When you’re starting out your yoga studio, it’s important to start considering how you’re going to make money. With your budget set or still in progress, you can already start to make steps towards financial stability with the right planning. What are some of the ways that you can make money in your yoga studio?
Your yoga studio can profit from many different revenue streams, including teaching regular yoga classes, offering memberships, selling merchandise, renting out yoga gear, renting out the space, providing special trainings and workshops, and hosting other events like private parties.
Making sure you have all the right ways to make your profit in your yoga studio is key whether you’re just starting out or trying to make the next step forward. Read on to find out more about how you can make those decisions that lead you towards more profit in your yoga studio.
Regular yoga classes
This is a yoga studio’s man source of income and one of the most important ways to focus on. Building a steady class schedule and student base is going to be key to any success in your business and even success in any of the other ways that you can turn a profit in your yoga studio. Without buy in from your students or interest from them, you cannot gain traction in the other categories.
When you’re considering how to price your classes, there are several things to consider. Firstly, you need to consider your competition. Is there anyone around you currently teaching yoga? What are their offerings, and what are their classes like? How much are they charging per class? Do they have any other advantages over your business, like location or parking?
Secondly, you need to consider your own budget. How much do you need to make per class to break even? How much do you need to make per class to make a profit? How many students do you need per class, and how many classes do you think your studio can take on?
Thirdly, consider your own experience and what you intend on offering through your studio. While it can be hard to put a price on your experience and education, consider what you have put into learning how to teach yoga and try to place a monetary value to it.
Once you’ve determined all three, consider how they play into pricing your classes. What is the lowest you can go according to your budget and your own value, and what is the highest you can go while still maintaining your competition? Find the best middle ground between these three values to really be able to determine the best costs for your regular yoga classes.
While your regular classes can shift into memberships, it’s also important to open it up to drop-in students. If someone wants to just step into a class when they’re travelling or one of your current students bring in a friend, you can allow for people to just step into a class for a fee.
- Memberships.
While you’re considering the cost of your regular classes, you can also start to put together membership packages for the students who want to attend more than one class a week or want to come to the same one every week. A great way to make sure that you have a steady revenue stream is by offering memberships. While it may feel like you are losing money at the jump—since many memberships are offered at a lower, bulk price than single classes—you’ll find that your students will continue to purchase those memberships create a steady, dependable profit for your studio.
- Merchandise.
Whether you’re selling shirts, water bottles, or even gear for your students to use in your classes, you can make revenue off of selling merchandise in your yoga studio. It doesn’t matter what you sell, as long as you’re selling it at a profit. In most cases, you can sell the items that you use in your classes, whether it be something as simple as yoga mats and slings or something larger like a yoga wheel or yoga blocks.
But you don’t have to stop there. As you get more and more established, you can start selling your own business merchandise. Consider selling items with your logo and business name on them, like t-shirts, tank tops, sweatshirts and hoodies, and even water bottles or tote bags. If you have a loyal customer base, they will likely want to tout where they take yoga classes, whether it be with their bag or by wearing your logo.
The Top 5 Most Important Piece Of Yoga Equipment
- Yoga gear rentals.
While you can sell your yoga mats and slings to your customers, some of them may not want to invest in the equipment right away, but still want to practice at home. Consider renting yoga gear out to your students. Essentials like a yoga mat, towel, yoga blocks, etc. are great for those who are just stopping in for a quick class or for those wanting to test the waters of what yoga means to them. You can also consider shifting this into a merchandise sale if they’re using their items regularly—consider offering a rental fee for a period of time, and then if they so choose, they can purchase the items they’ve already been using.
- Space rentals.
It’s important to have enough space for your yoga classes, so what happens when you’re not having classes in that space? You can open up your yoga studio to allow for renting out the space. Whether it’s a non-yoga class like a dance class or exercise class, or even an event that has nothing to do with yoga, you can make a profit by allowing people to rent out your space for whatever it is they need it for. Just make sure it does not cut into your normal class hours and does not hurt that steady revenue stream.
- Special trainings and workshops.
If you’re looking to bring in other yoga instructors or want to provide an additional benefit to your more advanced students, try looking into a special training or a workshop. You can bring in new and exciting speakers and yoga teachers to give a new perspective on the activity, while charging at the door for something of this magnitude.
- Other events.
If you’ve maxed out your class schedule and opened up your studio for event space rental and special trainings, it’s time to consider hosting your own private event schedule. You can open up your yoga studio to hosting corporate retreats or group classes for friends and families. When you start teaching in private classes, make sure you offer them at a higher price than your regular classes—they are paying for you to teach outside of your normal class hours, and they’re paying for your studio, and they’re paying for the space just for themselves. You can also provide additional benefits when increasing that cost for your students, including refreshments, a personal playlist provided by the attendees, and more.
Whether you’re organizing regular memberships or teaching a private class, there are many ways that you can make a profit in your yoga studio. Remember that the focus, though, should be on your regular students, and if you start to lose that focus, you can lose their patronage—which should be your primary revenue stream. The best way for you to make a profit is still through your regular classes. Everything else should be in addition to the great work you’re already doing in your yoga studio.
Frequently Asked Questions
It all depends on how much revenue you’re bringing into your yoga studio when determining how much you can make in a year. If your studio is only teaching classes without any additional revenue streams, to make about $100,000 a year in net profits, you will have to teach five days a week, with three classes a day, to 13 people in a class at $10 per class.
If you want to become an authentic yoga teacher, there are multiple ways to do so. If you want to learn from a spiritual leader, you can, but if you are seeking registration and licensure through the Yoga Alliance, you must first learn either from structured classes or a yogi, learn CPR, and then get registered before you can start teaching. That registration will allow you to work professionally within a yoga studio or when you open your own.
When you’re starting your own yoga studio, you can expect the start up costs to be about $15,000 to $100,000, with the average of new studios around $50,000. You’ll need a physical space, permits and licenses, insurance, staffing, equipment, marketing, and a scheduling system, along with people who are educated and licensed to teach your classes. Make sure you include paying yourself within your budget, especially if you are going to start as the primary yoga teacher in your new studio.
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.