How to Run a Successful Yoga Workshop

Have you ever thought of running a yoga workshop? Let’s take you through some of the elements you might want to consider – from picking a venue, the design of your workshop, setting your prices, advertising, and gathering feedback.

About us

With the protection of our yoga teacher insurance behind you, you’ll be safeguarded against compensation claims if anyone gets injured. Further comfort comes from the professional indemnity cover, which you’ll need in a role where you are giving advice and making recommendations.

Picking a venue

To run a workshop you’ll of course need a studio or somewhere to host it. You’ll need to consider whether the premises offer space enough for the participants you plan to welcome with sufficient equipment to exercise with and is comfortable to use.

If you already own your studio, then you can ignore this, but if you are looking to rent or hire the space, then it makes sense to have a list of reputable and suitable premises that you can rent when needed.

Your venue also needs to be able to accommodate the yoga type you plan to teach as well as any additional elements of the event.

What is the theme of your yoga workshop?

Yoga encompasses a number of different types and can include additional elements as well. Yoga types may include:

– Intro to yoga workshop
– Chakra Meditation
– Inversions
– Arm balances
– Backbends
– Aerial Yoga
– Acro Yoga
– Therapeutic

Or, they could include something related to yoga, for example, Ayurveda, astrology, crystals, or ecstatic dance.

Running your workshop

Whatever the venue, the actual running of your workshop – what you propose to say, do, and how the event takes shape – will be critical to its success. So, it’s more than worth your while spending time on this.

The Yoga Nomads, for instance, suggest a basic template you might want to adopt or adapt, following roughly this pattern of introductions:

1. Who you are and what you hope the workshop will achieve;

2. Warming up;

3. The substance of your workshop – the core of your workshop, demonstrating and practising yoga techniques and poses;

4. Time for free association – when participants can explore what has already been learned and experiment on their own.

But it’s still your workshop and there are no hard and fast rules about running a successful yoga workshop – so, be as creative and imaginative as your heart desires.

Don’t forget that all-important wrapping-up of a session – a closing sequence, in which questions can be answered and you can also offer follow up advice about future meetings and workshops.

Get a quote for your business

All policies include Public Liability, Professional Indemnity and £250 worth of free Equipment Cover. Design a policy that suits you as a personal trainer.

GET A QUOTE

Setting your prices

How much are you going to charge participants attending your workshop? It’s a critical question to consider – but one which many beginners may hesitate because there are typically many variables to take into account.

For example, how much have you paid for the rent or hire of the venue? How many participants do you expect to attract? – and, therefore, the number who will be sharing that cost with you. What is the price per participant you will need to charge to break even? How many hours are you likely to have spent devising, designing, setting up and running your workshop? What is the cost of any refreshments? Your time is money in this, as in practically any endeavour.

Make sure you have made an accurate estimate of your costs before setting your price for your workshop and, perhaps most importantly if you are running your workshop as a business, make sure to give yourself a margin for profit!

Advertising

You will also need to consider how best to get out your message to all those who are likely to have an interest, no matter how small, in attending your workshop – in a word, advertising.

This can be ‘old school’ such as posting advertisements in local shops, supermarkets, and the library or perhaps even considering mail drops in your local neighbourhood.

You can also use social media, such as advertising in online newsletters, Facebook groups, or via email, and your website (if you have one).

Feedback

Your workshop may have been a success, and now you’re counting the profit you’ve made, but you won’t have any way of improving your workshop for next time to build upon your success unless you have a way of gathering feedback.

Immediate feedback can be gathered at your closing session or as participants leave your studio. The majority of people, however, normally leave feedback either on social media or feedback platforms such as Feefo or Trustpilot, directly in Google or on your website.

You can make this process easier for people by making sure you are easy to find on these platforms, one great way of doing so can be to have an easily spelt and remembered name for your workshop or consider having business cards with a link to your online presence.

Remember that people are more likely to leave feedback if they found your workshop exceptional, or there was something they didn’t like. Don’t be disheartened by a lack of feedback, just make sure you try to fix as many of the negative points as you can and keep striving to improve, and the five star reviews are sure to come rolling in!

Related Blogs

Managing your business payments and finances

As a small business owner, the payments you receive from clients are what keep you afloat. Here are our top five tips to ensure their received smoothly.

How to conduct a professional online personal training session

Guest writer and professional personal trainer, James Drabble, shares his views on how to conduct a professional online personal training experience for your client

5 Ways to Attract Your Customers Back

From communicating though social media to offering promotional discounts, we explain how best to attract customers back to your business.