How to Start a Yoga Business
Due to its popularity, many yoga lovers are quitting the corporate world to start their own yoga studios.
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FITiST creates workout packages based on boutique fitness classes.
Have you considered starting a yoga business of your own? It takes hard work and dedication, just like the practice of yoga itself.
Yoga is an ancient Hindu philosophical practice that combines body movement and fixed postures with meditation, spiritual, and holistic exercises. In recent years, many enlightenment seekers have jumped on the yoga bandwagon, lured in by donation-only sessions, and inexpensive one-off classes. There is even the Gawker-esque blog YogaDork, profiled in kind by The New York Times, that covers the frivolous nuances of the increasingly trendy $5.7 billion industry.
Don't be fooled by its whimsical exterior - the business of yoga comes equipped with the joys and pitfalls of any other business. Before you make that career change, read on to discover he best ways to go about founding a prolific and profitable practice.
How to Start a Yoga Business: Yoga Certification
Your first step should to obtain certification as an instructor from a Yoga Alliance affiliated institution. Yoga Alliance is the organization that presides over the national standards when it comes to yoga and, although it is not mandatory that a teacher or a school be certified, it is the industry standard. Yoga Alliance lists the certification requirements for individuals and institutions on its Web site.
For an individual to be certified, Yoga Alliance requires a one-time $25 application fee, along with a $55 annual fee. If you desire to instruct teacher trainings at your school, a Registered Yoga School (RYS) certification is required to conduct 200-hour level teacher trainings. This registration requires a one-time $350 application fee and a $200 annual renewal fee.
Your next step should be to draw up a business plan for yourself as a sole proprietor or as an institution. "If someone wants to open up their own studio, they definitely need to, like any other business, look at the working capital. And they've got to have a business plan," says Donna Davidge, a New York City-based yoga practitioner for over 26 years and founder of the yoga retreat center Sewall House in Maine. "You've got to have projections." In terms of projections, you also need to make yourself aware of the going rates of classes in your area. Yoga class fees vary greatly by area, and are often made more competitive in urban locales due to free and donation-only classes and an excess of existing studios and private instructors.
Dig Deeper: Does Certification Matter?
How to Start a Yoga Business: Sole Proprietor or Owner?
Due to the popularity of the activity, many practitioners have ditched their briefcases in the hopes of teaching students of their own how to live healthy, stress-free lives. However, before trading in your suit for drawstring slacks, beware that your "stress-free" existence may be affected by a pay cut. Davidge estimates that new teachers, on average, only make about $20,000 to $40,000 a year.
There are many avenues that one can take with respect to starting their own practice. You can opt to work as a sole proprietor, servicing private clientele on a one-on-one basis. This, in fact, is one of the more lucrative ways for yoga instructors to make a living. You can also work for a private health club or existing yoga center, also as a sole proprietor, with a built-in clientele. As an added bonus to this option, fitness centers such as Equinox and New York Sports Club offer health and retirement benefits to their yoga instructors.
Finally, you can open your own brick and mortar establishment. This option comes with far more responsibilities that include rent and utility expenses, managing staff, and assuring that your place of business adheres to zoning requirements depending on the type of yoga that you'll be teaching.
Dig Deeper: Money or Passion?
How to Start a Yoga Business: Build a Clientele
Before you start your own business, brick and mortar or not, it's best to work for an established yoga outlet. This will allow you to gain more experience in the craft, and also to build a loyal following of your own out of the pool of existing students. "I think you need to get loyal clients," says Davidge. "If people don't know who you are, it's going to be pretty hard to do." In addition to working for an established studio, you may also choose to offer a free class or donation-only class every so often in order to heighten customer interest in your instruction techniques.
Dig Deeper: How to Run a One-Person Business
How to Start a Yoga Business: Choose a Type of Yoga
You need to determine what type of yoga you're going to teach. Yoga is a generic term that, in the West, may refer to thousands of cross- disciplinary forms with different physical and spiritual objectives. However, some are more popular and therefore more lucrative than others.
In addition to her retreat, Davidge instructs a course on Kundalini yoga at New York Open Center in New York City, the form that she began practicing back in 1985. Kundalini is oriented on breathing techniques and working with the chakras, which are energy points on the body. She notes that Iyengar, Ashtanga, and Vinyasa yoga are also popular choices. "They're very good workouts. So when someone doesn't want the rest of the lifestyle, spiritual, whatever, they can go in a class and just get that," she says.
Anna Winkler, founder of Shakti Yoga and Living Arts in Maplewood, NJ, has similar yoga offerings. "Hot yoga and Vinyasa yoga are very popular right now because it's very much like going to the gym. The people understand it and [what they really want is] a workout and to lose weight and look good," she says. Winkler recommends that yoga studios specialize in one style so as not to confuse customers. "Studios that offer one type of yoga may have a better success ratio because students know that whatever class they go to, that's what they're going to get.'
Dig Deeper: What Kind of Business Are You Running?
How to Start a Yoga Business: The Bikram Option
As Winkler mentioned, hot yoga is one of the most popular forms of contemporary yoga. The most popular form of hot yoga is Bikram Yoga, founded by yogi Bikram Choudhury in the early 1970s. The system is presided over by Bikram Yoga World Headquarters based out of Los Angeles. Unlike other forms of yoga, the Bikram practice - the specific sequence of poses - is trademarked, and one must go through a formal process in order to teach Bikram and to open a studio dedicated to instructing this specific form of yoga.
