One of the questions I get asked a lot by people who are starting to run creative workshops is: how many people do I actually need to book for this to be worth running? And unfortunately, “as many as possible” isn't the answer.
A workshop with 20 people in it might look very successful on Instagram, but if you've underpriced it, spent a fortune on materials and spend the entire workshop running around trying to help everyone at once, it might not feel quite so successful by the end of the day.
When I started running workshops, I definitely thought more people = more successful workshop. Now, I look at it very differently.
You need enough people to cover your costs and pay yourself properly, but not so many that you can't actually give everyone a good experience. So, how do you work out what that number is?
Start with the cost of running your workshop
Before you decide that you'd like 10, 12 or 20 people at your workshop, you need to know what it actually costs you to run it.
Start with the obvious things:
Materials
Venue hire
Refreshments
Booking or ticket fees
Travel
Parking
Then think about the slightly less obvious costs too. You might be paying for a website, your domain, email marketing software, insurance, a Spotify subscription or equipment that you use at every workshop. Not every single business expense needs to be divided perfectly between your workshops, but they do need to be paid for somehow. And then there's the cost that creative business owners are particularly good at forgetting... your time.
You need to pay yourself too
I made this mistake in the early days. I'd work out how much the materials cost, take that away from the ticket price and think the rest was profit. Except I'd forgotten about the time spent ordering materials, packing the car, driving to the venue, setting everything up, running the workshop, packing everything away again and driving home. Suddenly that very profitable-looking workshop wasn't quite so profitable. These days, I generally want to make around £20–£25 per person after my direct costs, and I use roughly £70 an hour as a useful benchmark for my own time. That doesn't mean those numbers have to be yours. Your workshop, costs, experience and financial goals will be different. The important thing is that you decide what you want to earn rather than simply charging whatever you think people will pay.
Work out your minimum number of attendees
Once you understand your costs, you can work out your minimum viable number. Basically: how many people need to book before you're happy for the workshop to go ahead?
For many of my workshops, six people has been a useful minimum, but your number might be four, or eight, or ten. It depends entirely on your costs.
Let's use a very simple example. Imagine you're running a workshop with:
£150 in fixed costs, including your venue and travel
£15 of materials per person
A ticket price of £50
After materials, each £50 ticket leaves £35 to contribute towards your fixed costs and your pay.
If six people book, your ticket income is £300. Your materials cost £90. Take away your £150 fixed costs and you're left with £60. Would you be happy to run the workshop for that? Maybe not.
If ten people book, however, your income is £500. Your materials cost £150. Take away your £150 fixed costs and you're left with £200. That's a very different workshop financially.
This is why I really recommend doing the maths before tickets go on sale, rather than just choosing a capacity and hoping for the best.
Don't confuse breaking even with making a profit
This is an important one. Your break-even number tells you how many tickets you need to sell before you've covered your costs. It doesn't necessarily tell you how many tickets you need to sell to make the workshop worth your time. If four ticket sales cover the venue and materials but leave you effectively working for free, four isn't really your minimum number. You haven't started a creative workshop business to spend your weekends working for nothing.
Work out three numbers instead:
Your break-even number: the point where you've covered your costs.
Your minimum number: the number of bookings that makes the workshop financially worthwhile for you.
Your maximum number: the most people you can comfortably teach while still giving them a really good experience.
That third number is just as important as the first two.
More people isn't always better
There is definitely a temptation when a workshop is selling well to squeeze another table in and then maybe another chair. And suddenly you're teaching 20 people because technically they all fit in the room. But the capacity of the venue and the number of people you can comfortably teach aren't necessarily the same thing. Think about how much individual support your activity requires.
If you're demonstrating something once and everyone can happily get on with it, you might be able to teach a fairly large group. If you're teaching complete beginners something quite fiddly and they regularly need individual help, a smaller group will probably work much better. I've run workshops with bigger groups and there comes a point where people are waiting for help.
That's not particularly enjoyable for them and it's definitely not enjoyable for you when five people are simultaneously calling your name from different sides of the room. Your ideal workshop size should allow you to actually teach well, not just maximise the number of tickets you can sell.
