Your goal is to create a yoga studio that is special and unique, a sacred space for your students to escape their busy lives, center their minds, and renew their spirits. You desire a steady stream of income, full classes, and energy that organically drives new clients to you. You want your studio to stand taller and brighter than all the rest. Well, let’s get started! Following this simple, step-by-step guide, you can create a yoga studio that is truly one of a kind.
To make your yoga studio unique, start by choosing a core value that encompasses the vision you have for your business. Secondly, integrate that theme into your studio design. Next, choose your color palette and hand-pick your décor to reflect your style, selecting items that appeal to your students’ senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste) for an immersive yoga experience. Be intentional with your music and fragrance selections to best coordinate with your design. Lastly, offer a few fresh ideas to your students to create an exceptional environment that encourages new client referrals.
Step 1: Determine Your Yoga Core Value
“What we think, we become.” – Buddha.
Set a focused intention on what you value most, just as you do in your daily yoga practice, and then apply it to your studio design. There are many themes to choose from to help you find your focus: Find Peace, Be Present, Find Balance, etc. Choose any one theme that speaks clearly to you and reminds you of why you began your yoga business journey. You will layer all other components on this mantra base, so having it hand-painted on the wall somewhere will help keep your focus on what matters to you most.
Step 2: Discover Your Style
Once you have a laser focus on your theme and the feelings you want to conjure from your students, imagine what that space would look like manifested into a physical design. Is it designed to invoke a sense of calm, peace, strength, energy, or something else? Is it designed like a luxurious spa, purposely left open in a minimalist style, or staged like an Asian-inspired temple? Maybe your vision is more modern, eclectic, bold, industrial-looking, or has a recurring forest and nature motif. Hold this style in your mind as you continue to the next steps.
Step 3: Choose Your Colors
Remember the first time you saw a mood ring? How fascinating to discover that your mood has colors! While this may be nothing more than a fun little trinket, there is truth to color psychology, a theory that links emotions and behaviors to corresponding color associations. Your color palette choice for your studio will be the substructure of your design, so you choose colors to best match your theme.
For example, if you intend to create a space inspired by nature, you might choose shades of sage and moss green, which are aligned with feelings of balance, growth, and healing. For a luxurious spa-like experience, incorporating pale hues of blue will evoke feelings of peace, tranquility, and serenity. For a more vivacious environment, experiment with energizing shades of purple and orange, colors that are most closely associated with self-confidence and inspiration.
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Step 4: Select Décor To Match Your Design
Your décor should be carefully chosen to coordinate with your color scheme and evoke sensory responses from your students. If you have a “reconnect” theme with a nature-inspired template, and your colors are primarily variations of greens and browns, hanging a large piece of driftwood on the wall will add texture and help set your mood. Strategically stage your space with live palms, small trees, and other air-purifying plants, or place a Himalayan salt lamp in the front corner for a focal point. Everything in your studio should have a purpose and a place.
- Water Features
No matter your design, adding a water feature will create a calm, peaceful atmosphere. If you want to give your studio a grand visual feature, splurge for a wall-mounted water display or fountain as you enter your studio. Water trickling is a naturally soothing sound, a perfect pairing for mindful meditation during savasana. Associated with our second sacral chakra (Svadhishthana), water is believed to encourage our bodies to flow and stretch more easily during our practice.
- Flooring
Hardwood flooring, luxury vinyl, laminate, or bamboo are great flooring options for a yoga studio, as they are easy to clean and are warmer and softer than concrete or tile. Choosing a unique color or Zen-like flooring pattern can make your design really pop. Stenciling your company logo in the center of the floor is a cool visual aid for your brand.
- Ceilings
If you are lucky enough to have high ceilings in your studio, utilize the space above as you would the walls, especially since we spend so much time looking upward during our practice. If it’s not in great shape, paint any exposed pipes and hang tapestries, Tibetan prayer flags, or bamboo slats to add dimension. Consider soundproofing for ceilings and walls to help damper outside sounds.
