Opening a yoga studio is exciting, but it’s also expensive and involves lots of work — especially if you don’t know your way around the right tools and best practices. You need to make sure that your yoga studio has a considerable chance of growing into a success. So getting yourself into a position where you can’t afford to keep your doors open is out of the question. In this article, we’ll discuss 12 critical things you need to avoid when opening your own yoga business.
First off, let’s settle a question that’s probably on your mind already — is opening a yoga studio worth it in terms of income? That’s a central question and one that you need to answer once and for all before you start on your journey to start yoga business. That’s why I’ll start this guide by asking how profitable yoga studios actually are. Once we get that figured out, we’ll get to the actual list of things to avoid when opening a yoga studio.
Are Yoga Studios Profitable?
Yoga studios are very popular and profitable. They offer a place where people can come together to relax and reduce stress. However, many entrepreneurs have found that opening a yoga studio is not as easy or profitable as they had hoped. In fact, many new studios fail within the first few years. If you want your business to succeed, you need to ensure it’s financially viable from the start by doing your research on costs of opening and running a yoga studio so you can avoid common mistakes made by other owners. Here’s what we’ll cover:
How much does it cost to open a yoga studio?
The costs of opening a yoga studio can vary widely depending on location, size and amenities. The average cost of opening a new studio is $25,000 to $50,000—this includes leasing the space and equipment, as well as furniture and marketing supplies.
The more elaborate your vision for your yoga studio’s design, the more expensive it will be to build out the space. If you want high-end finishes like hardwood floors and marble counters in the bathrooms (which are great if you have enough money!), expect those costs to rise even higher!
To give you some perspective on how much it might cost for your own studio: A very small studio that seats only 15 students would start around $50 per square foot; whereas a larger one with 50 mats could start at around $100 per square foot.
How much do yoga studios make?
Yoga studios can make a lot of money. In fact, the demand for yoga classes far outweighs the supply. It’s estimated that there are more than 20 million people who practice yoga in America alone, and that number continues to grow as more people become aware of its health benefits. With so many people practicing yoga, there is plenty of demand for studios like yours! Plus, the right yoga studio software can help you increase profits considerably by improving efficiency and adding to the hours you can spend on your passion for teaching yoga. Yoga studio owners that implement software will find themselves able to focus more on running their business than on mundane tasks like scheduling or invoicing. This allows them more time to focus on growing their business by providing quality classes that keep people coming back again and again.
12 Things to Avoid when Opening a Yoga Studio
Not Counting Your Costs
The costs of opening a yoga studio can be high. It’s important to know the exact costs before you start your business, so that you have time to make adjustments and find ways to cut costs. Remember, it’s better to spend more money on things like equipment than it is on supplies like cleaning products or cleaning supplies.
Some of these expenses include:
- Yoga mats (you should buy more than one)
- Equipment (like foam blocks and straps)
- Advertising (for example, flyers at local businesses)
- Cleaning supplies (paper towels and spray bottles)
* Costs of rent. If you’re renting space for your studio, then you’ll need to pay monthly rent and some utilities like electricity and water supply. Also, be sure not to forget about taxes! Yoga studios are required by law to pay various federal, state and local taxes.
Thinking that You Are a Yoga Instructor First, and a Business Owner Second
- Being a yoga instructor first, and a business owner second.
- Delegation
- Working with the people you hire
- Making decisions
- Managing your time
It can be easy to become jaded when you’re an entrepreneur. You have to wear so many hats, and it can feel like you’re doing most of the work. If this is how you feel about your business, then it’s time for a reality check. No one person has all the skills necessary to run a successful company. That’s why there are businesses in the first place—they exist because we need each other.
The best way to access these skills is through hiring. If your business isn’t growing, then it’s time to start looking for help. You do not have to be able to do everything on your own anymore; there are people out there who are skilled in areas that you’re weak at, and they’ll help carry some of the load.
Over-Committing to One Space
You should avoid over-committing to a space.
A space that is flexible, affordable, centrally located, comfortable and easily maintained will always be the best choice. If you’re looking to open a studio in a mall or other commercial location, ask yourself: how much would it cost me to move if my business was doing well? The answer should be “not very much.”
