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Yogipreneur hacks to build an online yoga business that lasts

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Let’s just get one thing clear straightaway before we dive into the hacks I’m sharing with you today. I want you to know that even if you’re feeling stuck, overwhelmed or confused, you are here. You are reading this post, you are on the right path and you’re ready to learn and grow. Not one single entrepreneur ever was born with all of the knowledge and skills to succeed in their business. They learned, they sought support to fill their knowledge gaps and that’s exactly what you are doing today.

You are here to build something that’s bigger than you, a yoga business that will last for the long haul. You’re not going anywhere, you are going to make this work – no matter what.

Take a moment to thank yourself for that. Be proud of yourself or show up today and every day even on those hard days – I see you!

I know from working with thousands of yoga teachers that creating an impact is one of your biggest drivers, and to create an impact you really must create a business that lasts, a business that’s sustainable.

Sometimes, especially in the online space that we’re operating in, this can be challenging because the online space is constantly moving – new platforms, strategies and trends are happening all of the time. It can feel hard to keep up and sometimes we get the hang of something and then something else new comes along, we see this in Instagram all of the time.  Just when you get the hang of a feature, they announce a new one and the pressure of working with the algorithm to be seen can really mount up.

You might feel like you’re always changing direction and making pivots to adapt to what’s happening around you. We’ve especially seen that over the last few years with the big move online that happened in the yoga space. There’s a lot to consider and work through to stay ahead and to get the results you want – to grow your online community, to fill your online offerings, to support your students and ultimately to make money from your yoga business.

What you don’t want to be doing is falling at the first hurdle, the first challenge or change that comes along, or even the 5th or 15th hurdle that comes along. This business that you’re building – you left your 9-5 for this. You made a decision back then to go all in and yes, you may have made that decision blindly, not really understanding at the time what it looks like to actually make your business work and what would be required from you to build a profitable and sustainable yoga business. None of us truly know what it takes when we embark on the journey as a yogipreneur, but what I do know from my experience of running and growing my own businesses for the last 7 years is that there is a certain mindset that you need and that it requires you to stick with your business, commit to it wholeheartedly and not give up when it feels tough. As hard as that might sound or even feel, it’s so worth your effort in the end – the freedom, income and flexibility will come, the rewards you’re working for will come.

You don’t get the same level of freedom, income and flexibility in a 9-5 and so of course you’re gonna have to put the work in for it, it’s never going to be handed to you on a plate and it’s definitely not an overnight success kind of thing. This is the stuff that’s worth working hard for, that’s worth your commitment and consistency.

That commitment and consistency is what makes you a yogipreneur and these hacks will ensure that you are building an online yoga business that lasts for years and years to come.

Ask yourself – How long do I want to be in this business?

How long do you want to be doing what you’re doing? Chances are it;s not just for this month o, or just in 2022 or 2023. It’s likely you’re doing this to build a business that you can run for the years and decades ahead.

So let’s make sure that’s what you’re building. Let’s make sure that all this effort and energy you’re putting into your business is part of a longer game vision.

Hack #1: Never give up.

So there’s three hacks and the first, I’ve touched on it already, is about not giving up. This is very much to do with your mindset. It’s your mindset that will make all the difference when something doesn’t go to plan, when a launch flops or your email list isn’t growing, when despite all the new freebies you’ve just created, no one is signing up for them. Perhaps you hosted a live challenge and hardly anyone joined you, or people did sign up but then didn’t attend live, leaving you feeling like it was a waste of time.

This happens. It happens a lot in the early days, of course it does. You have to build trust, authority and momentum. All of that takes time but you have to be getting yourself out there –  doing the challenges, sharing the freebies and selling the offering in order to build trust, authority and momentum.

If you weren’t doing any of that – someone new looking for the first time wouldn’t see any expert that’s creating content and offerings, they’ll see an empty, flat yoga business with nothing on offer. That doesn’t build trust and authority.

So in the beginning it can feel like you’re doing all of the work and no one is there – that’s normal. It’s not a time to throw in the towel and give up, to feel discouraged or disappointed and to want to change course completely to do something else, or worse go back to the 9-5 because you’re starting to think you are not cut out for it!

You are cut out for this. Your soul wold never have taken you down this path if you weren’t cut out for this.

Something bigger than you, the universe or whatever you want to call it, but on an energetic level you are being called to show up in a bigger way to create from your soul’s purpose. I believe that and if you’re reading this, I’m sure you you believe that too, yet it’s easy to forget it when the going gets tough. Remind yourself of your bigger purpose and then keep going. Anything that doesn’t go as planned is simply an opportunity to learn how to make it better next time around.

Let’s say your business runs for the next 15 years – this one launch, one freebie, one challenge or one collaboration is a tiny moment in that 15 year period. It’s a learning moment

so that next time around its bigger and better, so focus on what you need to fix and move your focus away from giving up and throwing in the towel because it didn’t work – that’s not even a sentence or a thought that should be coming into it.

If you ever think you’ve got to quit, that you’re not cut out for it or this isn’t working out

remove that from your vocabulary. Don’t even go there with your mind. There’s no need to  speak to yourself in that way because you can always figure everything out, you can always see the lesson in everything, and if you’re here for the long term, then there is a lesson in everything.

The only option when you’re here for the long term is you winning and to win you have to learn, you need those lessons.

Have a long term vision

Part of being here for the long term is having a long term vision and goals. This is something you need to spend some time on.

What is your vision for the future?  Say a year from now, three years from now or even ten years from now. Can you start to create some long term goals?

