3 Ultimate Wins of Starting Your Own Yoga Studio
In the Yoga Collective, I want to be careful to balance all negatives with positives and vice versa. This blog aims to provide a comprehensive overview of what it is like to be a "yoga-prenuer" in this day and age. Call it a Yin and Yang, if you will.
How typical of me and my Aquarius moon to start our new rebranded blog with the challenges! But better to start off knowing what you're getting into rather than think starting a yoga business is all savansanas and breath work when really it's 10 Sun Salutation B's in a row 🙃
So you may be wondering, since we know the Sun Salutation B's of being a small business owner, then what is the savasana and breath work, the rainbows and the butterflies, the WINS of starting your own yoga business you ask? These are my 3 Ultimate Wins of Starting my Own Yoga Business
Increased Purpose of Work
I still work in Corporate America and have for the majority of my adult life. This arena can be very... dry. dull. the shade of grey that falls outside of the 50 Shades of Grey. Some days you might feel like it's not too bad because your co-workers are kind and the work itself isn't labor-inducing or long, but it surely is never-ending. You might never see the results of projects you've worked on for months. You might sit in a meeting for hours to discuss theories with no tangible outcome. You might feel quite purposeless, even though the purpose statement is clear.
When I began my journey to building my own business, life was jolted back into work. I was starting to think that work meant hating most hours of the day. That successful work meant sacrificing the things I wanted to work towards. When the vision of AIMwell came to mind, I felt the need to spend hours of the day researching, planning, designing, and meeting, versus almost anything I had done before. The work felt good. Work felt like there was a purpose to it all. A vision I could clearly see, even if the path there was murky and unclear. Work felt liberating and free instead of a box limiting my skills to one thing or the next (more on that in bullet 3). Overall, the absolute first win I recognized was an almost immediate invigorating and energizing sensation of purpose in my work... and for a Leo sun, that is incredibly important.
Hone in on Decision-Making Authority
Speaking of Leo's, we naturally love calling the shots, being a leader, and heading the pack. So imagine how confining it must feel to be in a role where many of the shots are called for you. Arguably, for some, this brings freedom and peace of mind. Any poor decisions don't fall back on their shoulders, but it feels constricting for someone like me who is not afraid to say I messed up and try their damnedest to learn moving forward. It feels like the growth potential is being controlled. As the owner, founder, CEO, Executive Director, HR, etc. all decisions lie on my shoulders. More to come at another time on the loneliness, isolation, and desire for a team felt when you play all the roles. But overall, being able to make quick decisions on partnerships, activities, services provided, and everything else under the sun, feels empowering and aids in the feeling of purpose brought by starting your own business. The buck starts and stops with you.
Discover What You Really Want to Do
Finally, and maybe the most internal discovery of them all, was finding out what I like to do. Turns out, I love teaching and writing, I love engaging with people in all ways regarding community topics. I love being a change-maker. And most of all I love DOING.
I am a project manager by trade, so some of those listed above apply to the job, But many times in one role, under a corporation, you don't get to do all of these things, let alone "DO " anything because processes can be so bureaucratic. Truthfully, one of my favorite discoveries through my journey so far is expanding my skillset and permitting myself to explore new things beyond the scope of project management. This point plays off my first bullet regarding the purpose of my work. The corporate space largely leaves me feeling stuck and confined within the skillset of that one job description and to explore a new skill, you almost certainly must get a new job. Who has the time to start all over?! When you believe in your mission and vision enough to take the plunge and start your own business, yes you have to wear many hats, but you get to traverse through different paths of life all for your one mission, and within that, you learn what you love to do and the things you could live without having to do ever again... like social media in my case and then you hire. Learning about yourself in this way is exciting and surprising at times. It helped me further frame my business's purpose and mission to what I knew I liked and wanted to do.
In truth, there are many more wins and many more challenges I could convey, and many I am sure I don't even know about yet. But for my journey, these were the 6 I felt needed to be expressed immediately.
I would love to know your thoughts on other wins or challenges of starting your own business, yoga or not!
Comment below!
The Yoga Collective is a rebranding of the AIMwell KIDS blog. The Yoga Collective is your stop for yoga, business, and real life. Brought to you by Black Boni the Yogi, the founder of AIMwell Yoga a black woman-owned yoga studio in the Southeast corridor of Kansas City, and AIMwell KIDS a non-profit that brings yoga to students while in school. Follow her journey through applied yoga, business, and aiming to make sense of it all.
