When you first begin teaching, it’s likely you’ll be managing bookings over email, taking cash at class, or maybe you buy a little sumup machine or offer BACS payments. It’s all quite manual, both for the customer and for you. As you grow and expand, you might start to think is it time to look into booking software.

I don’t want to be all doom and gloom note, all of these so-called “pitfalls” (yes I realise that’s what I’ve coined them) can be remedied. We live in an age where being a fabulous yoga instructor or therapist isn’t enough if you can’t be found by customers. You have to become savvy marketers.

No matter how amazing your marketing is. How much “business acumen” (hello Apprentice!) you have. What an incredible teacher / therapist / practitioner / expert you are. At some point business will take a downturn.

As you’ll hear me say time and time again, there are no hacks, no secrets, no absolute rules to growing a small business. In my experience the only people who use this language are Tik Tok stars who want lots of reel views. I don’t believe one size fits all for any business, so though I'll share today what I think are best practices, I want you to see them as guiding principles rather than firm rules.

Canva is a fantastic tool for small and growing businesses alike, there’s so much you can do beyond Instagram posts! Here are some of my top tips and tricks to get the most out of your account.

To succeed in business today, how good you are as a yoga teacher, a massage therapist, a sound practitioner... This isn't the measure of how you're able to grow your business. If people can’t find you, or engage with you, your business will struggle to thrive. You need to be able to navigate technology systems, understand channel marketing and how to build a marketable customer database.

When you start your business whether that’s yoga, holistic wellness, education, fitness… you might have put a booking platform in place right away, or you might have started manually, capturing interest over email. As you grow and expand, it usually becomes clear you need a bit of help! Even if you have hastily implemented a booking system, are you using its full potential?

In this blog we’ll uncover some of the ways to ensure your booking system is working best for your wellbeing business and you’re utilising its full potential.

To improve your reach, it is absolutely essential that you are reaching a local audience with your website and marketing. It can be a nice little boost to hit social follower milestones, but you won’t have a profitable or sustainable business if you can’t reach local people consistently.

When you come to the end of each month, how much time do you spend measuring if your marketing is "working?" And what does working even look like? It's easy to think things like more Instagram followers are a sign of business growth. But it's really not that simple.

As stresses in my life started to pile up, I noticed that my sleep quality took a steep downward spiral. I managed to be perpetually exhausted, yet stubbornly unable to sleep. A winning combo I’m sure you’ll agree!

What historically came very easily to me… now required a bit more effort. And so began my love of evening rituals

Over the past four months or so, I’ve made a huge effort to re-train my brain to slow down a bit to support the healing of my body. Again, I don’t want to be boring but let’s just recap briefly. I live with chronic back pain, it makes me very tired but in a cruel twist of fate, it also makes it very hard to physically and mentally let go

Meditation is the habitual process of training your mind to focus and redirect your thoughts. It has a host of physical, mental and emotional benefits from reducing stress, to tackling anxiety, increasing attention spans, improving sleep quality and promoting self-esteem. Basically, it’s like the ultimate spa retreat for your mind.

But how is it that we never have the time to practice a thing with such an impressive rostrum of benefits?

Ever in my pursuit of relaxing experiences, you can imagine my elation to hear of a local Gong Bath in a lovely little studio near where I live. There’s something magical about the sound of a “gong bath,” or is that just me?!

A treatment feels like a wonderful glowing radiance that flows through and around you. Reiki treats the whole person including body, emotions, mind and spirit creating many beneficial effects that include relaxation and feelings of peace, security and wellbeing.

Do you know how to rest? I thought I did.

But it’s only since learning what rest truly feels like for my body I’ve realised I never ever achieved proper rest. Not even close.

Gua Sha may be the latest trend in skincare circles, but it’s certainly nothing new. In fact, the use of curved stones as massage or to support ailments dates back to the Paleolithic Age, aka really old! Skip forward a few centuries and there are many historical records from the Ming Dynasty in China detailing the use of Gua Sha for medicinal purposes in the 14th century.