Seven Biggest Mistakes Yoga Studios Owners Make In Their Business -- And What To Do About Them

Do you remember when you first started your yoga studio? Remember the excitement? Do you recall how it felt when the phone rang or someone walked in the door? First, let me commend you on entering a profession that is true to your passion, and furthermore, one that serves others.

In this article, Im going to share with you some of the common mistakes that yoga studio businesses often make. If youve fallen prey to one or more of these, it simply means that no one told you about them yet. Once you know, then you can focus on solutions. And, perhaps youll find that you are already entirely on track, and this may re-affirm that you are headed the right way.

MISTAKE #1:
OBSESSION WITH THE SERVICES YOU PROVIDE OR THE products YOU sell.

In business, we ideally view the products and services we sell as generic black boxes that either make money or dont. Imagine you own a gas station the old fashioned kind that just sells gas and maybe fixes cars (no mini-mart inside).

One day, a salesman comes to you and says Hey, I want to put a soda machine in front of your gas station. You can buy cans of soda at $0.25 each and sell them for $1.25 each you make $1.00 on every can of soda someone buys. He offers to rent you the soda machine for $100 per month as long as you agree to have him be the one you buy soda from. You agree and find that you sell 20 cans of soda per day, or 600 per month. In other words, you make $600 per month selling soda, then pay the sales guy $100 of that for renting you the soda machine. In the end, you make $500 profit each month.

So, what does this have to do with running a yoga studio?

You probably couldnt care less about selling soda, may not drink it and may even emphasize how unhealthy it is for people. Exactly. And the gas station owner feels the same way. He couldnt care less about soda or soda machines, but as a business owner, its a black box that earns him $500 per month in cash. He puts some stuff into the black box (rents the machine for $100 and fills it with soda) and money comes out of it ($500 in profits).

THE SOLUTION:

For any business to be truly successful, the owner needs to be able to step back and view it as a collection of black boxes that either generate money or support another black box in generating money. Evaluate each major method or strategy your company uses to make money. Let go of emotional attachment to things like favorite services or products if they dont make money for you, change them so they do, or eliminate them. If you cant bring yourself to do this, acknowledge that this is an area of charity or contribution that your company participates in. But whatever you do, be honest with yourself.

Remember, if your studio doesnt make money, it wont be around to help anyone in the future. Keep it profitable!

MISTAKE #2:
BEING IN A RUSH.

Business usually takes time. Our society is so wrought with instant gratification, we often overlook the fact that things take time. Just as the farmer cant plant crops too late in the season, then try to rush them to grow, certain aspects of business take time. If you are trying a new type of advertising strategy, it might take three months before you can tell if it works or not.

THE SOLUTION:

Learn from someone else who has done it successfully before, and ask them how long they waited before seeing results. If we plan ahead and act early, we wont be in such a rush at the end. For example, dont think about holiday promotions in November, instead plan them in september in case some actions need to be taken early. We can often save money by starting early as well after all, have you ever been to a workshop that cost more if you signed up last-minute than if you registered a month or two in advance? (Hopefully you use this strategy yourself with any programs you offer.) As you get better at a particular aspect of running your studio, youll be able to do it faster, but in the beginning, it takes time. Be patient, evaluate your results and make changes as needed.

MISTAKE #3:
BELIEVING THAT TECHNICAL SKILL IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS.

So often, we believe that with lots of ability in our art we will succeed. We assume that if we enhance our skills and have perfect form that this will make our business more successful. Sadly, this has relatively little truth to it in business. Technical skill alone is not the key to success, and in fact, technical skill is only a small part of success. If business is slow, we often tend to consider getting more training, another certification or something like that.

The real solution usually lies somewhere in business skills and management. Ask yourself about these areas of your business: Marketing, Sales, accounting & budgeting, Customer service. I certainly dont want to minimize the value of your mastery of your field this is definitely important. Rather, I am emphasizing that in business, other things usually count more. I know it doesnt seem right that someone who doesnt have nearly the ability that you do should have all the clients, but that is generally the reality in business.

Consider the example of the most successful restaurant in history, McDonalds. Could you cook a better burger than they do? Of course anyone could. Its not their skill in making burgers that makes them such a success. They do the other stuff so well that people have learned to like their marginal food.

