By Kathleen Shiflett
Five years ago, I embarked on a journey to open a yoga studio. I had been teaching yoga for four years, had no prior business experience, and no local connections or contacts. It was a huge risk. I did however have high hopes, and a clear vision of what I was working towards. When my small boutique studio opened its doors in 2016, I quickly began to navigate the ins and outs of owning and managing my own yoga business.
One of the unexpected lessons I learned over the last several years is that taking ownership of your yoga business isn’t as complicated as it might feel at first. With a few well placed moments of research and planning, you can absolutely set up the foundations for your own business sooner than you think.
Yoga teachers often assume that it is the role of the gym or studio where they teach to handle offerings, client retention, and community creation. Ironically, I would ague that studio owners usually feel the opposite. Even if you teach one class a week, taking responsibility for several important details will make you much more successful. While being a business owner certainly is’t for everyone, if you are at least curious about it, I invite you to discover the steps for building your own yoga business. With a week or two of diligent work your aspirations to have your own business can absolutely become a reality!
Clarify your business plan
The first step to starting your own business is to clarify your business plan. This doesn’t have to be fancy, or perfect, but it does need to be clear. Give yourself a fair amount of time to sit down, contemplate, and journal about the questions that follow. This might be a few hours, or a whole weekend. Remember to give your most authentic responses, but don’t take more time to do this than is absolutely needed. Knowing where you stand before you begin will save yourself and others a great deal of time, effort, and money.
- What does success mean to you right now?
Consider that success comes in many shapes and forms. Success can be tied to knowledge or experience gained, and often times is associated with financial benefit. Be realistic, but optimistic. Some questions that might help clarify your perspective for success include: At the end of this season of your life, what do you feel will matter the most to you? If you were to talk about your yoga teaching business what would be the first thing you would tell your mom, your best friend, and/or a stranger? What would be the parts you would avoid talking about and why? I missed the opportunity to do this when I opened my yoga studio, which meant I spent quite a few years chasing after various means of success without ever truly feeling successful. I wholeheartedly believe that if I had taken the time to clarify this in the beginning, it would have made a huge difference in what I focused my time and energy towards. I now know that for me, success is seeing I have made a positive impact in my clients lives while meeting my own financial goals. - What areas of your business are really important for you to focus on?
We all must one day face the fact that we simply can’t, nor should we, do everything. Certain aspects of running your own business are going to come naturally to you. Other areas are going to take time and effort to gain needed skills and experience. Carefully identify the areas that you will ( and perhaps won’t) focus on. If you feel unsure, you can also begin with simply making a list of your strengths and weaknesses to revisit as you learn and grow. I will never forget when I was first getting the news out about my studio opening up, my husband urged me (and drove me) to go house to house putting flyers on doors in the neighborhoods around the studio. I am naturally an introvert, so I literally had heart palpations, and sweated with discomfort as I walked between houses. Im not sure if it was ever a fruitful endeavor, but I do know that what I learned from that experience was how important it is to improve my areas of weakness over time, but allow others to help with more immediate needs. I ended up paying a few local high-schoolers to help out with the task. For the record, I think I would still die a little inside if I had to do door to door sale. - How much time, energy, and financial resources do you currently have to work on your business?
While spending all day, every day running your yoga business might sound like your dream job, chances are slim that is your current reality. As specifically as you can, identify the time and money you have immediately available to you. This should take you a little while to assess. If you have important relationships in your life (spouse, significant other, children, parents, boss, etc.) be sure to at least factor them into this aspect, or better yet, have a heart to heart conversation with them. Once you have these numbers identified, you will want to account for them whenever you do your weekly scheduling or financial planning. Today, the time I have available for my professional work is quite limited. With that said, I know exactly when I can squeeze in a few minutes, or hours to conquer a task, and I am adamant about using that time wisely. Because I involved my husband in my scheduling discussions, my family has also learned to respect and honor my time as well. A few summers back I learned the hard way the importance of knowing and sticking within a budget. I worked extremely hard to offer a fantastic kids yoga program only to wind up barely breaking even because of a poor marketing decision. It was a huge bummer to not feel financially fulfilled because I didn’t know my available resources up front. - What are you planning to offer, when, how often, and to whom?
You very likely know these details even if you don’t feel like you do. Start with the simple answers and allow the more complex elements to surface over time. Your answers to all the other above mentioned questions will likely help. Do not be afraid to make a mistake with this portion, as the only wrong answer is to not do this at all. You simply need somewhere to start from. This aspect of your business will fluctuate over time, but without it, your business will likely never get off the ground. My personal niche has shifted several times before becoming what it is currently. My ideal clients are part-time yoga teachers who are ready to establish a yoga business and are seeking mentorship that is both affordable and personalized. Helping my clients to develop and establish their own niche is a key piece of what I have to offer them. You will want to confidently know your own answers as you will revisit these once the basics of your business are established. - What does your virtual offering look like?
