Scott Capelin, author and founder of inLIFE Wellness, took us on a tour of one of their serenely peaceful studios.

With a unique approach to the market, Scott provides a detailed breakdown of his business approach and the rationale to a number of the decisions made in setting up a studio to create the best environment for members and franchise partners alike.

The Tour (in text)

“Hello, and welcome to inLIFE Wellness. Today I'm going to take you inside one of our studios. 

Just take a moment to hear how peaceful it is around here. 

We like to situate ourselves in residential areas with a strong community feel. We create really serene spaces, although they still have a really warm energy inside. 

A lot of gyms will be quite clinical with a lot of black rubber. We like to make our studios feel like our members are inside a big lounge room. So come on, let's go.

Entry foyer

Here we are, just inside the studio. From the moment a member first steps foot in the studio, we like to make them feel comfortable, welcome, and valued. 

Coming to any sort of formal fitness facility can be a big deal for a lot of members, and we like to greet them, we like to make the place feel like a home away from home. 

Sometimes I think it sounds a bit corny, but we really do like to be the best part of our member's day.

Booking system

A member has already booked into a class on the app. And the booking system works really well. I mean, many years ago, I've worked in large health clubs where the classes would always fill up and members would get to the gym about 45 or 60 minutes prior to a class just to make sure they got their spot. But that's not the case here. 

We look for certain criteria within our location model, the size of the studio, the residential area, which usually results in very low rent. We don't just do Reformer Pilates. 

We've got a lot of other types of classes, and it's a very clever choice in regard to the equipment and the class selection that we do, which results in our member retention, member interest, and lots of variety.

Member accountability

A member comes into the studio and they come up to our check-in screen and they check into a class. That lets us know that they've came. 

We sort of asked ourselves, 'What benefits can we bring to our members?' One is accountability. Accountability to their exercise and their goals. A member walks on through the studio. We encourage a herbal tea both before and after class. 

They're going to come down, put their gear away in one of the holes, and then choose their position for the class.

Reformer Pilates machines

Let's move on to the next couple of things I'd like to show you. I'd like to take a moment to talk about our Reformer Pilates machines, in particular, the ones that we choose to use within our inLIFE Wellness studios. We love the look, the feel, and the functionality of the timber machine. 

Our machines, they're quite high, the carriage is 40 centimeters off the ground, which a lot of people really appreciate, because it's much easier to get on and off them. Really comfortable, super durable.

We have some really terrific supplier relationships which can help you invest in these things and therefore improve the return on investment, getting into an inLIFE Wellness franchise. 

We find that our members are really blown away with these machines. They love the look of them, they love the feel of them, and they just work really well inside our studios.

Studio layout

An inLIFE Wellness studio will have anywhere between 12 and 16 Reformer Pilates machines, depending, of course, on the size of the studio, and it'll have anywhere between 25 and 40 classes in total per week. 

That's Reformer Pilates classes as well as some of our other class types. You can see behind me, there's a class about to start shortly, Athletica. That's a fusion of Reformer Pilates and interval training. Very popular with our members, and just gives them a bit more of a fitness hit and a different focus to their exercise.

Thank you very much for joining me on our studio tour today. I hope you got something out of it. If you have any questions, please reach out, and I hope we speak soon.”

Contact Scott and his team at inLIFE Wellness HERE