Health and Wellness Business in South Africa Needs Funding

i.yoga is our first wellness yoga studio based in Fourways, Johannesburg, RSA. The studio was opened in 2008 and started from 0 ground and is achieving steady growth annually. We need a financial back up to continue the growth and expansion, and further expand into a chain of studios and yoga teacher academy.

Yoga and Wellness is fast growing industry, which achieved billions of dollars in USA alone. We are witnessing this successful trend, that is happening here in RSA as well, due to the ever increasing pressures of modern life. The need for natural health and wellness solutions is growing and people are looking for alternative sources of help when it comes to improving their health and well-being.
In the current economical environment many people are finding great difficulty adjusting to the changes and dealing with the pressure and stress.

i.yoga studio is a yoga studio, based in Fourways, Johannesburg. We cater for this rapidly growing pool of individuals who are looking to improve or regain lost health, maintain wellness, fitness and life longevity.

The commitment to one's health and wellness is a life long one, once the first positive results are experienced. Once yoga has been tested as a possible stress reliever and health benefit, it becomes permanent lifestyle choice for the majority.

At i.yoga centre we offer: yoga classes for fitness, for health problems (eg. nervous system, digestive problems, cardio disease, anxiety and depression etc), nutritional programmes - achieving and improving better health through food selections; yogic shop - a yoga retail outlet; yoga and wellness retreats; corporate programmes for improving employee wellness and productivity; stress management; yogi deli - specialized catering entity.
For many the centre is also a spiritual pillar to help through the difficult testing times.

The wellness and yoga market is undefined yet, however thousands of people turn to this natural healing option, due to the out-of-balance lifestyle and corporate / business environment. In our studio we have seen over 150% growth year-to-year in number of joining members. This has been achieved so far with a very conservative advertising budget due to our financial limitations. We believe with a proper financial back up the growth process can be sped up significantly.

The unique offering of i.yoga centre is creating programmes, nutritional plans and events that deal with the health issues of modern life in a holistic way. We don't just offer yoga classes but rather a solution to stress management, nutritional help, natural health therapy, maintaining balanced body and mind system, overall well-being of the individual.

Our believe is that when there is balance within, everything in the external world comes to balance as well, which leads to better health, increased productivity, personal growth and development.
We require additional funds to continue the growth and embark on further expansion. We receive requests on a regular basis for sister studios in the Southern Suburbs (Soweto and Lenaisia), Eastern Suburbs and also in the Western Suburbs of Johannesburg.
The business is managed by an ex-marketing executive

Some preliminary data:
To break even our business needs to attract 80-90 contributing members per month
The studio has a capacity to accommodate 25-35 members per class, with 13 classes currently per week

We are achieving so far 20 - 30 contributing members per month
www.iyogacentre.co.za , face book- Iyoga centre

Further we are ready to embark in creating programmes for professional sportsmen and sports teams. Yoga has been proven time and again to be very useful in increasing fitness in athletes, helping in prevention and recovery from injuries, increasing lungs capacity and ultimately improving sports outcomes and goals.
The target audience of our services is unlimited by age, gender, race or any other limitation.

We believe i.yoga centre is a good investment opportunity based on the results seen from the growth in many other Wellness studios of this kind in RSA and Worldwide.

Preliminary management data:
2009 (starting year) Turnover: R 61 400 (aprox. $ 8 800)
2010 Turnover: R 138 965 (aprox. $ 19 900)
to date 11 June 2011 Turnover: R 102 950 (aprox. $14 700)

The profitability of this venture will come from increased number of members joining the studio, and in future the studio chain of i.yoga.

Further to that, the additional programmes already contribute to the improving bottom line of i.yoga centre.
It is also important to attract more highly qualified and experienced facilitators and guest teachers to the centre.
All this will be achieved with additional funding to assist us in our running expenses and increased marketing of the centre.

The Investment is needed for our running expenses; additional branding of the centre; additional marketing; attracting more experienced teachers; setting up and expanding the yogi*shop and yogi*deli.
Over a period of 12 months we will allocate the funds to cover the above needs of the studio, and create sustainable flow of new members. Also to open an apprenticeship programme and start preparation of new, well qualified assistant teachers