Entrepreneurship

I was chatting with a friend of mine this week who's in the midst of considering a career change out of astronomy. For him it's the long-term job prospects and lack of opportunities that is turning him away. He's got a small kid so he really needs to think of how he can best position himself to provide for his family. Even if he did get a permanent position in a university (which I'm sure he'd easily get), then he's concerned about the prospects for further growth. There's really only one more promotion to get (professorship), and the experience of others more senior shows that you slowly and inevitably sink under the weight of admin and teaching! That's a problem if research is really your passion.

The other thing is he's quite an entrepreneur, coming up with ideas that outside the standard research box - citizen science, webapps, python widgets, etc. He's been finding his current institute very restrictive on what they'll support and what they're ok with him doing, so he's considering a move into industry.

And this got me thinking about entrepreneurship in yoga. To be a successful yoga teacher you really need to be an entrepreneur, getting out there and finding the work and the opportunities for yourself. The closest thing to a standard career path in yoga is to become a resident teacher in a big studio, but unless you own the studio it would be very hard to make a full-time income like this. What most teachers do is build up a portfolio of gym and studio classes to make up enough of an income, but even in this there's a great deal of 'getting out there' and finding those places to teach. Everyone I've spoken to about this has their own ideas of how best to do this!

Then beyond the standard gym and studio class format, there's workshops, retreats, holidays, and longer courses, and there's also kids yoga, yoga for the elderly, pre-natal/pregnancy yoga, yoga therapy for treating specific illnesses, yoga in prisons, spontaneous classes in the park, corporate yoga, professional development days in business or universities, etc, etc.

I've just been reading some excellent advice from Valerie Falkner, an American business coach for "soulful entrepreneurs" and "spirit-rich business owners". This article in particular is great "6 Traits of Successful Yoga Entrepreneurs". She starts by saying that studios and training courses are churning out yoga teachers left and right, but not all of them are a good fit to the business of teaching. Expensive marketing will overcome poor teaching for a short period of time, but to get people to come back, you must first focus on being the best at what you do. This is spot on. But this doesn't just mean having a strong yoga practice. It means developing those skills that make you a good teacher, and meeting the students' needs. Make a connection, show you care, inspire and motivate...

Only after that, she says, will the marketing efforts really pay off, and probably you'll need to do less marketing anyway (word of mouth really is the best tool in yoga).

Interestingly a google search for "yoga entrepreneur" brings up loads of blogs, consulting companies and resources based in the US, but adding "UK" to the end of the search gives a much, much sparser list. Marketing and entrepreneurship is something the Americans excel at - there's clearly a hole in the market here in the UK...!

Overwhelmed by advertising

Since beginning this yoga venture, I've found myself starting to look at the world through different eyes. Everywhere it seems there are companies, ventures, services, ideas, all vying for our attention. On the high street, on flyer notice boards, on the internet (although that's a little more hidden), on twitter - all this advertising shouts (some louder than others) for you to look, read, understand, participate, spend. Obviously this is just my perception changing.

Before, when I had a job with a salary, and a stable, everyday routine, I don't think I really ever looked at all this. If I needed something, I'd google it or ask around, then go get it - or go to it. Simple as that. The variety available was good. London was the best place to be because the variety was largest. But now I feel a little overwhelmed...

As I write this, the idea of memes pops into my mind. A meme is an idea, behaviour, or belief existing in culture that, like genes, becomes replicated through imitation and communication. Also like genes, they supposedly mutate and respond to selective pressures (survival of the fittest).

I'm thinking about how to market my existing classes, and weighing up the pros and cons of starting new classes in various centres. How do you go about attracting people? Is the market flooded with teachers, classes everywhere (gyms even with cover lists that are difficult to get onto); or flooded with students, not enough classes for the demand? How do you thrive in a busy market-place, facing the competition head-on, seeing it as a challenge rather than something insurmountable?

I'm very inexperienced at this. In astronomy, a certain amount of self-marketing was always needed, but (fortunately or unfortunately) I always worked in a fairly niche sub-field. It was more about getting people to understand the importance of what I was doing than competing against others doing similar projects.

I had a, in the end quite inspirational, meeting today with the manager of the Awareness Centre in Clapham (had a lovely feel, and I suspect they do some really great work there). He said that to some extent the success or failure of something like a yoga class is partly up to the Universe (fate, luck, or whatever). But, crucially, he also thought that success comes when you (the teacher) are ready. Not when the potential students are ready, but when you are ready. I think he's right. It's about having your energy in the right place, heading in the right direction.

Am I ready?

I'm not teaching my yoga, my mindfulness practices. I'm simply a conduit, a channel through which these practices are being communicated. And (for the record) I think the practices are awesome! - transformational maybe, connecting certainly, plain everyday useful absolutely.

website up and let loose in the wild

Coming up with a name for my website was harder than I thought! Last week I was happy with www.yogawithmarkw.co.uk, but after sleeping on it for a few nights it started to sound far too boring and functional. I'm sure you agree :-) So, how to brand myself? The obvious thing would be to try to bring in some influence from my former life as an astronomer. So my thoughts went to things like astroyoga, starburstyoga, and all manner of terribly cheesy or astrological sounding names... It was on the bike, cycling from Herne Hill to Brixton that the (roughly) alliterative name YourUniverseYoga came to me. I couldn't think of anything better, so it's stuck!

www.youruniverseyoga.co.uk

And thanks to my girlfriend's sister for recommending Weebly as a free web-based package for putting together the content in a kind of drag-and-drop way.

The name ties in quite well with the name of this blog, and leaves it open for possible future connections with astronomy/physics (I've got some ideas bubbling around, which I'm sure will surface in a future post). For now, I'm happy with the tag-line "So that your inner universe relates better to the whole Universe".

So, with a website and a new e-mail address I can start my advertising campaign! CVs, flyers, posters and FB here we come...