For instance, if you’re just starting out from zero you might create a goal of:

  • In one year, growing your email list to 500 subscribers
  • In three years, having an online membership with 50 members

Those long term goals matter. Sometimes it takes a little longer than you have planned to reach those goals. Maybe in a years time your email list has grown to 200 instead of the 500 you set the goal at – it’s still something to celebrate! Sometimes it simply takes a while to achieve the goals we set for our business – and by that I mean much longer than you hoped it would take.

The thing is these goals are uncomfortable, they’re new, and generally, as humans we don’t like to feel uncomfortable, we are wired to seek out comfort and perceived safety.

Hack #2: Stay in Your lane.

So the next hack I have for you yogipreneur is to stay in your lane. By that I mean stay aligned with your purpose and your message and that message must be niche specific.

It’s essential if you want to grow an online yoga business that lasts, that you focus on serving a specific niche and to provide solutions to real problems and challenges that your ideal students are facing.

Related: If you need help with your niche, start here: How to find your ideal yoga niche.

It may be a completely new way for you to work. maybe you’ve taught in studios for years and you’ve not had to think about this, and teaching in studios is comfortable for you.

Making yourself visible to the world to share a niche specific freebie and grow your email list of ideal students is uncomfortable, but to build an online yoga business that lasts, you have to stay in your lane – you have to be willing to be uncomfortable in the process. So be mindful of opportunities that come up that feel like an easy yes, it’s like the shiny objects, the ones you know, the ones you’re experienced in and are easy but distract you from the bigger vision. Those things may be easy but they take up your time and energy – that time and energy is better spent on growing your online business.

Let’s say an opportunity comes along, something that wasn’t even on your radar or in your plan. Yes you know you can easily make some money from it, but you also know that it doesn’t make sense for the new online yoga business that you’re creating. Maybe it’s something that you had already promised you wouldn’t say yes to anymore yet here it is, about to take you off course and out of your lane. Because you feel like you’re not getting any traction and you’re not hitting your goals you’d planned to achieve, or you launched your first online challenge and no one turned up… It’s easy to say yes to that opportunity that’s not aligned with the new direction you’re heading in and go back to your comfort zone.

Of course, there will be some opportunities that feel easy and quick and maybe you can work them in a way to be more aligned with your message and the business you’re building but if you only do the things that feel comfortable you’re not stretching yourself and you won’t grow because ultimately it’s a big distraction from that long term vision that you have.

So find the win win opportunities, find the opportunities that make you feel a bit scared, that push you, that make you learn and grow and do things you’ve never done before.  That’s where the real growth is and that’s the kind of growth we need for long term success

Hack #3: Get comfortable with doing things that are uncomfortable.

Our final hack really builds on what I have already shared about doing things that feel uncomfortable. When you are building an online business that lasts – a business that keeps you going for the long haul, you absolutely must be creating a business model that allows you to do that.

There are many business models you can adopt but the one that truly sets you up for long term success is the business model that doesn’t rely on you trading your time for money. It’s the model that starts with creating online offerings that you can scale – and by that I mean you’re not restricted to capacity.

When you teach in a studio you’re restricted to the capacity of that space.

When you host a retreat you’re restricted to the number of beds and bedrooms your villa provides.

These things are great, particularly offering retreats, I spent the first years of my entrepreneur journey running sold out retreats all over the world, it’s a great way to make money, travel and to offer a deeper container for you students. Retreats are an exciting offering to have in your yoga business but they come with a lot of costs, setup and operational requirements that an online business just doesn’t have.

So I’m not saying never teach in a studio or host a retreat, but what I am saying is that if you want to create something that truly lasts, it’s essential to build. out a business model that supports that.

Offering, for example:

  • Online membership
  • Online course
  • Online programs
  • Virtual retreats
  • Online workshops

All of these offerings not only allow limitless capacity but also allow you to create content that you can sell again and again.  Content that lasts and can become evergreen in your business that you can maximise and leverage its full potential.

Maybe these offerings are in your plan, maybe they have been since 2020 forced you online due to the pandemic and you’ve e been in my community listening to me on the podcast, joining my online challenges and listening to how to create an online course that transforms your business.

If an online course or membership is in your plan but you’ve not taken the leap, you’ve not joined one of our programs and you’ve not taken action yet, why not?

Listening to a podcast or even joining a program like the profitable yoga teacher which teaches you how to create and launch your online yoga course are an excellent step but but the magic is when you fully jump in and do the thing – create the course, launch the course. When you you implement what you’ve learned.

When you do that and you go through the motions, you can ask the questions because you’re actually being faced with challenges, you would never have known what to ask unless you were in it, fully in it.

So if this is you, stop standing on the sidelines and jump in, especially if you know what it is that you want. If you’re clear on your goals and your dreams but you just haven’t jumped in yet – ask yourself what do I need right now to jump in? What do I need to take the first step NOW? What am I waiting for?

It’s not a month from now, it’s 6 months from now or next year – it’s NOW . What do you need right now to work on those goals and dreams? No more standing on the sidelines.

When you start now, yes you might be stumbling on each step, because guess what it’s uncomfortable, it’s unknown. But on the other side of those stumbling steps are the results, the solutions you’ve been looking for, so you must get into action otherwise you’ll never know those things there is power in that imperfect messy action.

I can give you all of the resources and the programs you need but it’s up to you to jump in the deep end and make it actually happen. If you come into one of my programs, I’ll help you jump into the deep end, I may even throw you in, but I know that you will come up fighting strong – you’ll swim to success. When you do that, you create a new business model, you actually create. Creation mode is you creating a yoga business that lasts and that’s where the real magic happens.

Are you ready?

We have everything you need to get started on that journey including our 16 week online program Yogipreneur Launchpad to learn the basics you need before moving on to The Profitable Yoga Teacher.

Yogipreneur Launchpad is available to join today, are you ready to create magic?

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