Tiny studio home to big plans

The Pilates Place studio that opened last month in Reno's Magnolia Village is so small that owner Ruby Baker needs to go next door to the patio of Lisa's Central Market to find space to chat with a visitor.

Baker believes, however, that the 890-square-foot facility may be the launching pad for fast expansion two or three more outlets by end of this year, more in 2004.

"Within the next couple of months, we're going to know a lot," she said.

The south-Reno studio is the first stand-alone operation opened by Baker.

Her first studio, located in a corner of the downtown-area Fitness Millennium at 1141 California, has been running near capacity with eight classes a day.

(A Minden location of The Pilates Place operates under separate ownership although all three locations respect each others' memberships.) As she launched the Magnolia Village facility, Baker kept meticulous notes so that the studio can be replicated fairly easily.

Here is how the numbers work at The Pilates Place:

* A studio demands about $30,000 in start-up capital, largely for the distinctive Pilates exercise equipment.

* An unlimited membership one entitling a member to make an appointment for instruction whenever he wants runs $200 a month.

* At that, an individual studio needs a minimum of 100 clients to be solidly profitable.

* At the same time, however, an individual studio can't serve more than about 250 or 300 clients because both equipment and instructors' time is limited.

The first days of the Magnolia Village location reinforced Baker's belief that the concept can be expanded quickly.

The first day the studio was open May 26 it drew three users.

A week later, traffic was up to 15 a day.

While a $200 monthly membership may sound steep to folks accustomed to paying $60 monthly gym fees, Baker said her pricing marks an attempt to move the Pilates system into the mainstream.

Since the system was devised in the 1920s, it's largely been the province of the wealthy, and only recently made its move out of enclaves such as Beverly Hills.

In fact, Baker said, one of her initial tasks is explaining the Pilates method to potential users who haven't heard of it.

(Practitioners of the Pilates method describe it as a system designed to lengthen muscles as it strengthens them.

Fans of Pilates say the system improves balance, posture, coordination, strength, flexibility, and balance, and effectively rehabilitates injuries and chronic pain.) While Baker's clients range from a 77-year-old to a professional basketball player, The Pilates Place targets healthconscious baby boomers who have disposable incomes and a growing interest in keeping active as they age.

Baker, a one-time computer networking consultant who only recently let go of her last consulting contracts, discovered Pilates as a way of meeting her personal fitness goals.

College-trained in kinesiology and a certified fitness trainer, Baker said with a laugh that she is a natural-born teacher.

"I learned to teach because I couldn't follow."

What if Pilates is only a fad? That doesn't dissuade Baker from her hopes of expanding rapidly.

Even a few good years of business, she said, are well worth pursuing.