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| Is opening a yoga studio realistic. I have found many articles online about the subject, but nothing with real facts or information that proves that helpful. I guess there are a lot of variables.
I am a freelance yoga teacher and have been teaching about 15 classes weekly for 1 year now. I taught 2 classes weekly for 1 year before that prior to becoming certified (I don't condone or recommend teaching prior to becoming certified, but I am guilty of doing so, I didn't really know any better at the time, or know all of the things that I didn't know about yoga and teaching before becoming certified). I have been practicing yoga for 3 years, teaching for 2 and really teaching for 1 year. I have a B.A. in dance and I am only 22 years old (almost 23). I live in a midwestern metropolitan area, in a city of 600,000, the metro area is about a million. The city I live in is by no mean saturated with yoga studios and there isn’t a single one in the city that teaches the style I teach. I teach vinyasa style power yoga at a college university primarily, and at a few studios and health clubs in the city. I have taught 500 classes in the past yearh and seen about a total of 500 students (all of whom I have email addresses and contact info for) I have many returning students a very loyal clientele base of about 100. The city I live in has two major universities and numerous small colleges and a younger population. I would love to open my own studio, but I don't know if it is realistic. I have no background in business but am looking in to taking some mini-courses at the university to get a clue. I want to open a studio because I am passionate about yoga and sharing it with others and the spaces I am teaching in right now are not that great. It sounds silly, but I think the space is incredibly important to ones experience in a yoga class and my spaces are not really conducive to a peaceful practice. My main questions are about financing, as I am so young, have little money saved and don’t know much about business.
What are the overhead costs of running a studio, really? Can they be kept down?
In my city leasing a space costs roughly 1.00 to 1.50 per square foot. How much space to I need? I was thinking between 800-1000 square feet, but I am unsure of how much space should be allotted for each student.
Right now I don’t teach my classes in heated rooms because the facilities I work at don’t have the equipment to do so. I would like to teach in heated rooms…but is the cost extreme for this?
How much money do I need to have saved to start a studio? Is 30,000 enough? I would like to avoid taking out a loan and wait until I have enough money to open on my own. Is this a bad idea?
Am I too young and inexperienced to open a studio? Part of me thinks that because I don’t have children to support or a mortgage and I have paid off all of my student loans already it is a good time to start. Am I being naïve?
I would like to start alone. With just teaching all the classes myself. I was thinking maybe 15 classes per week to start. Do you think having a partner is a better idea?
Please give me honest opinions.
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| it is realistic, but it's also very hard work and it takes a good deal of money to get rolling.
my recommendation to you is to just start simple. keep doing what you're doing, save up some money, and visit any yoga studios that you can (and work in them if possible to learn about how they work).
from there, start with a single class. rent a room for the hours that you need it (consider places like the fire house, a church, a YMCA, etc), and try to build your class from there. once that class is full, rent the same space for another class.
once you have about 10 full classes, it would be a good idea to consider renting a permenent place.
during this time, you'll learn about how to run the business, how to market yourself, and you'll experiment with class times and find out who you clients are, what they can afford, where they come from. you'll also earn money teaching classes at "stable" places like you are now (gyms, university, etc).
once you have your own place, start with those 10 classes on the schedule, keeping your back up classes, and then start to add classes as you need to. add workshops as well, and perhaps find other teachers to work with you (if you want).
it's a long path, but it's one that i find leads to the most success. the people here who have the most successful studios (and we're pretty saturated) are those who slowly build their businesses one class at a time, while holding classes at gyms and what not. once they have enough classes to use the room two times a day throughout the week, then it's time to rent a space.
my friend started by renting the fire hall for 20 hours a week (two hour blocks, classes were 1.25 hours), and then rented an office space for $400/mo in a downtown location, and added another two classes (on saturday morning). then, those classes got tight (they fit about 10 people), and so she is looking to rent a larger room in another space even though she likely won't increase her number of classes, and she's looking around for other teachers who may want to teach a few more classes.
another friend of mine used a room in her home for a number of years, then a friend's barn space, and is now renting a home and is using the whole place as a wellness center (as well as living there). she rents the space to yoga teachers and massage therapists as well, which fills out the schedule of her studio with minimal work form her.
so i recommend learning as much as you can by working in a studio, and then start with one class, and build form there.
good luck! |
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| It is realistic when the student has transformed the agenda of the mind and the agenda of the pelvis in the heart center. When the student can access the heart center and thus connect with their svadharma, then a purpose for being here is discovered. That purpose is not at all unrealistic.
So if you are moving from Dharma, if you have found your life's purpose, your reason for being here, and that purpose is teaching yoga in a studio that you own and doing all the things that go with being a small business owner in a capitalist culture, then right on.
There is a more pragmatic answer but is should never overshadow the purpose you are here on the planet (Please!).
If you do not know how much space you need, if you do not know what local utilities cost, if you do not know if overhead can be kept down AND how to keep it down, if you have not already mapped out what your class schedule would be and who your teachers would be and how much you would charge and how much you would pay them (assuming there IS a "them") then I'd say you're not ripe yet.
There is no reason to not do this because of age but there are about 1 million reasons to not do this due to preparation. Do the math. Visit the Small Business Administration web site and take one of their quizzes. Then go from there.
Edited by purnayoga 2008-01-22 6:22 PM
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| just a side thought - you say you don't teach in heated rooms now but would like to. Many people have a strong preference for heat or not - so if all your new classes were heated, you might find a number of existing students who you thought would follow you, will not. (If a lot of your students are college students rather than employees of the university, that doesn't last either.) |
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opening yoga studio-realistic?
