Dear Dangerously in Love with Your Finances,
Our yoga studio, based in Jersey City, believes in holistic health -connecting, repairing, and reenergizing the entire body. For five months during COVID-19, we offered a 15% discount on our Yoga 101 classes. Our intent was to help the community with rejuvenating their mind, body, and soul.
The discount was remarkably successful in welcoming new yogis. We are now wondering how this discount has affected our profitability within our yoga studio? And should we offer this discount again?
~Confused about the Combination of Cash Flow and Discounts
Dear Confused about the Combination of Cash Flow and Discounts,
First, I think it is lovely that you are giving back to the community. Now more than ever, people need a safe place to heal their mind, body, and soul. I find Yoga to be that place for me.
I can go on and on about the benefits of Yoga but let me get to the point of your questions – Giving discounts on your Yoga classes needs to be tracked.
If you do not track any part of your business finances, you will have difficulty measuring a specific aspect of your Yoga business.
Measurement is done by tracking each class on which the discount was applied. Measuring allows you to know if the discount has increased or decreased your Yoga studio’s cash flow.
Your business management software (MindBody, Wellnessliving, Virtuagym) can collect such data relating to discounts that were applied to your Yoga 101 class.
Take this discount number and include it in the cost of offering the class. If the discount number has caused you to lose money on the class, it may not be a good idea to offer it again.
It’s great to give back to the community but you don’t want to go bankrupt while doing so.
If you’re not sure of how to track and measure your offered discounts, this article has some great resources for getting started.
If you have more questions about offering discounts, please give me a shout.
As always, stay dangerously in love with your finances,
Lozelle
