Can you start a meditation business without marketing or business knowledge? What kind of options do you actually have when you want to have a fulfilling career in the meditation field?
I keep seeing this question coming up on Google searches so I decided to show you 3 ways to start a meditation business, depending on what drives you as a person. You don’t always need all the business and marketing knowledge or a big financial investment to get things going. There are a lot of misconceptions about starting a spiritual business and I’m here to navigate you through the noise. I’ll cover 3 different ways that you can use to switch to an impactful career by turning your love for meditation into a soulful business.
START WITH YOUR INTENTION
Before you start exploring the options, I would really like you to take a second and answer this question:
What is your intention behind starting a meditation business?
What I mean by that is to figure out why you are being called towards starting a soulful business.
- Is it because you love meditation?
- Is it because you’re really good at it, and naturally talented at it?
- Is it because you want to share your knowledge with others?
- Because you want to build communities?
- Or is it because you want to leave your own legacy and create a business that is solely aligned with who you are?
There is no wrong or right answer here. But your answer will help you decide which option to choose out of the three that I’m about to recommend to you. Going with one of these solutions heavily depends on what YOU want, internally.
Ready to start? Watching this short video will be a starter step to help you understand your options to switch to a meaningful career.
Depending on what you prefer, you can get all the info you need in under 9 minutes from the video below or scroll down a little if you prefer to soak up written words.
WHEN YOU WANT TO START A MEDITATION BUSINESS FROM SCRATCH
If you have a strong calling to start something that is a 100% yours, that expresses your own vision and brand, you’d need to start a meditation business from scratch. This option would ideally require some business and marketing knowledge OR you need to have available resources to allocate towards these.
When you are naturally skilled at helping others how to calm their mind and how to master different mediation techniques, starting your own meditation business can be a fulfilling career choice. However, what you also need to understand is that you are building a business. There are so many things you need to take care of. It’s not just about being out there with the group guiding them on how to meditate, but you need to look at how you’re going to find those customers. How are you going to deal with inquiries? How are you going to deal with sales and administration, finances and so on?
If you are being called to start your own business, I would strongly recommend you educate yourself on business and marketing essentials first. You will need to understand how to manage a business and how to plan your own activities. Another solution could be that you recruit someone to help you with these or find a business mentor to work out your aligned action plan.
Key points to consider if you choose this option:
- How are you going to find customers?
- How many customers do you need each month / quarter / year to become financially sustainable?
- What services will you offer and at what price?
- How many hours or days do you need to be actively working?
- How much money do you need each month to keep your business running (your monthly recurring expenses)?
These are just the absolute basics. In my ebook, you can go deeper into how to create your operational, financial and sales & marketing plans.
If you decide to go with this option to get started with your soulful business, be prepared that you need to have financial resources. Especially at the beginning, while you start getting your first few customers. In case you do not have the finances available to invest, I would recommend you skip this option and go with one of the other two that I’m just about to share with you.
IS THIS THE RIGHT OPTION FOR YOU?
PROs
✅ You can create a brand that fully represents you
and your vision
✅ You can decide when and how you’ll work
✅ You will be the decision-maker in everything you do
CONs
❌ You need to invest a lump sum into your business
before you start making money
❌ You need to manage all aspects of running a business
❌ You need to spend a lot of time getting started
WHEN YOU DON’T WANT TO RUN A MEDITATION BUSINESS ALONE
Another option to get started with a soulful business is to look for someone who’s already out there and runs a meditation business. Find an energetically aligned partner with whom you could genuinely work together. What I mean by that is to find a business that you deeply resonate with and figure out what YOU could bring to their meditation centre. What is your speciality that they’re not currently teaching? Perhaps you have a unique way of teaching mediation or you specialise in an uncommon method.
Research existing centres (I would recommend choosing a smaller company because it’s going to be easier for you to partner with someone who’s still growing) and see if you click with any of them. Ask them if they are open to any collaborations or partnerships. Here are a few ideas on how to partner with an existing mediation practice:
- Test the waters first and start teaching your own classes at their school / center. It could be on a regular schedule or you could do ad-hoc workshops or events. Either way, bring your own speciality to the game.
- Become official business partners by financially investing in their business. Decide on what percentage you’ll take and who will be doing what.
- Become a contractor or an employee at this business. Now, you might be thinking, why am I suggesting the employed option when this article is about starting your own business? Remember my first question? What is your intention behind wanting to have a business? It happens very often that many people actually don’t want to become entrepreneurs, but they want to have a fulfilling career. It’s perfectly ok not wanting to become a business owner. So if you’re not 100% excited about becoming a spiritual entrepreneur then consider looking for an employed position at one of these meditation centres.
IS THIS THE RIGHT OPTION FOR YOU?
PROs
✅ Smaller or zero financial investment
✅ No marketing needed to create a brand
✅ You already have a community to engage with
and upsell to
CONs
❌ You will implement someone else’s vision
❌ You won’t be the decision-maker
❌ You will need to learn how to market your
classes or workshops
WHEN YOU WANT SUPPORT BUT NEED INDEPENDENCE
This option is the most efficient one both time-wise and financially. If you do not have any business or marketing knowledge and if you don’t have a lot of finances available, there’s still a way to start your own meditation business. And it’s called: franchises. It means that you’d be buying into a franchise of an existing meditation business. The investment is a fraction of the cost compared to starting a business completely from scratch.
With an option like this one, you would be going through an internal training process. The training helps you understand the company and it will enhance your own mediation teaching skills. While you’ll also learn the essential business & marketing foundations to run your own mediation practice. Most franchises give you ready-to-use branding materials like logos, colour themes, templates, brochures etc.
If you want to run a meditation business but you don’t want to go through the whole marketing & business development process and you don’t have a ton of money to invest, this option might be the best solution for you. Some companies also offer you ongoing business development support and meditation teacher certification within their programs. One company that I can wholeheartedly recommend is Samavira Meditation, run by a true changemaker, Lauren Schuivens, who not only has an impressive business education but she’s on a mission to make our world a better place.
IS THIS THE RIGHT OPTION FOR YOU?
PROs
✅ Ready to use marketing materials
✅ Business development support
✅ Belonging to a global community
CONs
❌ Not your own branding
❌ 4-week time commitment to get certified
❌ Guidelines to adhere to
A final piece of advice for your meditation business
No matter which option you choose to start a meditation business, there’s one thing to keep in mind. Your service and product will be making a positive impact on humanity. That’s a pretty awesome thing to build a business on. Don’t be shy to talk about that and educate people on the benefits of meditation. Not only does it improve their mindset, mental health and overall wellbeing, but meditation is also an excellent tool to come up with aligned business ideas. I’m sure I don’t need to explain to you all the benefits meditation brings, I’m simply asking you to openly talk about this once you started your soulful business.
And if you ever need some business advice and authentic mentoring to help you keep going, you know where to find me.
