By Lisa Jenkins
Many yoga teachers love practicing and teaching yoga so much that they decide they want to open up their own practices. While their intentions are positive, the decision to create a new yoga studio in the community is one that requires a great deal of careful consideration, planning and support.
Business Plan
A business plan is the best first stage of planning when deciding to go down the entrepreneurial path. A business plan is a document that includes your vision, as well as the financial, marketing, staff, sales, hiring, bookkeeping, start-up and maintenance aspects that are involved in building and sustaining your dream.
Setting Goals
When writing a business plan, the vision statement is the crucial first step. You must decide what the purpose for your yoga practice will be, as well as the type of clientele you would like to serve. It is important to narrow this target clientele as narrowly as you can to take the next steps to attract this group of people.
Record your goals for your studio as part of the visioning process. Write down specific key measurable results you aim to achieve through running your own business.
Determine the strategies you will have to use to financially sustain the studio. Hosting workshops, teaching yoga classes, having retail and online sales, private clients and teacher training programs are all potential income generating ideas.
Assessing Available Resources
At some point during the business planning process, the question of your available resources is certain to arise. Some practitioners decide to have investors get involved in financing their studio, while others refinance their own home to do so. Still others get part-time jobs to save the funds necessary to start a yoga operation, or seek small amounts of money from supportive friends and family members. Some people hold garage sales or do bake sales and other creative fundraising events.
It is helpful if owners can rent space in the location they wish to create a studio in, as this can save a lot of time and money. A place that used to serve as a yoga studio or fitness center is ideal, though it is also possible to use a space that was once an office or store. In the case of using a space that was not used before for yoga, it is important to take into consideration the tremendous potential costs of renovating the place to make it suitable as a studio.
Figure out how many classes, workshops or teacher trainings you will have to teach per year to cover your annual and start-up costs. Make sure you do not overestimate these figures, as they are very important in the planning and fundraising process.
Naming a Yoga Studio
Once you have written a thorough business plan and assessed that you have the necessary resources available to manifest your yoga studio vision, it is important to consider naming your studio. It is best to contact a trademark attorney at this point to see if your desired name is available. If you are unable to afford an attorney, you can see if anyone else is using the same name you have chosen by searching online.
Trademark Process
If you find that no one else is using the name you have selected for your yoga studio, you can visit the website for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Check if anyone has a pending application or federal registration for the name you plan to use.
After doing this, visit your state's trademark database to make sure that your desired name has not been taken by another yoga business, fitness or wellness center.
When going to file your business name online, be ready to pay approximately $335 to register your trademark. It is helpful to work with an attorney on this process to try your best to prevent receiving trademark application rejections.
Though opening a yoga practice is a challenging process that requires a lot of patience, persistence and commitment, many entrepreneurs will tell you that running a studio is well worth the effort it takes to create one.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar