Carolyn Young is a business writer who focuses on entrepreneurial concepts and the business formation. She has over 25 years of experience in business roles, and has authored several entrepreneurship textbooks.
David has been writing and learning about business, finance and globalization for a quarter-century, starting with a small New York consulting firm in the 1990s.
Published on April 13, 2023
Updated on August 6, 2024
$93,600 - $187,200 p.a.
$46,800 - $93,600 p.a.
Important elements to think about when starting your yoga studio:
You May Also Wonder:
Is a yoga studio profitable?
A yoga studio can be very profitable if you have a good location. The industry is, however, very competitive so you’ll need to find a way to differentiate your studio.
What is the growth potential of a yoga studio?
A yoga studio can grow its revenue by offering a variety of classes and selling yoga clothing. It can also expand by adding new locations. However, it’s a very competitive industry, so the potential for high growth is limited.
Can you start a yoga studio on the side?
You could offer outdoor yoga classes on the weekend as a side hustle. However, opening a full-fledged studio would certainly have to be a full-time business to make it worthwhile.
What are the requirements for a yoga studio?
There are few requirements to have a yoga studio, other than business licenses and permits that may be required in your state and locality. All yoga instructors, however, should be certified.
Trends
Challenges
Startup costs for a yoga studio range from $4,500 – $11,000. The main costs are a studio space rental and mats and equipment.
To cut your costs, you could hold outdoor yoga classes at parks, but that would be weather dependent and seasonal. You could also offer yoga classes online under a subscription model. However, there are so many free YouTube yoga videos that you might have trouble getting people to pay for your online classes.
If you’re not already certified as a yoga instructor, you can take classes and become certified through the Yoga Alliance. You could also become a certified yoga therapist through the International Association of Yoga Therapists.
You’ll need a handful of items to successfully launch your yoga studio, including:
| Start-up Costs | Ballpark Range | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Setting up a business name and corporation | $100 - $500 | $300 |
| Business licenses and permits | $100 - $300 | $200 |
| Insurance | $100-$500 | $300 |
| Website | $200 - $1,000 | $600 |
| Initial Marketing Budget | $1,000 - $3,000 | $2,000 |
| Studio space rental | $2,500 - $5,000 | $3,750 |
| Mats and equipment | $500 - $1,000 | $750 |
| Total | $4,500 - $11,300 | $7,900 |
You can generally charge about $12 per person for a group yoga class. Your profit margin after costs should be about 50%.
In your first year or two, you could hold 15 classes a week for 10 people, bringing in more than $93,000 in annual revenue. This would mean nearly $47,000 in profit, assuming that 50% margin.
As you gain traction, you could hold 30 classes per week for 10 people. With annual revenue of more than $187,000, you’d make a tidy profit of nearly $94,000.
There are a few barriers to entry for a yoga studio. Your biggest challenges will be:
If you’re still not sure whether this business idea is the right choice for you, here are some related business opportunities to help you on your path to entrepreneurial success.
Now that you know what’s involved in starting a yoga studio, it’s a good idea to hone your concept in preparation to enter a competitive market.
Market research could give you the upper hand even if you’ve got the perfect product. Conducting robust market research is crucial, as it will help you better understand your customers, your competitors, and the broader business landscape.
Research yoga studios in your area to examine their classes, price points, and customer reviews.
You’re looking for a market gap to fill. For instance, maybe the local market is missing a studio that offers hot yoga or sells yoga clothes.
You might consider targeting a niche, such as kids’ yoga classes.
This could jumpstart your word-of-mouth marketing and attract clients right away.
You’ll need to determine which kinds of yoga to offer. It’s best to offer a variety so your students can always try something new. Types of yoga classes include:
You could also offer kids yoga, private yoga classes, and online classes.
The average price per person for a group yoga class is about $12. Check market prices in your area. You’ll also want to consider your costs when setting prices.
Once you know your costs, use this Step By Step profit margin calculator to determine your mark-up and final price points. Remember, the prices you use at launch should be subject to change if warranted by the market.
