Catching the yoga bug

Catching the yoga bug

Yogabugs’ unique yoga classes have both captured the imagination of children and the interest from investors. Since turning down a £1.5 million buy-out from Dragons’ Den’s Peter Jones, Yogabugs is now franchising and going from strength to strength. Editor Alison Church meets founders Finella Lindsell and Lara Goodbody and discovers the yoga bug is out and spreading fast!

Arriving at Yogabugs’ door on a dark rainy January afternoon, I ran into founder Finella Lindsell – ‘Nell’ – sending off one of their new franchisees from a training session. Accompanied by Lara’s family dog Henry, she gave me the warmest possible welcome. I got the immediate feeling that we were not up for an hour of stuffy stilted conversation – this summed up Nell and Lara’s relaxed and personal approach to their business. As I found out, the two women have built an enviably successful business on a passion, of which they have not lost an ounce…

You have a unique concept – how did it come about?

Nell: It really hatched about 10 years ago. I had a complimentary health and yoga centre in Balham, which I bought with my husband, and we decided to create a demystified approach to the practice. We started offering pre- and post-natal classes, baby massage, baby music and then Yogabugs.  

We closed in 2003 because developers had bought the site. My brother started going out with Lara who was quietly getting on with life in Ireland; I thought she was great and said, “I’ve got this good idea”. We realised it was a great opportunity to bring yoga to children in schools and health clubs.

What made you think children would enjoy yoga?

Nell: Children have the most fantastic imagination and wonderful creativity. Through teacher training, we recognised how many children and how much interest there was from nurseries, schools and health clubs. For schools, it is a wonderful all-inclusive and non-competitive activity, and both compliments the curriculum and supports all the government activity to help reduce obesity.

Do you feel it is beneficial to offer non-competitive activities for children?

Nell: Absolutely! If a child’s hand and eye co-ordination isn’t terribly good they never get picked for any of the teams. Often a child that may have aspects of special needs – they may be autistic or have downs – has very low muscle tone so they are very flexible. Suddenly, they can put their head down on the floor when everyone else can’t.

On the other side of it, if the child is quite sporty, it helps with their agility and stamina, thereby reducing injury.

How did any Government bodies that you initially approached receive the idea of Yogabugs – were they immediately supportive?

Nell: We have had meetings with the Department of Health, but we are also working quite closely with regional schemes to see how we can come alongside the curriculum. I’ve got a meeting with the head teacher of a school next week to see how we can compliment what they are doing and support their learning achievements.

Lara: We’ve already had number of franchisees that have been successful in winning contracts with schools  – one in Surrey in 27 schools for a 12-week programme.

Yogabugs became a franchise last summer; what was it about your business that made you think franchising it would take it to the next level?

Lara: Yogabugs’ teachers tend to be very vocationalist. They love yoga, love children and want to get out and teach and are incredibly talented teachers. But when it comes to writing a letter, sending it out, following it up, selling themselves, putting invoices together, it is something that isn’t necessarily their forte. The feedback we were getting was wouldn’t it be lovely if you could offer a placement service. After delving further into it, a management franchise looked like the right way to go.

Nell:  I think what is so lovely about a franchise business is you have the benefits, opportunities and independence of running your own business, but with a group of consultants at your beck and call who aren’t breathing down your neck because they have assessed and worked together with you over a period of time. They have effectively selected you as you have selected them.

What was the biggest challenge you faced in the transition between being an independent business and a franchise?

Nell: I think probably trying to maintain a teacher-training programme and also develop and promote the franchise. We stopped doing teacher training outside the franchised areas, which was a big decision as it was an income stream.

Lara: We made that decision in September and stopped the training in December, so from the beginning of January, we have been 100 per cent focused on franchisees.

Where are you currently franchising?

Lara: Our furthest source is Scotland; we’ve also got Northamptonshire, Hertfordshire and Surrey; and today we just signed somebody up for the Sussex/Kent area.

Nell: We’ve divided up territories according to population and target audience. We’ve geographically mapped the country so that every territory has 50,000 children under the age of 12 with same socio-economic structure.

