If you’re toying with the idea of going out on your own, or you’re already on your own full or part time, here are some tips and motivation to help you to keep going through the years of being a yoga teacher, a wellness practitioner, massage therapist, physical therapist, I’ve done a lot of things.
I’ve learned working through my own business and working with a variety of healthcare providers, yoga teachers, and many ways that there’s no one right way to have a wellness practitioner business. And I thought it’d be helpful to give some examples that I’ve seen through the years of wellness practitioners, yoga teachers, health care providers, and health coaches growing differently. All so you can know what’s possible.. So you can find the right alignment, and strategy in your own business to find your own unique way and bolster your strengths.
First up is the yoga teacher in the more traditional sense, where they teach classes in yoga studios. This practitioner might also rent out space in the yoga studio for private sessions, and they teach occasional workshops and retreats. It is possible to earn consistent revenue here.
But make sure to read to the very end to learn tips and strategies on how to prevent burnout here because this is huge for the yoga teacher. You need to pay attention to your schedule, and how much you’re driving around from studio to studio and paying attention to your own energy and your ideal schedule. This will help prevent you teaching classes from 530 in the morning till 830 PM at night at many different studios, and not getting paid very much.
If you have an awareness and you have good boundaries, then it is very possible to make very good revenue being a yoga teacher. You need to structure your programs and your marketing. For more tips listen to this episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ignite-ur-wellness/id1477774282?i=1000553323142
Another example is the health care provider that owns their own clinic and includes a wellness component. To make this successful, you need to understand your ideal client. You will want to know their biggest dreams AND their biggest fears. What lights them up, and what they look forward to each morning. What they crave. What fuels their soul, releases the stress, a reset button for them, and they want to keep doing it for their life.
If you think about it in this way, then creating a holistic center or healing space becomes a lifestyle. Your clinic will become more than rehab or pain focus. If you look at it from that viewpoint, how can you create programs and packages that really highlight that,
You also have the option to teach classes and workshops in their own brick and mortar clinic. Or like for me, for a while I worked out of my home and I taught classes and workshops in a studio as a great way to get my name out there. Again, similar to the yoga teacher that maybe doesn’t have a brick and mortar and is teaching in a studio and renting space in the studio for private sessions boundaries on your time, and really knowing how to carve out lunch breaks.
In another example, the health coach may also be a yoga teacher or Pilates teacher. So maybe this health coach teaches classes in a studio or teaches classes via zoom or doesn’t teach any classes at all. It’s up to you. And the focus can vary person to person or coach to coach, maybe it’s helping with diet, maybe it’s helping with energy, maybe it’s helping with stress reduction, there are all different facets, you can even do them all being a general health coach, a general wellness coach, and you do private sessions via zoom. It’s very simple and very profitable when set up right.
Another example is a yoga teacher/ nutritionist or a yoga teacher/ coach. Again, they might be teaching classes in the studio, or maybe hosting their own classes via zoom, as well as doing private sessions. And when I used to work in the yoga studios, there are several yoga teachers that used to do meal prep for their clients. So they would have very busy clients, maybe CEOs of business or parents with multiple children. And these ambitious adults wanted to eat healthy, but they just didn’t have the time. So these yoga teachers would teach classes throughout the week, and then also have a handful of clients that they would meal prep for where they would buy their food, make meals and deliver them to their house. So that is another option too. If you really love to work with food, you really love to plan and prepare and grocery shop.
Being a Wellness Practitioner can be your second or even third career. And depending on the following that you had in your previous job or what you were doing before, you could immediately start leading your own classes via zoom or in a park. You can have private sessions in your clients homes or via zoom or in a park and you don’t have to rent or have high overhead of a brick and mortar clinic and you don’t have to sacrifice the commission of working with a studio because you have a large following on your own. You can just go right off on your own first.
If you’re confused as to whether to partner with a yoga studio or gym or a plan to use a studio or not, then head back to a previous episode where I talked about how to maximize teaching for a studio, or another gym, the pros and the benefits are the pros and the cons.
Really, you can see you can even make your own unique combination, or a hybrid of all of the above. There’s no one viable wellness business, especially if you’re using this model. And why is that it’s because they all have relatively low overhead, the highest overhead is the practitioner renting a studio or renting their own brick and mortar space. But the rest of them if you’re teaching at other studios or just renting a studio here or there, if you’re utilizing parks, traveling to people’s houses, and zoom, it’s very low overhead. And it’s possible to make profit right off the bat when you want to start to consider if a business is viable, that is more of the product side of things where you really have to pay attention to margins. But that’s a whole different industry and niche and not my specialty. What we’re talking about is practitioner services, one to one teaching wellness classes, whether that be in person or online or in group or On Demand program type information, we’re not talking about a tangible product that you might have to package and sell. So there is a difference, just so you know. And there are viable wellness businesses that do have tangible products, there’s just a different strategy involved. And again, you have to pay a little bit more attention to your margins and your numbers. Whereas when you’re working as a practitioner, you have a little bit more wiggle room and chance for profit right off the bat because you have the opportunity to keep your overhead low. So either way, you can follow your dreams, you just have to go after it, you have to figure out what you want, and go after it.
To summarize here are 5 ways to grow your wellness business:
- Create schedule boundaries from the beginning
- If you currently have a job with a decent salary, don’t place the expectation of your new business to provide that same salary for you in year 1. This will place a lot of pressure on your baby business and slow growth.
Instead have savings, or continue to work in your job as you build your business
- You will work hard. But be sure to notice when you get into hustle. Think big picture. Your first 1-3 years are building the foundation that will compound for years to come. Be patient and think big picture while going one small step at a time. Listen to this episode for more: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ignite-ur-wellness/id1477774282?i=1000554872146
- Believe in yourself and your business. Hire a coach and/or mentor. You will go so much faster and prevent sabotage. It’s an investment that will pay back in thousands, for years to come.
If you would like to find out if I’m the coach/mentor for you just sign up for your free consultation call. No obligation to commit. This is an opportunity to find out what’s really holding you back. Sign up here: https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=14052589&appointmentType=3804753
Listen to the complimentary podcast episode here: Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ignite-ur-wellness/id1477774282?i=1000558054274
Anchor: https://anchor.fm/ignite-ur-wellness/episodes/132–Different-Options-to-Start–Grow-Your-Wellness-Business-e1hbo2a
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/78rS0XCFMagy0wGo6cWUfG?si=fedc45be0f6245b3