The MoveSmart Studio
A copy writing task: pitching a new business
Image: Sonya York-Pryce, self-portrait
The MoveSmart Studio
Imagine for a moment you’ve lost your powers of mobility. You can’t get out of a chair or stand unaided or step forward.
Frailty is a sad fate in old age. The antidote is to be active and move, but many dread the prospect of exercise. Yet movement means more than exertion: it brings purpose and freedom. It’s an animating force within everyone, young and old, sleek and stiff
The MoveSmart Studio offers movement and dance classes that give pleasure to older folk as well as increasing their mobility, strength and fitness. It gives them a way to retain their power, to connect with their bodies, to step forward with confidence
Executive summary
In this pitch, I set out the distinctive offering of the MoveSmart Studio and explain how it makes money. I describe its three main customers within the nation’s growing older population. For context, I provide a snapshot of the fitness market, focusing on the boutique studio segment in which this business will fit. I present a case study on the growth of seniors’ ballet classes to show how such approaches promote the physical and emotional wellbeing of older adults. Finally, I provide a SWOT Matrix to identify internal and external factors facing the enterprise and offer suggestions for expansion as it matures
What is the MoveSmart Studio?
This boutique studio will be filled with light and music and styled to create a sanctuary of calm beauty
It will offer a range of classes designed for older adults. Some of these will target functional movement of everyday activities, such as getting up and down from the floor and rotating, bending, balancing and lifting. There will also be specialist therapeutic dance programs. All classes will encourage playfulness and exploration.
The program will generate income by means of various payment options including:
membership tiers
class passes
pay-per-class/program
individual tuition
master classes and workshops
Who is the MoveSmart customer?
Australians are getting older and living longer
According to the Institute of Health and Welfare, as of June 2023 one in six people is over the age of 65 and three in 10 are aged 75 to 84 (1). Life tables from the Bureau of Statistics rank Australia number 3 in the top 20 countries in the world for life expectancy, based on estimates from the United Nations. Men can expect to live to 82 and women to 85 (2)
Within this sizeable population, I see three main customers for the MoveSmart Studio:
Experienced, fit seniors seeking stimulating challenges to maintain their physical integrity
Inexperienced seniors who have come to exercise late in life
People living with Parkinson’s and arthritis
Research published in 2016 concludes dance is ‘feasible, safe and enjoyable’ for those in the early stages of Parkinson’s (3). I plan to partner with Dance for Parkinson’s Australia to establish an authorised program. Similarly, I’ll partner with Arthritis Australia to devise a program like those now offered by Queensland Ballet and Sydney Dance Company
Image: Sonya York-Pryce, dancer Jennifer Jackson
Getting fit in Australia
The fitness industry generated a revenue of $292m in 2022 and is estimated to grow by 3.7% in 2023 and 2024 4
The largest number of people with gym memberships are aged 25 to 34, but numbers dwindle in those over 65 who participate the least (5)
The Department of Health and Aged Care recommends that such people engage in 30 minutes of moderately intense exercise daily (6). While the Bureau of Statistics reports that four in 10 meet these guidelines, it appears few of them are flocking to the gym (7)
Boutique fitness studios
Boutique fitness studios provide their workouts in intimate settings, often with luxurious styling. Their growing presence reveals the demand for alternatives to the impersonal international franchises, such as Anytime Fitness. They typically focus on one type of exercise, like boxing or yoga. Stretch Lab is the international franchise within this segment, offering one-on-one stretching. Its customer-mix includes older people. Still, in most cases the boutique fitness studio is a small, homegrown business
The principal advantage of boutique studios is that small groups of participants receive personalised attention from the instructors. They can also connect with kindred spirits in their class and share a sense of identity with them. The social aspect enriches the experience and encourages an optimistic attitude towards ageing. This is the niche in which the MoveSmart Studio belongs
Case study: seniors ballet
All three major ballet companies (The Australian Ballet, Queensland Ballet and West Australian Ballet) offer popular community dance classes. The QB Annual Report in 2021 notes that 100,000 participants ‘have been welcomed to our studios since 2011’ when classes began (8). QB includes classes for seniors, as does the WAB. As these are taught in the companies’ respective ballet centres, they are only available in Brisbane and Perth
