How to open an intimate Pilates studio combined with EMS? An interview with the reFORMer Pilates studio in Katowice.

Do you need a giant space and a dozen or more machines to open a profitable, well-regarded reformer Pilates studio? The belief that success in this industry depends entirely on scale is still very common. Reality, though, points in a completely different direction.

We visited Katowice to talk with Agnieszka Witczak-Romanek and Patrycja Stojecka – founders of the intimate reFORMer pilates studio. The two are also owners of an EMS studio. By combining these two disciplines, they’ve shown that the key to building a stable business is relationships, high-quality 1:1 work, and choosing the right equipment. Read our conversation about passion, moving from talks about motherhood into a shared business, and how the newest Bravo reformer from Balanced Body holds up in practice.

[Iza Wiśniewska from Balanced Body Poland]: How do you open a profitable Pilates studio built on personal training? A lot of people think that succeeding in this industry means you need a huge space and lots of machines. My guests today prove that’s not quite true. We’re in Katowice today at the reFORMer Pilates studio, with Agnieszka Witczak-Romanek and Patrycja Stojecka. Hi girls.

[Patrycja & Agnieszka]: Hi.

[Iza]: Let’s start from the beginning. Where did your story start, because from what I understand, it’s a pretty surprising one.

[Patrycja]: Well, we’ve actually known each other for about 10 years now. Yes, our daughters are 9, so it’s been 10 years, because we met at a mutual friend’s birthday party. I was already pregnant at the time, that was right at the start. Agnieszka suspected she was too, because there’s only a month’s difference between our girls, our daughters, so that’s roughly how it happened. And after that birthday party we stayed in touch. You know, sharing experiences about pregnancy, then birth, then walks together, motherhood, and so on and so on. After that our girls went to the same preschool together, so our paths kept crossing there too. Later that contact, like it goes in life, had its ups and downs, and we’d talk every now and then. And then about two years ago we got to talking again, like: hey, what’s new, how are things. I told Agnieszka that I was planning to change my career path, because, well, I’d burned out where I was working. Aga says: wow, you know what, I’m actually looking for a business partner. And it just clicked! And, well, maybe let’s do it together. Agnieszka already had her EMS studio by then, so…

[Agnieszka]: Yes, I’d already been running it for 3 years, and I just felt like I was missing someone who’d be in it together with me, who’d help me, who’d be there when I couldn’t be.

[Patrycja]: We’d complement each other, because Agnieszka has two kids, I have one, so neither of us can be here from Monday to Friday, morning to evening, so it actually worked out nicely that we complemented each other.

[Agnieszka]: Yes, running a business alone really isn’t the easiest thing. So it’s nice to have someone who’s in it with you.

[Iza]: Mhm. And given how little time you have, with family and everything, how did you fit in even more with Pilates on top of it all?

[Agnieszka]: Well, it basically started with us running the EMS studio together. Patrycja joined me, we split up the days, and that actually freed up a bit of space. And we decided it would be nice to round out that EMS training portfolio with something extra, to work with the client more comprehensively, not just strengthening their muscles, but also working on flexibility, mobility, and the deep muscles. And Pilates had really been in the back of our minds for a while already, we just didn’t have the space for it before. And once we settled into working together at the EMS studio, we decided it would be great to expand that portfolio with reformer Pilates too.

[Patrycja]: Especially since there wasn’t anything like that around here, right? And it’s a nice complement, for instance, to EMS training.

[Iza]: So basically it was a smooth transition from talking about diapers to talking about running a business together?

[Patrycja]: Pretty much. And I think because we already knew each other personally, it made it easier to combine later, right? If you get along with someone in your personal, everyday life, it’s easier to get along in business too.

[Agnieszka]: I think so too.

[Iza]: And how do you split things now? Who handles more of the paperwork, who’s more focused on the studio, on Pilates, on EMS? You’ve got quite a lot going on.

[Agnieszka]: No, generally we’re split pretty fairly. Each of us has our own training days, I think we really complement each other well here.

[Patrycja]: When Agnieszka has an EMS day, I’m doing Pilates, and vice versa. So the whole week, Monday through Friday, is filled up. Of course we pass each other during the day, sometimes there’s even a week where we don’t have time to talk to each other at all, and then in the evening it’s just: hey Aga, this and that. But we manage. These are still early days, because like I said, we’ve only had Pilates…

[Agnieszka]: Since March, so quite recently.

