Any entrepreneurs here? I need advice.

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I own a yoga studio, which I started 2 1/2 years ago. We grew super fast in the first year. However, I have been in shutdown mode since my marriage went up in smoke, and since my ex used the mental health issues I had resulting from his abuse against me and took my son away. It's too triggering for me to type more, so here's a thread I put up about it: viewtopic.php?t=356577

Thing is, teaching yoga is my dream job. I wouldn't make enough money to where I wouldn't have to do anything else working for another studio, and if this business fails, because I'm currently sleeping here, I'll be homeless.

I need a good step by step plan for helping my business survive the depression that's crippled me for the last year and a half. Quitting the business IS NOT an option. Keeping the business and adding another income stream is an option, but it needs to be one that's not likely to lead to meltdowns, nor take away from my ability to run this business.

I'm not sure I would be able to keep another job, I always had trouble with that in the past, and now that I'm in the hell of my son being stuck in an abusive home with my hands tied by the law behind my back, I won't be able to keep another job now.

We were doing extremely well our first year, now we're losing money. I haven't been motivated, because of my personal situation I feel like a hypocrite teaching yoga, even though people around me say I shouldn't.

So how do I get out of this trap? If I think about what's holding me back in this, a huge theme throughout my life has been that hard work gets me nowhere. It also doesn't help that I had some meltdowns on Facebook because I had no one to talk to. So good that I have WP now, but I still need to fix the damage from the meltdowns I had around the wrong people.

Financially, it's pretty simple. Our classes currently average 4 or 5 people. We need to get to at least 10 students per class to be profitable, where we are now is enough to break even. In the past, we have even been capable of 15 students per class.

So, what can I do to get more money in, like, now? We're currently 6 months behind on the rent, mainly because my ex cut my alimony to €300/month (sadly it's hard to regulate this until we go to court, and me having to get my own visa because I'm not EU has delayed this), so I've had to go into the studio bank account to eat. Going back to the US isn't an option, because my son's father is Dutch.

Help?!?!?!?!?!

Hi Shakti,

You've not posted many details of your business (how many staff do you employ, weekly/monthly overheads, do you own part of the building, do you have any business partners, how do you organise sessions, is your studio big enough for multiple different classes, are you stuck to yoga or can you also do exercise classes etc.), so I'm just going to have to guess. It is obvious that you are going through a very difficult time, which can't be helped by also running a full-time(?) business. In the short term, I think it will help to try to separate your business and personal life; I imagine that you're having to do work for both at the moment. Is it possible for you to create a daily and weekly schedule to give you some order in your dealings?

For example, even if you have an accountant, it is a good idea to evaluate your accounts (income vs expenses) at least weekly. If you can review what happened over the past year - within your business - you might find what was going well and so try to repeat it. Is diversification a possibility?

A steady customer base is something that you have to work for in a service business, how do you advertise? Many people use social media and a website to promote their business and detail classes/expertise. Some use facebook, twitter and other areas to both promote their business and show when classes can occur (getting reviews is how google tracks how 'good' a business is, and I imagine that if you can get alot of good reviews, people might pick you over others). Obviously this is alot of work, but if you can get started, it will soon become much more straight-forward. Remember: People are lazy, but also on the look-out for good quality. December is likely to be a tough month, but things should start looking up in January (people will want to remove that post-Christmas gut after-all).

Finally, if things aren't working out have an exit plan. I know it's not what you want, but if you have to stop then do. It is better to go back to being free-lance or working for someone else and then be able to try again than go bankrupt (as this makes it alot harder to start another business).

If I remember correctly, yoga works best when you are having a bad time and are finding it difficult to concentrate. This is because you have to do alot more introspection; you can then become aware of what you want and what you need.

I've just noticed that you're also the person looking at the heavy metal detox thing. Check your short, medium and long-term cash flow:

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/249020

I'm in public and my battery is about to die, but it's hard to share details on here for privacy reasons. If you send me a PM I can answer more questions when I'm home.

I'm home, and doing a lot of thinking about my business. I have tons of ideas for advertising, but we need more budget. And social media is not my strong point, so I need to outsource that.

And truth be told, I'm currently going through the divorce and custody battle from hell, to put it mildly. If I could get my meltdowns and shutdowns under control, I could easily gain 30 more hours a week of worktime. Running is normally my outlet, there's a marathon I was training for here this April, and I'm determined to still be able to run it. But I'm injured, have been unable to run for more than a month, and I have a critical hearing for the custody battle this Thursday, it's way too much even for a NT to handle at once.