The Royal Academy of Dance, on the other hand, has registered ballet teachers in cities and regional towns throughout the world. In 2017 it launched Silver Swans, an initiative for RAD teachers to expand into the growing seniors’ market. They undertake training in teaching an older dancer and are then licensed to offer classes in their local dance studios. The RAD has certified 1000 ballet teachers in 51 countries since then, including Australia (9)
The love of ballet
Queensland Ballet, in partnership with the Queensland University of Technology, conducted a survey in 2019 of ballet for seniors in which participants reported ‘feeling more animated and energetic’ as well as having more ‘bodily control and awareness of posture, physical and overall wellbeing’. The findings ‘strongly indicated that ballet is a highly pleasurable activity for active older adults ’(10)
Image: Magadalena Wosinksa for the New York Times
For some, ballet provides meaning in life. In a study published in 2020, the authors likewise surveyed older women who took regular ballet classes. They found ‘not only did participants describe ballet as a form of self-expression, but participants also described how ballet held purpose for them’ (11)
Yet, for all their benefits, ballet classes are not widely accessible, only offered in dance studios. And many people find the idea of ballet forbidding. The MoveSmart Studio not only provides dance, but also other types of pleasurable classes to suit many kinds of older bodies in a welcoming community
Planning the MoveSmart Studio
This preliminary SWOT Matrix presents key factors to consider in investigating the potential and scope of the enterprise
The future of the MoveSmart Studio
As the business takes root, I could open a second studio in the same city, or another location. I could establish a stream of online classes and programs or introduce different techniques as I source inspiring teachers. I could foster loyalty through a weekly blog on practical ways to age well
Exercise is key to this. Peter Attia, a physician who focuses on the applied science of longevity, writes that it not only ‘reverses physical decline, but it can slow or reverse cognitive decline as well’ (12). Without movement, muscles wither; brains shrink
A participant in the Queensland Ballet Dance for Seniors program describes the pleasure of her classes as ‘To be immersed in the beautiful surrounds and music which allows me to undertake excellent tuition assisting me in agility and balance and mixing with like-minded seniors’ (13). This is what the MoveSmart Studio aspires to
Imagine for a moment your older self, rising out of that chair and striding forward, confident and powerful. You’re moving smart
***
Notes
In June 2023 I took a course in Business Writing and Storytelling offered by the Economist on the GetSmarter platform
This piece was my ‘ongoing project’, submitted as the final assignment. It had to be 1350 words long, to include an executive summary, preferably to feature a data visualisation and to be written in a tone appropriate to its reader: in my case, investors or loan managers
The word count is now slightly longer as I added new info on the global reach of the Silver Swans initiative when the NYT article caught my attention
Apologies for the SWOT analysis, which was created in Word. It’s beyond my technical skills to reformat it for Squarespace, which does not provide its own table editor
This piece is not a proper pitch. There’s nonexistent attention given to the financials, for a start. My original outline did included 2 extra headings, but I deleted them later to meet the tight word count. Also, the name of the studio is cliched ( vide GetSmarter). But I received lovely feedback from my assessor who gave me a grade of 90% (halo emoji)
I’d like to thank my friend Sonia York-Pryce for generously allowing me to reproduce two of her beautiful images. Sonia is an interdisciplinary artist and an arts writer/researcher who believes passionately that dance is a lifetime practice. She is currently writing a book on ageism in dance. You can read her papers and research here
***
References
1 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Older Australians. 23 June 2023
2 Australian Bureau of Statistics. Life Tables. 8 Nov 2022
3 Aguiar et al. Therapeutic Dancing for Parkinson’s Disease. International Journal of Gerontology. Vol 10, Issue 2, June 2016
4 Ross, Alina. Australian Fitness Industry Statistics in 2022-2023. 20 Mar 2023
5 Statista. Share of people using gyms, fitness clubs, sports or leisure centres in Australia in financial year 2022, by age. 8 December 2022
6 Australian Government. Department of Health and Aged Care. For older Australians (65 years and over). 6 May 2021
7 Australian Bureau of Statistics. Physical activity. 21 Mar 2022
8 Queensland Ballet. Annual Report 2021 (PDF)
9 Dorie Chevlin. Ballet is a Great Workout for an Aging Body. New York Times, 30 Aug 2023
10 Ali-Hapaala et al. Ballet Moves for Adult Creative Health. 2019 (PDF)
11 Pines & Giles. Dancing While Aging: A Study on Benefits of Ballet for Older Women. Anthropology and Aging, 4 (1), Mar 2020
12 Attia & Gifford. Outlive. Chapter 11, Exercise. Vermillion 2023
13 Smith, Maggie, quoted on Queensland Ballet website, Dance for Seniors
