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Are Digital Models Influencing the Business of Yoga?

December 17, 2009 •

My Seat­tle yoga stu­dio is under­go­ing what its founder calls a “rebirth,” over­haul­ing its web pres­ence, expand­ing the class ros­ter, and offer­ing online class reg­is­tra­tion and pay­ment options. Finally!

This is a smart deci­sion, as they have lim­ited space, a grow­ing num­ber of qual­i­fied teach­ers, and increas­ing demand for their classes and work­shops. On one note­wor­thy Sun­day, the class was so crowded that only inches sep­a­rated our yoga mats. Those of us who were there are still talk­ing about that class.

There’s a very lim­ited sup­ply of Anusara style yoga classes in the Seat­tle area, so it’s been clear for some time that this stu­dio needed to take action to deal with their capac­ity chal­lenges, given the demand that they enjoy. This week they’ve responded.

Like other nearby yoga stu­dios, Seat­tle Yoga Arts has just imple­mented the Mind­Body ecom­merce engine to make online class reg­is­tra­tion pos­si­ble. Stu­dents can now pay by-the-class, pre­pay for either a fixed or unlim­ited num­ber of classes, or sub­scribe to an entire series of classes over a 60-day period.

Con­ve­nient for stu­dents, good busi­ness for the stu­dio

I applaud the stu­dio for offer­ing more choices, more classes, and a more flex­i­ble reg­is­tra­tion and pay­ment sys­tem. If the online sched­ul­ing mech­a­nism is kept up-to-date, it should be pos­si­ble for stu­dents to make last-minute deci­sions to attend a class with­out fear that it will be over-booked. (A recur­ring prob­lem with this stu­dio in the past – the prob­lem of pop­u­lar­ity when the resource is finite.)

The com­bi­na­tion of more classes plus more insight into class avail­abil­ity should also help relieve some of the capac­ity pres­sures. It would be great to know we’ll have more space between the mats!

Change Brings Challenges

From emails and remarks to stu­dents, it’s clear that the prin­ci­pals who run the stu­dio are of mixed minds about this trans­for­ma­tion. They are ded­i­cated teach­ers, and devote a lot of time and care to plan­ning their 8‑week class sequences. They want to ensure that each ses­sion builds on con­cepts, prin­ci­ples and skills intro­duced in the pre­ced­ing classes.

But the drop-in model that Mind­Body makes pos­si­ble runs counter to that teach­ing phi­los­o­phy: it puts stu­dents in con­trol of their sched­ule, and lets stu­dents attend class at their con­ve­nience. Our teach­ers no doubt fear that those of us who are still in the learn­ing phase of our yoga prac­tice will lose the coher­ence of their teach­ings if we let sched­ul­ing con­ve­nience trump dis­ci­plined class par­tic­i­pa­tion.

Peo­ple with unpre­dictable sched­ules or jobs that require a lot of last-minute travel will wel­come an online reg­is­tra­tion model that accom­mo­dates today’s crazy sched­ules.

My busi­ness travel has never allowed me to attend more than 5 or 6 classes out any given ses­sion, so I’ll wel­come a pay­ment model that’s more accept­ing of this real­ity. Much as I’d like to attend all the classes in a ses­sion, it has never been pos­si­ble. In effect I’ve paid a 20% pre­mium given the classes I’ve been unable to attend. (And there’s been no way for me to pro­vide infor­ma­tion that my space would be avail­able on such-and-such a date, due to busi­ness travel.) Clearly, the paper-based book­ing sys­tem was sub-opti­mal for all con­cerned.

All of this makes me won­der whether our pay-per-view and online lifestyles are bleed­ing into the world of yoga, reset­ting expec­ta­tions of how stu­dios “should” treat their stu­dents or man­age class logis­tics. As a prac­ti­cal mat­ter I look for­ward to the con­ve­nience of online reg­is­tra­tion and pay­ment, but hope to con­tinue ben­e­fit­ing from the teach­ers’ wis­dom and ses­sion-long class plan­ning as well.

I hope this trans­for­ma­tion proves to have been a good busi­ness deci­sion for Seat­tle Yoga Arts, as well as its stu­dents.

About This Blog

Reflec­tions on life, travel, books, and yoga. Think­ing out loud about the pur­suit of mind­ful­ness and well-being.

Learn­ing how to recover from the loss of a beloved spouse, and then to find a trans­for­ma­tive path for­ward.

About Me

Semi-retired marketing exec, transitioning from a career in high tech. Now "managed" by two Tonkinese cats. Missing travel and friends on the West Coast. Avid reader and foodie. Staying active with long walks, biking, kayaking and yoga.

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