How Yoga Strong transitioned from a 700-square-foot studio to a thriving community-focused wellness business

Overview

Samantha owns Yoga Strong, a thriving yoga and strength training studio in Greenville, North Carolina. What started as a Starbucks drive-through conversation about neck stretches has evolved into a comprehensive wellness business serving group classes, private sessions, corporate clients, and virtual offerings. But Yoga Strong had humble beginnings.

After spending eight years in a tiny 700-square-foot space behind a juice bar, Samantha was forced to relocate with just 31 days notice. This sudden challenge became a catalyst – she found a new location and transformed her solo operation into a bustling studio with 27 weekly classes, seven teachers, and plans for a second location.

Today, Samantha manages everything from corporate wellness programs for local manufacturers to virtual YouTube streaming classes, all while maintaining the community-focused atmosphere that draws students to linger in parking lots just to connect with each other.

Challenges

Software limitations holding back growth

Samantha’s journey to finding the right business platform began with necessity. For eight years, she operated comfortably in a small space behind a juice bar, paying just $500 monthly rent while using simple tools like Acuity for scheduling.

“I was just using Acuity for scheduling for my private clients [and the] couple of group classes that I ran personally, I just scheduled through Acuity and that worked fine for me then,” she recalls about her early setup.

But as her group class offerings expanded and she was teaching 5-6 group classes a week, it was clear Acuity wouldn’t provide the flexibility she needed to grow her business. Samantha was finding herself doing manual work in the system after a client already signed up and paid for a class.

Beyond scheduling, Samantha found herself juggling multiple platforms: Acuity for appointments, Kartra for her website and email marketing, PayPal for invoicing corporate clients, and various other tools.

“I was using Kartra as my website, and I had also created this online corporate yoga teacher training for yoga teachers. That was an online training and that was housed in Kartra.”

It was time to level up. The industry standard was Mindbody, but the price at the time was over $200 a month and Samantha didn’t need all the features.

“I didn’t need all the things that [Mindbody] had to offer, and there was no lower tier,” she recalled.

Additional fees beyond processing costs made the platform even less appealing.

Solution

Trusted recommendation leads to all-in-one transformation

The solution for Samantha came through a recommendation from a mentor who told her about OfferingTree as her business was picking up. The trust of a loved mentor and the software’s affordability pushed Samantha to give OfferingTree a try.

Unlike other platform providers, OfferingTree’s approach felt personal and industry-specific.

The team clarified that [OfferingTree] was made for wellness professionals and for people in my industry. And the fact that they wanted to talk to me personally, that made me feel special.”

Despite her packed schedule, the transition from Acuity to OfferingTree was smooth.

The platform’s flexibility allowed her to maintain her existing Kartra website initially while gradually transitioning everything to OfferingTree, so she could provide a seamless experience for her clients. First, she embedded OfferingTree into her existing website, then a few weeks later when she had time, she built out a new website on OfferingTree, giving herself a true all in one platform for managing her business.

The Results

Explosive growth with streamlined operations and enhanced student experience

The impact was immediate and transformative. Within two years, Samantha scaled from 6 weekly classes to 27 – a 350% increase that required her to bring on 7 new instructors.

Operational Efficiency Revolution

 “It is really nice to have everything all in one place, so I’m not having to log into this and log into this and make sure this is communicating with this software,” Samantha explains.

The automated reminder system alone saved countless hours:

“In the past when I had Acuity, I actually did that manually. I was texting my students like, ‘Hey, don’t forget. See you today.'”

Enhanced Student Experience

The transition delighted her existing clients.

“When I switched to OfferingTree, I just remember a lot of my online clients being like, ‘Oh, this is so easy, so much easier. Thank you so much. It’s so easy to register. No problems whatsoever.'”

OfferingTree’s series booking capability solved a major pain point, allowing students to pay once to get into a series of classes. This was much more seamless for customers and also saved a lot of manual work on Samantha’s end.

Business Growth and Diversification

OfferingTree’s versatility enabled expansion into virtual offerings with Zoom integration, and Samantha innovated further by using YouTube streaming for higher video quality. The platform also supports her diverse revenue streams: seven regular corporate clients, two monthly corporate accounts, and 15 weekly private clients.

Team Expansion and Management

The growth necessitated hiring her first full-time administrator and expanding to seven part-time teachers. “Right now we don’t really have a front desk. People walk in and it’s the space and we greet them,” but the upcoming expansion will add a proper lobby with sauna services, all manageable through OfferingTree’s scheduling system.

Building a Community

Perhaps most importantly, the platform supports Samantha’s core value of community building. She’s planning a lobby expansion specifically because

“I find gatherings of people in the parking lot hanging around to chat and it’s so cute. And I would love for them to just be able to go [inside] and hang out and stay and be there and not feel rushed out the door.”

Future Vision Clarity

The streamlined operations provide a clear foundation for growth.

“I would like to have a Yoga Strong in another place. So I would [add] a second location at some point down the road,” Samantha shares, with plans to reduce her personal teaching load as the business scales.

Simplified Technology Ecosystem

OfferingTree now handles the core business operations for Yoga Strong. Client onboarding, communication and booking are now fully streamlined and other technologies Samantha depended on in the past are being phased out.

Measurable Business Impact

The transformation enabled Samantha to shift from depending on corporate and private client income to subsidize group classes toward a self-sustaining studio model.

“Before it was like I needed the income from the corporate and the private stuff to help me fund this stuff… And now this business is getting to where it’s actually standing on its own two feet.”

When asked about OfferingTree’s primary benefit, Samantha emphasizes growth enablement:

“It’s definitely helping me to grow the classes and the schedule just by having everything on the website… if it’s hard for people to sign up for classes, the class is not going to grow because there’s some friction around signing up for the classes.”

Today, Samantha confidently recommends OfferingTree throughout the wellness community, knowing she can offer a complete solution rather than piecing together multiple platforms. Her success story demonstrates how the right technology foundation can support sustainable growth.