Learning how to start a studio
Hello Al, I’m so happy I came across your web site, there is so much information I found useful and interesting. I am currently in the process of constructing and opening a new yoga studio in the Los Angeles area. I have practiced yoga in the past for about a year and absolutely loved it. Now I have a wonderful opportunity to open my own studio. I would love to hear your thought and any feedback would be wonderful. The area where the studio will be is wonderful in that there are pretty much no other yoga studios around me with the exception of a couple of gyms that offer classes. There is a huge residential area behind the studio, and I think it will be a great idea to market to them. Because I am not a yoga instructor I’ve been spending a lot of time looking at resources online on how a yoga studio should operate, what equipment is needed, legal things etc. My plan is to hire a head yoga instructor who will be in charge of other instructors and be responsible for substitutions and keeping order. Right now I’m trying to write a job ad for the position and start the interviewing process. Hopefully if construction stays on time, I’ll be able to open in about a month. What are your thoughts about this project and what resources would you recommend helpful? Thank you in advance. Best Regards, Svetlana
Hi Svetlana,
As you might imagine, there’s a lot that goes into starting a studio. I like to separate the process into two phases: start-up and operations. Start-up it getting things going (like leasing a space or hiring a manager), Operations is the stuff you deal with again and again (like marketing, hiring new teachers, dealing with students, etc.)
If you’ve never worked at a yoga studio before, I highly recommend volunteering your time for back office work at a successful one. You’ll learn so much that will save you months of stress in figuring it out for yourself. Just make sure that it’s well-run and successful.
It is wise to hire a manager or head teacher. However, he or she need not be an instructor. It’s okay if they are, but what counts is business operations skill and experience. Managing teachers needn’t be that hard if you have systems in place.
I go into this in a lot more detail in my Studio Owners Success program, but I’ll try to summarize the key points here. Teachers should be paid per head on a sliding scale (not a flat rate). After the first few months in business, they should have requirements for number of students in their class. make THEM responsible for this. Sure, you do plenty of marketing, but they are also responsible for marketing in a big way (or should be anyway – lots of studios miss this at first, then have a lot of trouble trying to get teachers to understand later on). If a teacher can’t make his or her scheduled time, it’s up to them to find a substitute (why should you pay someone to deal with this – it’s their problem).
Overall, you’re hiring teachers who take responsibility for themselves. Not ones that want a steady paycheck. You’ll get a much easier-to-manage group of teachers if you hire this way.
Having a head teacher isn’t a bad idea, but you need to give her the systems and standards to expect from teachers.
Good luck!
Al