Local Business Success Despite Covid-19 Challenges
In just a few weeks the landscape of business in Eastbourne has changed dramatically. From a town calling out to visitors to come to the seaside to pleas of stay home and save lives.
Here at thebestof Eastbourne we are always looking to innovate and face challenges head on and admittedly even I have put off using video in my day to day business dealings. So to see one of my clients embrace technology and transform their business in just a matter of days gave me a great deal of hope. Though this should not have come as such a surprise as The Yoga-Life Studio was runner up in this years Business of the Year awards!
We asked Eva to share with us her story about what she did to face the challenges to her business when it was confirmed lock down was needed to shave lives.
"Same as so many businesses around the globe The Yoga Life Studio in Eastbourne had to close their doors overnight due to the Covid19 pandemic. After the initial shock and fear of uncertain future and the health, mental and financial impact on our clients, teachers and the whole population there was no time to waste.
We knew that we in some way still need to provide a service for our clients, so many people rely on their yoga, breathing and meditation practice and for so many people their regular visit of the yoga studio is the highlight of their week. A time when they can recharge, refuel and clear their mind, ready for the daily challenges of our lives. We were determined to keep the studio open for our clients for as long as possible but that didn’t last very long.
Neither I nor the rest of the Yoga Life teachers are internet wiz kids so the prospect of teaching online was very daunting. Everything was very overwhelming and surreal but somehow overnight I managed to set up several online classes using Zoom, purchased a microphone and with the help of friends and family converted our studio into a recording space, complete with a big screen.
It was a steep learning curve for all of us! But with patience and determination we made it work. Our teachers set up a little support group and we all shared our online teaching experiences, dos and don’ts, had trial runs and asked our clients for feedback. We started to deliver several daily online classes, some from the studio and some from our teacher’s living rooms. We learnt so much! I cannot believe that only 2 weeks ago we didn’t know any of this and now we are all delivering classes to general public, online.
As well as our regular clients who were so happy to continue with their classes we reached a much wider audience. We could not believe the amount of people from all over the world who started joining our live yoga classes. We have participants from Guernsey, Denmark, France, Pakistan, Israel and even Australia! With numbers growing.
Our clients are so grateful that they can still join us online and be part of our fabulous community. After all that’s what people are missing most.. Contact with others and being able to connect. Now we feel that through providing online classes people can still see each other, wave and chat and take part in a class together. It is really important to me as a teacher that I can still help someone and make them feel better, calmer and happier.
We had some amazing feedback and so much gratitude from regulars and from complete strangers for us adapting to the current situation and still looking after our community that is now growing internationally. We will carry on uniting the international yoga community even after all this is over."
We are so proud of Eva and what the team at
The Yoga-Life Studio have achieved and encourage you to give a class a try!
