Seven Tips to Help You Host a Successful Workshop at Your Yoga Studio

As a studio owner, you may be wondering why you should run a yoga workshop. Your business looks promising. Your classes are full. Both your students and teachers are happy. Everything runs smoothly and you don’t want to take on any more responsibility.

Before you say no, you should really think. A workshop can be very good for business. Not only will your current students (and teachers) learn something, you might find yourself with several new students by the end of the day! Even with all of the extra work that you need to do to have a successful workshop, you could make quite a bit of profit from only one day.

However, in order to make the extra money, you need to work hard to make sure that it is a success. Here are some tips to help you run a successful workshop.

1). Allow your current teachers to plan a workshop if they want to.

Some teachers have enough initiative and are willing to plan a whole workshop themselves. If you are that lucky, let them. This can even help you better retain your top teachers. Even if you have never hosted a workshop before, make sure that your teachers know that you are willing to offer the space if they want to do one.

2). Start by deciding on a specialty.

It works even better if you don’t offer any classes on it already. Aerial yoga, partner yoga and a day full of meditation are only some of the things that you could try.

3). Then, choose a good date and time.

You need to make sure you schedule the workshop on a day and time that most people will be able to attend. If you offer a workshop on a weekday when most people are working, your workshop may not be as successful as one done on the weekend. However, if your clientele don’t work, a weekday might be better when their children are in school.

4). You may want to hold your workshop at another location.

You don’t have to use your own studio. Plan a weekend at wine country and hold workshops throughout the weekend, both inside and outside. Hold a workshop at a local park so more can participate. The possibilities are endless!

5). Establish pricing for current students and visitors.

Attending a studio that offers frequent workshops can be a huge perk for students. It will help them grow their practice, increase loyalty and become more entwined in the community you’re looking to build. It’s important to decide your pricing structure for both current students and visitors. Do you want to offer discounts for current students to help them feel like having a membership is a better deal? Do you have incentives in place for visitors to encourage them to purchase a membership after attending the workshop? Be sure to think this through before you begin promoting your event.

6). Make sure that you have early reservations, though you also need to decide how you want to handle cancellations and refunds.

Do you want to register your students prior to the event? This is the most helpful because you can decide how much food and drink that you will need before your workshop. However, you may want to be lenient on the cancellation policy. Life gets in the way and things happen so you need to decide from the beginning how you want to handle cancellations. You may want to have a waitlist in case you have any last-minute cancellations.

7). Promote your event in order to make it as successful as possible.

You should make fliers to place around town, as well as in your studio. You may also want to advertise online, both on your website and social media sites. Facebook events are a great way to get the word out about your event so you should think about making one. The more exposure that you have, the more people will come to your workshop.

Even if you are afraid to host a workshop, it can be great for you, your studio, your students and teachers. Everyone can learn a lot in just a day, evening or a weekend. You may even end up with several new students who want to take classes now that they know about your studio. By working hard before your workshop, you can ensure that it is successful and everyone will get a lot out of it!

Workshops are an excellent way to keep your students engaged with your studio. For additional retention tips, get your copy of our guide, Five Simple Ways to Improve Student Retention.