We were lucky to catch up with April Borge recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi April, thanks for joining us today. The first dollar your business earns is always special and we’d love to hear how your brand made its first dollar of revenue.

There is a lot of skill needed in business but we often forget that a huge part of business is sheer dumb luck. I was lucky enough to be opening a studio at the same time the local brewery, Grapevine Craft Brewery (now Hop and Sting), was changing ownership. I wasn’t the only new kid on the block now and what better way to take this leap into the unknown than to do it together. A partnership was born. The brewery owners allowed us to “open shop” in their production space to offer free yoga classes to the community while our studio was still being built. We didn’t know if anyone would show up. But they did. We now had potential members to promote to and the brewery had a full beer garden at the start of business. It was so excited for all of us! We realized we had lucked into our first opportunity to sell memberships before our doors had even opened and we weren’t about to let the opportunity slip away. We printed out our Founding Membership Pricing Guide, hooked up to the wifi, and announced I would be available after class to answer questions and take membership payments. I sat at my table and waited nervously that no one would want to join. And then it happened. There was a line of actual people who believed in me; people who were willing to commit to a membership to an unfinished studio with no walls or ceilings. I’ll never forget our first Founding Member, Sarah D., who was so sweet and complementary. And as we ran her credit card and sent the receipt, all the blood drained from body and everything went silent. I wasn’t just having some fun yoga classes at the brewery anymore. Now I was an actual business with promises to keep. Now the real work began. I’ll never forget the line that formed and the stack of membership contracts I went home with that day. And I’ll never forget the names of the people who believed in me before I really believed in myself. Those people, and some dumb luck, turned hope into a reality.

April, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Once in middle school, there was a school project where we had to research a job that we wanted someday. There was a stack of cards with titles and job descriptions. I picked CEO. Of what? Didn’t matter. I knew I was going to run a business someday. In my wildest dreams, I wouldn’t have guessed it would be yoga studios. After being a stay at home mom for over a decade, I knew I was ready to jump back into the workforce. My last bucket list item before juggling being a working mom was to take 200 Hr Yoga Teacher Training at my yoga studio Inspire Yoga in Highland Village, TX. I was scared. I confess my interest in anatomy is nil, but I loved the yoga business modules! If I felt unsure of how to cue, I felt confident in my assessment of yoga business practices. Before even finishing my training my husband and I had met with the owners of Inspire Yoga and asked if they would like to expand their brand to Grapevine, TX. It was preposterous at best. Why would a business that had been successfully operating for almost a decade trust a person with no business experience to expand their brand? I think it came down to tenacity. They knew I would work to make this new shared vision a reality. And work we did.
I knew Grapevine needed a yoga studio alternative to what was currently being offered. Our unique and creative style of hot vinyasa was a welcomed change to the current offerings of set sequence studios. Within a few short months, the word was out that Inspire Yoga had come to town and that it was not just a place to take yoga, but it was FUN. Classes like Bend and Brew became a chance for the members to get to know each other. Now coming to class was a chance to catch up with friends AND wind down from the week. Our instructors are professional and friendly allowing the members to feel like they are safe to try new things. At the end of the day, we are most proud to be able to give people a safe place to be themselves and meet new people. It really is a home away from home.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Like every small business owner in 2020, Covid has become synonymous with the concept of pivoting. Inspire Yoga had no intention of closing but as things became more serious, we knew we had no option. A late night call on a Sunday evening with our management team made it official. Inspire Yoga was closed for the foreseeable future. On one hand, it was a relief. Running a business is a lot of work and this could provide a time to rest and regroup. But deep down I knew we couldn’t lay low and wait for this to blow over. By Monday afternoon, I had a plan. I met with 2 instructors and asked if they would be willing to try live streaming a class from a little known video service called Zoom. We set up a time to meet and sent out the link to members who had registered for the now canceled evening yoga class. After the 30 min online trial class, we sent out a follow up email with a list of questions about the experience so we could begin to see if there was a desire for this new online service and what problems we were up against. The response was overwhelmingly positive! We hit the ground running with a new business model. We had to rethink how to deliver the product, how to monetize the product, how to improve the product, and how to record the product for future use. By Tuesday, we had 80 people signed up for our first 60 min. Zoom Yoga Class. By the end of class, the 2 instructors and myself were in tears. It was clear that our members need us now more than ever. You could feel the sense of community washing away the fear of isolation and uncertainty. Our ability to act decisively and learn on the fly kept our business afloat while we navigated business in a new world.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

You develop a thick skin as a business owner, but Covid made everyone scared. Businesses were closing everywhere you looked and you had to wonder if you were next. The future was not promised. But with these closures came opportunity. Vacant retail spaces were popping up everywhere and landlords were willing to negotiate to keep tenants in their spaces. I knew it was a risk to expand our business during a global pandemic. It becomes even more improbable when you consider that my product involves people breathing together in an enclosed space which is exactly what we were all avoiding. But I also knew that people were going to need a place to deal with this trauma when they were ready. It was a gamble but when a second generation space came available, My husband I knew it was now or never. We had to decided to not just bet on ourselves, but bet on the fact that people were going to need what we offer; a safe place to be together and calm our minds and bodies. We opened our doors to Inspire Yoga Colleyville in Oct of 2020 and now had 2 studios to grow after the economic downturn. I’d be lying if I said it was easy. There were a lot of sleepless nights and tears. We doubted ourselves and questioned our decisions, But we held strong. The upward slope of our attendance and sales is now a thing of beauty and proof that it’s better to try and possibly fail than to never try at all.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://inspireyoga.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inspireyogagrapevine/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iygrapevine
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpsn-X36xWgoYCHOrj1_9UQ
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/inspire-yoga-grapevine-grapevine

Image Credits
Anna Compotaro Photography