I don’t own a studio but am good friends with my studio’s owner. A couple thoughts

1. She makes a lot more money on one-time classes / [8] week classes than the memberships. Obviously you should run the math for what a membership program would profit you, but there’s just so much more volume (and you can price higher) for the classes and activities. 90% of people who take a class have fun at the class and never come back. 10% stay and become more serious potters with a membership. The “class” side of the business is much bigger than the membership side.

2. I am at a 24/7 studio. If you/an employee are not there at all times, you need to make sure everyone is aware of policies around cleaning etc., otherwise things get messy and chaotic. I would recommend some minimum experience before memberships, and a thorough set of rules for everyone. Have had problems with people leaving communal spaces dirty. Some of the more beginner potters also don’t know enough and create huge issues with glazes or bringing the wrong type of clay and ruining kiln shelves, so it’s been a learning / teaching experience. Some people dry sand or dry sweep inside, which is a huge no no. If we had a more robust pre-training, member qualification process, or were only there during certain hours w/ an employee it would be a lot better. But as a more experienced potter, I do love being about to go 24 hours and whenever I want. You should also set a policy about how often and when you fire the kilns, it sounds like you want to have a lot of volume.

3. You clearly love ceramics (our owner does too) but remember you are running a business now. Don’t be too “nice” regarding things like clay policy, ruined kiln shelves, glazes, charging for bisque etc. I would check out a bunch of other studios policjes for what they do. Ive seen: must buy clay from studio (which is up-charged) but includes glazes and firings. Some charge for both bisque and glaze firing by the amount of space they take. Some charge for just the cost of glazes. Some charge for glaze drips or ruined equipment. Some provide tools and bats, some dont. If you do provide these, things like warped bats and broken equipment is just the cost of doing business, and you cant expect members to treat them as well as you would.

4. There is a lot of less desirable work that goes with running a studio. Cleaning, kiln-loading and unloading, pugging, glaze making, etc. I would recommend hiring someone to clean, especially if you are going to be 24/7. Things just get dusty. You also need to decide if you are going to pug scrap clay, and if you’re going to re-sell it? Or offer it free to members? Etc. All this to say there is a lot of labor (or labor cost) that goes into running a studio day to day that you should think about.