If the pandemic showed us one thing; it’s that virtual is here to stay. Virtual classes are only getting more popular, not to mention the added financial safety in the event of another pandemic. Your students don’t have to wakeup at 6 am anymore to practice with you, but they can roll out of bed around 7 am and begin their practice within 5 mins. Any studio looking to grow should build a virtual platform. You’ll be best setup with a platform like Interval that handles all aspects of your virtual studio; livestream, on-demand library, payments, scheduling, etc. They’ve make starting and managing a virtual offering incredibly easy for both me and my students. - What other constraints and considerations are unique to your situation?
This catch all question is intended for you to give one last overarching look at your unique circumstances in order to acknowledge and assess how your business will need to function. Be careful, as it is not designed to inflict self doubt or excuses. Instead, when you are able to identify potential hang ups, you will be less likely to stumble over them in the future. Take a look back over all the contemplation and planning you accomplished! Take a day to rest, and then work hard to put these plans into action.
Build a business foundation
Once you are clear on your business plan, it is time to build your personalized business foundation. This begins with research to gather a few more important details you will need to make this process run smooth. When you have decided on these elements, don’t waste time taking action to get your business established. Besides the fact that resistance builds over time, one segment is often dependent on the next. If you maintain steady progress, within just a matter of a few weeks your business can be up and running.
- Determine your formal business structure.
Yes, you should have a business structure. Even if you teach a single class a week, it will make a world of difference in how you and your clients perceive your professionalism. Depending on your circumstances, you might set up your business as a DBA, LLC, CORP, or some other entity. It is best to speak with an accountant, but know the decision will ultimately be up to you. Quite a few yoga teachers operate their business as either a DBA or a single member LLC. If you are not familiar with those terms, take the time to look them up and learn about their differences. In the end what is most important is that you have a business structure as it helps everything else fall into place. - Determine business contact information.
Next, and hopefully easiest, is to establish the official contact information for your business. This includes your business name. Be sure you choose a name carefully, selecting one that is not being used by someone else. Settle on how you want to be known, and reached, and keep this information handy. If you don’t take care of this as a first step, you could wind up having information going to a variety of different names, addresses, emails, websites, and phone numbers. Often the more clear and simple your information is, the better. - Complete required business registrations with state and county.
You will need your business plan, intended business structure, and business contact information to progress through this step. Again, if you determine you need assistance, do not hesitate to get help from the professionals. With that said, don’t become discouraged, it can be surprisingly simple to complete business registration at the county and state levels. You can likely find answers to many of your questions though official state/county websites, or simply by contacting representatives at respective offices in your area. Consider how many small businesses exist, and how few of those business owners have business degrees. Believe that you can do this part, and lean into the discomfort. Once it is over you can get back to business ;) - Set up other key elements to your business foundation.
Once you have your business registered, these elements will quickly fall into place. This includes receiving your EIN / TIN (employer identification number or taxpayer identification number). Depending on your qualifications, or intended offering, consider if there are other licenses, insurance, certifications, or other registrations you will need to hold. For yoga teachers, having liability insurance is one of the most common necessities, as is potentially needing music licenses. Again, watch your inner dialogue as this is an area that can easily become discouraging. Make yourself a list, do a bit of research, and slowly but diligently work on these tasks and they will be completed before you know it. - Set up a separate bank account.
Do not skip this final step! As tempting as it might be to simply use accounts you already have established, the work it takes to open a bank account specifically designed to handle all your business finances, is much easier than sifting through a mess of receipts, transactions, and tax questions later on. The good news is, once this is done, the foundations of your business are all in place! Look at this step as the cherry on top, it should feel as exciting as the first payment you will soon receive in your new bank account.Take another day to rest, because it is finally time for business to begin.
Craft your business necessities
Every business is unique, but nearly all businesses are sustained by several necessities. Your business won’t exist for long if you don’t have something to offer, fail to ask for an exchange, or disregard the importance of telling others. You will give a significant amount of effort to hone these elements over time. In the beginning phase of your business, keep your methods straightforward. Then, experiment and use your support resources to learn and grow. Especially in the virtual space, find a platform like Interval that allows you to easily create, structure, and publish content to hone you offering over time. Crafting your business will be both an art and a science.
- Pin Down Your Initial Offerings.
If you spent time identifying your offerings as part of your business plan, then you are ready for this step. Revisit what you determined to offer, when, how often, and to whom. With this information, you will want to create an upside-down hierarchy. This is also known as your business funnel. At the top will be the method(s) you choose to reach the most amount of people for very little in exchange. An example, this could be an informative handout or a 1st class free in exchange for an email address. At the bottom of your hierarchy will be your most intensive and expensive offering(s), intended to attract very specific clients. A good example of this would be one-on-one sessions. In-between your top and bottom elements will be your intermediate offering(s). As you craft your funnel, you may need to adjust your offerings from your initial plans. - Calculate your Price Ranges.
