For Robyn Land, owner of Yoga Spirit, becoming an entrepreneur has been a journey of self-discovery. While going to school, she never envisioned that one day she'd open her own Yoga Studio and offer wellness retreats.

In fact, she fully expected a career as an environmental educator and spent several years working towards it, first obtaining a Diploma of Technology in Renewable Resources and then taking a degree in Environmental Geography.

Yoga was just something she did on the side to help her relax while holding down three jobs and going to school. She enjoyed it so much, she decided to train as a yoga teacher and had just completed her certification around the same time she graduated from university.

"Working in the environmental field, I was working mostly for non-profit, and wasn't really making a lot of money," she says. "I was [teaching] yoga to supplement my income."

Originally, she thought she'd teach a few nights a week. However, "the more I taught, the more I wanted to be teaching and sharing it," she says.

She decided that when her contract to work as an environmental educator finished, she would spend the summer teaching yoga. She did, and never went back.

"From teaching people to connect with the world around them, I began to thrive teaching people to connect within themselves," she says.

ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT

Robyn owned her first business, a small graphic design company, when she was 16. This sparked an interest in taking on leadership roles because she wanted to learn how to run the business better.

When she started Yoga Spirit in 2006, she worked as a freelancer and sub-contractor. This meant driving to various studios to teach classes. At the height of it, she was "racking up 2000 km a month," she says. Although she didn't like all this travelling, she did it for two years because the money was good and it allowed her to build up a solid client base. When she noticed many students were following her from studio to studio to taker her classes, she considered alternatives.

"I really wanted to create a community for my students," says Robyn. "That's when I decided to open the studio."

She wrote a business plan, took an accounting course at a small business centre, researched the wellness industry as best she could (she notes there isn't much business-related information out there for this industry) and she looked into financing options.

One of the most daunting tasks, she says, was dealing with all the city bylaws and regulations. Because the wellness industry is so new, municipalities aren't sure how to classify them. In Burnaby, British Columbia, where Robyn opened her studio, yoga studios are classified as private schools. Because of this, she had to prove to an inspector that 150 people could safely leave her studio in an orderly fashion (in case of emergency) even though her studio only holds 10 people!

Robyn admits there were times she was frustrated or disheartened by the process, but whenever she began to doubt that it would succeed, another thing would fall into place and get her closer to her goal. She also had encouragement from her friends, students, and boyfriend.

"My community around me was very supportive," she says.

FINANCING

Thankfully, her family was also supportive. The bank wouldn't give her a business loan, (even though she had established a client base, had been running a company for two years, and had created a business plan) but it did offer her a personal line of credit — if her Dad would co-signed for it.

"It took a lot of convincing," she says, but her parents eventually agreed. Robyn admits it was scary going into debt, but she had already hosted several yoga retreats before opening the studio, so she knew there was a market for her services.

In order to keep costs low, she taught most of the classes herself during the first year. Now that the business is growing, she's been reducing her teaching time in order to concentrate on business management. She has five subcontractors/teachers who work with her.

MARKETING

She gets most of her clients through her website and word-of-mouth referrals. Social media and Facebook works well for her, and surprisingly, the sandwich board in front of her studio also helps draw people in. She tried print marketing but found it expensive and had low ROI.

PROS AND CONS

Opening the studio was stressful because she came from a non-business background, was putting in 12-hours days, and business came first in almost everything.

"It was a very sharp learning curve for me, to figure out what the heck I was doing as an actual business owner," she says, adding, it took almost a year for the studio to turn a profit because of the higher costs of having a storefront.

On the other hand, she notes that even with the various hurdles she's had to overcome, she has a strong sense that "this is what I'm meant to be doing. "

LEARNED ALONG THE WAY

Having been in business now for four years, she's learned to: trust your gut feeling because it'll keep you out of trouble; accept that you're not good at everything; and ask for help.

"I've realized I'm not the best at marketing, over this journey," she says. "It's been a process to realize… that help is sometimes worth the cost."

TIPS

1. Write a business plan.
It will help you clarify where you want to take the business, and it will help you be realistic in your goals and expectations.

2. Don't get discouraged.
When you hit a roadblock, it often gives you other opportunities that you hadn't thought of before.

3. Ask for help.
Use the resources of the community around you.

4. Remember to take time for yourself.
Don't burn out; when you take care of yourself, you continue to have energy for your business.

5. Trust what you've put out there.
Trust that your good intention and hard work will help make your business successful.