Opening a yoga studio is exciting for yoga teachers and unlocks a plethora of opportunities. If you’re planning to open a yoga studio, you must be thrilled too. While this may be your dream, we recommend carefully considering the different factors and thoughts included in the process. Your studio will showcase your abilities to the world and serve as a foundation for your future endeavors.
This blog focuses on the location aspect that plays a critical role in the success of your yoga studio.
Read more to find out 7 actionable tips to find the best location for your yoga studio:
- The Area Options
Indeed, your conscious working and the way you’re presenting your yoga studio have a strong influence on your business. But the location also determines your success journey and customer footfall. Finding the right location for your studio is a big affair and you need to settle with the best possible option to reap maximum benefits. You can amend the little things in your studio, your marketing tactics, classes, and even your brand’s ideology, but the location is something that you can’t change in a short time. You need to be sure that the location you’ve chosen to build your dream yoga studio checks all the boxes and won’t disappoint you in the future.
Depending upon the city you’re based in and planning to establish your yoga studio, the first thing you need to do is identify the type of neighborhood, is it urban, suburban, or rural?
If it’s a suburban province, aim for centralized locations that are close to potential or existing market spaces, fitness centers, food stores, and good neighborhoods. Here, people tend to live in grouped places and usually travel to sector markets and central areas for shopping and other activities. The business is pretty sorted in urban areas, where the footfall is high compared to the suburban and rural areas. Even the marketing budget goes down because the location itself acts as a promoter for your yoga studio. Getting more students can be a tough deal in rural areas because you will need to tell people about your existence, make your services affordable, and put a hefty amount for marketing.
Connect with a property broker and visit some available options that are available on rent. The brokers have good knowledge of the neighborhood and markets and can help you find the best options. Just share your basic requirements including the type of area- traditional market or non-traditional market, the area covered, floor and rent, and your broker will do the needful.
- Features Of The Location
Once you’ve found the perfect location for your yoga studio, you need to check for a few more things and assess the features that the location has to offer. Let’s look at the salient features that your yoga studio must have to get maximum clientele:
Ventilation:
Yoga is a rejuvenating activity and practicing it in a cold and dingy place might not be the best option. Your yoga studio needs a fresh vibe and should be well ventilated. Fewer brick walls and more windows make the ideal floor set up for a yoga studio. Make sure there is cross-ventilation in the studio so that the students can breathe properly during the practice, instead of feeling suffocated.
Floor/Levels:
Let’s suppose you’re aiming for the 50+ crowds, in that case, it would be ideal to get a yoga studio on the ground or first floor. Your demographics also play an important role in determining the location of your yoga studio. We’ll talk about this later in this blog. You can also get a studio on the second floor, as long as the building has an elevator. It would be great if you can find a place with two independent and internally connected floors, and run two classes simultaneously.
Studio facing:
If you’re into ‘Vaastu,’ we recommend consulting an expert to analyze the critical features of the studio. We consider getting an east-facing studio so that the students can enjoy the beautiful sunrise during morning yoga sessions.
The View:
Though yoga is about looking inside yourself, yet we recommend getting a studio that offers a pleasant and green view, instead of a busy street-view. The gorgeous outside views have a substantial effect on the studio’s ambiance andcan enhance yoga practice.
How ready and equipped is the place?
Instead of renting/buying a bare shell, try finding some old dance studios, gymnasiums, or other fitness centers that are partially equipped. This way you can reduce the cost on set-up and take advantage of the previous step. Old gymnasiums and dance academies might have usable mirrored walls, air-conditioning ducts, separate rooms, etc. that can be utilized and refurbished as per your needs.
- Security
You will be putting in a hefty amount of investment for setting up your yoga studio and you need a sense of reliability and security, especially when you’re not at the premises. First, the location should be in a well-known and running spaces, instead of an isolated space with no buildings around. Most market complexes and buildings offer day and night security that is ideal to keep your studio safe. Talk to the concerned authorities about the kind of security they provide, if the place is under video surveillance, and the number of guards, who monitor the space during the night.
- Easily Accessible
No one would like to travel for an hour for an hour-long yoga class and travel back home for another hour. People need accessibility. You can’t be physically close to every student or client, yet you can find a central location, where you can cover a good radius of the city. Instead of getting a place at one end of the city that offers lower rent, we recommend renting a place, where people can commute daily. You also don’t want your studio in your market that experiences heavy traffic, as soon as you connect to the main road. Let’s suppose you’ve found the perfect market space that checks all the points. The next step is to get a store, which doesn’t require a long way to reach; rather it should be close to the communal bathroom (incase your studio doesn’t have on), the exits, the entries, parking lot, or the elevator.
- Location Must Match Demographics
As a yoga studio owner, you must be well-versed with the demographics of the clientele and the target audience before opening your studio. For instance, lower-priced residential districts are perfect if you’re aiming for the budget-conscious individuals, who don’t wish to travel to far off places for yoga classes. If you’re planning to open a fine yoga studio with exceptional amenities for the upper-class individuals, we suggest luxury markets that have high-end stores. An alternative and safe option would be to open your yoga studio in specialized locations that have fitness institutes, health spa, organic food stores or colleges. This way you will enjoy a high footfall of health-focused individuals.
- Parking Area
Parking spots have been a constant topic for disputes in most cities. The crowded market places are filled with cars and two-wheelers, and you don’t want this to be a reason for your studio going down. Your students will need to park their vehicles for at least an hour or more, and a dedicated parking space will add to the value of your studio. Most traditional market spaces in posh areas have ample parking area for the visitors. Try to find a location, where your students don’t have to waste 10 minutes every day, finding a spot for parking. The availability of parking spaces will speak volumes of your studio and attract and retain the upper-class audience, who commute by car. You can also hike up the prices of your classes, if you’re offering legit parking space to the students.
- Compare Rents
Once you’ve shortlisted a few places, make a note of all the places with their rents/price and compare all the options. Write down the pros and cons of each, and try to analyze the best match for your studio. Keep the rent of your studio, aligned with your budget and don’t just opt in for a bigger option just because you like it. Work out the monthly investments, rent, projected sales/classes, and see if it works out for you.
We hope this blog will allow you to carefully weigh the pros and cons of different kinds of locations and find the best spot for your yoga studio.