Yoga studio isn’t a stretch for local instructor and mother of two
Chris Hughes isn’t quick to hand out praise to his clients at SCORE, where he counsels would-be proprietors of start-up businesses. But Dana Layon, he thinks, may be on to something.
“At one key point,” he said, “in the Battle Ground Starbucks, looking at her business plan, I said, ‘This business looks pretty good, pretty viable.’ I’ve probably uttered that comment on one or two other occasions.”
Layon is starting up Satsang Yoga, a yoga studio that targets pre- and postnatal moms at Southwest Washington Medical Center and Legacy Salmon Creek Hospital. Marketing herself as an instructor to SWMC has paid off in regular prenatal classes there and connections that will likely follow her to her new 2,000-square-foot space in Orchards Retail at Northeast 114th Avenue and Fourth Plain Boulevard. She has also taught at Bally Total Fitness and the YMCA for the past two years.
As she honed her focus as an instructor, she found many potential clients – pregnant women with an interest in staying fit and healthy – but few or no prenatal yoga classes. While marketing herself steadily, Layon was having a hard time getting doctors to refer because she wasn’t “licensed or part of the hospital,” she said. “So I joined the (Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce) and opened my own studio. Hospitals are more willing to meet with me because I am a business owner now.” Layon, herself a mother of two, also expanded her reach to holistic practitioners.
Layon and her husband approached their retired parents for financing, and presented the business plan she had worked through with Hughes over the last year. Because the couple has owned a successful luxury boat maintenance business in San Diego, they were able to prove to their “investors” they would receive a return on their investment.
With the investment, Layon is having the Orchards Retail shell completely improved to suit her needs. The plan was designed by Frank Tiland of Portland’s Tiland/Schmidt Architects and will include a 700-square-foot main yoga room, plus a 300-square-foot smaller room for workshops and special uses, room enough for two massage therapists and a retail area. The best part is that it is central to the hospitals and a brand new Kaiser Permanente medical office.
Deborah Ewing of Eric Fuller & Associates brokered the deal with Gramor Development. “If your business model is to have two locations,” she said, a studio nearer each of the hospitals would have made sense, but since Layon isn’t thinking of opening a new space for at least a couple of years, a more centralized operation made more sense.
Hughes said an advantage Layon has over other entrepreneurs is an understanding of where the cash flow will come from, or “who the customer is, how much they are willing to spend and how often they are willing to spend it,” because of her years of teaching yoga classes as well as attending them. “With most plans we see, the person has to stretch more to get the marketing data,” he said.
Layon is planning myriad activities at the center, including yoga, massage, meditation, retail sales, childcare and labor and birth classes. In some cases, such as massage therapy and labor classes, the practitioner will rent space from Layon, and her instructors will be independent contractors. She is also making room for acupuncture, facials, waxing and other spa-like amenities.
“I envision women coming in with a 3-year-old and a 6-month-old,” said Layon and she gets to do something for herself for two hours of her day.”
Even though the walls aren’t up yet, the studio has a Web presence at www. satsangyoga.net, and a March 2 ribbon cutting with the GVCC is planned.
“This has been a hard road – it hasn’t been easy,” she said, “but a lot of yoga is about balance. This has been a learning experience for me in balance.”