First, hang in there. Just take things day by day in your personal life. That seems, at this point, to be the biggest strain.

Second, I can't help but feel that if you got your personal life in order that you might be in a better position to start on rectifying the cash flow through more work hours or time to dedicate to growing your business. Yes, I get it that cash/money is a huge priority in your situation, but its secondary to your own health.

Third, if running is your outlet then stop what you are doing and go for a run. Even a slow run or walk through your injury is sure to help.

Try to aim for some sort of normalcy in your life - whatever that may entail.



FF

I can relate to you. I own my own business too, and yes I have slept on the floor in my office during marriage problems - its horrible. Good thing you can take a shower . You might want to look into taking Adderall. If you do get a prescription, only get the generic TEVA/Bar. Walgreen's or Walmart, not CVS.

I have a really good update on this, it turns out that the university here is desperate for more employers to place their students with for internships. Most of our students are in that age group anyway, so that's perfect to reach our target market, not to mention it's free! So I have a meeting Friday about getting a marketing intern to help us grow, and that will save me at least 10 hours a week of work.

I also had some other good meetings about this today, and it looks like there's more here than I thought to help out entrepreneurs who are struggling. So I'm determined to make this work, and besides, I'm in my dream job anyway. If I can keep growing the studio, then when my son is finally home with me, my job will be a 20-30 hour a week commitment, leaving plenty of time to catch up on lost time with my son.

FYI my formal education is in business/management/marketing etc - you can feel free to hmu on FB to bounce ideas off of.

What comes to mind after reading the OP is the old cliche "if you have something of value (product/service) give it away for free" (samples) and let word of mouth advertising work for you.

Also, the best customers to sell to are existing or past customers. You could ask your current yoga students to bring a friend for free - offer a free session to each new person they bring with them, some of them may end up as returning, paying, customers. Invite passed students to come and join you again free of charge for their first x# of visits back as a "holiday gift" to them. Some may return and realize they miss your classes in their life and decide to sign on and pay for classes again, and then they might invite a friend and so it goes and grows.

There are plenty of ways to advertise and market things, many of them with next to zero costs associated save for the time to extend the offer or ask. I'd start with all the free ways that don't make you appear desperate, then as things grow and you continue to do the simple free ones that come to mind first, you can add in more free ones, until you've exhausted free marketing options you can think of.. and at that point should be caught up on bills and in the black and able to start paying for some very inexpensive advertising in the mix. etc.

Thanks for the tips guys.

How do you deal with the depression though? I'm thousands in debt, I teach in an hour (and let's face it, no one would come to me, as a yoga teacher with public meltdowns you might as well just quit now), and I can't get out of bed.

A few ways.

I've found that using epsom salts on my skin all the time keeps anxiety and depression at bay. The probiotics I take contribute, too.

But besides medicine, if there's something I've got to do, I use the single most powerful force in our existence to get it done: Love. Whenever I've had an extremely difficult task to accomplish or job to finish that most sane people would say "F THIS!" all I have to do is picture the person or people I love most, and then I can do anything.. work a gruelling job in rain and snow, finish a challenging Tough Mudder obstacle course.. anything! When it comes to work, even though the people I love don't actually technically Need any money, I put myself in the frame of mind that mmmmmaaaybe if it were just for me I'd throw in the towel and quit - BUT - I'd can carry on and endure ANYTHING for the people I love. I psych myself out and convince myself that ____ NEEDS me to complete this awful task in terrible weather because they NEED it done & so, I'll get it done, for them. I also try not to think about it being a 10 or 12 hour shift, either.. just hour by hour, I can make it, just keep going, ____ NEEDS you to do this because ______ so you NEED to finish it, for them. And then.. it's almost easy to carry on and complete anything I set my mind to.

I know who I think of whenever the going gets tough and lesser men would quit. Who's your "why"? (Gotta have a "why" - your reason for doing things.) Who is it you love so much you could do the most difficult, otherwise impossible, things? Rhetorical, I already know who it is. Whether he's with you, or his father, or some other caretaker at the present moment.. all ya gotta do is picture your son and with that love you'll have the energy you need to follow through and do ANYTHING you need to - because now that task is no longer about you, or your business, it's for HIM, and you WILL finish it.