2021: How to plan for your yoga business dreams

It’s that time of year again where we start to look ahead to the next year and what a year it’s been. If you’re listening/reading this in real time we just went through one crazy year. #2020

A pandemic, the Black Lives Matter Movement, and countless things in your personal life too. It’s been quite the year and if you’re like me, it’s easy to get caught up in all the negative things more than anything else. But even though those things come to mind first, that’s not all that happened. There was good in this year for you too, I know it.

One example — you freaking figured out teaching yoga online. Let’s celebrate that!

I’ve been working with yoga teachers for a few years now and I’ve tried to encourage teaching online as an additional revenue stream and it’s been met with hesitation and trepidation almost every time. And I get it. Tech is hard. But in about 24 hours you figured it out!

Okay, maybe it took more than 24 hours but really think about it — you went from teaching in person to figuring out using Zoom, your camera on your phone and helping students with tech issues. You. Rock!!!!!!!!!

So in all that happened (and is yet to happen) in 2020, it’s about to come to a close.

And while we have no clue what 2021 has planned for us, it’s time for us to look ahead for our businesses and do our best to lay out a plan. I do this every year in my business and so does my dear friend Shannon Crow. We have independently done this in our businesses and figured out a system that helps us stay the course even when things go crazy.

We aren’t the inventors of the method we use as we have been inspired by:

- Steph Crowder — shout out to her “Year On The Wall” Training

- Amy Porterfield — anytime she talks about how she plans on her podcast

- Rachel Hollis — shout out to her podcast episode #78 for her yearly planning

- Shunta Grant — her Best Today Guide

- Michael Hyatt — his Full Focus Planner and all his books

And so many more!!!

We’ve taken in bits and pieces of what works for them and applied them to our own businesses. And now we actually teach this to our students! And we want to share this with you too.

These are the steps we take when we plan our year in business but it’s just a quick outline of these steps. If you want to get the nitty-gritty and awesome details for each step, we’re hosting a 2021 Planning Party on October 30th and you’re invited!

Join us for a few hours together where we walk you through each step of this process and even share an example of yoga teachers businesses.

Step 1: Review Your Previous Year

You can’t make a plan to move forward if you don’t look in your rearview mirror for just a little bit. You know the saying “history will repeat itself” and it’s true but if you learn from the things that happened in the past year, you can catch the mistakes faster AND do more of the good stuff.

The key with this step is to know what you’re looking for and these are our questions for you. You can journal about these or use any system that works for you.

• What worked?
• What didn’t work?
• What did you spend money on in your business?

What worked?

Set a timer for 30 minutes and write down anything that comes to mind when you think “that worked” in 2020. This can be business or personal or both. Write it all. It doesn’t need to be perfect, this is a journal prompt that you can just free write with.

What didn’t work?

This is the place where your brain will go first and want to stay here so it’s critical that you don’t allow that to happen. Make a deal with us and for everything you write down that didn’t work you have to either (1) write 2 things that worked well or (2) write down the lesson you learned because of it. The key is to not get stuck here so set another 30 minute timer and write. But go back to the what worked list too. Remember, it wasn’t all bad and anything that didn’t work, you can learn from.

What did you spend money on in your business?

This is most likely the step you will want to skip but please, please, please don’t skip this step. Doing an expenses audit is a really great exercise for you. And if you’re really cringing at this it’s probably because you know it will take a while because you don’t track this. And that’s okay because you can’t do anything about that but you can make this easier for you next year. Start today by going through your expenses and documenting them. This will set you up for better success in business, I promise. There’s power and control in knowledge and knowing your numbers is a big part of that.

Both Shannon and I can promise you that knowing your numbers will help you think like a business owner and it will help you feel like you’re in more control of your business. This is huge in a year where everything feels out of control.

One resource that helps us look back at our year is podcast episode from the Rachel Hollis Podcast (episode #78) on doing a calendar audit.

Step 2: DREAM

Now comes the fun part! It’s time to dream about what the next year can hold. And while we feel really out of control this particular year, remember that we’ve never been in control over our future. It’s just that we’re incredibly aware of that now.

So dream big my friend. What would you do backflips in your kitchen if it came true this coming year? This is the time to dream big and really get clear on what you want in your life. Yes your business but your life too. Because you’re building this awesome yoga business so that you can have the life you dream of. Right?

Here are the questions/journal prompts to help you dream:

• What do you dream for next year?
• What will you do next year?
• What will you not do next year?

Step 3: Set Goals

After you dream, it’s time to narrow in on your goals that you want to achieve in the coming year. This is the critical piece when it comes to creating a vision for your next year.