THE SOLUTION:

Just as you can watch someones form and point out specific errors that they are oblivious to, you also have the potential to see your business in the same way. With the right perspective and knowledge, a studio owner can very specifically identify a problem area and what needs to change. But only in rare cases is the problem actually the technical skill of services being delivered to the customer.

MISTAKE #4:
BEING SO EXCITED THAT YOU ARE DRIVEN BY EMOTIONS, NOT LOGIC.

Sometimes we get so attached to an idea maybe one we created ourselves that we forget to do a logical analysis. I remember a small store that sold specialty food products. The owner loved spicy food, so decided to offer hot sauces from all over the world. He expanded the concept such that a great deal of his inventory was essentially hot sauce. For months, he didnt acknowledge that his sales had significantly decreased, because he was so excited about the idea that people love hot food he loved hot food. Less than a year later, he was sadly forced to face the reality when he could no longer pay his bills and had to close the business.

Its always easy to see it in other people, but very hard to see in ourselves. Is there a class or service that you created, which for whatever reason has few sales? Consider areas of your studio business where you are being guided by emotions, not facts.

THE SOLUTION:

When we are emotionally driven in business, our strengths become weaknesses. Self-confidence becomes arrogance, ambition becomes ruthlessness, quick-thinking becomes impulsiveness, strategic risk-taking turns to gambling. And one clear sign that emotions are taking over is that in discussions of a given topic, there is a clear need to be right instead of a striving to do what is best for the company.

The solution is simply to back away and treat it like the Black box we discussed earlierits just a soda machine that makes money or it doesnt. Another technique is to ask someone else for their honest opinion with the understanding that you will not interrupt them, or offer any feedback other than asking informational questions. Remember, successful business is driven by facts, not emotions.

MISTAKE #5:
NOT HAVING A BACKUP PLAN.

This one is pretty straightforward. Any time you try something new, at least have a rough idea of what you will do if it doesnt work. When an airplane flies toward its destination, before it even takes off, the pilot always selects an alternate airport in case he cant land at the original destination. And, he makes sure he has enough fuel to get there. He doesnt plan all the details, but just knows what the alternative is and that theres enough gas in the tank to make it.

THE SOLUTION:

I encourage you to do the same thing with any new business tactic. If you take a lot of money to invest in new product inventory, expecting you can make a killing selling it, have a backup plan. What would you do if it didnt sell? What if it was a total disaster? In a case like this, you might decide that you could sell it at half its value to a large retailer, but at least it wouldnt be a total loss. You want to make sure that youre not going to go out of business if an idea doesnt work. Always have a rough idea of a backup plan.

MISTAKE #6:
RUNNING OUT OF CASH.

This one sounds obvious, so let me clarify. This mistake is about having a plan for what needs to be done to create a successful business, but running out of money before it gets there. For example, suppose a new yoga studio owner has estimated that it will cost $150,000 to open the yoga studio, buy all needed equipment, supplies and inventory, and pay operating expenses for one year. After this point, the owner expects to have enough students, clients and customers that she will be able to cover the cost of all her monthly expenses (including paying staff and herself) and begin paying back the $150,000. However, imagine that getting things going ended up costing $200,000 and even at that, there isnt much left for an advertising budget. After one year rolls around, shes not even close to making enough money each month to pay expenses (in part because she didnt have money for advertising), let alone repay the debt. She has run out of cash.

THE SOLUTION:

First, make your cost projections worst-case. A quick way of doing this is to figure out best-case, then double it. No kidding, youll be pretty close to the actual cost about 80% of the time. If you think it will cost $10,000, then make sure you have $20,000 available (but still try to do it in $10,000 and in fact, base your whole budget on $10,000). Next: Plan, Plan, Plan! So many people dive in without a plan, only to find out they spent lots of time and money on things that do not generate any return. Bottom line: Expect it will take twice as much cash as you think.

MISTAKE #7:
RE-INVENTING THE WHEEL.

Lots of people (and companies) have opened and operated successful yoga studios for years. There are people who know the answers to questions that frustrate you and problems that cost you money. One reason franchises are so successful is that they give a business owner answers to nearly every question regarding running the studio. There are even yoga studio franchises do a search for them on the internet and youll find them.

