Yoga Benchmark Report Retrospective: Key Findings

Our annual benchmark report is one of our most ambitious market research undertakings of the year. We survey hundreds of yoga studio owners in an effort to find out what is working and what is not. Each year the findings give us a few surprises, but more importantly a few key takeaways that almost any yoga studio can implement at their facility in order to become a stronger business.

This year, a few things stuck out to us from our Yoga Benchmark Report. Check out the videos below and read on to find out more.

Don’t forget to download your free copy of the full Yoga Studio Benchmark Report!

Yoga Studio Student Base

The median number of students at successful yoga studios is 700 members while their less successful counterparts have a median of 100 members. While some studios would never want to serve a student base that size, that’s okay. It all comes down to monthly net profit. Your studio needs to have enough students or revenue from other offerings like teacher trainings to cover your monthly costs of rent, taxes, payroll and equipment.

Yoga Studio Revenue vs. Expense

The primary indicators of running a successful studio are having happy students and turning a monthly profit. Our data shows that the average monthly profit for successful yoga studios is $13,500, while their less successful counterparts actually lose about $2000 a month. As a yoga studio owner, you have a lot on your plate, between running your business, managing your staff, teaching classes, planning your schedule, there isn’t a lot of time left over for tracking expenses.

But this is a task that should never lose priority for you. Knowing exactly how much money is going in and out of your business on a monthly basis is critical to your success. Time and time again we’ve heard that the reason people opened a yoga studio in the first place is to share their passion with their community. You must find a way to manage the cost of running your business. To do this, your tracking must be exact. Keep track of how much you spend on everything, retail, new equipment, even bonuses you might pay out at the end of the year to your instructors.

On the other side, you need to track exactly how much money is coming into your business. All the different revenue streams that you have. How much are you making on classes, teacher trainings, workshops, track that all to the dollar.

Bottom line, to be a lasting, sustainable business, your revenue must be higher than your expenses.

Yoga Studio Community

One way to increase your monthly net profit is to grow your student base. The healthiest way to grow your student base is to engage your community. You do this by engaging the existing community of your students and the community around your studio. The most successful studios use student referrals, local events and walk-ins as a profitable way to grow their student base. Referral students tend to pay more per membership, have a higher lifetime value, are more likely to refer additional students and stay with your studio longer.

Yoga Unlimited Memberships

The Benchmark Report data shows that while a lot of yoga studios rely on punch passes, the most successful studios have 36% of their members on unlimited memberships. Unlimited memberships are valuable because they encourage that member to come to class more frequently and engage more fully with your community. The average price of an unlimited membership at a successful studio is $227 per month, compared to $125 for a punch pass.

That’s a Wrap

Those are the key takeaways we’ve discovered from our latest Yoga Studio Benchmark Report. Download the full benchmark report below to look at all of the responses and see what separates the top performing studios from those that are struggling.

We’ll be gathering data for our 2019 Benchmark Reports in the coming months. If you’d like to participate in comment below or send us an email at marketing@zenplanner.com. Any feedback you have on how to improve our survey and report in future years is also appreciated.

Interested in learning what top yoga instructors around the world are doing to run financially sustainable studios? Get your free copy of our Yoga Benchmark Report.