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If you take yoga classes at a studio, chances are you’ve seen the flyers, received the emails, and scrolled past the promoted posts on social media trying to sway you to sign up for a yoga studio membership. The ads explain the perks of committing to the monthly autopay, which vary yet typically include guest passes, discounted workshops and teacher training, and reserving a class via app rather than anxiously waiting in line at the front desk for an almost sold-out class. But the best perk of all? Unlimited classes.
And if you’ve ever compared the price of a membership to that of a class package or drop-in rate, it becomes apparent that when you practice yoga more than a couple times a week, becoming a member offers the lowest rate per class.
What’s less apparent is the fact that offering a yoga studio membership is more than a marketing strategy. For most independently owned yoga studios, it equates to financial stability. As a result, not having adequate members can be the difference between the studio remaining open or not.
Why Yoga Studios Rely on Memberships
With the global yoga industry valued at more than $200 billion, it can be easy to assume that yoga studios operate at a comfortable profit. But independently run studios are confronted with the same challenges as other small businesses, which face a failure rate of approximately 20 percent in their first year and almost 50 percent within five years, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
And although one in every six people in the U.S. practice yoga, the vast majority do so at home. Of those who attend classes at studios, many do so irregularly and tend to make a one-time purchase, whether a class package of a set number of classes or a drop-in rate for a single class. A dramatically smaller number of people commit to unlimited classes with a monthly autopay membership. And for yoga studios, that’s a problem.
Drop-in fees and class packages may bring more revenue per class. “But when a student purchases a single class, their practice is more likely to be less consistent,” says Kat McMullin, owner and director of Mala Yoga Center in Madison, Wisconsin. “And that unpredictability makes it incredibly difficult to forecast income.”
“We rely on knowing how many memberships we have each month and comparing that to our costs,” explains Sarah Betts, co-founder of Seek Studio, in Salt Lake City, Utah. For Betts and other studio owners, yoga studio memberships are a reliable source of revenue, one that’s more predictable than class packages and drop-in rates.
“It helps with budgeting and planning for maintenance, growth, any upgrades we do, as well as raises for teacher pay,” says Betts. Memberships also helps minimize the guesswork as studios look to cover the fixed costs of rent, teacher pay, and other regular as well as unexpected expenses.
Although all types of revenue are helpful in different ways, explains Duffy Perkins, who owns groundswell yoga in Annapolis, Maryland. “The more drop-ins you have, the more profitable the class,” explains Perkins. “But over the course of a month, memberships are the most helpful.”
So in recent years, studio owners have become increasingly creative when structuring and marketing memberships in an attempt to make the financial commitment even more compelling to students.
What Yoga Studio Membership Means for Students
Although there is no single membership that will address the needs of every student, studios are responding to their need to increase members with both creativity and practicality.
Beyond unlimited classes, the advantages that commonly accompany memberships include free mat rental or storage, priority class sign-ups, locker and towel usage, exclusive members-only events, discounts on retail as well as substantially reduced rates on workshops and teacher trainings. Some studios dispense free guest passes to members in the hope that regulars will introduce their friends to yoga—and to the studio.
Membership amenities also create expectations—and that can create challenges. A Colorado-based yoga teacher recently explained that the studio where she teaches constantly has broken showers and a lack of clean towels. “I wouldn’t pay that price for membership,” she said.
Along with the promised perks of membership comes the fine print. It’s not uncommon for yoga studio memberships to require a three-month minimum commitment and a 30-day advance notice required before cancelling or pausing.
That commitment can be challenging for everyone when work or life situations change. A Phoenix-based studio came under intense criticism from members during the initial months of Covid when it failed to respond to requests to pause or cancel memberships, leaving students frustrated and looking elsewhere for places to practice when studios reopened.
At the same time, many studios are trying to better accommodate the needs of students even as they attend to their own finances. Some offer the option to freeze a membership if students experience monetary or other difficulties that prevent them from attending or financing class.
Scholarships and sliding-scale membership rates are also an option at certain studios, including Bett’s studio. “We offer flexibility to people who can’t commit financially to a monthly payment,” says Betts. She created membership scholarships that are subsidized by donations from other students who pay for more than one membership.
And it’s not most studios still offer class packages as an alternative. “These are great options for students with potentially inconsistent schedules,” says Alex Nesi, senior vice president of strategy and revenue at CorePower Yoga, which has more than 200 locations in the U.S. “And they can be an entry point into membership over time.”
The most compelling perk for some students is when studios offer various memberships at different prices. Kim Funkey, owner of Power Yoga Palm Springs in Palm Springs, California, recently expanded payment options from 10- and 20-class packages to an array of memberships, whether three, six, or 12 months. Students who know their attendance won’t fluctuate—and can afford paying in advance—receive an enticingly low cost per class.
Mala Yoga Center in Madison, Wisconsin, recently introduced a lower-cost membership that is essentially a class package on an auto-pay basis. For example, students can purchase four classes a month at $69 or eight classes at $89. This enables students to budget for a per-class rate that’s lower than that of a class package or drop-in fee but still provides the studio with regular revenue.
How Yoga Studio Memberships Foster Community
Finances aside, many studio owners also want students to invest in memberships simply because you’re more likely to practice with access to unlimited classes. After all, the reason they chose to become teachers and open studios was to share the life-changing experience of yoga.
“Offering membership facilitates consistent practice, and consistent practice furthers the benefits of yoga to our students,” explains Nesi.
Betts mentions that many are motivated to practice by their financial commitment. “We all have busy lives and reasons not to show up,” says Betts. “(Students) know they need to go to so many classes a month for their well-being, but also to make their membership worthwhile.”
This translates to students in unexpected benefits. The more frequently students find themselves at the yoga studio, the more they’ll feel a sense of community. “Even if you don’t know the person’s name, seeing the face of a person you’ve seen before next to you as you unroll your mat is empowering,” explains Betts.
Several owners mentioned that, with time and familiarity, students find themselves initiating conversations and finding friendships, something that’s essential at a time when loneliness is a public health epidemic.
“It breeds a sense of care for others around you, even if you never speak a word to that person,” says Betts. “We’ve seen a lot of people get to know each other. That’s been really rewarding to see as a studio owner, to see people connect.”
Community and belonging are sometimes marketed as a perk of yoga studio membership. Black Swan Yoga, which lists community among its core values and studio culture, states the benefit on its online membership page. Quite simply, it says, “We’re all in this sweaty mess together.”
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