There’s no one right way to grow. Every boutique fitness brand has a slightly different path: maybe you want to open new studios, or expand to different regions, or add new class types.
Whatever your path, Mariana Tek is committed to helping boutique fitness brands grow the smart way. Our Boutique Fitness Growth Playbook is doing exactly that: Offering data-driven strategies for studios ready to scale.
Read on for five growth tips from studio owners who have scaled successfully, and download the full playbook below.
The Best Advice for Boutique Fitness Growth
1) Protect your brand experience above all else
You built your brand through sweat and hard work, and your community keeps coming back because of what makes you unique. Hang onto that advantage when you expand! Studio owners agree: Ensuring a consistent brand experience has to be a top priority.
Sophie Axleson and Anna Rinke are the founders of Homebody Pilates—a fast-growing heated mat and reformer Pilates brand with locations in Austin, TX; Montecito, CA; and Culver City, CA (new!). As Homebody grows to new locations, Sophie and Anna say that maintaining a true Homebody class experience is nonnegotiable. “Growth only works if you can protect the quality that made people fall in love with your brand in the first place.”
While consistent quality is crucial, that doesn’t mean every studio has to be exactly the same:
“When we open a new studio it’s always rooted in the expectations of our studio experience team, but we also allow all our studios to create their own ethos as well. When you go to Austin, you get that southern vibe. When you go to Miami, it’s bright and it’s bold. But it all feels uniquely Studio Three, because the throughline is the way we treat people when they come into the room.”
– Danielle Beattie, Director of Marketing at Studio Three
2) Raise your prices as you expand
Did you know that having more locations can significantly impact your pricing power? Mariana Tek data found that brands that expanded to new locations increased their prices at 2x the rate of those who did not expand.
Those increased prices paired with additional locations grow revenue across the board. Multi-location studios also have a 60% higher average monthly revenue per location than single-location studios.
3) Diversify your offerings to grow with your clients
There are more paths to growth than physical expansion. We’re also seeing leading studios grow revenue by adding new offerings like different class modalities, recovery and wellness services, and personal training:
- New class types: Today’s top studios aren’t defined by a single modality. They know their class schedule needs to reflect how modern consumers want to work out, all while preserving the brand experience throughout all class types. Indoor cycling studio B/SPOKE expanded into strength training, yoga and pilates with the objective of encouraging cross-training in a more intentional way—and it paid off. “Ultimately, adding new modalities didn’t just create incremental revenue, it protected and strengthened the core business,” said Founding Director of Programming Aly Raymer.
- Personal training: Your off-peak hours could be a hidden revenue stream. Converting low-attendance windows into personal training slots is one of the fastest low-lift ways to boost revenue without opening a new location.
- Recovery and wellness services: Cold plunge bookings on Mariana Tek were up nearly 50% year-over-year, while sauna bookings increased by a whopping 219%. “Across the most ambitious multi-location brands, we’re seeing a consistent shift: recovery is becoming a core pillar of the member experience, not an afterthought,” says Jervin Justin, VP of Product Strategy at Mariana Tek. As for how to get it right when adding these offerings, Hype Haus founder Sara Habetz suggests treating recovery sessions as paid, reservation-based services, just like classes. Keeping it structured protects the experience and prevents the demand surge that comes with offering it for free.
Mariana Tek customer survey:
| 27% already offer wellness or recovery services at their studio | 25% plan to add those services within the next 24 months |
Looking for more advice on growing revenue without physical expansion? Our guide explores the data behind five common paths to grow revenue, with insights from leading studios who navigated them. Download here.
4) Optimize your existing client journey
Growth can be found anywhere, even within your existing client base. Making the right small changes to your operations and marketing strategies yields big results. A few of our favorite methods are below (find the full list in the guide!)
- Get clients to visit five times, and retention rates climb above 90%.
- Run challenges every quarter to reset and reinforce the habits that keep members coming back.
- Use a loyalty program to keep brand loyalists engaged and incentivized.
5) Stay disciplined with finances as you expand
Whether you’re bootstrapping your growth or bringing on investors, budget discipline is key. There are always new and exciting things you could add to your studio, but what’s most important is staying locked in on the goal you started with.
Sophie and Anna from Homebody Pilates are funding their growth without investors or debt:
“We do financial reviews every month and we know every dollar coming in and every dollar leaving. It’s very easy for budget to slip, and to get excited by all the cool things a studio can have. But we remind ourselves that what truly matters is the quality of the classes and our community. That discipline lets us scale in a way that’s rapid, yet healthy.”
Grow smarter and scale stronger
Our growth playbook was built using real performance data from hundreds of growing studios. It offers practical insights you can put into practice immediately: Benchmarks around revenue per location, expansion timelines, and regional growth, paired with firsthand advice from operators who’ve been there.
Whether you’re planning your second, fifth, or tenth location opening—or making a long-term game plan for the future—this guide will help you be confident in the right next step for your business.
by Julie Sippy Senior Marketing Manager, Brand & Community
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First published: March 31 2026
Written by: Julie Sippy