Proposal 💡 for a monthly "partner plan"

[jj]

Now that Out Fitness is 7 months in, with 60+ participants (and several loyal regulars), I’m giving lots of thought to our pricing structure. Can you help me think this through?

Currently, our monthly revenue is covering less than 75% of our studio costs, and we’re about 50% of the way towards our sustainable revenue goal. I don’t think our pricing is working very well to encourage routine participation, even though we want our community members to keep coming back!

Current pricing situation:

• Every workout or class is $6+ and pay-as-you-go for lowest barrier of entry.
• Working out frequently becomes more expensive for you, which is a disincentive to build a long-term routine here.
• With this model, it is also difficult for me to predict Out’s revenue and plan for future costs.

Our equity goals:

• Low and flexible costs for participation, so our community can be as inclusive as possible
• Opportunities for more resourced people to contribute more to the collective
• Class instructors keep 100% of direct payments (tips) from their participants

Proposal for Partner Plan:

• $30 /month (similar to 3-5 pay-what-you-can, private workouts), with ability to cancel and reactivate plan at any time
• Partners can book unlimited private workout times and can continue to bring 1 free guest
• Partners get $1 off any class (i.e. reserving your class spot is free)
• Partner Plan could also be a way to make a recurring donation (i.e. you can buy an extra plan to donate for another community member)

UPDATED mockup:

Old mockup

Potential drawbacks of the monthly plan:

• It rewards people who have more money to pay upfront. With our booking system (Acuity), I cannot find a way for participants to “earn” a monthly plan by accumulating their pay-as-you-go workouts.
• The plan pricing is not fully flexible – that is, more resourced people can’t choose to pay $40 or $50 monthly even if they’d like to. However, they can still pay extra for their private workout bookings as well as tip their class instructors more.
• Partners might claim lots of class spots and then not show up (but we could implement a no-show fee if necessary).

What do you think? This would be our first pricing change since October 2022, so the more input I can get, the better the decision can be.

[itsluciana]

I like the idea! Would partners get priority in booking workout hours? Also, could there be partner-only classes?

[jj]

Ooh that’s a cool idea for some partner perks.

[sammoose]

I like this too!
As for what to do if people miss their scheduled time, maybe there’s some penalty of losing your monthly membership if you miss X number of workouts without prior notification. This could help keep people accountable and the calendar as accurate as possible for anyone that wants to drop in.

I appreciate you point about this being more beneficial for people with funds upfront. Maybe you can offer a way to donate a monthly membership? Maybe a “BODO” offer - buy one, donate one? Not sure how to identify who could use the donated one, but maybe it goes into a bucket of more revenue for you to use so more people can workout for less.

[jj]

WOW I love the idea of BODO. Let me see how the website could make that easier. THANKS!

[jj]

This is so helpful, thank you! That’s exactly the kind of flexibility I want us to have that other gyms don’t. I’m thinking the partner plan would replace the six-session pack, since they’re both priced at $30. But I’m going to keep thinking about it.

[jj]

All the feedback has been SO helpful, everyone had good ideas I hadn’t considered. Here’s an updated mockup, and I plan for the checkout page to ask for a donation.

I’m saving the partner-only classes idea for the future.

I think we could launch this next week!