Most launches that go wrong don't go wrong on design. They go wrong on order: a website live before there's anything to sell, a pre-sale with no way to take payment, a logo finished the week the sign-maker needed it. This is the order we use, counted back from opening day.
26 to 21 weeks out: decide what you are
Before anything is designed, write down who the studio is for, what the class mix is, roughly how you'll price it, and why someone would choose you over the studio ten minutes away. One page is enough. Every decision after this gets checked against it.
This is also when the name gets settled. Check the domain, the social handles and a trademark search, then say it out loud on the phone. If you have to spell it twice, think again.
21 to 14 weeks: the brand
Identity and art direction come next, but design in the order things are needed. Signage and fit-out have long lead times, so the sign-maker and your fit-out team need artwork first. The holding page needs it next. Brand guidelines can wait until the pieces exist.
16 to 8 weeks: website and booking platform
Choose the booking platform at the start of this window, not the end. It decides how your timetable displays, whether people can pick a bed, and how intro offers and memberships are sold. (We wrote a separate guide on choosing one.)
Then build the site around it. Load the real timetable, the intro offer and the class packs, and test a booking on your phone the way a stranger would: from an Instagram link, on mobile data, without an account.
12 weeks: holding page and waitlist
As soon as you have a name and a signed lease, put up a holding page with a waitlist. Give people a reason to join: first access to founding memberships is the obvious one. The build itself is your content. People like watching a studio come together.
8 weeks to opening: pre-sale
The full site goes live with booking open, and founding memberships go on sale, waitlist first. Run the sale through your booking platform so every founding member is set up properly from day one. (See running a founding membership pre-sale.)
Opening week and the first month
Open the first week's timetable early, ask your first members for reviews while the excitement is real, and follow up with everyone on an intro offer before their last class, not after it. The first month sets your retention habits. Write them down while you're forming them.
Less than six months to go?
- Run brand and website side by side instead of one after the other
- Put the holding page up first, even with a simple logo
- Choose the booking platform this week
- Keep the pre-sale to one offer with a cap