Thursday, April 12 — 9:00am - 9:30am
Growth of Yoga
A look at the growth of the yoga market in America.

Bill Harper has been the publisher of Yoga Journal and Vegetarian Times since 2006. He started in the publishing business at Esquire magazine. In 1980 he moved to Los Angeles as the head of the West Coast office of Wenner Media, the parent company of Rolling Stone. There, he helped launch another Wenner publication, Men's Journal, and worked on the transition of Us magazine to a successful weekly celebrity publication. In 1999 he formed Bill Harper Associates.

Thursday, April 12 — 9:45am - 11:00am
Opening a Yoga Studio: Studio 101
Opening up the yoga center of your dreams is a profoundly fulfilling and transformative experience, in which all of the blessings of your yoga practice come to life. Come explore how to honor your dharma in creating an authentic expression of your yoga. Discover how to stay devoted to yoga's highest teachings of freedom, union, and inner peace throughout the great joys and difficulties. Find support in creating a sacred space where you can celebrate community and share your passion for yoga to help heal and serve the world.

Dana Flynn is the director of Laughing Lotus Yoga in New York City. Dana, who has been dubbed the "Janis Joplin of yoga," is known for her wildly poetic sequencing and her raw and generous energy. She is celebrated for reawakening asanas and creating mass celebration. She bows to the amazing teachers that have inspired her along her cosmic way, especially Sharon Gannon, Rodney Yee, and Jasmine Tarkeshi. She is blessed to share what she loves all over the world.

Thursday, April 12 — 11:15am - 12:30pm
Creating a Viable Studio
Learn how to use high-level strategic planning to create an annual budget and identify simple metrics to gauge the health of your business. Come discover how to analyze your operating expenses, incentivize your teachers, and easily evaluate your efforts from month to month.

Bob Murphy is chief sales and marketing officer and chief financial officer of MINDBODY. Before Bob joined the company in 2005, he was director of New York operations at YogaWorks. Prior to this, he owned and operated Be Yoga with his wife, Beverley Murphy, and Alan Finger, where he helped grow the business threefold and created one of the largest studios and teacher trainings in the country. Bob, who holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business from Boston University, enjoys his yoga practice, golf, and spending time with his three children.

Thursday, April 12 — 12:30pm - 1:00pm
Lunchtime Demo
How to use MINDBODY Business Management Software (optional)

Thursday, April 12 — 2:00pm - 3:15pm
Common Legal Issues with Starting a Yoga Studio
Opening and running a yoga studio requires sound legal preparation. In this informative class, we'll discuss how to form business entities; contract with teachers, employees, students, web/ad consultants, business partners, and landlords; comply with labor, workers compensation, taxes, and consumer protection agencies; obtain insurance; and protect trademarks and trade secrets.

Ron Weikers is a partner in YogaBalance Yoga Studio in Manchester, NH. He is a high-technology attorney with Software-Law.com, where he handles technology licensing and litigation matters for clients across the country. Ron, an adjunct professor of law at the University of New Hampshire School of Law, has authored several books and numerous articles on legal issues.

Ann Weikers is a registered yoga teacher and a partner in YogaBalance Yoga Studio in Manchester, NH. Ann has been practicing law for 21 years and currently works as in-house counsel in the property and casualty insurance industry.

Thursday, April 12 — 3:30pm - 4:45pm
Utilizing Social Networking
Word of mouth (WOM) is a passive form of marketing that is coveted by all businesses and understood by few. Social media is taking the 20th-century WOM and launching it into the present, where more text messages are sent each day than there are people on earth. People are already talking about your teaching and business online: Do you want to participate and contribute to this vital conversation? It only takes a bit of creativity and very little money to share your vision with this growing community. Learn how to leverage Facebook, Twitter, TripAdviser, Yelp, and Groupon to build your community and business exponentially faster.

Eric Kipp is the founder and director of Hiking Yoga, which is based in San Francisco and has multiple locations around the country. Eric, who holds degrees and certifications in history, yoga, and small-business coaching, helps yoga teachers and studios guide their students in expanding their practices beyond the brick-and-mortar studios. He created this unique yogic exploration, integrating the cardio of hiking with the power of yoga while connecting with the outdoors. Critical to the rapid ascent of this new offering has been leveraging social media and other low-cost, massive-return marketing techniques.

Friday, April 13 — 9:00am - 10:15am
Building Community and a Loyal Clientele
Join us as we discuss empowering and proven formulas for creating a vibrant community and a solid client base in your own town through the yogic teachings. Learn what works and what doesn't, and how to "get out of your own way" to create prosperity in health, wealth, and your spiritual life.

