Yoga Studio Business Mistakes to AVOID

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Toby Baldwin
5 years ago
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1 Yoga Studio Business Mistakes to AVOID Mistakes to Avoid When Opening a Yoga Studio 1. Failing to think about why you want to open a yoga studio. Do you want to manage a business or just do yoga? Know what role you want to be in the most and then design your business around that. For example, if you prefer running a business, try to have other teachers teach. If you teach mostly, and your students want to attend for you, and then you decide not to teach, it could hurt your business. 2. Failing to do market research assess the competition and demand. If there are competitors, what do you offer that s different? 3. Failing to crunch some numbers. Know your expenses and expected revenues. Sure, you ll probably lose money in the beginning, but have a breakeven date. Losing money is why having enough money is important when starting up. 4. Failing to have adequate funds to see you through during the early stages of your business. 5. Failing to get proper advice especially when dealing with contracts. 6. Failing to promote yourself online before opening your studio. Start a blog or write articles. Establish yourself early. 7. Spending too much on design. If your budget is limited, keep it simple and clean. Allocate funds for marketing. 8. Failing to arrange referrals with doctors and other healthcare treatment providers and other fitness professionals (not your competitors of course) in your area. 9. Failing to properly budget for marketing. 10. Choosing a bad name. I recommend choosing something unique for branding purpose rather than a generic Seattle Bikram Yoga. 11. Failing to consider a franchise. This is contentious and many people would hate to be constrained. But, with brand recognition, it can be much easier to get your studio off the ground. Plus you can piggy back on their marketing materials. You can focus on teaching yoga.

2 12. Failing to get business insurance. More specifically failing to get enough insurance. Consider whether you ll be teaching abroad, offsite, acrobatics, etc. Think it through and get professional advice. Insurance protects you and your students. 13. Failing to get personal disability insurance or disability insurance through your business insurance (check for this). Ask yourself: if you get hurt and can t teach, what happens to your business? 14. Failing to budget for a janitorial service. Get some quotes. Mistakes to Avoid When Buying an Existing Studio 15. Failing to have an expert analyze the financial statements. Financial statements can be tricky and they can be prepared in ways that don t tell the whole story (or accurate story). 16. Don t put too much stock in the size of an existing client contact database. Find out how many of the people on that list are still attending and how often. 17. Expect students to leave with a new owner. Don t take this personally, it s just those students were accustomed to a different way of doing things. 18. Attend classes at the studio(s) you have your eye on before buying. 19. Have a lawyer review the lease you ll be taking over. 20. Sit outside the studio you re thinking about buying and count the number of people entering. This is about as good of data as you can get and it s free. I d do this on several days of the week at different times. 21. Asking whether online properties go with the sale such as website and other articles published online. 22. Hiring a lawyer to assist with the purchase. There are different ways to purchase a business. You should be properly advised. Yoga Studio Location Mistakes To Avoid 23. Not sufficient parking and/or proximity to public transportation. 24. Being located where it s loud (of course being in a city makes eliminating noise impossible. What I meant was being located in space where nearby tenants are

3 loud (i.e. manufacturing). 25. Being located near a restaurant where it smells not very good. 26. Failing to get enough space. Calculate how many students you can comfortably fit in the space and then determine how much you can earn at different capacities. 27. Failing to look for space that can be divided into more than one classroom. Sometimes it pays to offer different classes at the same time. Yoga Studio Design Mistakes to Avoid 28. Too many mirrors on the walls (and pictures). If you do poses using walls, mirrors and pictures get in the way. 29. Carpeting is about the worst flooring (other than concrete) you can use. It s hard to keep clean. 30. Uncleanliness. Keep your studio spotless. 31. Too much clutter. I like doing yoga in clean and open spaces. I don t like having to worry about breaking something. 32. Failing to have sufficient parking and/or proximity to public transportation. 33. Lighting too bright. 34. Too much incense. A little is okay, maybe. Get feedback from your students (anonymously so they ll tell you truthfully). 35. Not enough space for coats and shoes. 36. No bathroom or place for changing. 37. Music is played too loud. Yoga Studio Customer Service Mistakes to Avoid 38. Failing to provide mats and equipment. 39. Failing to give swipe cards / membership cards (encourages a sense of belonging). It also makes signing in students go much faster.