If you’ve already found a cheap, centrally located, comfortable space for your studio that’s easy enough to maintain and get to—and it’s not in a mall or other commercial location—then you’re all set. Congratulations! You just need to take care of the basics: pay your rent on time and keep your studio clean.
This can be a difficult question to answer, but it’s important to know that space should be easy to find and get to.
The last thing you want to do is over-commit to a space. A space that’s flexible, affordable, centrally located, comfortable and easily maintained will always be the best choice. If you’ve already found a cheap, centrally located, comfortable space for your studio that’s easy enough to maintain and get to—and it’s not in a mall or other commercial location—then you’re all set.
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Not Figuring Out Who Is Going to Take Care of the Business Side of Your Studio
In addition to making sure that you have the proper insurance and licensing, it’s important to make sure you have a business plan before opening a yoga studio. The business plan should include things like:
- A marketing strategy
- How you will handle the financial side of running your studio (accounting/bookkeeping)
- How you will deal with staff at the studio
Without these three things, your yoga studio will likely fail. The good news is that most studio owners only need to read a few articles on how to manage their studio’s finances before they feel confident enough to take care of it themselves. The same cannot be said for marketing and staff management.
If you’re opening your own yoga studio, make sure you have a plan in place for how to handle these two crucial aspects of running a successful business. It’s important that you have the right people on board who can help with marketing and staff management because these are both things that will make or break your studio.
Use the Right Yoga Studio Management Software
Using a yoga studio management software is one of the best ways to manage your studio. The best software will handle not only the business side of things, like billing and scheduling, but also help you keep track of attendance and manage your classroom schedule.
Yoga Studio Software solutions have been around since 2010 and and can help yoga businesses more than triple their earnings! Of course, everything depends on picking the right yoga studio app when you’re opening a yoga studio. RunSensible is a feature-packed, comprehensive yoga studio software that comes with all the tools you will ever need as a yoga business owner. If you’re looking for an easy-to-use interface that helps you manage your business on all fronts, try out RunSensible today for free!
With the best yoga studio management software, you can schedule, track payments, and manage your business on all fronts. A great tool for managing your business, our software helps you keep track of attendance while also managing class schedules online. Yoga Studio Software has been around since 2010 and has helped studios grow from 1-5 classes per week to over 25+ classes per week while collecting more than $2 million in revenue per month! If you’re looking for an easy-to-use interface that helps
As a yoga studio owner, you’ve got a lot on your plate. From managing the day-to-day operations of your business to balancing work and life demands, it can be hard to keep track of everything. One way that many studio owners have found success is by using a yoga studio management software. Yoga Studio Software will help manage not only the business side of things but also help you keep track of attendance and manage your classroom schedule.
Yoga Studio Software has been around since 2010, and it’s helped studios grow from 1-5 classes per week to over 25+ classes per week while collecting more than $2 million in revenue per month! If you’re looking for an easy-to-use interface that helps on all fronts, try out Yoga Studio Software today! With the best yoga studio management software, you can schedule, track payments, and manage your business on all fronts.
Finding A Way To Handle The Administrative Side Of The Business
Now that you’ve decided to open a yoga studio, it’s time to start thinking about the finances and logistics of your business. You may be excited about what this new chapter in your life will bring and ready to dive right into the work, but there are many things you need to consider before opening day.
- Are you prepared for the financial and administrative side of owning a business?
- Have you spent enough time researching how much money it’ll take to get started?
- Do you know how much money each month will go towards paying staff wages and rent/mortgage payments?
- Do you know what percentage of income goes back into marketing efforts (e.g., advertising, social media campaigns)?
If not, now is the time!
In addition to being prepared for the financial and administrative side of owning a business, you’ll also need to make sure that your yoga studio is going to have enough students in order to cover all costs. You can do this by conducting market research through social media or word-of-mouth advertising. If there aren’t enough people willing to pay for classes at your location, then either move locations where you think more people will be interested in taking classes somewhere else, or try going online and opening a virtual yoga studio that is completely online.
Not Doing Enough Research
You have to be careful when you’re doing your research. It’s tempting to just look at the numbers: how many people live in the area, how many of them are interested in yoga, and how much money you can make from each customer. But if you only look at the numbers, then you’re missing out on a lot of important information about your market. It’s not just about what kind of people live there: it’s also about what kind of community they’re part of and whether or not they support local businesses like yours. And even once all those things are taken into account, there’s still one more thing to consider: competition!