THE SOLUTION:

So, dont re-invent the wheel. I cant emphasize this enough. There are people who know how to run a small business very profitably. Find them. Observe them. Talk to them. Model them. They may even be willing to actively mentor you. If you find a successful studio similar to yours in a non-local area (that is, they dont compete with you), the owner may be more than happy to share. If you need to hire consultants for marketing, web site design, business planning, accounting, and so forth, then do it. Its expensive up front, but once you learn the right way to do things, you can either take it over on your own or hire someone lower-priced and tell them what to do.

Bottom line: If someone else has done it before successfully, learn from them before trying to figure it out on your own.

IN CONCLUSION:

There you have it the seven most common mistakes yoga studio owners make in business. Few of us ever had a class or mentor to teach us how to run a business or studio. Unfortunately, 8 out of 10 small businesses will fail because of this lack of experience. Do whatever you have to in order to do it right (remember, dont re-invent the wheel!) Read books, get online courses, find a mentor, get a good business coach and model a successful business just like the one youre trying to do. There are so many people who are really successful at running a studio.

Learn from the experience of others and be one of the ones who has passed the stage of hard work, and now enjoys doing just what you want to in your studio business.

To your success!

Al Lipper
yoga Studio Business Coach
Destiny: Success

Website: http://www.CenteredBusiness.com
Email: coach@centeredbusiness.com
Telephone: (805) 544-3938

Coach Al Lipper of Destiny: Success' is a successful yoga and T'ai Chi studio business coach that has been delivering a message of motivation, success, and personal fulfillment since 1991. Hundreds of people have worked with Coach Al on developing personal and business strategies that got them more free time, more money, and living their dreams. The amount invested was small compared to the results. If you'd like to learn more about his yoga and tai Chi studio business coaching services, including fees, go to: http://www.CenteredBusiness.com.

Yoga Dvd

The Truth About Earning $1,000 or More Weekly From Affiliate Programs

Everyone is talking about them. Almost everyone is a member of at least a few of them. Affiliate programs are hot. You can usually sign up for free and be selling products within 5 minutes. The web sites, sales letters, and order shipping are all done for you. All you have to do is promote.

But...Is anyone making money from these programs except for the affiliate program owner?

It is a surprising statistic when you find out that only around 10% to 20% of affiliate members do enough to ever get a check. Then, only a small percentage of those go on to earn really good incomes from affiliate programs.

It isn't the affiliate program either. Although some affiliate programs have pitifully small payouts (5% to 10%) and limit their members that way, the real problem comes with the fact that affiliates have no idea how to sell from their affiliate sites. The affiliate owners usually don't have any idea how to help them either.

I own several affiliate programs myself, so I have spent a considerable amount of time studying my top affiliates and the top affiliates in programs all over the Internet.

The principles below are true of almost everyone of the top affiliates in every program I have looked at. If you want to succeed and earn at least $5,000 or more per month from affiliate programs, then you will have to be following the five steps below. If you don't, it just isn't going to happen...and you have no one to blame but yourself.

1. Create Your Own Web site.

Although almost every program gives you a web site to use to promote with, you really shouldn't be promoting with that site. The top affiliates always have their own web sites which they promote from. Then, they link to the affiliate program sites.

I never drive traffic directly to any of the affiliate programs. I drive it to my site, get their name on my opt-in list, and then promote affiliate programs. If you are serious about earning profits online, then you will do the same.

Having your own site and linking to your affiliate program gives you some additional advantages as well:

* You can write up a short two to four paragraph endorsement and testimonial for the site yourself.

* You can generate subscribers to your opt-in list first (this is the key to Internet profits).

* If the affiliate program ever stops or changes your link, you still have all the traffic you worked for at YOUR site (this happens quite often).

If you don't currently have a web site, but want to earn through affiliate programs, you need to get one today.

2. Generate Traffic

You can't earn a single penny in any affiliate program without generating traffic to your site. No traffic equals no income. Combine the right ingredients of an opt-in list, good site design, and the right sales offer...and your income will be directly proportional to the targeted traffic you generate.

