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December Is When Next Year's Success Gets Decided

December 10, 2025

December Is When Next Year's Success Gets Decided

Studio Featured Above: Élysio Studio

Written by Seran Glanfield

December feels like survival mode for most Pilates studio owners.

Classes are half-full. Clients are traveling. Teachers are requesting time off. Your energy is depleted from holding everything together since January. You're just trying to make it to the holidays so you can finally exhale.

But here's what the most successful Classical Pilates studio owners know: December isn't the end of your business year. It's the beginning of your next one.

The choices you make in December—about your focus, your offerings, your capacity, your systems, determine whether next year feels like more of the same exhausting hustle or whether it's the year your studio finally becomes what you envisioned when you opened it.

December is when clarity happens. When strategy replaces reaction. When you stop running your business day-to-day and start building it year-to-year.

Why Most Pilates Studio Owners Skip This Step (And Why It Costs Them)

Most studio owners don't plan strategically in December because they're too tired to think beyond next week. Or they tell themselves they'll "figure it out in January" when things pick up again.

But January doesn't give you space to plan. January demands execution. Clients are back. New inquiries are coming in. Teachers need direction. Your schedule is full again. By the time you try to create a strategy, you're already behind.

The studios that grow consistently don't plan in the chaos of January. They plan in the relative quiet of December. They use the slower pace not as an excuse to coast, but as an opportunity to get strategic.

And the difference shows. By February, while other studios are still figuring out what they're doing, these studios are already building momentum.

What Strategic Planning Actually Means

Strategic planning doesn't mean creating a 40-page business plan or complex financial projections. It means getting honest about where your studio actually is, where you want it to go, and what needs to change to close that gap.

It means asking yourself the questions you've been too busy to ask:

What worked this year? Which offerings generated revenue and brought in your ideal clients? Which teaching relationships strengthened your studio? Which marketing efforts actually converted?

What didn't work? Which programs drained your energy without producing results? Which clients or partnerships weren't aligned? Which habits kept you stuck in reactive mode?

What do you want next year to look like? Not what you think you should want—what do you actually want? More teaching time or less? A team or solo? Growth or sustainability?

What has to change for that to happen? This is the question most studio owners avoid because the answer requires uncomfortable shifts. But it's also the only question that matters.

Strategic planning is simply honest reflection combined with intentional decision-making.

The December Strategic Roadmap: Four Focus Areas

A strong strategic plan doesn't require months of work. It requires focused attention on the right areas. Here's where to direct your energy:

1. Revenue Reality Check

Look at your actual numbers from this year—not what you hoped they'd be, but what they were. Total revenue. Revenue per client. Revenue by offering (privates, duets, classes, packages). Monthly patterns.

Where did your revenue actually come from? Most studio owners are surprised when they see the data. The offering you spend the most time on might not be your most profitable. The package you think everyone buys might only appeal to a small segment.

Decide what you want your revenue to look like next year and reverse-engineer it. If you want $20K months, what does that require? How many active clients at what average spend? What combination of privates, duets, and small groups gets you there without burning out?

This isn't about setting arbitrary goals. It's about building a business model that's mathematically sound and personally sustainable.

2. Offers and Offerings Audit

Your schedule is full, but is it full of the right work?

Look at every offering in your studio—privates, duets, group classes, workshops, packages. Ask yourself:

Does this generate meaningful revenue relative to the time it requires?

Does this attract and retain my ideal clients?

Do I actually want to keep doing this, or am I doing it out of obligation or momentum?

Classical Pilates studio owners often hold onto offerings because "we've always done it" or because one or two clients like it—even when it's not serving the business. Strategic planning means being willing to eliminate what's not working, even if it feels uncomfortable.

What do you want to build, expand, or introduce next year? A waitlist-worthy small group program? A mentorship offering for newer teachers? A signature workshop series that positions your expertise?

December is when you decide what stays, what goes, and what gets created.

3. Systems and Capacity

If next year looks like this year—you doing everything, holding it all together, being the answer to every question—you haven't planned strategically. You've just committed to more of the same.

