How To Craft The Perfect Yoga Studio Business Plan (FREE Template Inside)

Are you looking to start your own yoga business? Or, are you someone who already owns one and are looking to take it to the next level? The first step in achieving either of these goals is planning!
And the best way to do that is by making a solid yoga studio business plan!
A business plan is essentially a roadmap for your studio which entails everything from marketing to business management, by defining its various aspects in detail. It also includes a business summary, talking about the aims and objectives of the business for the future. Simply speaking, it is a blueprint for your business.
Now you might be wondering why you need a business plan. Here’s why:
- A business plan can help you get funding from investors and help your business expand.
- It will help you to figure out what you want your business to offer, where you aim to take your growth, what kind of people you want to cater to, and who you’re competing against.
- It can help you make more informed decisions and boost productivity by having a clear roadmap with milestones of what you want to achieve out of your business.
- It is easy to write and even easier to update!
So what goes into this plan we keep talking about? Listed below are the highlights. Read on to find out!
- Analyze the market
- Figure out products and pricing
- Identify your vision and mission statement
- Make an executive summary
- Plan your operations
- Think about finances
- Make strategies for marketing
1. Analyze the market

The yoga market size is rapidly growing and is projected to reach $66,226.4 million by 2027. While that is great news, you need to be prepared to take advantage of this growth and set your business up in the most profitable way possible.
In order to do that, you need to do some research before getting to the finer details of the business.
A. Industry-wide Research
You need to take a deeper dive into the industry by looking at what are the best practices that are followed by yoga studios currently and how you can implement them.
After that, you can look into the current trends within the industry in order to gain an extra edge in the market. For example, some studios offer online yoga classes in order to prioritize convenience and comfort.
A good starting point for keeping yourself updated on trends is by using online platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, and YouTube. Join highly-followed communities and follow popular bloggers to stay up to date on the latest information.
B. Competitor Research
Where there is a great demand, there is also a large supply. At the end of the day, you want to stand out and not get lost in the shuffle!
Figuring out your competitors’ strategy gives you a necessary nudge in the right direction to take your yoga center business plan forward. It gives you a better idea of what is working in the locality as well as what are the problems that exist in the locality that you can solve and stand out within the business.
I. What to look for in your competitors?
- Find out what the other yoga studios in the area are doing successfully or poorly.
- Get a rough idea of the type of yoga classes they offer, their pricing as well as how the services are offered.
- Identify how many yoga studios provide services that focus on a specific niche and do not serve a wide group of customers.
- Find out the industry-specific challenges they are facing that you may also face while running your own studio.
- Look into how they are branding and marketing themselves.
- Try to identify what are the issues customers face when going to these businesses.
II. How to look for the information?
- Visit your competitor studio’s websites.
- Follow them on social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn) to get an idea of their influence and reach.
- Look into reviews on Google, Yelp, etc. to look at things from a customer’s perspective.
- Visit the other studios in the market as customers, to get an idea of their quality of services.
C. Customer Research
A yoga studio can offer services for all genders and age groups.
Your target audience can include working professionals, college students, homemakers, senior citizens, and even children. While that is great, each group will require different types of services that are tailored towards them.
So it is important to look into the type of customers that exist in your area and what could be the services that can cater to them best. In order to do this effectively, you can segment your potential customers.
Divide the clients interested in yoga using categories such as age, gender, ethnicity, and income. Then look for patterns like which age group has a preference for what type of services and how much are they currently willing to pay for it.
A good way to look for this is by using social media to see which type of community follows and interacts with yoga bloggers and influencers. For example, power yoga is preferred by the working population as a way to work out.
2. Figure out products and pricing