Ganesh Das (Carlos Menjivar), a certified Jivamukti Yoga teacher, has studied and practiced yoga and meditation under Sharon Gannon, cofounder of the Jivamukti Yoga method, for 12 years. He has also studied under various Christian teachers, yogic mystics, and shamanic healers since the late '80s. He has been teaching a weekly meditation class at Jivamukti NYC for more than 4 years and serves as the Jivamukti Yoga School's managing director, applying spiritual principles to the business. Ganesh Das has given workshops and lectures around the world about how yoga practices and its principles can be applied toward enhancing the success of any business.

Friday, April 13 — 10:30am - 11:45am
Online Marketing
The fastest and most effective way to grow your business is through inexpensive yet powerful marketing techniques and client retention strategies. Learn how to use simple collateral, guerilla marketing, Groupon, and your website to increase your student base and revenue. Understand how to increase student retention using pricing, auto-pays, and better customer service, and you will get new students to come back, have existing students attend more frequently, and increase your class sizes--and become a more viable business!

Beverley Murphy is a business consultant to yoga studios. Beverley co-owned and directed the New York City Be Yoga studios, which included the creation and direction of their highly successful teacher training program. After Yoga Works purchased Be Yoga in 2004, she served as Yoga Works' East Coast head of teacher training and teacher management. In 2005, she joined MINDBODY, to create and direct MINDBODY University, where she currently teaches workshops in marketing, client retention, and retail. With a master's degree in health sciences from Johns Hopkins University, experience in advertising and marketing, and over 13 years of teaching yoga and managing yoga studios, Beverley offers unparalleled expertise in how to survive and thrive in the business of yoga.

Friday, April 13 — 11:45am - 12:15pm
Lunchtime Demo
How to use MINDBODY Business Management Software (optional)

Friday, April 13 — 1:15pm - 2:30pm
Money Matters
Apply yoga philosophy and the best practices of some of the country's most successful teachers and studios to the way you manage your career and your money. Gain an understanding of your relationship with money, as well as how your business compares with others in the industry; set up salaries and retirement accounts to secure your future; and learn to implement tried-and-true small-business strategies.

Brent Kessel is a yogi by dawn and financial planner by day, having dedicated himself to yoga since 1989 and progressed to the fifth series of Ashtanga under Chuck Miller and Pattabhi Jois. As the cofounder of Abacus Wealth Partners, a financial-planning firm specializing in sustainable investing for individual clients in 35 states, Brent has been named multiple times as one of the top financial advisors in the United States by Worth magazine. An advanced practitioner in both finance and yoga, Brent is the country's foremost authority on bridging these two disparate worlds for personal transformation. He has appeared on the CBS Early Show and ABC News, has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Los Angeles Times, and is the coauthor of The Money & Spirit Workshop.

Friday, April 13 — 2:45pm - 4:00pm
Alternative Revenue Streams
A thriving yoga studio is built around a hub of drop-in classes. But to keep your students' commitment to their practice growing and to make your business really hum, things like retail, workshops, events, retreats, and trainings must orbit that dynamic center. Learn the why's and how's of adding ancillary revenue streams to your studio's core business.

Kaitlin Yount is the General Manager of Teacher Training at YogaWorks. She spent the bulk of her career working for a private equity fund in Southeast Asia and has experience in both the Healthcare and Clean Energy industries in India. She subsequently followed her passion for yoga out to Los Angeles where she joined YogaWorks, first as a strategy consultant and then as manager of the Teacher Training department. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from UC Santa Barbara and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Friday, April 13 — 4:15pm - 5:30pm
Greening Your Studio
We know that everything is interconnected. As yogis and yoginis, it is our task to illuminate this truth and thereby reveal the deeper meaning of yoga. How does this show up in the business world of yoga? It is our role to lead by example so that we conduct ourselves and our businesses with total integrity. We'll examine key strategies, insights, and organizing principles gathered from Pamela's experience in operating one of the largest green yoga studios in the Midwest for nearly a decade. Learn how to transform your beliefs and your business, and how to effectively empower individuals to make conscious choices through education, action, and love.

Pamela Bliss, founder and director of YogAsylum in Brookfield, WI, holds degrees in transpersonal psychology, nursing, and yoga and ecology. Over the past ten years, she has studied yoga extensively with globally renowned master teachers, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, from whom she has received empowerments and initiations. Pamela presents at conferences internationally, and her work has been featured in numerous local, national, and international publications and other types of media. She was the national moderator for the Green Yoga Association's studio pilot program, teaching studios across America to adapt to green business practices. Pamela naturally exudes the ability to meet people where they are in total acceptance and love, which allows her to deliver the transformative power of yoga directly into people's hearts.

Friday, April 13 — 5:30pm - 7:00pm
Networking Reception
The YogaWorks networking reception is designed as a chance for you to exchange ideas, best practices, and cards with your fellow business conference participants. We'll have wine, snacks, a brief structured exercise to facilitate conversation and connections, and plenty of time to mingle.