Small Town Competition

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
October 26, 2017
6 replies
0 views

About 10 years ago I started teaching yoga which grew into a business. After 8 years I decided to leave my other job to be a full-time business owner. At the same time, 3 of the instructors teaching at my studio left to open their own spaces. One of the studios is less than 1 mile from my studio. They solicited practitioners and continue to do so, sneakily. They email and offer free classes to the people who practice at my studio.

Our town has only 30,000 residents. Every consistent practitioner I can get makes a difference. I need suggestions on how to get and keep people coming in.

ShanaNiederman

Hi @LTYJenay

Let me start out by saying how inspired I am by your extensive training and dedication to you and your clients' health. So amazing!

Since you have a number of specialized trainings, it may be helpful to market the skills and experience that you have and your competition does not. Narrowing your offerings could set you apart and bring in a new clientele base. Another thought is to market yourself in new ways like offering free yoga classes at your local community center, or offering deals through Groupon.

QB Community Member @lynda11_2 may have some suggestions as well given her experience with business accounting yoga instructing.

We're pulling for you here in the QB Community.

LTYJenayAuthor

Hi @ShanaNiederman,

Thank you for the vote of support and your comments.

I have actually been leaning more toward marking my specific skills rather than attempting to market the other teachers at LTY. Since they all teach they same things as all of the other teachers in town, I think that it is time I set an example of differentiation.

If I had the financial ability to offer free classes or Groupon, I would. At this time, I cannot afford to give up my time and energy in that way. Groupon deals would put us out of business. I have an ad on Yelp, boost on FB, a fabulous website, I am active on FB, Instagram and Twitter. I run various deals for classes and private sessions. I advertise on radio and do "How To Spot" through our local television station.

LeslieBarber

Hey @LTYJenay. What a frustrating situation! I feel for you and I get it. When we were creating Bellybar, in the R&D process with the products, 3 companies came out with the exact same idea... in ONE WEEK! It was terrifying. We didn't even have our product on the market yet and I thought we were over before we ever even started. And did the pregnancy market really need 4 nutrition bars on the market?! Probably not. So, it was really scary.

However, it turned out to be an incredible opportunity. We had about 3 months to watch the other companies, to learn about them, to try their products. In fact, it created a category for the buyers to discuss - it brought legitimacy to this new concept of a pregnancy nutrition bar. It gave us time to learn what people like and didn't like about what the other products - and to adjust ours appropriately. We became obsessed with figuring out what product would work for our customers and... Within two years, Bellybar was the only one left - all the other three had gone out of business.

So, I wonder if there's an opportunity to start a wellness discussion in your town. Might a few yoga studios actually rise all tides, with more people learning about yoga and trying it? Might there be an opportunity, as @ShanaNiederman suggested, to think about how you want to differentiate yourself from the other studio? Could this actually be an opportunity to say YES to yoga for everyone and to stay your own course?

Cheering for you and ready to help as needed!

LTYJenayAuthor

Hello @LeslieBarber,

I appreciate your understanding.

There is one other studio in town that offers high quality practices similar to those at our studio. Unfortunately, it appears as though people are more intersted in low price, at this time.

There is a FB group that brings together Reno/Tahoe Yoga Teachers, but my attempts to physically get people together have failed. There is too much competition and too few high quality instructors who actually care. Those who do are, like me, busy working on their businesses and trying to stay ahead of the pack.

During the Summer we are quite different and do well with our Paddle Yoga and Beach Yoga sessions. It is the indoor practices during the rest of the year that need a boost. I am moving forward with an attempt to focus more on my knowledge of Ayurveda and try to establish a space that educates people about body, energetic and emotional imabalance and see if it works. In addition, I have a licensed Aryuveda practitioner in my space and we offer Abhyanga and Shirodhara. I hope this helps us step away from the norm.

AudreyPratt

Hi @LTYJenay!

I too live in a small town and have been one of many fitness instructors/personal trainers in town. It certainly took finding a separate niche to set myself apart from all of the others.

Since I do not own a studio myself, I reached out to one of the owners of the studios where I teach to get her professional input on the topic:

Do you have a non-compete clause in your contract with your instructors? These are not always enforceable, but they can slow people down a bit from this type of behavior. You should hire an attorney to see how you can create a contract. I know another studio in town holds instructors to that level of accountability. It is a little late for you at this time, but you could protect yourself now for the future. It can always happen again.

I wonder how the other studios got the emails of your clients? You need to protect your clients' data from staff/instructors better. In MindBodyOnline, an owner can give access to data based on a need-to-know basis which is based on the job description. I would keep my eye on instructors as they interact with clients. If someone is getting emails from your clients while teaching, that's a reason to let someone go if they do not adhere to the warning to stop.