[Patrycja]: Yeah, yeah. And we’re only just getting it going.

[Agnieszka]: It’s going pretty well actually, and I don’t think it’s had a negative effect on either our time or our relationship.

[Patrycja]: Exactly. Exactly. And we had to make use of that space and that time, right? Because like I said, Aga already mentioned that we’d been planning this Pilates thing for a while, we just didn’t have the room. That room was taken before. As soon as we found out it was becoming available, we jumped on it right away.

[Iza]: Okay, so now a question that will probably interest people with a smaller budget, or who’d also like to open a studio like this focused on individual sessions. You’re located in a place that’s associated with mass-market fitness. If you’re from Katowice, you’ll definitely recognize the building — Fabryka Formy, now Zdrofit. So there are tons of people around, and yet you chose individual sessions. Why?

[Agnieszka]: Generally, I think individual training will always be a different kind of training, one that supports our client specifically. The fact that there’s access to a fitness club here, to fitness classes, that’s one thing. And a client who wants to use group classes and the gym, they’ll simply come here for that.

[Patrycja]: And they have that option.

[Agnieszka]: And they have that option, exactly. But people who want something more, who really want to take care of themselves comprehensively, well, they look for individual trainers, right?

[Patrycja]: And consciously, above all, right? Because this kind of training is really something, well, I think it’s a great solution. I mean, group classes, I’m not saying, I’m not against them, God forbid, but it really does let you focus on our client here.

[Agnieszka]: Mhm. And here we’re basically personal trainers too, so we’ve really never run group classes. From the very beginning, whether I was a personal trainer at the gym, or later an EMS personal trainer, and now a Pilates personal trainer, we’ve always focused on working with an individual, not with a group. And that’s where we see the biggest value, right? Building a relationship with the client, supporting them, building a training plan specifically for the person who comes to us, not for a group of people who just want to come and work out, right? We build that training from start to finish. We try to make sure everything is tailored to the client — to their abilities, their goals, their assumptions — and we simply deliver on that.

[Patrycja]: Yeah, clients often joke that it’s a bit like therapy, right? Kind of like seeing a psychologist, because these relationships really do form — Aga, for example, has several clients who’ve been with her from the very start, right? I mean truly…

[Agnieszka]: From the very beginning. I actually have a few clients who’ve been with me since even before I opened the studio.

[Patrycja]: Yeah, so these relationships really do build up, and it’s something nice.

[Iza]: And weren’t you worried, financially, that it just might not add up?

[Agnieszka]: You know, there’s always stress about whether things will add up financially, right? But everyone…

[Patrycja]: But that’s true in every business, isn’t it? Big or small.

[Agnieszka]: …everyone goes through that. But we were in a fairly comfortable position, because we were already starting from a certain level, right? We already had a client base built up from the EMS side, so it was a bit easier for us to grow the Pilates side within all of that. It’s not like we started this business from zero. It’s not like we just opened the studio and waited for clients to show up. We already had those clients, and the client who was an EMS client also became our Pilates client. Because here it’s not really difficult…

[Patrycja]: Right, like, if someone came from EMS to try it out: hey, we’ve got Pilates now, come try it, and usually whoever comes and tries it becomes both an EMS client and a Pilates client right away. So that really worked in our favor.

[Agnieszka]: So I think there wasn’t that much stress around building this business financially, because like I said, we already had a base, right? And I think that’s probably the hardest part of building a business at the start — building up that client base.

[Iza]: And now a question that comes to mind from the perspective of people who might also be interested in a studio like this. Let’s say someone comes to you, comes for, I don’t know, two months, learns, watches — and your sessions are probably more expensive. Do you get any feedback about people giving up and going to group classes that are much cheaper instead?

[Agnieszka]: Honestly, it’s hard to say at this point. Our studio has only been open for Pilates for a short time. And so far, everyone who’s decided to work with us has stayed. There hasn’t been a single person who quit and left, right?

[Patrycja]: Nobody’s escaped yet.

[Agnieszka]: Quite the opposite, actually — right now we’re at the stage where new people keep coming in and using their packages over various stretches of time. But we usually go into long-term collaborations. It’s not like someone comes for one session and that’s it. Usually when someone starts, we sign them up for a longer-term arrangement and get to work. We just carry out the plan. And it’s never happened that someone said, okay, I’ve learned everything now, I’m off. Besides, we know ourselves that you can’t learn Pilates in a month, two, three months, six months, or even a year — it’s a method that stays with you for the rest of your life, and honestly, you can keep rediscovering it for the rest of your life. Every month of training, you discover something new in your body, and it’s definitely not like you already know everything.