Now that you have the data using your market research, it is time to plan how to best fit into the industry. At the end of the day, you want to set up classes in a way that you get maximum clientele and efficient use of your investment. In order to do that:
- Setup services for maximum activity. Use your customer research to spread out niche services across timings to ensure maximum efficiency. For example, old people prefer early mornings for gentle yoga, executive clients prefer slow yoga during lunch hours, etc.
- Try to establish a base crew that shows up for all services. You can do this by offering packages that cover all services and give incentives to people for showing up to all classes. It is important to do this as no one wants to be the only person in class and having more people increases your chances of retention.
While looking at a pricing strategy, do not forget to refer to your analysis to factor in what people are willing to pay. And also factor in that you’d need to be able to cover operating costs while making a profit.
- Per class/ per session rate
The per class/ session rate is a flexible option for the students and allows them to decide which services they want to opt for. This allows for a more flexible but unreliable revenue stream as there is a larger chance of people dropping out.
- Membership subscription rate
The membership subscription rate offers access to multiple services and access to the studio for a fixed number of sessions/ days at a fixed price. This allows for higher retention amongst clients, however, lesser signups.
- Hybrid subscription
Some yoga studios offer a hybrid pricing model that combines both per service as well as membership. They do this by offering both but giving incentives for a membership like a discount. This has become a trend because some customers prefer flexibility and others prefer lower rates offered by membership. Combining both allows you to target both types of clients.
If you want a more detailed blog that talks about the nitty-gritty of planning your prices, check out our yoga pricing guide.
3. Identify your vision and mission statement

Before you hit the ground running, you need to first identify what you want to do with the business and where you see yourself taking the business.
A. Mission Statement
It articulates the immediate purpose of your yoga center. Under this, you can state all the short-term goals that you plan on achieving with your studio within 6 months, stretching up to a year.
Within this include your inspiration for opening the studio as well as what value you plan to provide to your potential clients. It is important to keep these goals realistic and achievable.
B. Vision Statement
This is where you can be ambitious and talk about where you see yourself in the next 5 to 10 years. Think of it as a roadmap with all the milestones you want to achieve.
- Set up the strategies that you wish to set out for yourself in the long term and keep in mind the trends and how the industry will impact your vision.
- Map out how your clients will benefit from your vision.
- Link how it will affect the end goals of your business. For example, you see yourself creating a franchise and expanding to other locations, or acting as a special attraction in one location.
4. Make an executive summary
After you write the mission and vision statements, you can summarize everything you aim to achieve with your studio under an ‘Executive Summary’.
A good executive summary will explain the business aims and objectives, as well as other important information, such as where you plan on basing your business. It is important to keep everything concise as it can be explained in later sections of your yoga studio business plan in detail.
Key questions you need to answer in your executive summary include:
- How are you trying to achieve recognition in your target market?
- What is your vision statement?
- What is your market statement?
- Which demographic is your studio targetting?
- How are your services aligned with your target market?
- What products and services is your studio offering?
- What is the unique selling point of your business? For eg: The unique ambiance of your studio.
- How are you different from your competitors? For eg: Is it the lower cost of services of your studio, or the vast range of services that make you stand out?
- What is the studio costing you? List down the projected expenses and costs that come from daily operations, for, let’s say, the first 6 months. After that, factor in the continuous stream of revenue that’ll go into maintenance and overhead once the studio is well-established as well.
- What is the cash flow and how much profits are you bringing in for the initial 6 months? This is completely variable and the reaction of your target market to your studio decides this. So, aligning your services with them is of utmost importance.
- If your yoga center needs financing, then why do you need it? For eg: you can convey that you’re trying to meet the anticipated demand of the industry in your studio in the market.
5. Plan your operations

