In a recent webinar, MyStudio founder Tu Le provided expert insights about building a scalable operational system for multi-location businesses.
Le’s strategy combines proven principles with MyStudio’s dynamic location management software. The platform’s many dynamic tools, like its built-in business task manager, make it the ideal solution for building a scalable organizational model.
Here’s a recap of some of the exciting topics covered in Le’s webinar, including how you can leverage membership software programs like MyStudio to build your business.
The Four Stages Every Location Will Experience
One of the most important lessons gleaned from Le’s webinar is that all multi-location businesses will experience four key lifecycle stages. This holds true whether you’ve just opened your first location or your 51st.
The four stages that every location must navigate include:
- Start-up
- Survival
- Profitability
- Scale
Naturally, transitioning between these stages will take longer and involve greater challenges when you open your original business. However, as you add more locations to your network, you should be able to progress through each stage more swiftly and efficiently.
You can accelerate this process by investing in student attendance-tracking software like MyStudio. This attendance software will improve operational oversight and allow you to move quickly from the survival to the profitability stage.
Laying the Foundation for a Scalable Operation
After outlining the four stages each business location will encounter, Tu Le shared the scale system he developed for his martial arts studio, Incourage. The components of his system include:
Streamlined Product Delivery
Tu Le considers product delivery to be the most critical component of any business, especially when striving to build a scalable operational system. The term “product delivery” refers to your process for delivering your product or service to your target audience.
During the conceptualization/start-up phase, you should determine whether your product is simple to use (or learn) and sell (or teach). A product that’s difficult to use and sell won’t lend itself to scalability. Likewise, if you offer a service that’s hard to teach and learn, you’ll undoubtedly struggle to attract and retain customers.
Addressing this concern requires you to examine your product from both the customer's and instructor’s perspectives.
First, you want to ensure that your product or service appeals to the customer. If they can pick it up quickly, they’re more likely to embrace it and become hooked. Ideally, you want them to be able to incorporate your product seamlessly into their day-to-day lives.
Secondly, you need a product, service, or program that others can teach. For instance, if you’ve mastered an obscure martial art (or any other discipline) that no one else knows, it will be impossible to scale your program. However, if you can train others to lead classes, you’ll be able to launch additional locations.
A Seamless Registration System
Once you’ve optimized your product delivery system, you must remove friction from the customer’s journey. If your registration system is tedious or labor-intensive, it will become difficult to manage as you scale your business.
Ideally, you want to give customers a simple and convenient way to sign up for a membership or buy your services. The easier you make this process, the higher your sales will be. Conversely, if your sign-up process is unnecessarily frustrating or time-consuming, many prospective customers may decide it isn’t worth the hassle.
Fortunately, you can develop a scalable and seamless registration system by employing MyStudio’s location management software. This robust membership management software allows you to effortlessly create multiple membership tiers, set custom pricing, and manage customer accounts from one platform.
MyStudio multi-location studio management software also includes customer-facing tools your clients can use to sign up for memberships, register for classes, and make purchases. and purchase classes. Research has shown that consumers respond positively to such self-service features.
MyStudio even includes attendance-tracking software that you can use to monitor client attendance trends. When you notice dips in certain members’ attendance, you can target them with email marketing or SMS campaigns to encourage them to come back to the gym or invite them to check out new classes and programs.
Administrative Task Management
When you’re managing a single location, you may be able to tackle all the tedious administrative tasks yourself. However, if you’re serious about scaling your business, you need to develop a method for delegating time-draining responsibilities to your team members.
Without a proper task delegation framework in place, you’ll be bogged down from back office work. In turn, you won’t be able to focus on your company’s needs, ultimately ruining your growth momentum and causing you to get stuck in the start-up or survival phase.
MyStudio multi-location studio management software includes internal tools that help you manage tasks across all of your facilities. You can create custom tasks within the location management software, assign them to team members, and set reminders to ensure that the employee fulfills their responsibilities.
For example, imagine your fitness class scheduling software reveals that one of your studios has been double-booked.
You can message the facility manager in MyStudio and ask them to reschedule one of the classes by 5:00 p.m. the day you send the notification. If they haven’t completed the task by the deadline, they’ll receive reminders until the issue is resolved.
Replicable Processes
The final component of Le’s scalable system is making sure you have a replicable process in place that you can implement at every location.
Even though each studio will be run by a separate manager, all of them should follow a set of standardized procedures. The first step to accomplishing this involves creating a detailed set of easy-to-follow policies.
After developing these procedures, you’ll need to ensure that all locations use an identical set of software solutions. If your locations are using disparate scheduling and attendance software, you can’t achieve alignment across your entire business model.
With that in mind, MyStudio’s software suite offers the ideal solution for building a scalable operating system. Whether you’re managing one studio or 100, the entire process is seamless with MyStudio.
To put Le’s insights into action and begin scaling your business, schedule a call with MyStudio today.