An advantage that I didn't mention above in why you should own your own domain is getting listed with the search engines. The pages given to you by your affiliate program owner aren't going to receive virtually any traffic from the search engines. They won't have top rankings because there are at least 1,000 other pages just like them (from the other affiliate members) and many software programs create pages which can't even be indexed by the search engines.

Having your own domain will give you the freedom to create web pages which achieve high rankings on the search engines. Each of the major search engines such as AltaVista, Infoseek, Hotbot, and the others have their own ranking algorithms which change virtually monthly.

You can stay on top of them though by using a program such as Web Position which actually monitors the search engines for you and helps you prepare doorway pages which will achieve the top rankings you are seeking after...and the traffic which comes from having those top rankings.

Search engines are not the only way to build traffic to your site. You can trade links with sites, place free and paid classifieds, and even use banner advertising. There are dozens of ways to generate traffic. If you want to make money from your affiliate programs, you will be using them.

3. Start an Opt-In List.

I checked my affiliate members' checks this month and noticed a very interesting trend. All top 10 affiliates have their own opt-in email lists and are pretty aggressive marketers to those lists. They all mail to their opt-in list at least weekly and the number one affiliate this month mails to his list every single day.

That is where my income is coming from also. Over 90% of my income comes through using opt-in email in one way or another...either through my newsletters or through my autoresponders with follow-up. If you don't know how to use email, then your always going to be living on barely get by street in the online market.

The web sites which I send the most traffic to have one purpose to them...and one purpose only...to sign them up on my newsletter lists. All of the content that I have on my site is for that one purpose.

If you can't get a visitor to sign up for a free newsletter, then you aren't going to be able to get them to fill out your order forms and order. Get them on the list, and then start emailing them as often as you can put out good content (along with the ads).

4. Develop a Unique Web Position.

Here is a trick to increase your sales from ANY affiliate program, but people rarely ever mention it. Any successful web site finds a way to make their products and or services unique from their competition.

When you are an affiliate though, you have thousands of competitors selling the exact same product at the exact same price. Every other affiliate in that company is your competition!

You will have to become unique if you want to beat the other affiliates competing against you. You may think it would be difficult to do, but it isn't.

All you have to do is add on some extra bonuses to those people who are purchasing from you. For example, if you're an affiliate for a video course, then add in a special free report on the same subject which is ONLY good for those who order from you. Your free report can be emailed to those who order so it won't cost you a penny of your commissions.

If you own an opt-in list like you should, you could give a free ad to anyone who orders an affiliate product from you. For example, you could write that anyone who orders the ________ (you would list the product here) before midnight tonight will also get a free ad ($30 value) in your newsletter...or three free ads. Buy submission software and submit their site to 1,000 search engines if they order today.

Do something like this and tell your opt-in email list subscribers and web site visitors about it. You will be setting yourself apart from the competition and be giving your purchasers an even better deal than buying from the affiliate owner!

Special limited time offers work extremely effectively when combined with your own opt-in list.

5. Generate Multiple Streams of Income.

If you follow all four of the principles above, then you are going to be able to earn money from many different affiliates programs, and that is exactly what you should do. You should join several non-competing programs which sell products to the same targeted market.

For example, if you have chosen to sell to Internet marketers, you may join:

An Internet Training program A Web Hosting program An Autoresponder program A Business opportunity You can find several programs which target any specific niche group.

You can be earning 3 to 10 streams of income from the same visitors at your web site and subscribers to your newsletters. Having several streams of income helps every visitor to your site be worth more money to you!

-----------------------------

This article may be reprinted providing it is published in it's entirety, including the author's bio and link to the URL displayed.

John J Farina is a successful affiliate marketer. He provides expert reviews on which affiliate programs to join and which ones to avoid like the plague. He shows people how to actually generate substantial income on-line using very simple, easily modeled systems. An example of such a system that you can study and duplicate is at: http://www.johnnysreviewsite.com

Yoga Exercise Prenatal Yoga Yoga Pilates Kripalu Yoga

Break the Rules and Live! How to Live The Life You Want Now!