Your target market is going to be health conscious people, which could be men or women of any age group. You should spread out your marketing to include TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. You could also advertise on yoga-related forums, groups, and blogs.
You’ll need to rent out a studio space, assuming you’re not only providing instruction online. You can find space to rent in your area on sites such as Craigslist, Crexi, and Instant Offices.
When choosing a commercial space, you may want to follow these rules of thumb:
Here are some ideas for brainstorming your business name:
Once you’ve got a list of potential names, visit the website of the US Patent and Trademark Office to make sure they are available for registration and check the availability of related domain names using our Domain Name Search tool. Using “.com” or “.org” sharply increases credibility, so it’s best to focus on these.
Powered by GoDaddy.com
Finally, make your choice among the names that pass this screening and go ahead and reserve your business name with your state, start the trademark registration process, and complete your domain registration and social media account creation.
Your business name is one of the key differentiators that sets your business apart. Once you pick a name, reserve it and start with the branding, it’s hard to switch to a new name. So be sure to carefully consider your choice before moving forward.
Here are the key components of a business plan:
If you’ve never created a business plan, it can be an intimidating task. You might consider hiring a business plan specialist to create a top-notch business plan for you.
Registering your business is an absolutely crucial step — it’s the prerequisite to paying taxes, raising capital, opening a bank account, and other guideposts on the road to getting a business up and running.
Plus, registration is exciting because it makes the entire process official. Once it’s complete, you’ll have your own business!
Your business location is important because it can affect taxes, legal requirements, and revenue. Most people will register their business in the state where they live, but if you are planning to expand, you might consider looking elsewhere, as some states could offer real advantages when it comes to yoga studios.
If you’re willing to move, you could really maximize your business! Keep in mind, it’s relatively easy to transfer your business to another state.
Business entities come in several varieties, each with its pros and cons. The legal structure you choose for your yoga studio will shape your taxes, personal liability, and business registration requirements, so choose wisely.
Here are the main options:
We recommend that new business owners choose LLC as it offers liability protection and pass-through taxation while being simpler to form than a corporation. You can form an LLC in as little as five minutes using an online LLC formation service. They will check that your business name is available before filing, submit your articles of organization, and answer any questions you might have.
Choose Your State
We recommend ZenBusiness as the Best LLC Service for 2024
starts at $0, plus state fees starts at $0, plus state feesThe final step before you’re able to pay taxes is getting an Employer Identification Number, or EIN. You can file for your EIN online or by mail or fax: visit the IRS website to learn more. Keep in mind, if you’ve chosen to be a sole proprietorship you can simply use your social security number as your EIN.
Once you have your EIN, you’ll need to choose your tax year. Financially speaking, your business will operate in a calendar year (January–December) or a fiscal year, a 12-month period that can start in any month. This will determine your tax cycle, while your business structure will determine which taxes you’ll pay.
The IRS website also offers a tax-payers checklist, and taxes can be filed online.
It is important to consult an accountant or other professional to help you with your taxes to ensure you are completing them correctly.
Securing financing is your next step and there are plenty of ways to raise capital:
Bank and SBA loans are probably the best option, other than friends and family, for funding a yoga studio business. You might also try crowdfunding if you have an innovative concept.
Starting a yoga studio business requires obtaining a number of licenses and permits from local, state, and federal governments.
Federal regulations, licenses, and permits associated with starting your business include doing business as (DBA), health licenses and permits from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), trademarks, copyrights, patents, and other intellectual properties, as well as industry-specific licenses and permits.
You may also need state-level and local county or city-based licenses and permits. The license requirements and how to obtain them vary, so check the websites of your state, city, and county governments or contact the appropriate person to learn more.
You could also check this SBA guide for your state’s requirements, but we recommend using MyCorporation’s Business License Compliance Package. They will research the exact forms you need for your business and state and provide them to ensure you’re fully compliant.
This is not a step to be taken lightly, as failing to comply with legal requirements can result in hefty penalties.
