FAQ: To membership or not to membership

We get a lot of feedback and we always ask for feedback (feel free to give us some!) and one of the top topics of feedback is about pricing and memberships. We would like to share some things with you that go on in our thinking process in developing Ayuh Yoga that may be helpful for you in general as well as in the topic of memberships.

(1) I already have a membership at a gym and I can't afford another membership somewhere else.

That's great! We think that there are many ways to get healthy and well. But there is a major difference between yoga, wellness and fitness in a franchised location that is huge, loud and un-focused as opposed to a place that specializes in one thing, as in our case being functional training. At a huge franchise location, the instructors are not required to have certain certifications or experience teaching yoga and we believe this is critical in expanding your practice; you really want the instructors to know what they are talking about when it comes to yoga. While we are a business, we really are most concerned with your well-being so even our personal trainers are focused on your health, not their wallets. A membership structure allows us to do that.

We know that doesn't alleviate your double membership dilemma, but we are more than happy to have a discussion about what package/pricing/discount best suits your needs.

(2) It's too expensive. I just can't afford something like that right now.

We understand this too. But you have to be willing to pay to help yourself. Ask if you are worth the expense. And then ask how much money you will save by getting well and/or staying well now versus getting sick in the future.

And more importantly, we are the cheapest in the area, if not the state, for what we offer. While some studios may offer a cheaper price for a similar package for a short time, this doesn't last for long and the price soon sky rockets. And, unlike other studios, we offer so many different types of yoga, fitness, personal training and eventually massage.

(3) I don't want to commit to something for six months.

Sometimes committing to something can be difficult especially if you tried doing that before and it didn't work out. You may have seen money go down the drain. This is why we always offer a trial membership (10 days for $20). We've noticed that during the trial membership period, people come all the time, sometimes a few times a day. And they really enjoy themselves! In their minds, they are thinking "I really need to get my twenty dollars worth to take advantage of this great bargain!" But the same logic should be applied to the full membership because it's a bargain too: "Let me make sure that I go and take advantage of that great price!" If you came everyday, that would be a bit over $3/day! Certainly well-worth the commitment.

On the business-side, it would be difficult for us to do all that we do for the price we'd like to offer it to you if we didn't have a guaranteed stream of income. If we did decide to have class packs or non-commitment prices, they would be considerably more expensive--unfortunately--to account for the potential lack of funds one month. I'm sure if your boss told you that you might not be paid next month and if you were, she didn't know how much she would pay you, you would ask for quite a bit of money that month you were paid. And we really don't want to have to do that.

(4) I just want to take classes. I don't want to do all that other stuff.

And finally, we believe that true health and wellness comes from a variety of sources including yoga and fitness, mental wellness (as in massage and yoga), personal training and nutrition. You find people who are healthy-looking, but extremely stressed out. Or people who have joined numerous weight-loss fads but don't know why they continue to put the weight back on. Or people who can lift heavy weights but have lots of internal illness. Most things that are offered out there are missing an important element. That's why you may see Bob and Jillian helping their clients overcome a fear or have a good crying session with them or take a yoga class led by Bob after a tough work-out--everything goes together in making you well. It wouldn't be real of us to say that you can just take yoga classes and eat all the fast-food you wanted and be healthy. There is a reason why elite athletes have tons of trainers, coaches, nutritionists, and counselors working with them. And we believe you're an elite athlete just waiting to come out!

Remember, you can always send feedback/questions/comments to info [at] ayuhyoga.com