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Depending on if your services will be virtual only or hybrid classes, you'll have different goals in mind and things to plan around. These are not full lists to prepare with, but are instead designed to help you start thinking about how to plan your virtual or hybrid offerings.

Live stream and virtual class goals

In the virtual space, your class isn't only competing in your local geographic space, but also the world-wide space. While this can be a daunting prospect, it's also a very exciting one, because it means you can potentially bring in a multitude of clients from all over the world who would never be able to visit you in person. This means your goals for a virtual class are totally different from a regular one.

What makes your services unique? More importantly, what makes you unique? How can you make the experience the best for both you and your clients? How can you best accommodate for a larger client base and how can you make your classes even more inviting? Here's a few things you'll want to think about.

  • Creating a community is even more vital for virtual services because there's no physical space for clients to make a connection, so it's up to you to foster that connection and help make everyone feel welcome. You'll need to encourage your clients to build relationships within and outside of class.

  • What type of clients are you hoping to have in your classes? Now that you have a larger reach, you may be getting clients that are not a great fit. What can you do to keep to ones that are a great fit and weed out the ones who aren't?

  • In terms of the realities of the live stream, focus on staying in the moment and connected with the clients. Ensure that they can easily do the workout in their living room (and try to make it easy on them if they can't find a quiet place). Lastly, make sure you can reliably and easily interact with your clients during class in real-time. This means having good, high quality audio and video equipment.

Hybrid class goals

What type of hybrid classes are you hoping to create? Do you want any and all of your in-person classes to also be streamed? Or do you just want very specific classes to be streamed? These are questions you'll need to answer ahead of time, as they determine what legal release forms your clients need to sign, and how you'll stage your classes for recording, among other considerations.

  • Staff will need to be well trained and versed on equipment and how to run the live stream. There won't be time during class to deal with technical issues, so you'll want to find a list of best practices to follow in case of problems. For example, if a recording is interrupted, have an email pre-written and ready to go out explaining the live stream recording won't be available and give some kind of solution for clients who feel they didn't get what they paid for.

  • Be prepared if something needs to be edited out of the live stream. This includes if someone in the live stream objects to being included, or if someone makes a personal phone call, etc. Will you have processes in place to make edits before it goes online? Do you want to have someone designated to make edits to the live stream and also write down in your registration/liability form that there might be a delay in live stream uploads to give yourself leeway in these situations?

  • Consult with a lawyer to find a good video liability/release form for clients to sign, which will give you permission to use footage of them from the in-person class in your recorded live stream. The laws may or may not be different depending on who is viewing the live streams, how long your live streams will be available to view, how many clients will be on camera, etc. (See "Legal considerations for live streaming" for more information).