For example, if you want to start a yoga school, you need to think about cash flow and profit. This can be new and challenging, but it is important to have a clear financial plan. You can overcome any mindset about money and attract abundance into your life.
Starting your own business can be a scary endeavour, but it can also be very rewarding.
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Approaching yoga school with an abundance mindset
This mindset can often lead us to feel that we are competing with others, when in fact we are not. We can get caught up in the idea that if someone else wins, we must lose. This can lead us to feel that we are competing with others when in fact we are not.
One way to think of it is that in a cake-eating competition, there is only one winner. The person who eats the most cake is the winner, and everyone else is a loser.
This mentality leads to feelings of envy, jealousy and self-doubt. I prefer to look at things from an attitude of abundance. This means that I don’t focus on winning or losing, but on managing cash flow and profit.
An abundance mindset is one that assumes there are enough resources and successes. This does not come naturally to many people who are driven to be competitive. Maintaining a mindset of abundance requires reflection, affirmations, meditation and mindfulness.
An attitude of abundance can help you seize the day, encourage and empower those around you, maintain a sense of fulfilment, give and receive affection and affirmation, and feel confident in your efforts.
If you start your business worrying about the competition, you will teach yourself that there can only be one successful yoga business. This will lead you to despise other yoga teachers and successful wellness businesses instead of learning from them and building partnerships.
A mindset of abundance will help you grow your business more confidently and proactively, with gratitude at every step, rather than fear and negativity. It will also stop you from being reactive and making decisions based on what others are doing.
What is cash flow?
In business, cash flow is the movement of money in and out of the business. For example, if the business sells two courses for 50 $ each, the cash flow is 100 $.
Why is cash flow so important for your yoga business?
Cash flow is very important in business because it keeps the business going. An increase in income is not so beneficial if expenses also increase by a larger amount. If a business owner does not keep track of incoming and outgoing money diligently, the business will incur debts.
If you have business problems, it is likely that your cash flow is unhealthy. You can improve your cash flow by making sure you don’t spend more than you take in, and by having enough working capital to cover your expenses without going into debt. Most businesses fail because they do not have enough working capital, i.e. their expenses exceed their income.
Income, expenses and working capital
Although it may seem daunting at first, understanding financial terminology is actually quite simple. The most important terms to remember are: Your income is the money you receive, your expenses are the money you spend, and your working capital is what’s left after you subtract your liabilities from your assets. This includes the money you invest in your business at the beginning and what you keep back in your business to cover unexpected costs.
This may feel difficult at first, but you should always keep these key definitions in mind:
- Revenue = inflow of money into your business
- Expenses = outflow of money from your business
- Working capital = the difference between the assets and liabilities of your business (including what you invested in your business at the beginning)
When you start your yoga business, you should have realistic expectations. Ask yourself:
- How will I make money with my yoga business?
- How much working capital do I want to invest and keep in my yoga business?
- Do I want to make a profit immediately?
There are some questions you can ask yourself to help you focus on what is important to you:
- Can I let go of my expectations?
- Is there something I still need to learn?
- How can I stay on task?
Is there a yoga of money?
While we would need a plan to implement the yamas and niyamas as financial ethics, there are a number of strategies that are popular, especially in progressive and countercultural circles, that could help achieve this goal. For example, socially responsible consumption and investment, making the right living, and giving effectively to charity are all ways that Patanjali would approve of today.
If we want our activism to be effective, we must be sincere in our actions. This means that we must be truthful and honest in our efforts. We cannot just write a cheque to a well-known charity and expect that to be enough. We have to do our research to make sure our money is going to a worthy cause.
Earn ethically
To find the work you want, start by taking stock of your talents, interests and values and research relevant careers. Create an action plan to get the training you need. If you cannot give up your current job but do not feel comfortable doing it, try to find the deep meaning in your current situation and pursue it in a way that does not compromise your values.
Easy life
But if you make a decision based on creating a life that is in line with your dreams and values, rather than money, you will find it much easier to make a change.
You may want to consider simplifying your life so that you can switch to a dream career, even if the pay is modest. However, remember that it can be psychologically daunting to change your lifestyle, even if the result is a life that is more exciting every morning when you wake up.
The messages we received from our parents about money, our spouse’s or children’s expectations that we bring home a certain income, our self-image as a “successful” person – all these things can get in the way.
Once you get used to a lifestyle, it is much harder to reduce it. Also, we tend to be creatures of habit. But if you make a decision based on creating a life that aligns with your dreams and values, you’ll be better off.
An experienced coach can help you figure out what you want to do with your life, help you create a plan to transition to a new career, and help you figure out what your goals should look like to make them work for your family. Think of the planner’s fee as an investment in saving your life.
Vote with your money
To make sure your purchases reflect your values, find out about the social aspects included in the products. If you boycott a company’s products, write a note or email to the company explaining your actions. For example, buying organic food is not only healthier for you, it also prevents pesticides from getting into the soil and groundwater, protects workers and the soil, and often supports family farms.
Invest with your heart
Choosing not to invest in a company for ethical reasons may not make much difference on its own, but it can be all the more effective if you own a few shares and can exercise your rights as a shareholder to influence how the company is run.
If you are too busy or too clueless to do all this, you can buy shares in a socially responsible investment fund that participates in significant shareholder action to represent your values.
Donate holistically
It’s important to be generous, but that doesn’t mean blindly giving away money. Take a closer look at the groups you want to donate to, to find out about their track record, the potential impact of their current projects and how much of your overheads are donated (with 35% being a reasonable maximum. Also, don’t forget that your time as a volunteer can be just as valuable to local groups as a monetary donation.
Life in balance
While money has the ability to drive people crazy, the yamas and niyamas (a set of principles in yoga) can do the same if we try to control them rather than let them control us.
There are those who take Patanjali’s ideas and use them to justify questionable behaviours such as self-denial, stinginess and contempt for the better-off.
For example, if we control too much, we are just as obsessed with money and unfree as if we spend all the time.
A core aim of yoga is to enjoy life.
Patanjali’s recommendation for asanas is that they should be stable, comfortable and tension-free while the mind remains benevolent. The key to finding the correct application of the yamas and niyamas in these recommendations is because they cannot be applied to posture alone. For example, the financial lesson from these aphorisms is that one should focus on steadiness without stiffness, balance, relaxation and doing good for others rather than personal gain.
