How to Start Your Meditation Business

What an exciting time! You are ready to embark on a new path and start your meditation business!

A path that feels purposeful, connected and whole. One where you can make a REAL difference to people’s lives by nurturing them with the art of meditation.

This articles explores exactly how you get started.

 

First and Foremost… Make sure you have had sufficient training.

For much of this article I am going to assume that you have completed your training. If you haven’t and you are ready to begin some training, then have a look at what we offer and download your ACMM prospectus via the opt in box on this screen to the right of this article.

 

You may think…well I have been meditating for 5 years, doesn’t that make me qualified to teach? Whilst having a regular meditation practice is a fundamental part of teaching, there are also many other skills that are important to develop.

 

1. Group facilitation skills – So that you can handle the dynamics of groups and can respond sensitively and appropriately to questions or deep sharing.
2. Guiding Meditations for others – Being able to do this in a safe and supportive way ensures that your students have the best possible experience in your groups. This means that they will want to keep coming back. It is also helpful to be able to guide a variety of techniques so that you are able to teach in various environments. Language is another important consideration here are there are some pitfalls to watch out for.
3. Knowing how to handle problems – There are a common list of obstacles that may be experienced when learning meditation, and even in advanced meditators. It’s great to be able to support students through these obstacles confidently.
4. If you want to work professionally and use a hired space, you will need Insurance can be obtained once you have an accredited qualification and join up to an association like Meditation Australia.
5. Once you have a teacher, a teacher training organisation or a mentor behind you, you will then have somewhere and someone to go to if any problems arise in your teaching journey.
6. In order to create a set of classes or workshops it is valuable to have some know how. Quality training helps you set up professional classes with assessment tools and a guide for structuring classes that will help your students get the most out of your classes.

 

Begin the process of creating your vision, mission and values for your meditation business.

I would suggest a period of introspection, journalling and meditation in which you ask yourself some questions, or open to inspiration.

In order to develop a unique vision of what you want to offer the world, you might like to get some clarity on:

1. What originally brought you to meditation, and whether or not this reason might influence the kind of people you feel drawn to share meditation with? How does this contribute to your passion for meditation?
2. What your core values are and what matters most to you in life? How does this relate to your meditation teaching and inform your approach?
3. What are you really good at? How can this help?
4. What is your underlying, driving reason for wanting to teach meditation? What do you hope to achieve? How do you plan to help others?
5. What are your life goals and how does your meditation business teaching fit into those?

Looking at your answers to these questions, you may like to create a vision board, mission statement and get clear on your values.

The answers may also help to inform a business name and logo and/or branding colours.

Remember that as you begin, we are just making a start. Don’t get too caught up on it being perfect, as everything you create now will change and evolve over time; as you and your business grows. It can help to keep things broad in the beginning so that you remain open to opportunities.

 

Set up the basic structure for your meditation business

This will mean possibly:

1. Registering a business name (you may decide to simply trade under your own name to begin with)
2. Applying for an ABN,
3. Setting up a bank account specifically for your business
4. Deciding on a business structure. Whether you will be a sole trader/ company / or trust.  To begin with, simple businesses usually opt for a sole trader arrangement. This is a good place to start unless you are ready to start taking on large accounts straight away. Please always seek advice from your accountant regarding business structure, and any taxation matters.
5. Deciding on how you will manage the accounting side of your business. Will you maintain a spreadsheet or use business management software? For most a spreadsheet is sufficient to begin with, however do talk to your accountant about what will best meet your needs.
6. Determine whether you will need to register for GST (Speak to your accountant)
7. Explore various methods of taking payments
8. Learn about record keeping requirements for your business
9. Organise membership with Meditation Australia or IICT, then you can organise your insurance.

It’s a simple list, but there is a fair amount there to organise. ACHS have created a video masterclass entitled “Setting up your meditation business” which will be available for purchase on the Meditation Australia website in early 2020. Make sure that you are on our mailing list so that you will be informed once this becomes available.

 

Organise your marketing

If you are going to be working in an existing yoga studio or gym where the clientele is provided for you then you may not need to do much marketing yourself.

You might plan to work independently or hire your own space. In which case,  you will need to some marketing so that people can find out about you.

ACHS are creating an in depth video masterclass which will be available in March 2020 on this topic, however in the meantime here are some basic marketing ideas to consider:

 

>Your Social Media

1. Create a Facebook page and/or group. This will help you and to build a community of followers by posting regular content that helps people get to know you and your services. This may mean short meditation practices, inspirational posts and newsy posts that let people know what you’re doing. This also allows your friends to help get the word out there about what you offer through social media and inviting people to like your page.
2. Instagram is a popular forum for posting images and short amounts of text, and short videos. It serves a similar purpose to Facebook, allowing you to create a community of people interested in what you do. Therefore, when you add classes or create a workshop you will have some people already connected to you who may like to attend.
3. Linked in is useful for professional connections. So if you are interested in working for organisations and in the corporate arena, setting up a Linked In profile and posting professional content regularly can help.

In order to stay on top of social media posting, you may like to create a calendar of which days you will be posting on which channels. You do not need to post every day. However often you post, just make sure it is consistent.

You can also schedule social media posts for coming weeks by using software that does this such as Buffer, Hootsuite or Planoly. That way you can allocate a certain time each week to social media and you don’t have to be doing it all through the week and you are under less time pressure.

 

>Your Website

You can create a simple website using WordPress, WIX, Squarespace or other website creators, or you can create something more complex using a third party. If you are a little computer savvy you can save a lot of money by doing it yourself with professional looking results.

 

>Local Marketing

Remember if you are running a local meditation group to use local channels:

1. Newsletters in local schools
2. Letterbox drops (we recommend printing on recycled paper)
3. Postcards left in cafés
4. Posters in shopping centres or community noticeboards

 

Consider working with others

Joint ventures or partnering with other organisations can provide a lift to boost your new meditation business. Why not consider:

1. Attending business networking meetings held by your local council
2. Joining with another new teacher and running workshops together (particularly where you have complementary skills)
3. Approaching organisations that may benefit from your teaching such as:

• Gyms
• Yoga/Pilates studios
• Psychology centres
• Medical or Chiropractic Centres
• Naturopathic Centres
• Hospitals
• Aged Care Centres
• Kindergartens or Schools (If you are trained to work with children)
• Community Centres

Later this month I will be sharing another blog related to starting a new meditation business about the relationship between money and meditation teaching; and how to create an abundant working relationship between the two.

 

With love

Lisa Forde