As much as you would like to think you have everything figured out, there will always be a few surprises along the way. For example, your staff may not work out the way you expected them to. But that’s OK! It’s normal for there to be some bumps in the road when starting up a new business
* Not doing enough research. When you start out, you’ll probably have a ton of ideas about what your business could be like—and that’s great! But you need to make sure that each one is backed up by lots of research and hard data. That way, when someone asks “Why did you choose this particular location? Why do customers want X?,” it’ll be easier for them to understand why your decisions were made.
Failing To Look At The Competition
You need to make sure that you’re not opening a yoga studio in a market that’s already saturated. If there are already several studios in an area, it might be too risky to open up another one. The best way to do this is to look at your competition and see how they operate, what their prices are like, who they serve and how they reach out to the community. You can learn a lot by doing this research!
If you’re lucky enough to have found a location that hasn’t been taken yet by other studios (or if it’s just slightly under-served), then congratulations! You’ve got some great news for us all: now we get pricing wars with our competitors as we battle for customers’ attention against each other in the fight for market share
Obviously, no one is going to tell you not to look at your competitors. But if you really want to be the best at what you do, then you’ll probably want some more information than just looking at their prices and clientele, right? Well lucky for all of us there’s an easy way: reviews! That’s right – all it takes is a quick Google search and some time spent sifting through consumer feedback sites like Yelp or Trip Advisor.
You’ll find that many reviewers have helpful tips and suggestions on what yoga studios are best suited for beginners, which ones are great if you’re looking to lose weight – or, maybe even more importantly, which ones won’t break the bank! Who knows? Maybe reading some reviews might even help steer your decision away from opening up yet another studio that offers hot vinyasa flow classes at $18 per hour …
Having no Hiring Standards
Don’t hire your first teacher. Don’t hire your second teacher.
In all seriousness, it’s important to get the right fit for your studio and its mission. This isn’t something that should be rushed. You should take time to find the right person who will represent what you want for your business, and also help you grow and evolve as an entrepreneur along with them. It’s better to take a little longer than rush into things!
Now, hiring a second teacher will inevitably come. When you do make this decision, take some time to interview several candidates. Create a list of questions that are specific to your studio and that can help determine if they are the right person for the job. Make sure you have time to go over their resume and ask any questions that might come up. In my experience, hiring the right person is all about communication.
You should also be ready to answer questions from them as well. It’s just as important for your business that they are comfortable working in an environment where you will be a great leader and mentor.
Hiring a second teacher. In all seriousness, it’s important to get the right fit for your studio and its mission. This isn’t something that should be rushed. You should take time to find the right person who will represent what you want for your business, and also help you grow and evolve as an entrepreneur along with them. It’s better to take a little longer than rush into things!
Not Keeping Clients Informed
It’s important to keep your clients informed. In fact, keeping them informed will make them feel more confident in you, and they’ll be more likely to return. Here are some tips on how to communicate with clients:
- Send them an email when the studio opens. This can be especially effective if you offer discounts or coupons in the introductory email.
- Update your website with regular updates about classes and events happening at the studio. Also include details about any specials or promotions currently running. If people know where they can get discounts, it might sway them into coming back for another class!
Finally, make sure you update your website with regular updates about classes and events happening at the studio. This is a great way to stay connected with people who follow you on social media.
Using Low-Grade Equipment
Let’s be real: you might want to go with the cheaper option, but when it comes to buying yoga mats and other equipment for your studio, it’s not worth it. Low-quality items can cause injuries and do little to make your students feel good about their experience. Sure, they’ll be able to get through class without being injured by a shoddy mat or defective equipment, but if you want them to stick around after that first class rather than just giving up on yoga altogether (or switching studios), then you need top-notch gear that will make them feel great about themselves and what they are doing in the room with you—and by extension help them stick with your program long enough for positive results!
