We have another incredible success story from Terri Fry. Terri was hired on as a manager at The Hot Yoga Factory in Chelmsford, Mass in 2011. She went on to purchase the studio in January 2015. It has since grown from 35 to nearly 400 members and increased revenue by a whopping 250%. 60% of that coming from memberships alone. Terri is now moving on to her next adventure: a consultant to the health and fitness industry. This post covers her recommendations for growing your business and how to contact Terri for consulting work.
Terri knew she wanted to build something to save towards retirement and move closer to family. She is not originally from the east coast. This meant she would only have seven to 10 years to run a studio and make it a success. “The best time to sell your business is when it’s booming. So I treated the business like I was going to sell it from day one,” Terri says. “That’s not always common with business owners. Most people don’t think about selling their business until they have to sell it. Maybe by that point they could have done some things differently years before to set themselves up for a good sale.” Having a clear focus and timeline for transitioning out of the business paid off for Terri. The success of The Hot Yoga Factory allowed her to max out her 401K towards retirement, save up a nest egg for the next phase in her life, and buy a home closer to family.
Bonus: Terri recommends Mitch McGinley at Boutique Fitness Solutions. Mitch specialize in real estate for the health and wellness industry.
Owners should be able to show the true value of their business to sell it or get a loan. “As a small business owner, you can take money out of the business to pay yourself on the backside. The challenge with that is if you are not recording all of your income, then you are not showing the accurate value of your business” Terri warns. “When it comes time to sell, you can say the business is worth X on the books, but really it is worth Y because I took out all of this cash. However, how can you prove that?” Through accurate record keeping, Terri was able to show potential buyers The Hot Yoga Factory memberships were going up year over year, the percent of revenue from memberships was increasing, and the studio’s financials matched what was in MINDBODY. Terri currently helps other businesses properly track important numbers such as KPI (key performance indicators) through her consulting business.
“When I took over the studio, we were using punch cards to track class packages and index cards with hashtags for unlimited memberships. This meant 35 members had to be manually processed each month. So the first big change was incorporating a computer system.” Terri went live with MINDBODY in October 2015 to smooth out the sales process and immediately saw results. By the end of the first year, The Hot Yoga Factory doubled its revenue and her business grew from 35 to 100 members. Perkville was launched in May 2017 to help retain the growing membership base and attract new ones. “Clients received the most points for referring a friend and becoming a member- behaviors we wanted to drive. 2017 ended up being another fabulous year with almost 200 members.” In addition to MINDBODY and Perkville, Terri uses SubSync, FitGrid, and Brandbot platforms. “I leveraged all of the technology I could to grow the business. Now the new owner is starting off with solid sales and systems right out of the gate.”
In 2016 Terri connected with MINDBODY University to get the most out of the robust POS System. Their KPI workshop inspired her to reevaluate the studio’s pricing so clients get the most value out of memberships as opposed to drop-ins or class packages. She also learned, via a MINDBODY intensive course, the studio had 700 open class spots.
“At the time we had 300 members, more teachers and 30 classes. I thought we needed a bigger studio space, but really some time slots were under capacity.” The Perkville time bonus was turned on which helped improve attendance in less popular classes. “MINDBODY provides you with a template: here are the best practices for how to grow your business and dial in the sales process. I started working methodically through their recommendations and each time I saw results.” The Hot Yoga Factory sales were up 30% year over year in 2018 and they were teaching 35 classes at 80% capacity consistently by the end of 2019, exceeding 2018. Terri received the MINDBODY Visionary Award in 2018 and 2019 for her entrepreneurship.
When the COVID19 pandemic hit, The Hot Yoga Factory quickly adapted to new normals. Not only did the studio go virtual, but it already had a karma program in place to help first responders and people who could no longer afford to pay to attend class. The changes opened up new opportunities for growth. “People who moved out of the area rejoined because they were able to attend class online. We also created a new virtual membership that included on-demand classes with MINDBODY, live classes with Zoom and in-person classes. So now our unlimited membership is truly an all-access pass.”
If you would like to work with Terri Fry to improve your business, contact terri@nomadbusinesscoaching.com or book a consultation → here. Consultation services are for MINDBODY and non-MINDBODY clients and focus on establishing a solid foundation for your business such as:
Terri will help you build a strong foundation for your business.