All of your actions today are about avoiding this in the future.

LTYJenayAuthor

Hi @AudreyPratt,

Non-compete clauses only work if your instructors are employees. I only hire independent contractors. The instructors currently competing worked for me prior to me adding in an "instructor agreement" that all LTY teachers must sign. This agreement includes a section regarding non-compete. Unfortunately, though, there is nothing I do that can be protected by trademark or copyright.

This is a small town. We all know one another. The other teachers have professional relationships with my practitioners in other realms such as realestate. They did not take the emails from my studio. I use a protected system that is exlusive to our studio. I also cannot prevent teachers from developing relationships with practitioners, in fact, I want them to so that they practitioners feel welcome and want to return.

I have done everything I can to avoid more of this behavior from happening. The unfortunate truth is that the yoga teachers in our town are not very good. When I find good ones, I want to keep them, but they often move away. Even more hurtful is the ones competing with me are teachers who I trained and who taught for me prior to leaving. In addition, they all have money and do not need to work, but do so for fun.

B

BaiAnNa

By any chance, when they said they were leaving to.open their own.studios, did you try to cut a deal, so they could be sattelites of your business? This is nothing to fret about now, for sure. To show the community you care and don't play dirty pool, can you involve yourself with a nonprofit that compliments your business? Ever heard of HSI-Health Sciences Institute? I was getting almost free chiropractic treatments because of insurance setbacks. The chiropractor saw I had a need because I was almost killed by a 20-ton truck and was cheated by attorneys years ago. So.Im disabled now. Maybe the free or cheap treatments also helped his business...btw, do you post reviews from.your customers on.your business website? Any chance you can approach large apartment complexes and advertise a special? How about approaching businesses? Other organizations, such as colleges and universities? You want to.create a pleasant dynamic for current customers, so it may not be a good thing to seek their advice. ...what about the building you use? Any chance you can do some ad-on selling, depending on the space you have? Even offer to advertise business posters on your walls, or create business displays? Do you belong to the local Chamber of Commerce? The SBA? Any chance you are app-savy and can create a unique app which enhances your yoga classes or other related things? Just some ideas... :)

LTYJenayAuthor

Hello @BaiAnNa,

Thanks for you thoughts!

I will try to respond to each of your questions in order.

There was no keeping them when they decided to leave. However, I did tell the teacher who expressed that she was intending on opening a studio to let me know how I could help and that I was excited for her endeavor. I was never negative about her departure until I found out that she was opening a studio less than a mile away.

Since I opened our studio in 2008, I have always support local non-profits throughphysical in-kind donations, and I volunteer for a few local groups. I belong to quite a few small business groups, am a chamber member and am actively engaged in our community. I offer the first class free for local residents. I also offer discounts on packages of privately booked sessions.

We have 54 5-Star review on Yelp, I keep a testimonials page on our site.

I partner with a few local hotels and advertise at all of the casino/hotels in the area. I also receive referrals from the local timeshares and rental homes. Those living in apartments in our area cannot afford yoga.

The closest university is an hour away. The college nearby offers Yoga as a class.

I partner with the Crossfit and dance studios in the building and am well known by the other businesses.

I am able to provide live streaming and cataloged classes on our website through a partnership with a local business that designed the program. I do my best to post regularly. The editing takes a long time and the internet is often spotty in our area so the streams aren't always the best.

I hope that hit all of your points. If you have any other ideas, send them along. I am currently working on slowly shifting directions and trying to differentiate LTY from the other studios that just offer yoga asana. I want to prove that we are more than just physically focused. I hope it works. . .

~Jenay~

A

Anonymous

Hello , competition is always good to grow and innovate your product or service .

As you mentioned their is one plus point that you have 10 years yoga classes experience and you must have to utilise your experience .....they just entered promoting free classes because they might be don't have such huge experience like you .

So just focus on your service and utilise your 10 years experience , you know the people's mentality of this region ....use it ....work on their minus point .....and your also ....Thanks .

LTYJenayAuthor

Thanks @193604!

qbteachmt

"Every consistent practitioner I can get makes a difference."

What about Ongoing Training and Certification: If you can hold those sessions in your studio, and get some of the others to attend, your own students would know your studio is "the trainer to the trainers" and that carries credibility. You step up your own Professional Developement at the same time.

Also, partnering with a Chiropractor, a massage therapist, etc, so that you become part of a Circle of Care providers, referring to each other, and that commonality for the good of each common patient/student means they know they are in the hands of a Team of care providers. That personal touch makes a difference.

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