How to lay out your yoga business plan for the upcoming year in harmony with the seasons.
As the new year sets in, how much have you planned for the year ahead? The more you can find a natural rhythm for planning an implementing special programs, yoga teacher trainings, sales and promotions, the more focused your actions will be. Small business owners can too easily get wrapped up in planning and get stuck on implementing.
It takes about three years to learn the rhythm of your studio and see the repeating patterns. But of course, if you don't know to how look or track the patterns, you will always be guessing no matter how many years you've been in operation.
For now, let's simply observe a one year seasonal guide. Your yoga business will not be the same all year round. Allow the natural seasonal tides to guide your business plan. Otherwise you will waste energy feeling at best overwhelmed and at worst discouraged.
I use 5 seasons to correspond with the Taoist 5 Elements because I found great success rooting my studio in the seasonal wisdom of 5 Element Theory, Taoism, and TCM. Understanding the patterns in nature and how they effect us emotionally, spiritually, and physically helped me take measured, purposeful action appropriate for the season, the students, and the studio.
I'm excited to share this with you!
Winter (Water): Nourish New Year's Resolutions with Beginner and Advanced Yoga Workshops
New Year's resolution incentives are the obvious choice here. People are already searching for ways to make their lives better, to fulfil their resolutions and discover just the thing that will finally transform them into the best versions of themselves. The great thing about yoga is that it actually works! If a students is willing to stick with it and press through the discomfort that always accompanies change, they will transform.
So dig into to new year's resolutions - all the way through Lunar New Year - in your messaging and marketing.
Everyone benefits:
new students discover a yoga practice
your teachers will be recharged by full classes,
your bottom line starts the year financially strong. This last one positions you to be prepared for any slow cycles ahead plus be ready for the inevitable unexpected repairs or purchases.
Did you sell a lot of Holiday gift cards that need to be redeemed? I offered workshops in the new year when many of our regular students had gift card money to spend. Instead of using it toward a membership that they were already used to paying monthly as an autopay or had perhaps already renewed on a Black Friday Annual Sale, I offered them workshop opportunities to spend their give cards and dive deeper into their yoga practice.
Winter months are great for workshops. People are hungry for companionship to melt away the winter blues plus it's a natural time for meditation and nourishment of the soul in the TCM calendar.
Spring (Wood): Increase Client Commitment
Spring was always my favorite season at the yoga studio. I found that people, like the migrating birds and hibernating bears, are ready to wake up in the spring and the studio was infused with the energy of rebirth. Across cultures, the seasonal holidays in spring touch upon rebirth and the return of the light, all building up to summer solstice.
Also, in the US, spring is tax return season. Your clients may be able to invest in a higher ticket item at this time of year, like a teacher training program or a retreat.
Plan accordingly to have a high-end program ready:
Teacher Trainings
Retreat deposits
A one day high end program like a full day workshop event
Weekend Immersion
Also mark your calendars in spring to check in on anyone who started strong in Janury and has dropped off. Most software systems run reports for lost clients. See if you can reach out to and bring any of them back in at spring.
Early Summer (Fire): Seasonal Yoga Challenges for Students and Studio Owners
Depending on your location, early summer can be the beginning of a seasonal drop in attendance.
If this is true for you, early summer is a great time to run a yoga challenge. Many studios do these in the new year, but we found the best success with yoga challenges in early summer.
In the new year, the practice room was already full and students didn't need extra incentive to attend class. But when the weather warmed up and summer happy hour started to call, we needed to provide students with that extra incentive to come to class.
Yoga challenges were just the right thing. You can run these any way that works for you.
We've done everything from a strict 30 classes in 30 days to a choose your own challenge where students wrote on a board what their personal challenge was and we held them accountable.
We also gave options for a more relaxed yet committed summer practice: 30 classes in 35 days, 45 in 50 days or 85 in 90 days.
We had prizes (credit on their account for a future pass or for a gift pass) that increased in value to match the challenge.
Many participants said if it weren't for the yoga challenge, they would have dropped out for the summer.
Instead they made fast friends with the other challenge participants which kept them motivated and of course they felt great because they kept up their yoga! A full studio kept the teachers happy (because honestly, who likes teaching empty classes!?!) and helped the bottom line in revenue.
If you studio works the opposite way in summer - perhaps you are a resort town with a big summer influx and a slower winter season - try a yoga challenge during your slow season to keep your year-round community engaged.
Late Summer (Earth): Enjoy your Yoga Business with a Seasonal Harvest of Abundance
Late summer for us was a time to stop swimming upstream.
We implemented a summer schedule that was not drastically different from the full schedule, but it provided opportunity to shift classes around to keep them full and work with teacher vacation schedules.
I was very fearful for the first few years I was in business to change or cut down the schedule. I was afraid people would quit or get mad. Then one year I took the plunge anyway because the numbers told me it was the right move. It was the best decision we made. No one quit. Students understood we needed to modify a couple months a year during a natural slowdown and they willingly accommodated.
I also learned from experience that anything that recharged me personally as an owner was reflected back in a positive way in the studio and student body. When I was refreshed it really showed in our studio culture.
We also used to offer a discounted summer pass that was only valid at certain classes. I remember that morning classes used to take a summer hit. At the time, those morning classes were primarily filled with parents and when school let out, they didn't have the free time anymore. Here were our solutions:
We cut down the schedule from 5 days to 3 mornings a week.
We sold a summer class pack (I think it was 15 classes to use in 6 weeks) only valid for the morning classes because the evening classes remained steady
The pass and classes expired at the end of summer - no exceptions
We marketed accordingly to catch the right audience.
Fall (Metal): Yoga for Self-Reflection and Future Planning
If I had a second favorite studio season, it's fall. The push from fall equinox into the holidays carries a natural rhythm for self-reflection and letting go, both of which a yoga practice can helps us navigate with grace. While I practice year round, yoga feels more purposeful to me at this time. Like so many students, I too am eager to stave off holiday blues and seasonal sadness when the days get shorter and darkness sets in.
We all need something to ground us during the autumn season.
Our studio loved fall workshops rooted in self-reflective practices and meditations to release stale energy.
Fall retreats always sold out.
Teacher training immersions were popular.
We added back classes that had been cut down in summer
As for promos, we did not run any special fall membership sales. We offered more services instead to draw in more people.
In Closing
Every season has a reason for a special program, workshop, retreat, or sale. Really start noticing how your studio ties into the natural energies of the seasons, how it varies from season to season and then maximize that in your offerings and studio culture.
When you can combine natural seasonal energies with the knowledge gleaned from tracking your numbers, you have the formula for success in your yoga business all year round!
I always found Lara's insight to be helpful, positive, actionable and profitable! Taking the time to learn from her will certainly empower you to move forward in your business.
- Jason Hulshof, Owner, Heart Yoga
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