How to Run a Successful Yoga Studio

Moving from yoga teacher to yoga studio owner is a huge leap. You’ve decided you’re ready to share your practice with your community, but there are a host of decisions that follow that one. 

But if you’re making that move now, let us reassure you that it’s a great time to do so. Yoga is growing in the United States.  

Yoga is expected to have a compound annual growth rate of 9.6% from 2021 to 2027, according to AP News (source).  

Whether you’re opening a studio for the first time or improving your long-standing offering, here are some tips for running a successful yoga business. 

Sell Retail 

We’re starting pretty simple here.  

Selling retail items—yoga apparel, mats, blocks, water bottles, books, etc.—can easily bring in additional revenue. You don’t have to have a giant space to do this; just a few racks or shelves in your lobby or check-in area and yoga studio software will do the trick.  

Whether a yogi has forgotten their clothes or water bottle or they want to rep their affiliation to your studio, you want to have them set up with merch and backup equipment.  

Host Specialty Events 

Branching out from your weekly classes, you should maintain some level of presence in your community. Specialty events, even yoga retreats, are a great way to get your name out there! 

Many studios have evening and weekend workshops and the possibilities here are endless. As you teach classes pay attention to what your students are the most interested in developing. For example, do you have a lot of students who seem passionate about learning inversions? Offer a two-hour Inversion Workshop on a Saturday. Promote it outside of your 4 walls to the larger community! 

For additional workshop ideas, consider your community and the demographic. If you live in a small town where it’s difficult to find places that offer meditation or techniques for meditation, offer a “Learn How to Meditate Workshop” one evening per month.  

After offering workshops, consider hosting yoga teacher training (YTT). A YTT program can provide quite a bit of income separate from the yoga classes you are offering, as well as give you a pool of new teachers to choose from when you are looking to hire.  

Diversify Your Offerings 

The third item to consider is diversity in your weekly class schedule.  

Try not to have the same teacher teach the same class multiple days in a row, or back-to-back. If some of your students don’t resonate with one teacher, they may look to a different studio if that teacher is always teaching at the times they like to practice.  

One potential solution to this is alternating instructors throughout the day, and/or alternating instructors each day of the week for the same class time. 

You can also diversify your schedule by having different class offerings. If your specialty is something more active like Vinyasa or Power Yoga, your students might benefit from a once per day or once per week Yin Yoga or Yoga Nidra class.  

Conversely, if you offer mostly Hatha classes, your students may find that they enjoy the occasional dynamic movement of a Kundalini class.  

If your studio is located near a college campus, consider offering a ‘Yoga For Athletes’ class to attract college students. Offering different styles of yoga will help each student find something they like and can also be combined for different results. 

One final way to diversify is to look into yoga-adjacent offerings.  

Many yoga instructors also have backgrounds in massage therapy or other healing bodywork. Could you rent out a small room in your facility for them to provide their services? Could you even promote this offering in the context of a specialty event? 

Maintain a Strong Web Presence 

Without a website, potential students cannot find your studio, explore your class options or see what you have to offer. But it’s not enough just to have a website! There needs to be someone on your team with time and expertise to keep consistent tabs on website performance, making updates and optimizations as necessary.  

A website will help you grow your business, track potential students and allow your students to register for classes or events online instead of having to do so in the studio. Websites nowadays are affordable, offer a huge return on the investment and do wonders for your business.  

And while having a website is imperative for your studio’s online presence, it shouldn’t be the only way students can find you. You should also stay active on social media, especially on Instagram and Facebook.  

Learn more about how our team can help you build and maintain a strong web presence with our website and digital marketing services. 

How Zen Planner Can Help 

Running a successful yoga studio is no small task. Be sure your software is empowering you in your endeavor. Get a demo with our team to learn how we can help.  

Article originally published April 2018 and updated June 2022.