Use soft overhead lighting on a dimmer or pin up some delicate mini twinkling lights. If your vibe is more active and you plan to offer Power or Bikram yoga, give color-changing lights a chance for a fun, unique ambiance.
- Windows
Windows can add a significant style element, so highlight them with window treatments that match your chosen style. While having natural light is a beautiful feature, make sure you have darkening shades to shut out the sunshine as meditation, savasana, and pranayama are best conducted in darkness – even the most disciplined yogis will have difficulty focusing with beams of light shining on their eyelids.
Step 5: Choose The Right Music
If you have a reception area, have music playing always. Your choice of music will center your studio style, so if your design is that of an India-inspired temple, your music style should match; Gregorian chanting, wood chimes, and gong sounds are complementary choices. If your studio style has a young, hip vibe, opt for music with more energy – who says you can’t play Wu-Tang Clan before (or during) a yoga class?
Giving local musicians the chance to showcase their talents in a live studio performance is another great way to incorporate some flavor into your classes!
Step 6: Pull It All Together With Scent
Our sense of smell is one of our most potent gateways to conjuring memories and evoking emotions. There are so many scented oils, incense sticks, and candles to choose from, so experiment with a few options, and remember to envision your core value when selecting. If your design is modeled on ancient temples, having earthy incense burning is an appropriate partnership. For a high-end spa design, choose clean, crisp scents like eucalyptus or lemongrass in your essential oil diffusers. Be deliberate in your scent choices as they relate to your studio style.
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More Fresh Ideas To Elevate Your Experience
Add A Refreshment Station
A refreshment station with fruit-infused water and hot tea is an excellent cost-conscious addition to your space that will surely please your students. It’s a simple addition that feels very high-end, and there are many fruit-infused water variations to try so you can switch it up. Avoid any food with smells that can overpower your space.
Hand Out Warm & Cool Towels
Handing out warm, damp towels infused with mint or lemon scent to cleanse the face, neck, hands, and feet will awaken your students’ senses and add a rich component to your practice. Your students will certainly appreciate an offering of cool damp towels after an intense Power Yoga session.
Offer Unique Theme Classes
Ask your instructors if they have any experience or certifications in a lesser-known style of yoga to spice up your class selections. Or try offering a theme class where you set the intention ahead of time, focusing on poses that correspond to opening specific chakras.
Be Hands-On
If your students are comfortable with hands-on yoga adjustments, make it part of your sessions for a one-on-one experience to help them progress in their practice safely and correctly. As your students come into their final corpse pose, warm your palms with essential oils, and one by one, gently push back shoulders, align the head and neck, and massage the temples for a beautiful way to close the session.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Yoga can be intimidating to those who have never tried it before, so a good way to get more people interested is to send low-cost direct mailings with a coupon for a deeply discounted “New To Yoga” trial class. Offer incentives and discounts to your current students who bring in friends who then end up joining the studio. Also, keep an eye on local yoga teachers who have a good student following; it may be worth paying a great teacher a little more if he brings in more business!
Selling merchandise, like tanks and zip-up hoodies, with your logo can unite your yoga students, serve as an excellent marketing tool, and give you another income stream. For a fun idea, offer monthly challenges to your students and teachers, like free merchandise to whoever brings in the most first-time clients for a trial class. Keep your pay-per-class member cost low but offer an upsell package for a steady income stream, like a higher monthly fee for unlimited classes.
To learn more about starting your own Yoga Business check out my startup documents here.
Please note: This blog post is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Please consult a legal expert to address your specific needs.
Meet Shawn Chun: Entrepreneur and Yoga Fan
I’m a happy individual who happens to be an entrepreneur. I have owned several types of businesses in my life from a coffee shop to an import and export business to an online review business plus a few more and now I create online yoga business resources for those interested in starting new ventures. It’s demanding work but I love it. I do it for those passionate about their business and their goals. That’s why when I meet a yoga business owner in public at a studio or anywhere else I see myself. I know how hard the struggle is to retain clients, find good employees and keep the business growing all while trying to stay competitive.
That’s why I created Yoga Business Boss: I want to help future yoga business owners like you build a thriving business that brings you endless joy and supports your ideal lifestyle.