Strategic planning requires looking at your capacity honestly. Where are you maxed out? What tasks are you doing that someone else could do? What systems don't exist yet that would create leverage?

This doesn't mean you need to hire a full team in January. It means identifying where you're the bottleneck and building a plan to address it. Maybe it's a client onboarding sequence that doesn't require your manual input. Maybe it's training a teacher to cover certain sessions. Maybe it's a scheduling system that reduces the admin burden.

The studios that scale don't work harder—they build infrastructure. December is when you map out what that infrastructure needs to be.

4. Marketing and Visibility Strategy

Most studio marketing is reactive. A slow week prompts a social post. A gap in the schedule triggers an email. You're marketing out of panic, not strategy.

Strategic marketing means deciding now who you're trying to reach next year, what message will resonate with them, and how you'll show up consistently to build trust.

Do you want to attract more serious practitioners who value classical training? More beginners who need education? More referrals from existing clients?

What will you create to stay visible and relevant—regular content, workshops, partnerships, collaborations? How will you make it easy for people to discover and choose your studio?

You don't need a complex content calendar. You need clarity on your positioning and a repeatable system for communicating it. December is when you define that.

Evaluating Your Equipment (And Why It Matters More Than You Think)

Most studio owners overlook equipment when planning strategically, but apparatus isn’t just a purchase, it’s a foundational business decision. The equipment you choose shapes your teaching, your client results, your studio’s identity, and ultimately your revenue.

For Classical studios, investing in the right equipment isn’t about aesthetics or trends. It’s about creating a training environment that supports precision, reliability, and long-term consistency in movement.

As you map out next year, ask yourself:

Is your current apparatus supporting the quality of work you want your studio to be known for? Look at what clients naturally gravitate toward—Reformer sessions, Chair work, Cadillac classes, or Barrel focused programming.
Which accessories are most popular? Are clients requesting the Foot Corrector more often than the Airplane Board? Do you need to stock up on Rubber Pads, Pillows, or other essentials before the new year?
Do you have the right mix of pieces to grow the offerings you want to expand next year? Think privates, small groups, mentorship pathways, or teacher training.
Is it time to upgrade, add, or phase out equipment to align your studio?

When your equipment supports the Pilates method at its highest level, everything else becomes easier—teaching, client retention, programming, and even marketing.

Your equipment isn’t just part of your studio; it’s part of your strategy. December is the moment to assess whether what you have aligns with the studio you’re building next.

What Happens When You Plan Strategically

The studios that take December seriously don't just have better January's. They have better years.

They start January with clarity, not confusion. They know what they're building, what they're saying no to, and what success actually looks like. They're not reactive—they're intentional.

They make decisions faster because they have a roadmap. When opportunities arise, they can evaluate them against their plan instead of saying yes to everything and burning out by March.

They build momentum instead of constantly restarting. Because they're working from strategy, not scrambling from urgency.

And they actually enjoy their businesses again. Because they're running them, not being run by them.

December Is Not the Finish Line

You didn't open your studio to be exhausted, reactive, and trapped in a business you can't step away from. You opened it to share something you love, to build something meaningful, to create work that matters.

That vision is still possible. But it requires more than hope and hustle. It requires strategy.

December is when you stop, reflect, and decide what next year is going to be. Not what it might be if everything magically falls into place—but what it will be because you built a roadmap and committed to following it.

The studios that grow aren't lucky. They're strategic.

What needs to change in your studio for next year to be different?

About

Seran Glanfield, founder of Spring Three and host of the award-winning Pilates Business Podcast, is a leading business coach and consultant to boutique fitness studio owners around the world. With over a decade of hands-on experience, Seran has masterminded the growth and development of hundreds of studios, becoming the go-to expert for those looking to scale their studios, transforming them into sustainably profitable, streamlined studios. Seran’s expertise encompasses all facets of business management, including marketing, retention, sales, team management, pricing, and strategic growth. A graduate from the prestigious London School of Economics, Seran is also a certified business consultant and both Power Pilates and Romana’s Pilates trained Certified Pilates Teacher.

To learn more about working with Seran and Spring Three, go to: Spring Three or follow @seran_spring_three