Were you worried about losing control of the personal touch and what made you unique?

Nell: I think we have learnt a lot along the journey, particularly in the past six months. At the start we embraced anyone that wanted to listen to us; now we are much more discerning.

Lara: Definitely. It is obviously Nell’s baby and I came as aunt! We are both very protective. There have been people that we have said no to. It is always debateable from a commercial point of view when you do that. When someone is offering you money and wants to buy a franchise, it is really hard to say no!

I think because the system has existed for so long, it has been quite easy bringing people in and adapting them to it. We have designed a sophisticated database structure that embraces content management; it has an e-marketing solution, financial solution and internet facility to communicate with the teachers.

What do you look for in potential franchisees?

Nell: Motivation, ambition, organisation of business skills. I think it helps to know about yoga but it is absolutely not essential, by the time you have gone through the training you’ll have a very good idea of what it’s about what it is about and how to promote it.

Lara: But they’ve got to be passionate!

You gained fame through turning down an offer from the BBC’s Dragons’ Den in 2006; what was it like?

Nell: The lights are on you; it’s reality TV so they are going to try to make your life pretty difficult for you – that’s why it makes good TV. It was an incredible experience, but the best moment was after our three-minute pitch and Richard Farley said, “you girls have blown me away”.

When we practiced beforehand, we were asked would you sell? Of course we said yes, but the feedback was that was probably not a very good answer – you want to show a bit of integrity! However, on the day, Peter Jones asked the same question, would you like to sell? We replied no, not now. He then asked, “What would you do if I offered you £1.5million?”

Perhaps we should have explored it more, but we turned it down. We weren’t prepared to dilute our business to such a point where we would then lose control. I think the greatest thing was the endorsement – Peter Jones thinks our business is good enough!

You have moments where you think wouldn’t it have been brilliant if Richard Farley had been at the helm – which would have been extremely pleasant…!

Lara: Although terribly distracting!

Are you still convinced it was the right decision?

Both: Yes!

Lara: We had a follow up series here last August and they asked us whether we regretted it. In the end, we got a much better deal, only giving up 15 per cent of the company.

Has it helped with promoting Yogabugs?

Both: Yes. Definitely.

Nell: We got about a 1,000 emails the next day (including from Finland!) and met with a lot of potential investors.

Nell is obviously the yoga guru and Lara the business guru. What makes your partnership work?

Nell: It’s a great dynamic, but I think humour and respect are fundamental to any relationship. If you can’t have a laugh and you don’t respect each other, you are never going to get anywhere. We share a huge sense of humour. Lara has brought to my eyes the most fantastic opportunity to keep it afloat. It is a very good partnership. The nice thing is that we can get cross and upset with each other, but it is actually fine.

What is your vision for the future?

Lara: This year our plan is to really consolidate out network. We’ve now got nine people on board; by the end of this year we’d like to have that up to about 40. We are looking at master franchising overseas and we have already got interest from the Middle East, the UAE, North America, Canada, US, New Zealand, and Australia  (which we’d look to master franchise), as well as five or six EU countries.

We are also looking at expanding the range of services that we offer over the next couple of years. The nutritional route is something that we’ll probably explore through the brand-licensing route.

In terms of what products we’ll be expanding for the franchisees, our next stage will be to develop a programme for the teen market, over 65s and the corporate market.

It’s funny, sometimes you have to pinch yourself and think how has this happened? I know Nell and I talk about ourselves, but we couldn’t do it without our team, Emily and Chantelle. They are absolutely brilliant. They are tireless and work like directors.

What would you say is the secret to your success?

Lara: I’d have to say just believing in what you do and being passionate about it. We have definitely had our moments, when the chips are down, but just believing in yourself gets you through.

Nell and Lara have clearly built a successful business and are enthusiastically embracing franchising as a route to rapid growth. But with this success, they have neither lost sight of the personal touch or the passion and zest for life with which they started. I can’t help but admire (and even envy) their approach that allows them to accomplish great things whilst still achieving a healthy work-life balance. I have the impression this is just the start of a great journey for the two friends.