When it comes to starting your own yoga studio, coming up with the perfect business plan shouldn’t be the most stressful thing on your to do list. How can you make a business plan that will get you all the right investors, along with setting you up for success in the log run? What should you include?
The keys to having the best yoga studio business plan is by knowing what needs to go into one. Items include choosing an appropriate and long-lasting name, making your mission statement timeless, stating your long term and short term business objectives, choosing the proper business structure, showing how market changes affect your studio, putting together an appropriate marketing strategy for your area, outlining your staffing even if you are starting your business solo, creating a budget with reality in mind, and writing your executive summary last once you have finished all other research.
Whether you have worked in a studio or are just starting out, it’s important to get the best information possible into your business plan. Follow the tips below to set yourself up for success.
Pick your name, but make it so it lasts.
Picking your business name is a very important and sometimes stressful item on your to-do list, but you can do so in a well thought out manner. Consider making lists of all the adjectives you want associated with your business, and going from there. Regardless of what you choose, make sure it’s something that isn’t trendy but rather something you will be proud of being a part of in twenty, thirty, and forty years down the line.
Consider your mission statement and make sure it is timeless.
A mission statement is something that should be able to stand the test of time. It should focus on your yoga studio’s purpose, eliminating the items that are not important from the items that are. State exactly what markets you will serve and what direction you will take with your yoga studio.
One important thing to remember is to make sure it is not trendy. You are not looking to make a yoga studio that only lasts six months—your mission should be something you can focus on for years to come.
State your business objectives and make sure you include both long- and short-term goals.
While it’s important to have goals to get your business off the ground, make sure you’re also including goals for several years down the road. You don’t want to get your business moving only for you to not know what purpose you serve in the future. Breaking your goals up into years in business can be helpful in this stage.
Choose your business structure.
When it comes to starting a business, there are a few directions to go in when it comes to your business structure. Explain this in your business plan. In most cases, yoga studios will create a limited liability company, which will split your personal assets away from your business assets, protecting you from losing your personal money if something goes wrong in your business. If you are creating a partnership with someone else, make sure you outline all the parameters here.
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Show your market research—but also include how it affects you.
Doing your research on the market isn’t just about learning about the data—you should consider how it will affect your business at any stage. Is the yoga studio business and demand growing, or shrinking? How will it affect you? Outline that in your business plan.
What can you research? There are plenty of things to look into, including your target market, the market trends, your competition, and why you have an advantage.
Your target market is who you’re appealing to. Who do you want to bring into your studio, and why? Are they existent in your market area? Explain who you want to attract. In the market trends section, you will explain how your business can shift based on when the markets shift. How will you grow in an ever-changing market? Explain that here.
You should always look at your competition as well. Who in the area will be competition for your business, and why do you have the advantage? Consider looking at your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities for growth, and any threats to your success.
Put together your marketing strategy, including your objectives and how you plan to do it.
When you start a yoga studio, it’s important to not only know just the market you’re working in, but how you’re going to market to them. Outline some of your objectives and how you’re going to meet those objectives through marketing. What do you intend to do with your marketing program, and how are you going to market—what are your best social media websites, what do you want to put on those websites, and are you going to use print marketing? You should be considering all those questions when you think about marketing.
Consider your staffing and determine what level of education or focus on yoga you want them to have.
Even if you’re just starting out by yourself, it’s important to have a staff structure in place in your business plan. Outline each potential staff member and determine what their responsibilities are in your business plan so down the road, you can easily hire on people to fill those roles. Make sure you also outline their hierarchy so people know who they report to and that their roles in the business are clearly stated.
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Create your budget with reality in mind.
What does it mean to keep reality in mind? Make sure you’re using all the details that you’ve learned about your market when creating your budget. You need to calculate for all the things you spend money on, and you need to be realistic with your profits. Some of the items you should consider include:
- Location, rent, and monthly bills
- Renovations (if needed)
- Equipment: including non-slip yoga mats, blocks, bolsters, blankets, straps, office equipment, and a sound system.
- Staffing
- Signage and marketing
- Licensing and regulations
- A point-of-sale and scheduling system
The best way to determine any of these items is simply by doing your research. At this point in your business plan creation, you should also consider how much to price your classes for. Take the numbers you have within your expenses and determine how many classes you need to sell out to make a profit. But don’t sell yourself short either—just be realistic.
Write your executive summary last in order to summarize your entire business plan.
While it is the first thing that a potential investor should see in your business plan, your executive summary should be the last thing you write. Why? You can summarize everything that you talk about in your business plan in a short and concise manner.
When you write your executive summary, make sure you include an introduction explaining what you are doing and why. Then, go into some brand highlights—what are your goals and why are you putting together that plan? You can then talk about the business opportunity, where you can outline some of the information that you have included about your market and why you want to start a yoga studio within that market. Including data about yoga studios and their successes in the United States is also appropriate in this section. Discuss your initial plans and include how you plan to innovate in the field of yoga.
Some other items you can include in your executive summary include what services you plan to provide, an overview of your start-up costs and funding needs, and a paragraph or two about you, the owner.
Creating your own yoga studio is not for the faint of heart, but it shouldn’t cause you more grief when creating your business plan. Follow these tips and tricks to create the best one you can make in order to support your new business. Remember that no matter what, your business plan is for you—which means you can edit it at any time whenever you need to, and you should. Your plan is a living, breathing document made to benefit you and guide you on your yoga studio journey.
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Frequently Asked Questions
To become an authentic yoga teacher, there are a few steps you can take. Learn about yoga and its roots, including the spiritual practices. Practice meditation and learn how to create positive, healthy relationships, especially with your students. Practice yoga not just as an activity or exercise, but a lifestyle. Make sure you focus on a particular type of yoga, and understand that you may face some challenges as you choose to follow this path.
Depending on the path that you wish to take, you must first learn yoga as an activity. Whether you learn from a spiritual leader is your personal choice. Once you learn, you can get registered through the Yoga Alliance and make sure you learn CPR. After that, you can open your own studio or work in an existing one.
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.