[Patrycja]: And these clients are really aware that they’re coming here for a 50-minute session, and that this is one-on-one work, we’re 100% devoted to that person, and I think they appreciate that. And that’s why they stay with us.

[Iza]: So quality and relationships often outweigh everything else and help you retain people?

[Agnieszka]: Exactly. I think that’s the foundation. Because we also have to be honest with ourselves — people don’t really come to classes for the equipment, the machine, the place, but for the person, right? If we don’t build a relationship with them, those people won’t really want to come to a session just because, I don’t know, the décor is nice, right? Okay, sure, that might happen occasionally, but if they don’t build that relationship with the trainer, if the trainer isn’t a good fit for them, it’s just not going to work.

[Patrycja]: Right, and that person won’t come back, won’t show up to training with a smile, right? That’s when they’ll go looking for something else. Like I said, so far it hasn’t happened that someone’s run away from us.

[Agnieszka]: Yet.

[Iza]: No, no, not “yet.”

[Agnieszka]: Well, except maybe out of exhaustion, you know. “Okay, I’m out…”

[Patrycja]: Yeah, yeah, that’s happened, yeah, yeah. Like “I’m never coming back, I don’t have the energy,” but they still come back.

[Agnieszka]: “You wore me out!”

[Patrycja]: Yeah, yeah, exactly. And then: “Ugh, I’m exhausted, but that was great.”

[Iza]: Yeah, a good workout is one where afterward you just want to kill your trainer. We know how it is. Listen, the heart of your small studio is the Bravo reformer from Balanced Body, which came onto the market relatively recently, only last year. It’s still pretty new for us. That makes you, for now, the only one, but you’ll always be the first studio in Katowice to have this reformer. Why did you choose that one specifically?

[Agnieszka]: I think it was honestly meant to be.

[Patrycja]: Yeah, because we’d been talking about Pilates for a long time already. We’d even talked with Balanced Body representatives before. We had the Rialto in mind at some point, because the Bravo didn’t exist yet back then. We’d even done training on the Rialto. And it was like: well, once we have the room, we’ll get the Rialto. But then, once we actually had the room…

[Agnieszka]: The timeline stretched out a bit, right? From having the space to opening the studio, some time passed, right? It’s not like you get the space and open the studio a week later. Unfortunately that process takes a while, there’s a lot of paperwork, training…

[Patrycja]: The training itself takes time too.

[Agnieszka]: …and we also wanted to open the studio really well prepared for the whole venture. And the Bravo reformer actually came out toward the end of the year. And after talking with Krzysztof, we decided this was really the piece of equipment we wanted in the studio, because it’s basically the quintessence, a combination of all the great features of the reformers Balanced Body has ever made, right?

[Patrycja]: It combines all the best features of the earlier reformers.

[Agnieszka]: And I think that’s what decided it. Obviously there’s always a bit of stress investing in completely new equipment, right, something that hasn’t been tested yet, that doesn’t have reviews or feedback yet. But knowing the Balanced Body brand, we knew there was no room for mistakes there.

[Patrycja]: We trusted it, and we weren’t let down. The collaboration overall has been great, because Balanced Body’s service is fantastic. We really can’t afford to be left without a reformer, and here, if something happens, we’ve got it sorted within a couple hours.

[Agnieszka]: Our service technician. The sweet one!

[Patrycja]: Yeah, shoutout to him! Shoutout.

[Agnieszka]: Yeah, our sweet service technician.

[Patrycja]: Yeah, because like I said, if you’ve got a studio with, I don’t know, 12 reformers, even if one breaks down, nothing really happens, right? But here, like I said, we can’t afford to be without one, because that means we’d have to cancel all our sessions. But whenever something happens, it’s a phone call and fast action, so that’s great.

[Agnieszka]: Although honestly, we haven’t really had a chance to use that yet, because the reformer has worked flawlessly basically from day one since we got it. We use it pretty much every day and honestly can’t complain. It’s smooth, it’s stable, you can really tell the construction is solid. Another nice thing is that it’s a bit of an eco-friendly piece of equipment for today’s world, since the reformer’s frame isn’t classic material — it’s made from recycled material.

[Iza]: You mentioned that this reformer combines all the features you wan