When I opened East Lansing Hot Yoga in September of 2011, I never imagined that nine years later I'd also be the co-owner of three additional studios. First, in 2014, came Firefly Hot Yoga Barre, in partnership with Abbey Weston, then Samantha Corbit and I joined forces in 2016 to open Haslett Hot Yoga, and finally, Maggie Olds and I got together and created Lansing Hot Yoga in 2018.
Amazingly, it worked on so many levels. The four of us got along beautifully as we implemented policies, created schedules and class styles, trained and hired teachers, built a website, and shared clients and data across four locations.
Unfortunately, there were areas that we couldn’t get it to work across the four studios. Each studio has different capacities and different niches, so trying to function under one umbrella and one shared website was difficult. And, financially speaking, we were also never able to make it viable. The software we use, (and we’ve looked at all of them,) makes it nearly impossible to allocate funds correctly to the studio they were used at. Furthermore, between rents, payroll, and other expenses, revenue could not keep up, every summer we ran into deficits, and there was never enough money left over to pay ourselves anything near a living wage.
We love what we do and adore the community that has evolved, but we also want to be here for you in the long haul, so some changes (or rather the ability to make quick changes) is necessary for us to move forward.
So, we've come to the realization that we need to be four independent studios, and we're taking this time of closure and contemplation to dissolve our partnerships, end data sharing, and, for HHY and LHY, come up with new studio names and logos.
For those of you with open packages, no need to worry, all of us will absolutely honor them! Current unlimited and class packages that have been extended, or are not expired, can be used at all four locations for the duration of your package. The process of signing up for classes at ELHY will be the same, though we're still working out the details for the other studios. Once your package expires, and for those of you without active classes or unlimiteds, you can choose a home studio, and/or buy separate packages at each studio. All four studios will share and have access to the online Namastream library.
We wish we could tell you when we can reopen for in studio classes, but we really have no idea. We’ve been working hard to have the studios ready as soon as we get the go ahead. We will send another email and post on FB and IG as soon as we are there. In the meantime, we will continue with our Namastream online classes (
click here)
,
and do check our Facebook pages for outdoor options.
As we transition into this next phase of our business lives, we ask for your support and patience with us. It's not uncomplicated and there will be glitches. In return, we promise to be transparent and understanding as you adjust to this new reality. We have so much love for each other, this community, and we remain optimistic about the future, so please understand that this is just a little change which will take some adjusting to, but we are still here for you!
Stay tuned for more emails.
Light and Love, friends,
Patty, Abbey, Samantha, & Maggie
