When you’re opening a yoga studio, you’ve got a million things on your plate. Picking the right software for your studio is just another item on the seemingly endless list of things to do when starting your business. But if you choose wisely from the start, you will thank yourself later! Here are some important tips to consider as you get started with your new yoga studio.
Your Yoga Studio Business Plan Should Cover These Tasks
Every successful yoga business has to develop an effective way to do these essential tasks:
- Managing your list of clients
- Scheduling your classes & communicating your schedule to the public
- Taking class attendance
- Selling & tracking customer passes
There are lots of different ways to accomplish these things, but you should decide in advance how you are planning to do them.
If you are working in a small space, you might also want to accept reservations online. It’s great to be able to sell passes online as well – it frees up your time at the beginning of class & encourages your customers to pay up front for multiple classes rather than drop in.
He who fails to plan is planning to fail — Winston Churchill
Yoga Class Scheduling Software is Valuable
When you’re just getting started, you should try to start simply and inexpensively. Paper punch cards are cheap…but you have to plan for growth too. Do you want to find yourself drowning in a sea of punch cards and paper lists in 2 months? Don’t make work for yourself. Take advantage of modern technology and find software to help.
Start a Yoga Business That Will STAY in Business
Ideally, your software will be simple and flexible. You need to present your small business in a custom way without unnecessary complications. Here are some things to consider:
You want a great online presence without any extra hassle.
- It’s nice to have ONE place where you keep your schedule online. That one place should be your yoga studio software. Then you can use your software to display your schedule to clients online.
- If you have a website, it should be easy to integrate the software with your site.
- If you don’t have a website, you should find software that helps you show your schedule from Facebook or an email link.
- If you want to sell passes online or accept reservations, your software should help with those things too.
You want things to work smoothly when you’re in the studio.
- Taking attendance should be easy and fast. You should be able to tell right away if a customer needs a pass. If so, you should be able to take care of that immediately.
- It’s nice to have a customer self check in feature – it lets your regulars mark their own attendance without your involvement. Then you can spend those pre-class moments welcoming new clients and building relationships.
- It’s great to have a way to email your customers right from the software. This will help you provide great customer service really easily right when you’re looking at a client’s situation in the software.
- Automatic email reminders should tell your customers when it’s time for a new pass.
You want mobile access
- Your software should let you take class attendance on your iPad or smartphone.
- Your customers should be able to reach your schedule when they’re on the go via smartphone.
- One-touch access on your phone’s home screen can provide you and your customers quick access to your software anytime.
Your software should work for you…not the other way around
You want your software to be easy to set up and easy to use. When it’s too complicated, it can waste hours of your time with no increased benefit. Can you dive in and learn as you go? Or is training required for you and your instructors to know how to use the software? Ideally, you want something with a minimal learning curve so it makes sense to you quickly. You want your customers to find it simple to use too. You should also consider what level of customer support you’re likely to receive. Are you just a number to your software provider? Or are you interested in working with a smaller service that can relate to your small business? Getting started is challenging enough – you want to choose a provider that’s committed to your success.
How Much Does It Cost? Make Sure You Know!
Software is a worthwhile investment, but it should also be affordable. Consider whether you are going to pay for features you aren’t using. Also consider whether you’ll be “nickeled and dimed” for add-ons that you really do need. If you add another instructor (or two), will you have to pay more as your business grows? Will you have to pay to embed your schedule? Get your data out? etc.
Flexibility is also key when you’re starting out – you won’t want to sign a contract that locks you in. A month-to-month service is a good choice since your needs may change as your business grows.
Punchpass Can Help When You’re Opening A Yoga Studio
New yoga studios go with Punchpass software like peanut butter goes with jelly. Salt and pepper. Bacon and eggs. It’s a natural fit that is painless and perfect.
We offer a free two week trial if you want to give it a try before starting your yoga business. No credit card is required. There’s no commitment, and you can cancel anytime. Our plans start at only $39 per month (USD). Click to learn more about our plans and pricing.
You can use Punchpass no matter where you live. We support currencies and languages worldwide.
Good luck opening your yoga studio! Wishing you every success on your journey.
