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I’ve always considered myself an entrepreneur. I’ve been working as a freelance writer for many years, so I’m used to managing deadlines and accounting. I’ve also started dozens of websites and am studying for a master’s degree in business administration.
So we thought it wouldn’t be too difficult to start a virtual yoga studio where all the production would be done in our home office studio and your company would handle all the marketing. What was most important to me was focused on being able to provide an accessible way for people to experience yoga and develop sustainable home habits. I figured I could do what I needed to do on the side while still working my regular job.
Hey, was I wrong?
It was easy… until it wasn’t.
Actually, it wasn’t that difficult to set up. I invested in a camera, lights, and microphone and found a platform that made it easy to set up a membership site. He ran pre-release email subscription activities through his Instagram and Facebook accounts, hosted several free virtual classes to promote his upcoming release, and recorded his first five videos for an on-demand library. .
When I was ready to launch Love Revolution Yoga, I had about 100 email subscribers, 10 of whom signed up for recurring monthly memberships. I was intrigued by what I was offering and saw it as validating my business model.
Starting up was deceptively easy. We were able to continue recording and producing videos for a while, and over the next few years we gathered a few more members. But eventually we hit a plateau, our membership site and email list weren’t growing, and our revenue no longer covered the costs of our membership platform.
Continuous business management, video production, and marketing were difficult tasks for one person. Between a demanding full-time job, traveling, and studying for my MBA, I was faced with the reality that I didn’t have the time or energy to run my own online studio. My small online studio required more attention than I expected.
The decision to shut down was more difficult
The ongoing challenge of running a virtual yoga studio from my home office proved unsustainable for me.
After two years of trying to make it work, I decided to shut down my membership site and upload the content I had previously created to my YouTube channel, making it available to everyone for free. I don’t think the online studio experiment was a failure. I learned some valuable lessons from that experience. Closing my studio allowed me to expand my vision of what I can do as a yoga teacher and entrepreneur.
But ultimately, the business behind my teaching became a barrier to what I loved most: teaching.
Our society teaches us that if you start a business and it doesn’t work out for some reason, you’re a failure. This approach to business and life is disempowering. Yoga teaches us to live in balance and harmony with ourselves and those around us. It teaches us not to recognize our worth by external achievements and to let go of what does not serve us.
For me, shutting down my membership site was an exercise in letting go of my small, short-sighted expectations and creating space to live my vision in a more aligned way.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CX0_NkCF7BA/?img_index=1
5 things I learned from starting an online yoga studio
1. You can do what you like as a job.
When I started my online yoga studio in 2020, my thoughts were mainly about the creative work of developing classes and courses. We had countless ideas for class themes, meditation workshops, and live virtual events to foster community despite the lack of a shared physical space. I envisioned a chakra series to help students explore yoga philosophy. These are things I like to make and share with others.
My mistake was not giving enough thought to the time it would take to manage, market, and produce video and audio.
The first year I built and maintained my own website. I host live classes every week and add two recorded videos to my on-demand library each month. I did all the email and social media marketing copywriting, graphic design, scheduling, and publishing. On Saturday, I woke up early, recorded a video, and continued editing until late at night. Sometimes, during the editing process, I would notice that something was wrong with the audio and I would find myself unable to use the video I just spent two hours recording.
All hats were on. The business of yoga was starting to take away the joy of teaching.
2. You can do it all, but you may not be able to do it all at once.
When I was still trying to build Love Revolution Yoga, I took a personal development program and 300 hours of YTT. I started graduate school, published a book, and helped facilitate the Freedom Writers Institute, which trains educators in social-emotional learning. While working a full-time job, I taught yoga at a retreat in New Mexico, traveled to California and Nashville, and spent most of my summers in Ireland. Suffice it to say that by the end of the year I was burnt out and had to set boundaries for myself.
I had to face the limitations of time and energy. The first step in establishing boundaries was to be honest with myself. I had dropped the ball when it came to my online studio, which ultimately was a huge disservice to the very students I wanted to serve.
Obviously, I needed to free myself and find other ways to teach and connect in the community.
3. Clarity requires stillness.
In the first half of 2023, I stepped out of the chaos and spent some time looking and working within myself. SvadhyayaOr introspecting and visualizing not only the evolution of my yoga teaching business, but also the evolution of myself.
This reflection came with an uncomfortable silence when I suddenly no longer had to work full time and was laid off. At first, I went back to freelance hustle mode and tried to find new digital marketing clients. But I found myself throwing myself into various training and writing projects because I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. Even though I had achieved all the goals I had set for myself, I was restless and looking for something. To tell you the truth, I didn’t know what I wanted to do next.
I told myself I wanted to teach yoga on the side while working full time as a digital marketer. The latter was easy and familiar to me, but it was starting to feel strange. I had to ask myself what I really cared about, and that was mentoring people and watching them grow.
4. Slow and steady progress is still progress.
You may have known that you no longer wanted to make a living as a digital marketer. But I still needed to find a way to make a living that was in line with my values and desire to help people.
Usually when I have a new business idea or an exciting desire, I set a goal, make a plan, and put a lot of pressure on myself to execute the plan and achieve the goal. This time I’m trying something new. I decided not to put pressure on myself. I have a vision and am taking the time to let it germinate and grow at my own pace.
It can be frustrating for an outcome-oriented person like me because it feels like things aren’t progressing and even though I know what I want to do, it’s not always clear “how” to do it. There is a voice in my heart that tells me I could make more progress if I did more. And a part of me wants that path and desired outcome to magically materialize before me.
In moments like these, my yoga practice means doing my best each day and at the same time letting go of attachment to outcomes I can’t control.
5. Sometimes the things you think you’ll never do are exactly what you need.
I never thought I would be teaching regular weekly classes in a physical space again. However, I recently started teaching at a yoga studio again. I am not without some reservations about the relative lack of accessibility that I believe is inherent in the group class model.
However, teaching yoga has become more accessible to me because I get paid to teach and can delegate the work of running the studio to others.
Returning to a studio environment also allows me to re-engage with the yoga community in a way I have found difficult to achieve online. Ironically, building a community was the reason I started Love Revolution Yoga.
One of my teachers used to say: do yoga; you Become yoga. ” The process of self-reflection, letting go of expectations, realigning with my values, and learning to be content with where I am in each moment is what integrating yoga into my life is all about. I don’t know what will happen next, but I’m happy to be able to teach yoga for a living.
About contributors
Kimberly Morrison is an award-winning author, yoga teacher, self-love advocate, and founder of Love Revolution Yoga. She has been practicing yoga for over 20 years and teaching yoga for over 6 years. She is on a mission to teach people to love themselves through the practice of yoga.
