It can be a rather daunting experience when creating your first yoga retreat. Here are some useful help and advice to help you stay away from common mistakes and knowledge to guide you to a successful first retreat.

1. Planning and preparation

One of the best ways to find out what you need to do to create an incredible experience for your clients and guest is first attend other retreats and do your research on what you liked about it and how you can improve on it.

It is imperative to take notes and not just copy everything the retreat leaders do or offer. Understand the schedule and planning and ask yourself would I do this the same way or tweak certain things.

Join forums or online groups to ask for advice and feedback on your ideas of creating your own retreat. You will be amazed how helpfully people in these niche groups can be with their knowledge and information.

Yoga retreats are meant to be relaxing, inspiring experiences. However, for the retreat leaders and managers, this is not always the case. It can be incredibly stressful having to organize and fix daily issues and problems to keep the morale and happiness for the guests and clients at a high.

But remember you cannot do your best job if you do not find time to rest, relax and get enough sleep. So make sure you plan a time to switch off and treat yourself to be present and enjoy the moment.

You are living the dream

Delegation with your staff is a key to leadership. Knowing when you need to run the show, but if you hired people to help don’t be afraid to use them, trust your judgement and their ability.

Find a way to put your own mark on your retreat. Most of your clients will have been to multiple yoga retreats in the past so how is yours different? By making your retreat more personal and offering something or an experience that nobody else does will help brand your retreats as new, original, and different.

This helps you stand out against the competition.

2. Your venue and location

When you have a clear idea of the theme and environment you want to host your retreat at, you now have to find the location and venues and get the host to want your business.

Once you have done your research and found 3 to 5 venues in your chosen area contact the owners and get as much information as you can with regards to what the venue offers and if it fits your themes and needs.

If so, schedule a time to view the venue and make sure you see inside and around the property. Talk about your plans and space that is needed. The more open you are about your style of retreat the venue will be able to explain what they have done to help retreat leaders in the past to overcome concerns or share ideas and possibilities.

Get everything sorted together while you are there. Do not wait until the last minute or ignore any problems. This may be the downfall of your retreat when the guests arrive.

The food, rooms and space for the activities must be professional and high quality. The main complaints will come from the location, food and poor exercise space or views. The environment is key to a great retreat experience. People have spent a lot of money to get away from home or the office, the last place they want to be is somewhere similar to their daily routines.

3. Planning Programme activities

A clear programme with plenty of activities is especially important when hosting a yoga retreat. Do not schedule for every second of the day though. Allow your guests to have free time and allow spontaneous ideas and activities to occur, often these are some of the most memorable times in any retreat experience.

Freedom for the guests and not a boot camp style will go much better for the overall morale of the guests. They are there to learn, relax and enjoy themselves.

Never forget happiness is number one.

4. Promoting your retreat

If you already offer yoga classes and have some devoted students, then offer discount prices to your clients. Ask them to spread the word about the retreat and maybe offer a discount price for their friend or partner to drum up more business.

Collect all their email addresses and send emails the start of the week in the morning as these tend to be read more often than late on a Friday afternoon for example.

Create a website and promote your retreat on sites which get a lot of traffic for retreats and yoga events. Social media and engagement within your local region will also create awareness for the retreat and bring in more potential business.

5. A few more words of advice

Insurance and liability are very important. You can ask them to sign a disclaimer and purchase travel insurance.

Find your niche and offer something so different and exciting which cannot be found anywhere else with other retreats it will bring these clients back and create word of mouth to bring in future clients.

Good luck on your venture with hosting your first yoga retreat. You can promote your retreat on our website here at Venue Retreat. Contact us today and we will create your own page to help you bring your new business to where you want to be.

Get in touch and happy retreating!