With your offerings organized, you can now settle on your pricing structure. Begin by doing a little more self reflection as well as local research. Do you know how much every hour of your time is worth? Do you know how much people in your local area are willing to pay someone with similar skills as yours? What is your most ideal amount, and the very minimum wage you would accept? How much have you invested in making/establishing your offerings? If someone is not going paying you money, what are other exchanges and trades you are willing to accept? The next step is connecting price ranges to your offerings. Offerings at the top of your business funnel will likely be at or near your minimum wage. This could consist of a single on-demand class, or on-demand membership that you can create through Interval. Even the least valuable aspects of your business should require some form of exchange (such as contact information). Offerings at the bottom of your business funnel should be at or near your ideal price like an in-person, livestream, and on-demand all access membership. Having a price range for each individual offering is needed, as it allows space for negotiation without you having to give more thought to this process. Sometimes you might make this range clearly known such as a “pay what you can” scale that’s offered on Interval. Other times this information will be withheld from your clients and reserved for your own uses. With your prices set, you will be able to confidently speak to your offerings, and negotiate your value in a variety of different circumstances. - Keep advertising and marketing simple.
You are not alone if you don’t enjoy this part of business. If you confidently know and believe in your offerings, pricing, and client niche, it will become much easier to talk about your business over time. There are as many different ways to market yourself as you can imagine, but most of them will be a waste unless you know exactly what you are doing, who you are trying to reach, and why. Instead of investing your time and money in reaching the masses, think smarter, simpler, and smaller. Where / how do you most enjoy connecting with people? Where / how do your ideal clients connect with others. What are you currently able to do as consistently as possible? With these considerations in mind, pick one or two advertising methods to start with, and get really good at understanding how to effectively these tools to support you. Remember it is more about your client than it is about you. If a potential client believes you truly understand their challenges, and have the means to help them, then they will want to work with you. When you feel ready to expand your marketing, be conscious of exactly what you expect for a return on your investment. In the end, no one will show up for you if you haven’t told anyone, so you must tell someone! - Don’t wait until things are perfect.
It is time to get moving and put your hard work and plans into practice! It will undoubtably feel risky, incomplete, and down right scary. Acknowledge those feelings as partially factual, but also remember that no matter how much time, energy, and money you invest in “getting prepared” you will still one day have to take this next step. Put your first offering on your calendar and commit to doing it. Take good notes about what you experience. Be willing and open to learn from your mistakes over time. The more you practice the process of scheduling, and executing your business offerings the better they will become. - Point students to your virtual platform as you teach in person.
A student joins a studio because they’re interested in the class, right? The next time a student goes on vacation, or moves to a new city, you should make sure your studio is the only resource they need to continue their practice. This will both increase your customer retention as well as help grow your offering as scaling software is much easier than scaling in person. - Identify your ongoing support resources.
Last, but certainly not least, keep a good list of places to go, websites to trust, and people to talk to that will support and guide you along the way. A few resources might include the IRS, SBA, and SCORE websites, an Interval team member, local entrepreneur and/or network groups, as well as fellow business owners. There are also many other experienced yoga teachers offering fantastic resources, podcasts, and business coaching.
Make mistakes, it is part of the plan
As a fellow yoga teacher and business owner, know that I too have navigated the daunting aspects of building a business. I have had to make a lot of decisions, therefore, I have also made a lot of mistakes. Through my trials and errors, I have slowly gained experience and wisdom. For the last four years I owned and managed my boutique yoga studio in Northern Utah. After much thought and consideration, I decided to close my studio at the at the end of 2020. With the year winding down, I shifted my focus to support my teaching team and encouraged them to take ownership of their teachings going forward. Ironically, it was during those conversations that I realized I not only enjoyed sharing my thoughts, but I actually had experiences, opinions, and wise counsel that was worthy of being shared. While I explore this newfound passion, I will be revisiting many of these business development steps, using the lessons I’ve learned, to evolve my business once again.
In time, your business will absolutely grow and shift as well. Even if you keep teaching at your favorite spots, you will notice a difference in how you handle your classes and clients, and others will too. If by chance you are still feeling a bit more overwhelmed than energized, I absolutely encourage you to reach out for help. In the end, the best advice I have to offer is to make make mistakes, it is actually part of the plan.
In looking for a platform to launch your business, check out Interval, or email one of their team members here. Interval has created an user-friendly but powerful platform for all livestream, on-demand, and even in-person content complete with scheduling, payments, and community features.
If you’re a doer who is ready, but still doesn’t quite feel prepared to begin you own yoga business, I invite you to connect with me or the folks at Interval. I am launching a new community for yoga teachers to meet up online over a cup of tea for a quick business teaching, and would love for you to join in! I look forward to our group sharing experiences, asking questions, and discussing lessons learned as practical advice for others to soak up. Please reach out to me at www.kathleenshiflett.com to let me know you are interested in participating.
