In the past week, I have started to put together a business plan that will facilitate my goal of working on my own business full time. The admission of this goal has been a long time coming; for years I have tried to figure out what a lifelong career working for someone would look like for me. That picture never fully, or even partially, materialized. I would sit in my meditation practice, go to my yoga mat, and talk to my friends and family in the hopes that some clear picture would reveal itself in my mind’s eye. It was only recently that the answer bubbled up to the surface: my way forward lies in another direction and that direction must be of my own making.
On Sunday, May 15th I had an odd experience in Whole Foods in which I could feel my grandmother very nearby. Later on that day, I went home and began writing down how my own yoga-based business would take shape. I’ve had bits and pieces of this idea floating around in my mind for several years but all the pieces felt very disconnected from one another. On May 15th, some kind of magic found its way in and all of my seemingly disconnected pieces gelled together. I heard a divisive “shoomp” as I typed up my plan. I would ask a question and an answer would quickly rise up to meet it. My friend, Rob, summed up the result this way: “Christa, this isn’t a business plan. This is the work of a life.” I feel that way, too.
I’ve begun to circulate the plan to a very few trusted mentors and friends like Rob, people whom I continually ask for advice and guidance on just about every area of my life. As always they have responded with honesty, grace, support, objectivity, and an astounding amount of creativity. Most of them, while students of yoga or have some appreciation for its power, lie outside of the traditional yoga community. They have varied professional and personal backgrounds, savvy business minds, and a lot of heart. I am a lucky lady to know them.
Because so many of you have shown your unwavering support of my ideas through comments, tweets, facebook messages, emails, voicemails, and texts over the 4 years that I’ve been writing this blog, I wanted to share some of the details with you as they’re taking shape:
1.) Compass Yoga will incorporate as a nonprofit. This has been a decision that has required a lot of soul searching, fact checking, numerous hours of consultation, and more pro-con lists / decision trees than I can count.
2.) There will be a physical place that houses Compass Yoga. I have tried this changeable location model and while in many cases this has worked out, for this more refined business vision a permanent physical space is needed.
3.) Compass Yoga will continue to focus on working with underserved populations, and will actually deepen that commitment further with a variety of new programs.
4.) Partnerships will be a key component of the business structure.
5.) Compass Yoga will turn a good deal of its energy toward growing the depth and breadth of the yoga field for all practitioners and teachers.
6.) In order to bring this vision to life in as full a way as possible, I will be undergoing a good deal of additional yoga teacher training in the next year. I am grateful for my location in New York City where many of the top teachers in my chosen specialty reside and teach, and I am equally grateful for my current day job that provides me with the personal funding and flexible schedule to make my extensive yoga teacher training possible.
More details are developing every day as this picture becomes clearer and clearer. The way forward is unfolding…
Christa Avampato 