, it’s time to market your studio. The top strategies for pole fitness studios include social media, prominent signage, referral partnerships with other local businesses, flyers, search engine optimization, and pay-per-click advertising.
At the very least, start by creating business listings on sites like Google, Yelp, and WellnessLiving Explorer.
Check out our top gym marketing strategies and tips on word-of-mouth marketing to dive in deeper.
Step 8. Host an opening event
The success of your opening event can have a major impact on your revenue in the first quarter of your business. This is your chance to get a big turnout, enroll your first members, and inspire word-of-mouth referrals.
Here are some ideas you can mix and match to create the perfect opening event for your studio.
- Food and drink
- Instructor meet and greet
- Mini classes (10 to 15 minutes long)
- Dance party
- Dance contest
- Silent disco
- Pole dance gear and clothing pop up shop
- Free week-long memberships or membership discounts
- Sweepstakes and giveaways
Make sure to use WellnessLiving to create the event page registration, so you can automatically ask all attendees to review your business online. Reviews help boost your rankings in listing sites and search engines.
Step 9. Optimize your business model and marketing campaigns
And lastly, it comes down to the day-to-day decisions you make when running your business.
If you run your business using an all-in-one platform, you’ll be able to access robust reporting on every aspect of your business.
WellnessLiving makes it easy to analyze trends in memberships, retail sales, and marketing campaigns so you can drill down into real insights and make informed decisions.
Ready to build your studio on the right foundation? Request a demo of WellnessLiving.
