What role(s) do you want in your studio?
You need to think about and decide what your yoga studio role will be. You have to be brutally honest here because it affects how you set up your studio and how it operates. There are 3 main roles in owning a yoga studio:
- Yoga teacher: you teach the classes, discuss yoga with students, plan choreography/curriculum, design courses.
- Yoga studio dministrator: hire, payroll, plan the schedule, deal with insurance and lease/mortgage, answer phones, deal with the bulk of the e-mail correspondence, work with vendors – the day-to-day management of the studio.
- Planner/visionary: determines vision and delegates – plan the studio’s direction and mission and reason it exists. Determines the USP (benefits for clientele) and how to deliver them. Once a plan is in place, delegates the implementation.
You can’t do all these roles well. In fact you probably don’t like all those roles. Just because you want to own a studio doesn’t mean you need like and perform all three roles. You need to determine which role you want perform, and figure out how to remove yourself from doing the other 2 roles. It’s very likely you’ll have to perform at least 2 of the functions: either teaching and planner or administrator and planner. As owner you automatically become the planner and so you should have some desire to play this role.
If you’re starting out or are small, you’ll have to perform all 3 roles. If so, minimize the role you like least as much as you can afford. Consider hiring part-time help/teachers. Be creative so you can focus your time and efforts in the role(s) you like and excel at.
If you were brutally honest as to why you want to own a studio, then that will help show you which of the 3 main roles you should focus on. For example, if you want to teach yoga to people, then your role is yoga teacher. If you want build a community, then your role is likely planner. If you want implement marketing campaigns and hire staff and administer the office (hands-on type of person), then you want to be an administrator.
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