4 40. Failing to have students fill out anonymous surveys for feedback and then implementing the feedback. 41. Not scheduling enough time in between classes for people to leave leisurely. 42. Not taking time to talk to your students before and after classes. 43. Changing your class schedule too often. 44. Not keeping your students informed via text and messages about a different teachers teaching a scheduled class or class schedule changes. 45. Requiring students to put their gear away. 46. Failing to offer blankets during savasana. 47. Overcrowding classes. Yoga Studio Pricing Mistakes to Avoid 48. Failing to offer a variety of pricing packages. 49. Failing to offer gift certificates. 50. Not offering credit card payment processing. 51. Failing to ask your students what kind of pricing packages they would like. 52. Increasing your prices by too much and/or too often. Yoga Studio Software Buying Mistakes to Avoid 53. Not using an integrated and comprehensive software platform. 54. Not using a software service on the cloud. Save yourself a lot of hassle and IT expense by using a yoga studio service which is hosted on the software company's server. You just log in and take care of business. 55. Not using software to its full potential especially to communicate regularly about matters such as schedule changes. This is often the result of using the wrong service. Get an service with autoresponder capabilities.

5 56. Using multiple applications to manage your business such as Excel spreadsheets, Word and inadequate calendar software. 57. Not offering swipe card technology for membership cards. 58. Not offering online class reservations (or private session reservations). 59. Using calendar software that doesn t update your online calendar immediately and automatically when you make scheduling changes. 60. Failing to have a toll free telephone number. 61. Failing to get software with e-commerce capabilities so you can sell retail on your website. Yoga Studio Marketing Mistakes to Avoid Generally 62. Failing to do enough of it. 63. Failing to properly budget for marketing. 64. Failing to try different marketing activities. There s no one-size-fits-all. If one approach doesn t work, try something else. Specifically: 65. Failing to participate in workshops (build up your CV). 66. Failing to blog regularly on your website (great for the search engines, it s fun, and you build up your credibility). 67. Targeting only one or two keywords with your website. Get keyword software and do proper SEO keywording to attract a lot of website visitors. 68. Failing to make some videos of your classes and putting it on your website (ensure if you have shots of your students to get their permission. Otherwise restrict footage of you only). 69. Failing to use marketing to its fullest extent.

6 70. Failing to host workshops and events. If you do, perhaps failing to promote those workshops and events. 71. Failing to be aggressive with referral marketing. Give your students great incentive to spread the word. Offer free classes, discounts, free gear, etc. 72. Failing to enter into joint ventures with related businesses in your town. You could offer discounts to a local spa s clientele and they do the same for you. Send out the discounts via . Your students will appreciate the discounted spa services and you ll be reaching another businesses client list. 73. Failing to optimize your Google Places listing (see the Google Places Bonus Report). 74. Failing to update online schedules in a timely manner (i.e. immediately). 75. Failing to set up a Facebook page. Your studio is a community which is ideal for Facebook. 76. Failing to put photos of you on your website and in your marketing materials. 77. Failing to get listed in local online directories. 78. Failing to submit your yoga studio website to DMOZ.org. 79. Failing to outsource some of these marketing activities. 80. Failing to have explicit permission to your students. You need the right e- mail software that offers the double opt-in. Or else, get students to sign a form when they attend your studio for updates and an e-newsletter. 81. Failing to build your profile online by writing guest articles, etc. I love EzineArticles (EZA) and ArticleBase. They re free and articles in EZA and ArticleBase rank well in the search engines. Also try guest blogging on other local businesses websites or prominent blogs (ahem, Yoga Baron. Feel free to contact me to discuss guest blogging on Yoga Baron). Even consider trying to get published on Yoga Journal or in other prominent yoga publications. 82. Failing to try unique classes such as rehabilitation-oriented classes, strengthbuilding, etc. But don t jeopardize your well-attended classes by mixing those up too much. You know the classes I m talking about the early evening classes. 83. Failing to publish press releases (online and in your local newspaper).

7 84. Failing to place a contact form on every page of your website. 85. Failing to place your telephone on every page of your website. 86. Failing to get student testimonials on your website and other marketing materials. 87. Offer free classes workshops for the community and your students. 88. Not signing up for Groupon. This can drive dozens, hundreds, or thousands of new yogis into your studio. Be sure you re prepared to handle the volume. Revenue Generating Mistakes to Avoid 89. Failing to sell items retail in your store and online clothing, gear, magazines, books, music, etc. 90. Failing to sell gift cards (I mentioned this already, but I think this is a biggie). 91. If struggling, failing to offer classes off-site (ensure your insurance covers you for this). 92. Not offering online pre-payment, or prepayment at all. 93. Not offering auto-payments. This saves you the hassle of collecting payment and saves your students the hassle of remembering to pay. If you have any other tips, I d love to hear them and share them with your yoga studio owner colleagues. Visit Yogabaron.com and fill in the contact form.

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