- Your most loyal members already want more from you — ask them what they'd pay $300 for.
- Budget everything before pricing: accommodation, food, activities, transport, and a 10% contingency.
- Take a non-refundable deposit and only commit to a venue once enough deposits are in.
Your most engaged members already want more from you than a weekly event. A retreat, a masterclass, or a limited merch drop can be some of the highest-margin revenue in your community, but only if it's budgeted properly. Get it wrong and a "premium experience" turns into a loss.
Start by asking, not guessing
Ask your ten most loyal members directly: what would you pay $300 for? The answers usually fall into a few categories — a weekend away, a hands-on workshop, a piece of merch they'd be proud to wear. Pick one and build it properly rather than trying all three at once.
Workshops: the easiest premium format to start with
A smaller, higher-priced group beats a large, cheap one. Twelve people at $60 each is $720 and a genuinely good experience; forty people at $15 is $600 and a crowded room. Bring in an outside expert, or teach what you already know — either way, record it so you can sell it again later.
Budgeting a retreat properly
This is where most retreats lose money: organisers price from a gut feeling instead of a real budget. Here's a worked example for 20 people over 3 nights.
| Line | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Accommodation | 20 × 3 nights × $150 | $9,000 |
| Food | 20 × 3 days × $60 | $3,600 |
| Activities, guides, transport | Fixed | $3,500 |
| Marketing and admin | Fixed | $500 |
| Contingency | 10% of the above | $1,660 |
| Total cost | ÷ 20 people | $18,260 ($913/person) |
| Price per person | $1,290 | |
| Profit | 20 × ($1,290 − $913) | $7,540 |
Never book before deposits cover the risk
Take a non-refundable deposit — 30% is common — and only commit to the venue once you have enough deposits to justify it. A waitlist is a useful first step: it tells you whether demand is real before you spend a dollar on the venue itself.
Selling it
Launch to your members before the public, always with a deadline and a limited number of places. Scarcity does real work here — a retreat that's "open until it's full" converts far better than one with no urgency at all.
For merch drops specifically, print-on-demand tools like the one built into Tribe IRL mean you can sell a limited drop with no stock risk.
Module 5 of Community Leaders Club includes the full retreat budget model as an editable template, plus a merch and workshop playbook.
See membership optionsFrequently asked questions
Add up every cost — accommodation, food, activities, transport, marketing, and a contingency of around 10% — divide by the number of attendees, then add your profit margin per person.
A non-refundable deposit of around 30% is common. It covers your early costs and filters for people who are genuinely committed to attending.
After. Open a waitlist first to gauge real demand, take deposits, and only commit to the venue once enough deposits are confirmed to cover the risk.