This step might have you skeptical too but I really want you to challenge those thoughts. Because here’s the deal — your vision can stay in tack for the year and actually be achieved, even if 2021 is crazier than 2020. It’s the HOW that will change but your vision can stay the same.

Both Shannon and I experienced how the pandemic and other things impacted our businesses and we actually both had family members pass away this year too and poor Shannon was knocked down with a herniated disc in her back. These things were not planned and we certainly took care of our mental and physical health all year but because we know the vision for our business and our goals that we wanted to achieve, our businesses didn’t crumble. They succeeded. And in many months that “should have” been terrible, we actually did better than expected.

I tell you this not to say “look at us doing so awesome” but to inspire you. I know I wouldn’t want to listen to someone tell me how to plan my year if they weren’t successful in this process. So please take our advice when it comes to setting goals, even if they feel like they can’t be achieved, they will help you stay the course and navigate the craziness.

There are 2 goals we want you to set:

• Revenue — This one is all business and we want you to set a Good, Better, and Best goal for the revenue you want to have in your business.
• Work/Life Balance — This one stretches between business and personal because again, you’re working on building a business that helps you live the life you dream of. So make sure you know the balance you want to have.

Step 4: Outline Your Offerings

Once you know what you dream for your next year, it’s time to figure out how they heck you can make it happen!

In this step, we suggest that you make a list of all the ways you’re currently making money and ways that you might want to add into the mix. Those ideas that have been floating around in your mind, write them all down.

Then pick 2 to 4 offerings to focus on. That’s it. Keep it simple and don’t add too much.

Then figure out how much of each offering you will need to sell in order to hit your revenue goal for the year.

Example:

• Teaching 4 group classes in the studio per week for $25 each will bring you $400 per month. If you teach 10 months out of the year, that would bring you $4,000 per year.

Do this for each of your revenue streams to help you get a better understanding of what all you need to sell for the year.

Step 5: Plan Your Year On A Calendar

Once you know what you want/need to sell to hit your revenue goals, it’s time to plan it out for the year. We both use a wall calendar for this process** but you can do this using a paper planner of any kind. Here are the supplies you will need:

• Paper calendar — any kind: wall, desk, etc.
• Post-it’s/Sticky Notes — these make things moveable which is helpful
• Markers — for writing on the post-its or dry erase for a laminated calendar

The key is to make sure your planning notes are moveable (ex: post it’s, dry erase marker, etc) because….well, 2020 taught us (hard core!) that things need to be able to shift, pivot or full-on change.

**We both learned how to do this process of planning your “Year On The Wall” from Steph Crowder. HERE is a link to her website and heads up — she runs a “Year On The Wall Training” every year and it’s FIRE! Go, pay for it and learn from her!

Step 6: Step Back And Take A Look

This is a critical step and why we like to look at the whole year at once. You want to step back and actually look at the calendar to see if you need to take things off. Remember that work/life balance goal you wrote down? You need to make sure that’s still in your mind.

Remove things, move things around, make it feel more doable to you.

Step 7: Celebrate!

You did it! You looked at your entire year and created a plan. Sure this plan is going to adjust as the year actually unfolds but you took a big step by creating a plan to help guide your year. Do something to celebrate your efforts.

Step 8: Show Up & Do The Work

This is the part we can’t do for you. Trust us, if we could, we would but it wouldn’t actually help you. You have to show up and do the work during the year. You will have times when you can’t do the work and that’s okay. But overall, it’s up to you to show up and do the work to achieve your goals.

And we believe in you! We really do!

Your next step

So your next step is to register for the 2021 Planning Party. We want to help you through this process so it doesn’t feel so overwhelming, because we know planning can be. But we promise to make it fun and simple. Plus, we go into detail on a few other steps in this training too. It was too much for a single podcast episode so this was the boiled down version so you can do this on your own. But if you want to learn all the things, register for the 2021 Planning Party!

It’s $49 USD and there will be a replay if you can’t join us live. We can’t wait to help you plan your 2021!!!

Until next time, give yourself permission to plan and grace along the way.

Talk to you soon!

For more stories like this, listen to the Marketing Yoga with Confidence Podcast.

About Amanda McKinney (Marketing Coach for Yoga Teachers)

Amanda McKinney is a Marketing Coach with a passion for empowering yoga teachers to earn more money doing what they love. She does this through her podcast: Marketing Yoga With Confidence and Online Offerings. All of which focuses on building confidence and community with an extra dose of encouragement every step of the way.