The operations plan describes the day-to-day operations of your business. A proper operations plan ensures that everything you do on a daily basis is aligned with your long-term goals.
A well-written operations plan will streamline your workflow and ensure that things run smoothly and efficiently. Things that you need in an operational plan include:
A. Hiring employees
You will need to hire the right employees in order to run your business well. Some things to keep in mind while factoring in who to hire are:
- The number of services you wish to provide
- How much you can afford to spend on staff wages
While interviewing, you can:
- Look for qualities and values that align with your business
- Make sure they have a strong work ethic
- Check if they are dependable and responsible prospects
- Ensure that they have good communication skills
- Confirm that they are good team players
B. Setting up a training plan
- Develop a training plan, as having a plan in place well ahead of time will help you train your employees properly, even in the busiest of times. It should include training sessions on different yoga sessions and good customer service.
C. Use technology
- Set up your Google My Business listing
Getting listed on Google ensures that when a customer searches for “yoga studio near me”, your business pops up! The reviews and ratings that your business will accumulate in the future will add to the trust factor in the community as well.
- Integrate a Point Of Sale (POS) system
A POS system is critical to your business in managing day-to-day finances.
Along with POS, setting up a few different payment methods such as – Square, Stripe, and PayPal makes payment easy for your customers and gives them the freedom to choose their payment option.
- Adopt a scheduling software
A yoga appointment scheduling software will be an enormous help to boost your productivity. It helps you automate scheduling, reminders, payments, trainer management, marketing, and much more!
6. Think about finances

This is the heart of your yoga studio business model. Every other section of the business plan relies on this solid financial outline of projected costs and revenue.
In terms of costs, make a 5-year timeline of the financial obligations for your yoga business plan. This should include the following elements:
A. Costs associated with starting a yoga studio
The start-up costs associated with a yoga business include:
- Licensing fees
- Decor
- Equipment expenses
- Signage
- Marketing
- Sales inventory
- Hardware & Software
B. Fixed costs associated with the business plan
These include:
- Rent deposits
- Employee salaries
- A security system
- Access control
- Variable Costs
- Future advertising
- Inventory restocking
- Miscellaneous expenses
Additionally, in order to break even and not shut down your studio within the first 3 years, it is important to ensure that your net profits are greater than losses. In order to do that use:
I. Prospective profit/ loss sheet: This is the overall sheet that tabulates your revenues, costs, and expenses incurred during a specific period of time. It shows the ability of your business to generate profits by increasing revenue and reducing costs.
II. Prospective balance sheet: This indicates the financial future of your business. Using your profit and loss spreadsheet, you can project what your balance sheet will look like at the end of your first year.
III. Break-even analysis: This indicates when your business will be able to cover all of its expenses and begin making a profit.
7. Make strategies for marketing

Now you have to think about how to market in a way that makes people take an avid interest in your studio. You want to reach a point where your customers end up marketing for you!
Here are some ways you can market your yoga business:
- Your studio should show up on Google. Make sure you are listed on online directories like Google My Business, Yelp, etc.
- Create a website with all clearly available information. Make sure that there is a way to take appointments on your website.
- Leverage influencer marketing to your advantage. Clients already have established trust with influencers so getting them to promote your business can significantly increase your reach.
- Offer discounts and promotions to get people to try your studio.
- Spread out to all social media platforms to promote your business so that your customers can get to know your business. Connect with your business community by following other small businesses in the area. Actively engage with your target market and share targeted content based on trends. Add a book now button to your social media handles like Facebook and Instagram to get more bookings.
Want to pull off a great marketing campaign for your yoga business but don’t know where to start? For more details, check out our blog on 9 Effective Yoga Marketing Ideas to Grow your Business.
Conclusion
You don’t need to follow these exact steps when creating your yoga studio business plan. Pick and choose those topics that you find most relevant to your business.
To help you avoid spending a lot of time on creating the design of your plan, we’ve gone the extra mile for you! Here is a free yoga studio business plan template to get you started. All you need to do is enter your email below and you’ll get your very own printable copy!
Remember, a business plan for a yoga studio may not be necessary to start a business, but a well-written one can save you a lot of time and money in the long run. We wish you the best of luck in your new endeavor!
About Appointy
We at Appointy, help business owners grow and run their businesses with our online scheduling software. This blog was a part of our ‘Manage your Business’ category, where we provide expert tips, and resources, or simply talk about the challenges that small and medium businesses face every day.
If you have any thoughts on this blog or would like to chat about your business struggles and achievements, let us know in the comments below.
We love a good talk!