Starting A Studio

This page describes the advantages and disadvantages of starting your own yoga studio.

Almost everyone who teaches dreams of owning their own studio, being their own boss and teaching yoga full time. As the old saying goes: "If you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life." But, here's a brutal statistic: 80% of new businesses fail before their fifth anniversary. Running your own business can be deeply satisfying, occasionally lucrative and terrifying, stressful and lonely. If you have staff as well as yourself it is at least twice as hard.

Create a limited company. This is a bit of work but if your company fails, creditors can only take the company's assets. If you operate as a proprietorship or partnership and fail, they can take everything you own personally. That's your home, your car, your bank account, your savings, your kid's college fund and your retirement fund. Everything. If you sign a personal guarantee, they can do the same even if you have a limited company.

You will need to find a reasonable (ideally memorable and yoga-related) name that isn`t already registered by someone else. Usually this involves thinking up six or seven that are acceptable and do a NUANS search to see if any are available. Don`t get hung up trying to pick the perfect name. IBM, Microsoft and Apple are all unusual company names but the companies have done well. You define your company name. Your company name, unless it is truly awful, doesn`t define you.

Find space for your studio. In the beginning, you may want to operate out of your home. Unless you have a large home, this limits you to very small classes or individual instruction and it doesn't project a professional image. If you live in a city, you usually must advertise that you are planning to operate a business out of your home and your neighbors can (and often do) object because of increased traffic and parking. Operating out of your home will require a rider on your home-owner's insurance. Check with your agent. If you rent commercial space, they will want a multi-year lease plus the first and last month's rent. Students expect a warm, bright, clean, fresh smelling, quiet studio with a clean bathroom. Larger studios will require showers and changing areas. 80% of your students will be women but there will be enough men that you will have to provide separate facilities. You will need some yoga mats for beginners plus lots of straps, foam blocks, bolsters and blankets (students get cold during Savasana). If you are doing "hot yoga", you will need additional facilities to heat and humidify. New students will expect to be able to buy yoga mats, DVDs, books and other supplies from you. This can be a useful source of revenue as well as a great convenience for your students.

Decide what you are selling (style, group/individual, beginner/advanced, health & fitness/spiritual enlightenment, gentle/boot camp), who you are selling it to (men/women, old/young, rich/poor, regular/restorative) and why they should buy from you. Even if you love teaching yoga, you are running a business. Neglecting sales and marketing and failing to understand what you are selling and who you are selling to is a guaranteed route to failure. If potential students don't know you exist or don't know your strengths, your business will fail. Trying to be all things to all people is usually a losing strategy. So is competing on price unless you are very large and have economies of scale on your side. Register with every yoga directory on the Internet. Usually it's free. Put an ad in our free Marketplace. If you are operating out of your home, advertise in your community newsletter. Tell everyone you know about your studio not just your friends. Develop a network of business relationships. Participate in community events (show up do some yoga with anyone that is interested) to gain free publicity. Advertise in local stores and your community center. Write a blog about some aspect of yoga that you have expertise in. Develop a following on Facebook and Twitter. Write introductory articles for community newsletters. They are always short of material. You can include a bit of self promotion but your article should offer useful advice to beginners. Create a web site and keep it fresh, correct and current. Keep an eye on your competitor's rates, facilities and services. Competing head to head with established studios is very hard when you're just starting out. Establish a corporate charity even if it is very modest (if nothing else, donate your time to some cause everyone thinks is worthy) and advertise that on your web site and in your literature. Students like to see you're a good corporate citizen. If you win any awards or take additional training, let everyone know about it. When you're in business, false modesty is fatal. Send an e-Christmas card from your studio to every one of your students, past students, suppliers and anyone else you can think of. Students expect personal, sympathetic service. If you don't give it to them, one of your competitors will be happy to. Your web site URL (www.yourcompanyname.com) should appear on everything your students and suppliers see. Hold a drop-in night on your slowest night in which people can try a class for a trivial amount like $1. Some of them will sign up for a class. Post YouTube videos.

You will need business cards, literature, letterhead and envelopes, a license from your city, a PC with a fax unit, a printer, an Internet connection, a telephone dedicated to your business with some professional means of answering it when you are teaching, a bank account (they will want to see your articles of incorporation), insurance, accounting software, and personalized checks (usually available from the accounting software company), merchant accounts with Master Card and Visa plus a lawyer, accountant, banker and insurance agent you trust. Banks often have advice for business start ups on their web site. Your local library has lots of good books on it. There are vast resources on the Internet as well.

Usually, you have to pay estimated income tax and sales tax you have collected to the government every quarter (three months). When you own your own business, you can deduct many things from your income (business-related automobile, entertainment, travel, conferences, home office expenses) so you will pay less income tax. Never try to cheat the government. If they catch you, they will make your life a living hell. Fines are the least of it. You can't even imagine how bad it will be.

When you are self-employed there are no paid holidays, vacations or sick days. If you don't work, you don't get paid. Benefits are quite expensive and are much less generous that what you received as an employee. When you are self-employed, you are not eligible for unemployment payments from the government.

Interest rates are very low right now (2012) but banks are extremely reluctant to lend money especially to high-risk start ups. You will need a business plan before you approach them. And it would be much better if you have a history with the bank before you approach their loans officer.