By now you’ve probably figured out that technology is your friend when it comes to running your business. But you’re also probably aware of how time-consuming and overwhelming running a studio can be. Managing a yoga studio and teaching yoga are two different things entirely.
Luckily, there are amazing tools out there to help you manage your business. Here are some of our favorite software for yoga studios:
Unlike the yoga meaning of asana, this is a project management tool that allows you to create content calendars, build social media schedules, assign tasks to team members, and loads of other functions that help guide projects. It integrates with online calendars, including Google Calendar. It works equally well for small and large studios. Software packages start at $9.99 a month.
Trello is a visual collaboration tool that makes project management productive and fun. It offers boards, lists, and cards in a visual format, with the ability to add comments and attachments. It’s even great for side projects and personal project use. There’s a free version that lets you attach up to 10MB files, and you get a ton of additional features with the lowest tier of the paid version at only $9.99 a month.
Google has all sorts of useful applications––Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Calendar, Maps, Business Profile, Hangouts. G Suite makes for the perfect place to not only store files but also collaborate on new documents. Everything is saved in the cloud and even if the internet goes down, you can work offline and sync upon reconnection. And it’s free if you’re the only user. Costs start at $5 per user a month.
WeTransfer is a web-based file sharing service. It’s a really simple platform that only requires your recipient’s email address(es), your email address, and the files you’re sending. You can send files as big as 2GB for free.
fitDEGREE is a class management software designed with your unique studio in mind and can adapt to fit your brand. Plus the software provides a more affordable option than MINDBODY—because you shouldn’t have to pay an arm and a leg for software that makes you stretch so it works for your studio. Unlike MINDBODY, fitDEGREE is intuitive—with one simple way to do everything so you don’t get lost in the software. There’s an easy live scheduling feature that doubles as a check-in feature, condensed reporting statistics that help you actually understand what’s working for your business, and we won’t raise prices on you year after year. Software packages start at just $100 a month.
Websites are important, and still, so many small business owners aren’t utilizing them. When someone Googles “yoga studio [insert your city name here], you’ve got to have a place for them to land. Squarespace actually makes it hard to design an ugly website, even if you’re the polar opposite of a web designer. While there’s a substantial learning curve to WordPress, you can jump on Squarespace and easily create and edit a beautiful site. This is website building for the Layman. It’s just $16 a month for access to everything Squarespace has to offer.
Email Marketing
MailChimp is an email marketing tool that makes building lists and executing campaigns simple. This software makes easily trackable email marketing automation that helps you retarget past and current members. They also offer a user-friendly landing page creation tool and Facebook ad creation tool. You can have up to 2,000 subscribers before you have to start paying for a subscription to Mailchimp, which makes it ideal for small business owners who aren’t really into building a huge list. Quality over quantity, yo.
Canva is graphic design software for non-graphic designers. With Canva, even your most technologically challenged staff can make awesome graphics. You can drag and drop your design elements, upload photos, and choose from a variety of different design sizes. For example, there’s a square design for Instagram, but also 8 ½” by 11” sizes for creating flyers.
There’s a free version that offers quite a lot, but the paid version is just $12.99 a month and has a resize feature so rather than creating a whole new piece of work in different dimensions, you can create a resized copy with just the push of a button.
To attract members, you need stunning video marketing to appeal to your demographic. It comes as a default app on all Macs and is super user-friendly. This makes iMovie the perfect video editing tool. The software is intuitive and incredibly powerful. Plus––it comes free on every Apple computer!
With Later, you can automatically schedule posts Facebook and Instagram posts on a visual content calendar. The easy-to-use drag and drop software allows you to preview your feed before you schedule posts. Later has a free version but the paid packages start at only $9/month.
Facebook is also an awesome platform all on its own. Scheduling posts on Facebook is super easy and the Facebook ad platform is incredibly robust and detailed. There are so many yoga lovers on Facebook that it’s silly not to make use of Facebook ads. Plus, ads are very budget friendly!
Grammarly is an editing tool that will uplevel your writing. You can go to the app and copy-paste in the text that you want to be edited, or you can use the extension and let Grammarly politely point out your grammar mistakes before you hit “send” on emails, social media posts, download or share a Google Doc, and more. The extension is free, but to get more advanced grammar help you can pay $11.66 per month.
There is a wealth of software and technology out there to make your work as a yogipreneur easier. Whether for managing customers, marketing, customer relationships, or something else, do you have a software you like to use? Drop it in the comments!
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