I’ve been getting lots of emails recently about when I’m planning to restart face to face classes. It’s been lovely to hear from people especially those who I haven’t seen on a screen for over a year!
After a year of the pandemic I completely understand the desire to be back together in real life, I have missed it like everyone else. But, for independent service providers like me, the path forward isn’t exactly clear.
While the government says group classes will be permitted in a month or so if we stay on track, unfortunately the schools I have previously used will not be open for evening class bookings until September at the earliest.
If the last year has taught me anything, it’s that planning too far ahead is not exactly time well spent. So I’m not going to be pre-selling or promising that classes will be going ahead as they were previously, because who knows what the situation will be at that point.
However, I do love an in-person pilates session, so I’ve got some scenarios I’m working on.
The first one is obvious, do a weekly outdoor class. When the sun is shining this idea makes perfect sense, but as we know the weather is far from guaranteed. I’d also need to charge for a block booking, so I can plan for specific numbers of attendees, which works great for me, but not for everyone else...especially if it buckets down on a Monday night.
So, what about a mix of the ways things have been and the way they could be. What if I did a monthly in person class for all the Studio Pass members (my online class platform)? We could pick a public park that’s suitable or you could come round to my garden and I’d do a session where we could be safely in the same space together. Obviously the commute for the latter works out great for me, but I appreciate you don’t all live in Stockport!
I could do one every month between now and September and then we review where we are at when autumn comes our way.
I miss you all and I would love your thoughts and feedback on this. Like absolutely everyone else, I’m feeling this one as I go!