If you are pursuing money as the answer to your dreams you are masking a bad habit of laziness. The reality is this: A man making $ 50,000 a year who works 10 hour per week is wealthier, living in prosperity, when compared to the man who makes $ 500,000 per year and has to push it to the limit on 70 hours per week.

The all elusive dream of retirement and finally being able to do what we want is a myth that has buried many in a local cemetery and left their families with debt from the efforts to live the life when I finally retire still going on.

When faced with the notion of death many times people will ask themselves the fear inducing question that everyday normal healthy people should be asking themselves every morning, What is it that I want to do with my life? And if the only motivator you have for work is to pay your bills and hope to play a little with some of the leftover, quit your job now and just live on the streets- you might have more fun anyways.

Even self-employed business owners are falling prey to the programmed message that to become a millionaire will answer all of your problems and its worth it to just sacrifice your family, your health, and your livelihood for a few years to have dreamy mornings in some chalet in Greece for years to come. Sad reality is many never make it to the chalet and many never even live to fulfill their dreams with their families. The increased house debt, the bigger, faster, cooler car and the increased spending account all in the name of growing the business takes over faster than a bad case of the flu until sick and tired is not a figure of speech. The deepest craving in the heart and mind of many business owners is simply the ability to sleep until they wake up. Some if able to do this might break a Guinness book record going for days because of their insane push beyond the limits marathons. If security cameras were to give a glimpse of how many executives sleep at the office at least a dozen times per year we might be able to really tap into the reality of the chase the dollar dream.

So what is the answer? break the rules. March to a different drum. Ignore the lies that say if you dont work at least 60 hours you really arent a successful business owner. Learn to do what you do now in the time. An interesting study revealed that most companies pay their employees for 40 hours of work when in reality only 15 hours of production was being accomplished. So that means that the typical corporation is giving a salary or hourly wage for 25 hours of distraction, confusion and time wasting. Could this in itself be the reason that anti-depressants are on the rise more than ever? Could the reality that we all have A.D.D., we all have more information than we can handle, we have more tasks than hours, we have more month than money, we have more than we can handle in our pursuit of more?

I propose you attempt a simple experiment in the area of your life that you believe would fall apart if you removed yourself. Now maybe your boss wouldnt be overjoyed if you just all of a sudden started showing up only 15 hours per week but what if you made a choice to answer email only 1 time per day. What if you put your cell phone into your dresser drawer ( and turn it off for crying out loud!) and made yourself a promise to not return any messages even, for one week. imagine if you chose to go to be early every night for the next 7 days, or if you tend to be the kind of person who sleeps their anxiety away made a choice to go to the gym for 7 days for 30 minutes, go to the pool for 5 days, go play golf 3 times this week, do something that you think it totally impossible! If you are really daring and really want to break the rules book a weekend trip with your lover to an exotic island for 3 days, just 3 long glorious no checking email, no cell phone, no interaction with anyone else days. Leave on a Friday red eye late at night and come back on Sunday at the same time. Who cares if you are afraid of being tired on Monday morning- you might shock yourself. All that good weather, good environment, good fun with your mate could give you more energy than you ever dreamed possible and you wont even care if you sleep on Sunday night. Just breaking the rules will make you feel like a criminal and the good part is, its totally legal!

break the rules and live is created for those who have had enough, wont settle for less and are willing to live differently so that they can live now, rather than later. Be good to yourself- you deserve it! It's this same mindset that put me in the TOTALLY FREE category of 100% debt free in under 3 years! Chase your dreams- and one day, they'll be chasing you!

Sandi Krakowski, 2007, all rights reserved.

Sandi Krakowski is a woman that decided to break the rules in her own life when in 2003 she was diagnosed with a fatal health condition. Recovering 100% and leaving doctors baffled, she went from being over $ 500,000 in debt to a totally debt free lifestyle that she now works under 20 hours per week from the comfort of her radical space in her home office, many times on the grass behind her house where the birds hang out. She is passionate about helping others to live the life they want now, sharing her own personal experience of facing a life threatening disease in the face and conquering fear, debt and illness. She now operates a marketing and copywriting business that has taken everyday average people to a place of notoriety on the net with very little effort. Visit Sandi at: http://www.arealchangemarketing.com today!

Free Yoga Positions Kids