How should you start a yoga business?
The key is to build strong roots for your business so that you can successfully grow. It’s about your vision and your goals. When you’re starting a yoga business, you need to have a strong vision for the future.
It’s a vision for your life, not just your business. It’s where you see yourself in five years time and how your business is going to support that vision.
The key is to know where you’re heading and having a mission for your business.
What do you want to do in your yoga business and who do you want to do it for? Knowing what your yoga business is all about and who your ideal student is are the key pieces you need to know when considering how to start a yoga business.
How to start a yoga business: Having goals is key
There are essential things that you should be doing, especially as yoga teachers when starting a yoga business. It’s really hard to grow your community unless you have these strategies in place.
It is important to ensure first of all that you have the right mindset for success because mindset is everything. It’s not just about having the mindset but believing in yourself. When you make that goal you need to believe that you can achieve it.
Knowing and understanding your niche is another essential when you start a yoga business. How you narrow in on your ideal student and craft something that is specifically for them and will ensure that they keep coming back to you.
The mindset for success is defining your goals, vision and mission and also defining your niche and your core offering.
Here are the key marketing elements that you need to have in place:
Marketing element number 1: Authentic branding
When you’ve worked out who your niche is, you can then start to craft the look and feel for your brand as a yoga teacher and finding some consistency.
It is okay to find your way with it as you go when you start a yoga business. You don’t need to create a perfect logo or a perfect style guide before you can put yourself out there. It is more important to just to get your message out there than to spend hours, days and weeks crafting the perfect branding.
As a yoga teacher, most of you will create a personal brand. You can create a personal brand by coming back to your vision, the mission and your goals.
Once you have decided what you want your branding to look like, you can start to find imagery, colour and fonts for your website and social media. All these decisions will be based on your personality which will allow you to market yourself authentically to your ideal students.
For instance, if you are a teacher that’s focused on restorative yoga, then you’ll want the imagery, fonts and colours to reflect that. You want to use softer fonts, colours and images. You want the imagery and the photos that you use to really reflect your personality.
Once you’ve made some progress with your yoga brand you can start promoting yourself. It’s much better to get something out there than to be holding back because you want everything to be picture-perfect.
Just get it out there, get feedback and let it evolve.
Marketing element number 2: Build a website
Having a website is another key element that you need in place when you start a yoga business. It is an essential foundation for your business to grow. Your website is essentially your online home. You own your website, unlike Facebook or Instagram and other social media platforms.
It’s so important to have this place where your community can find out about you. You can use your website for class schedules and bookings, for blogging, booking workshops and retreats and teaching yoga online. Your website is your hub. It’s a place where people can discover you.
If you’re blogging and working on SEO there’s more of a chance that people will find you on Google. That’s why it’s so important to have a website when you start a yoga business.
All successful yoga teachers have a website!
Get on Google today and just look for your favourite yoga teachers. You’ll find their website with their offerings on there, their retreats, etc. If they’ve got an online program, that’s where you’ll find it. Having a website opens up more opportunities to bring more income and to grow a successful yoga business.
Key website tips when you’re starting a yoga business
1.Facebook pixel
This allows people to find your website when you start running Facebook Ads. You do so much work to get organic traffic to your website like blogging and social media content. But what happens after those people go onto the website?
Facebook Pixel is a piece of code that captures information about those people. It then takes the information to Facebook and searches for those exact people. Most people are on Facebook nowadays, so the chances of finding a match are actually pretty high.
When those people are found, it sticks them in a bucket, which is called a custom audience. Even if you’re not planning on doing Facebook ads right now, if you get your pixel code onto your website, then you’ll start to fill up that bucket of people who have been on your website.
They know who you are. So they have some brand recognition and brand awareness of you as a teacher. Further down the line when you’ve got a retreat or an online program that you’re trying to promote, you can send adverts directly to those people in that bucket who are more likely to buy your offerings.
This makes the adverts so much cheaper. Instead of running an advert targeting people based on yoga as interest and competing with all the other yoga brands that are also targeting people based on yoga as an interest. It makes your ads more effective if you can target those people who already know you.
2. Optimising your website
Optimising your website is so important for the foundation of your business. Once you’ve got a website, you need to have opt-in forms on there to collect people’s email addresses. This is a key part of growing a successful online business otherwise it’s really hard to build a community. And of course you need your community to build your business.
For example when you go to see an online course you have created, you need to have a community that wants to buy it! It’s much better to spend time building your email list first as a foundation for your business before you spend time creating a course and just trying to sell it.
Your email list is crucial to your success. It means having an opt-in freebie, something that people can sign up for in exchange for their email address.
Create something that’s specific to what your ideal students want. Then you need to deliver a welcome email sequence and a regular newsletter to nurture that relationship. Email marketing is really important for the foundation and growth of your business.
It’s very difficult to grow if you don’t have these foundations in place. If you’re building a house, you need a solid foundation and is exactly the same for your business. You need to feel rooted in the business and have some key strategies in place before you start to grow.
3. Having a vision for the future
This is the starting point. It means knowing where you’re heading and having a really clear idea on your WHY, your mission for your business. Once you have your WHY, then set some goals for what you want to achieve in the next 12 months.
There’s no point in creating something if you don’t really know what you’re trying to achieve. Therefore, getting crystal clear on your vision and goals is a really good starting point for growing your business.
Finding your profitable yoga teaching sweet spot
Finding your yoga teaching sweet spot that will help create a profitable and sustainable business is first about cultivating the mindset for success. It’s about understanding your passion and your skills and creating the right formula between them.
And second, you need to start truly build the foundations of a successful business by spending time on your personal brand, creating an authentic presence online and optimising your website.
Also, remember email over social media. Social media is great for building your brand, spreading your message and crafting your story online. But email marketing is really the key when it comes to nurturing relationships with your students and how building a profitable business.
>>> Video training: Build the Foundation of a Profitable Yoga Business
What are the first steps to start a yoga business?
The first steps to start a yoga business include identifying your niche and target audience, creating a business plan, obtaining necessary certifications, registering your business, and setting up a physical or virtual location for your classes. This blog post provides a comprehensive guide on how to get started.
Do I need special certifications to start a yoga business?
Yes, having yoga certifications is essential for starting a yoga business. These certifications provide credibility and assure clients of your expertise and training. At a minimum, you should have a 200-hour certification from a Yoga Alliance accredited program. Some specialized niches may require additional certifications.
What are the essential tools for running a successful yoga business?
Essential tools for a successful yoga business include a user-friendly website, social media presence, scheduling software, payment processing system, and marketing tools.
How can I market my yoga business effectively?
Effective marketing for your yoga business involves building a strong online presence, engaging with your audience on social media, offering promotions and discounts to attract new clients, and providing valuable content through blogs, videos, or newsletters.
What should I consider when setting the pricing for my yoga classes?
When setting your yoga class pricing, consider factors like your experience, location, class duration, class size, and any additional amenities or services you offer. It’s essential to research local competitors’ pricing and evaluate your target audience’s willingness to pay.
