Strategies That Work

[Administrator]

Word of mouth isn't enough.

If you are a new yoga teacher and someone has told you word of mouth is the best way to build your business, it's a sure sign their heart is in the right
place but their advice...

Let's just say they may be well intentioned but it's very unlikely word of mouth alone will be enough.

The strategies and tactics we are going to use will work whether you live in a big city or a small town.

All we ask is that you give our strategies are fair try.

Deal?

[Shawn]

My Audience is a little different. I'm looking for yoga instructors, massage therapists or other health professionals that are working with or plan to work with people in pain. On Feb 25 I'll be teaching a P3 workshop (posture, pain and performance) That will give these people some new skills to use when working with the population in pain. Does anyone have any suggestions as to where I can go to market this class at low or no cost??

Where do you guys go to find this kind of information??

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Shawn

[Administrator]

First, you can use Craigslist. A huge number of massage therapists post there.

Second, what's your ultimate goal? Free workshop?

Where do you want to take this?

[Shawn]

Craigslist is a great Idea. This is a pay for workshop. But the Idea is to get the word out about the Egoscue Method and what we do here at our clinic.

I'll post a couple ads tomorrow and see what comes.

Thanks, The site looks great!

Shawn

[yogarocks]

Hi Sara and Harlan,

I saw both videos and they were very interesting.

I have used craigslist a bit and am trying to do both privates as well as have small classes. I did get a private person this summer who came this for a month and then wanted to transition into a group due to money and fact he was no longer embarrased by his lack of flexibility as it had improved. I enjoy small classes/groups too so that is fine except scheduling often isn't easy with 4-5 people. Here are a few questions I have:

1) To market for private students is it best to focus on something specific such as weight loss or reducing anxiety/stress/depression within the ad (I'm a therapist so have background in that)? Is there a specific market of people who might want long-term individual lessons - my experience has been people seem to want to join a small class I offer after 4 or so individual lessons and then just have individual lessons sporadically after that.

2) I find from craigslist when people seem interested in attending a small class I get e-mails where people will say they can only come friday morning or tuesday evening etc. I am thinking I should set up 3-4 separate times during the week for group classes and then tell those times to people as otherwise it is very hard to figure out various time requests. Does that make sense?

I will work on my ads a bit and try them out on the forum.

Thank you for this forum. Yoga is so beneficial and something that is hard to know how to market effectively.

Debbie

[Sara]

Hi Debbie,

The first thing you need when looking for private students
is a reason for them to want to contact you.

What do you want to be your specialty?

Weight loss?

Rehab?

Do you have success stories in these areas?

You need to find out what the market wants and give it to them.

The most important thing to remember is to get inside the mind
of your future customers.

Namaste.

Sara

[dslyoga]

Hello Sara and Harlan,

I can't believe what a simple idea that is,
using Craigslist.

I usually work with extreme pain and
dysfunction problems, and am concerned
about legal issues as far as marketing that
particular service goes. But my Posture &
Prevention stuff, privates and workshops,
should be more than okay.

I'm booked up until late February, mostly
by word-of-mouth, but that has always
been very unreliable as far as consistency
goes.

I want to pre-empt the ebbs and flows
before they happen.

Thanks a Million,
David Scott Lynn

[Administrator]

In every field, there are "do's and don'ts" of what you can say.

In Florida, "pain" is a restricted word. But some professions are allowed
to use the word.

So your point is well taken.

However, everyone is allowed to work on pain if there is a medical
referral.

If you want to go after the pain relief market, you can get medical referrals
after the fact to protect yourself.

[melhahn]

I'm trying to figure out a way to make an income stream, doing something where I am making a contribution. I discovered a niche market. Getting yoga instructors to the elderly in assisted living homes. One problem is that I know nothing about business and another is that the yoga instructor I am working with has well-issues. Anyway-this is being resolved.

Teacher salaries constitute between 25%-46% of the incoming monies.

1. Does this sound right? Just imagine, there are lots yoga instructors out there. However, it seems that no-one has gotten them into the senior citizen community, even though tai chi is very popular with the elderly community. And the elderly community is a growing one and a wealthy demographic in my community.

2. I think this is a labor-intensive business. What do you think about approaching spreading the benefits of yoga this way?

3. Conceptually-we are a traveling studio. We have no overhead costs as we offer the classes at the nursing homes or assisted living sites. We do have to pay for liability insurance, however.

4. Should I recruit a bunch of instructors first and then find sites in which to place them or grow one yoga instructor at a time? Each new instructor may want to teach 3-4 classes a week. What I do is run around and serve as their talent agent and find them work. I am working with one instructor now and I have a back-up but we do not have contracts yet with all 3 places so until I start seeing closure coming with her schedule, I hold off committing to another yoga instructor-so it is building in layers. Does this make sense?

5. In the long run-I would like to create a method of training experienced yoga instructors how to modify class for the elderly and expand the business to other counties.

6. There is always the opportunity to become a client for corporate events. Our yoga instructors offer classes at conferences, seminars etc.

Any other advice you might have about doing business this way?

Thank you so much for listening.

[Administrator]

First, I don't like this way of doing business.

You think there's a market for your yoga services - but you're not sure.

And you want to know whether you should hire teachers first?

First step: determine if there is a market. Do the research.

Second: meet with the owner operators of a few nursing homes.

Three: Assess their needs and desire for your services.

Ask yourself. Why do they need you? What can't they cut you out and just hire a yoga teacher directly.

What do you bring to the table?

Unless you can answer these questions, you do not have a business.

You have an idea.

Peace.

Harlan