Don’t let the temptation of saving money on cheaper mats and other tools outweigh what you know about quality equipment. While it might not seem like a big deal when someone slips or gets injured on one of your yoga mats during class (and it can be easy to brush off injuries as “just part of the process”), that kind of experience will put them in a bad mood. And if they’re in bad mood, they won’t be able to focus
on their practice , and it will cause them to become frustrated with themselves more easily than usual. When that happens, they may stop coming back altogether. Don’t let cheap equipment hold you back from your goals as a yoga teacher and business owner.
Refusing To Use Technology To Schedule Classes And Appointments
You should be using technology to make your life easier. And there’s no better example of this than scheduling classes and appointments with clients.
You see, when you’re trying to schedule a class or appointment with someone, the last thing you want is for them to be confused about when it’s going on and where it’s happening. You also don’t want them to have any confusion about why they’re meeting with you in the first place. This is why using software like Yoga Studio Software is so important! It allows you (or even better: forces you) to schedule all of your classes and appointments in one place, so that everything stays organized for everyone involved (the client included).
Additionally, software like Yoga Studio Software can help keep things running smoothly by reminding people via email when payment is due and even adding it automatically into their account if they haven’t paid yet! With this kind of convenience at hand, why would anyone ever want anything less than what these systems offer?
This is why using software like Yoga Studio Software is so important! It allows you (or even better: forces you) to schedule all of your classes and appointments in one place, so that everything stays organized for everyone involved (the client included). Additionally, software like Yoga Studio Software can help keep things running smoothly by reminding people via email when payment is due and even adding it automatically into their account if they haven’t paid yet! With this kind of convenience at hand, why would anyone ever
Spending Too Much On High-End Yoga Studio Software When There Are Better Alternatives
- Avoid spending too much on high-end yoga studio software when there are better alternatives.
- While the most expensive yoga studio software will include seemingly useful features like defining classes and syllabus, you can get the same functionality for a fraction of the cost with an affordable, startup-oriented yoga studio software like RunSensible.
The most popular yoga studio software features include class and schedule management, student records management, teacher reporting capabilities and more. These features are usually included at no additional cost when you purchase a monthly subscription from one of these services.
Take advantage of the free trials offered by most yoga studio software companies. You’ll be able to test out their services without committing yourself to a lengthy contract.
Many yoga studios use high-end software to run their business. However, this isn’t always necessary and can be costly if it’s not used correctly. There are plenty of free and low-cost options out there that provide similar functionality.
Many people who are new to yoga and want to open a studio don’t realize how much time and money is needed to run it successfully. By choosing the right software for your needs, you’ll be able to manage classes easily and save money on monthly subscriptions. Plus, many free options have all of the features you need without breaking the bank.
Opening a Yoga Studio without Any Hassle?
As we saw again and again, opening a yoga studio is not easy. It is hard work, and it requires you to be smart about your decisions in order to succeed. There are plenty of potential problems along the way and looking at it this way, you may even be discouraged from opening a yoga studio. The good news is that there are things you can do to simplify the whole process and get rid of unnecessary hassle.
The most effective way to streamline your yoga business is getting the right yoga studio software. With a great yoga studio software like RunSensible, you’ll minimize the time and effort that goes into the start yoga business. So, make sure to get a complete studio management software that helps set things up from the start. RunSensible, for example, offers all the tools you need to start, manage, and grow your own yoga business without straining your budget. From lead generation and class scheduling to your studio’s business phone and website designer to seamless, branded invoicing and payment, RunSensible handles everything you need for a hassle free start.
FAQ
Is it hard to become a yoga instructor?
Not if you have a passion for yoga and find it pleasant to spread that passion and teach others to benefit from yoga. Of course, you need to have a firm grip on the positions, their significance, and the strain they put on the body to avoid unnecessary risks to your students.
Is it worth it to become a yoga instructor?
Anything is worth it if you love doing it, but teaching yoga is more profitable when you’re an instructor in your own studio rather than working as a teacher for someone else. For maximum profitability, you can try teaching online classes.
Can you make good money as a yoga instructor?
Yes, you can. As with every other job, being a yoga instructor can become a considerable source of income if you can find your niche and use the right tools to attract more students and grow your classes into a large yoga studio.
How much does a yoga trainer earn in the US?
In 2022, yoga instructors working in the States make an average of about $33.15/Hour, which is more than many other professionals make.