Decide your minimum before you start selling tickets
This is something I really recommend. Decide in advance:
“If I haven't sold X tickets by X date, I won't run the workshop.”
Because it is much harder to make that decision when you're three days away from the workshop and staring at four bookings. You'll start telling yourself:
“Four isn't that bad.”
“Maybe another three people will book tomorrow.”
“At least I'll get some content.”
“I don't want to let anyone down.”
And suddenly you're running a workshop that you knew wasn't financially viable. Having a minimum number decided beforehand takes some of the emotion out of it.
What if you don't reach your minimum number?
Firstly, don't panic too early. Workshop tickets don't always sell in a nice steady line. You might sell three tickets when you first announce the workshop, hear absolutely nothing for two weeks and then suddenly sell another five after you post a Reel showing what people will actually be making. People often need to see something several times before they book.
But if you reach your agreed cut-off point and you're still below your minimum number, you have a decision to make. You could cancel or postpone the workshop, move the bookings onto another date, or decide to run it anyway for a specific reason. There can be times when running a less profitable workshop makes sense. Perhaps it's your first workshop and you'd really value the experience, photographs, testimonials and content. But make that a conscious business decision.
Don't accidentally end up running unprofitable workshops over and over again because you haven't decided what “enough bookings” actually looks like.
So, how many people should you have at a creative workshop?
There isn't one perfect number. For one workshop, six people might be ideal. Another might work brilliantly with 15.
The right number depends on:
Your ticket price
Your material costs
Your venue costs
How much you want to earn
How much individual help your customers need
The size of your venue
How confident you feel managing a group
Instead of asking “How many people can I fit in?”, I'd ask:
“How many people do I need for this to be profitable, and how many can I comfortably teach?”
Somewhere between those two numbers is probably your sweet spot. And I promise you, a calm, profitable workshop with eight happy customers is far more successful than a chaotic workshop with 20 people just because it looks impressive in a photo.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many people should be in a creative workshop?
There isn't one ideal number. It depends on the activity, how much individual support people need, the size of the venue and your costs. For hands-on beginner workshops, choose a number you can comfortably support rather than simply trying to fit as many people into the room as possible.
How do I calculate the break-even point for a workshop?
Add together the fixed costs of running your workshop, such as venue hire and travel. Then calculate how much money is left from each ticket after the per-person costs, such as materials. Divide your fixed costs by that amount to estimate how many tickets you need to sell to cover your costs.
Remember that breaking even isn't the same as paying yourself.
What is the minimum number of people needed for a workshop?
There isn't a universal minimum. Your minimum should be based on your costs, ticket price and how much you need to earn for the workshop to be worthwhile. For some of my workshops, six attendees has been a useful minimum, but yours may be different.
Should I cancel a workshop if I haven't sold enough tickets?
If you haven't reached the minimum number you decided you needed to make the workshop financially worthwhile, cancelling or postponing may be the right decision. Ideally, decide your minimum attendance and cancellation deadline before you start selling tickets so you aren't making the decision emotionally at the last minute.
How much profit should I make from a creative workshop?
There isn't a set amount of profit that every workshop should make. Your target needs to reflect your costs, the time involved, your experience and what you want your business to earn. I generally aim for around £20–£25 per attendee after direct costs and use roughly £70 per hour as a benchmark for my own time, but those are my numbers rather than a rule you need to follow.
Is a bigger creative workshop more profitable?
Not necessarily. More attendees can increase your revenue, but they also increase material costs and can make a workshop harder to teach. If having more people means customers spend too long waiting for help or you need to hire additional support, a smaller workshop may actually work better for your business.
Need some help working out your workshop numbers?
Pricing a workshop can feel surprisingly complicated when you're trying to account for materials, venues, ticket prices, your time and the slightly important matter of actually paying yourself. It's also exactly the sort of thing we can untangle together.
I offer 90-minute Creative Workshop Strategy Sessions where we can look at your workshop idea, pricing, venues, marketing or whatever else is currently making your brain feel a bit full.
You'll leave with a much clearer idea of what to do next and an actual plan for doing it.
You can find out more about my Creative Workshop Strategy Sessions here.