If you feel overwhelmed by this step or don’t know how to begin, it might be a good idea to hire a professional to help you check all the legal boxes.
Before you start making money, you’ll need a place to keep it, and that requires opening a bank account.
Keeping your business finances separate from your personal account makes it easy to file taxes and track your company’s income, so it’s worth doing even if you’re running your yoga studio business as a sole proprietorship. Opening a business bank account is quite simple, and similar to opening a personal one. Most major banks offer accounts tailored for businesses — just inquire at your preferred bank to learn about their rates and features.
Banks vary in terms of offerings, so it’s a good idea to examine your options and select the best plan for you. Once you choose your bank, bring in your EIN (or Social Security Number if you decide on a sole proprietorship), articles of incorporation, and other legal documents and open your new account.
Business insurance is an area that often gets overlooked yet it can be vital to your success as an entrepreneur. Insurance protects you from unexpected events that can have a devastating impact on your business.
Here are some types of insurance to consider:
As opening day nears, prepare for launch by reviewing and improving some key elements of your business.
Being an entrepreneur often means wearing many hats, from marketing to sales to accounting, which can be overwhelming. Fortunately, many websites and digital tools are available to help simplify many business tasks.
You may want to use industry-specific software, such as Glofox, Vagaro, or WellnessLiving, to manage your bookings, marketing, direct emails, and payments.
Website development is crucial because your site is your online presence and needs to convince prospective clients of your expertise and professionalism. You can create your own website using services like WordPress, Wix, or Squarespace. This route is very affordable, but figuring out how to build a website can be time-consuming. If you lack tech-savvy, you can hire a web designer or developer to create a custom website for your business.
Your customers are unlikely to find your website, however, unless you follow Search Engine Optimization (SEO) practices. SEO will help your website appear closer to the top in relevant search results, a crucial element for increasing sales.
Make sure that you optimize calls to action on your website. Experiment with text, color, size, and position of calls to action such as “Book Now”. This can sharply increase purchases.
Here are some powerful marketing strategies for your future business:
Unique selling propositions, or USPs, are the characteristics of a product or service that sets it apart from the competition. Customers today are inundated with buying options, so you’ll have a real advantage if they are able to quickly grasp how your yoga studio meets their needs or wishes. It’s wise to do all you can to ensure your USPs stand out on your website and in your marketing and promotional materials, stimulating buyer desire.
Global pizza chain Domino’s is renowned for its USP: “Hot pizza in 30 minutes or less, guaranteed.” Signature USPs for your yoga studio business could be:
You may not like to network or use personal connections for business gain. But your personal and professional networks likely offer considerable untapped business potential. Maybe that Facebook friend you met in college is now running a yoga studio business, or a LinkedIn contact of yours is connected to dozens of potential clients. Maybe your cousin or neighbor has been working in yoga studios for years and can offer invaluable insight and industry connections.
The possibilities are endless, so it’s a good idea to review your personal and professional networks and reach out to those with possible links to or interest in yoga. You’ll probably generate new customers or find companies with which you could establish a partnership.
If you’re starting out small from a home office, you may not need any employees. But as your business grows, you will likely need workers to fill various roles. Potential positions for a yoga studio business include:
At some point, you may need to hire all of these positions or simply a few, depending on the size and needs of your business. You might also hire multiple workers for a single role or a single worker for multiple roles, again depending on need.
Free-of-charge methods to recruit employees include posting ads on popular platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, or Jobs.com. You might also consider a premium recruitment option, such as advertising on Indeed, Glassdoor, or ZipRecruiter. Further, if you have the resources, you could consider hiring a recruitment agency to help you find talent.
Yoga is beneficial to people of all ages in many ways, as you know as a yoga enthusiast. You could help countless people improve their well-being while joining a large industry and making a nice living, which is just an added bonus to the rewards of helping people.
You’ve done your business homework, so now it’s time to strike a yoga pose and start your entrepreneurial journey!
