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Yoga Kawa is giving a new meaning to downward dog

By Wave
By Wave
Reviewed by
February 26, 2020
5 minutes read

Echo is the founder of Yoga Kawa, a Toronto-based yoga company with an adorable twist. Yoga Kawa specializes in puppy yoga as away to improve both physical and mental health.

Tell us a little bit about your business

I created Yoga Kawa to inspire, educate and motivate others towards a healthy and fit lifestyle – physically, mentally and emotionally. Since most of us spend more time at work and home, to achieve this mission Yoga Kawa focuses on creating engaging on-site health and wellness programs in corporate offices, condos and yoga studios, and connecting high-quality fitness & wellness instructors to our customers.

Even though I have been teaching yoga for close to 9 years and dreaming about starting my own business for more than 4 years, Yoga Kawa is only 1 year old! What propelled me to finally start was the number of regular students urging me to create training and certification programs that they can enroll in, learn from my style and philosophy and become quality yoga teachers. After some planning, Yoga Kawa was created to be the company that not only certifies and trains teachers on teaching yoga but also offers them class placement opportunities. The latter is not a focus for many yoga schools out there, therefore, I want Yoga Kawa to be the school where newly graduated teachers won’t feel too concerned with not having classes to share their passion and elevate their skills.

With that vision in mind, I have been acquiring more customers for corporate and condo yoga where I can connect them with teachers that I personally trained or qualified and whom I am confident of their teaching style and effectiveness. At the same time, I launched puppy yoga to expand our love and kindness for our four-legged friends and to share this practice of compassion to teachers and students.

Was there something that made you want to become an entrepreneur?

The satisfaction of calling something your own was a great motivator to become an entrepreneur. After riding through the ups & downs of entrepreneurship in the 1st year, it has further validated my belief that entrepreneurship is one of the best platforms for self-improvement. In building Yoga Kawa, I have this wonderful opportunity to leverage my business degree and work experience and combine my passion for yoga and meditation.

What is one piece of advice you'd give to somebody starting a new business?

Can I give two? These two pieces of advice are for those who are serious about their business and would invest in its growth. I strongly advise everyone to invest in and work with proven experts who have integrity and have past work to show. There were a few times that poor quality work from my vendors that came back to haunt me. It’s easier to win new clients than to convert existing customers who already feel you do poor work. So, make sure you work with experts.

The second piece of advice is to automate your business process with the help of technology – software and apps.

Not only do you make it easier for your customer to work with you but it shows your customers that your business is keeping up with the modern world, the digital age. We definitely don’t want to go overboard with all the fancy bells and whistles but the right implementation can help you reduce business cost, increase your productivity and help you track and store data for legal and tax purposes. Some of the apps I love include Wave, Typeform, Salesforce and Wellness Living.

What do you love most about your business?

I love everything about my business, it is such a challenge and holds so many promises. The most rewarding part is always the people for me – the experts I work with, the students I train, and the customers who believe in our mission.

Do you have struggles as an entrepreneur? What keeps you up at night?

Both struggles and promising events keep me up at night and it’s always about finding more time – to either solve current challenges or to jump on more opportunities! The areas that I don’t have the time to become an expert or stay abreast to industry trends and changes would be bookkeeping, tax, accounting, and legal.

What has surprised you since starting your own business?

Fortunately, everything has been planned for – even the downs in this fun journey. Truthfully, I didn’t expect to make any profit in the first year, but we made our first profit in the 3rd month!

Where do you see yourself taking Yoga Kawa next?

I dream about Yoga Kawa inspiring, motivating and educating people around the world! So I definitely want to take the business internationally, but first, let’s expand in Canada first, coast to coast.

Outside of work, what are some of your hobbies, interests or pastimes?

Besides my pursuit in yoga, I also enjoy travelling, scuba diving, surfing, Latin dancing and playing board games.

starter
Plan
starter
Plan
$0
pro
Plan
$16USD
$20CAD/mo
Option to accept online payments
Starting at
2.9% + $0.60
per credit card transaction
Starting at
2.9% + $0*
per credit card transaction
for first 10 transactions/mo
Unlimited invoices, estimates, bills
Add your logo and brand colors
Automate late payment reminders
with online payments
Wave mobile app
Unlimited bookkeeping records
Dashboard and reports
Auto-import transactions
Auto-merge transactions
Auto-categorize transactions
Add users
Live-person chat and email support
with any paid add-on
Digitally capture unlimited receipts
additional fee
Payroll
additional fee
additional fee
Hire a bookkeeper
additional fee
additional fee
Option to accept online payments
Starting at
2.9% + $0.60
per credit card transaction
Starting at
2.9% + $0*
per credit card transaction
for first 10 transactions/mo
Unlimited invoices, estimates, bills
Add your logo and brand colors
Automate late payment reminders
with online payments
Wave mobile app
Unlimited bookkeeping records
Dashboard and reports
Auto-import transactions
Auto-merge transactions
Auto-categorize transactions
Add users
Live-person chat and email support
with any paid add-on
Digitally capture unlimited receipts
additional fee
Payroll
additional fee
additional fee
Hire a bookkeeper
additional fee
additional fee
starter
Plan
$0
Legacy businesses
New businesses
pro
Plan
$16USD or
$20CAD/mo
starter
Plan
$0
Legacy businesses
New businesses
pro
Plan
$16USD or
$20CAD/mo
Invoicing + payments
Option to accept online payments
(and create unique links with checkouts)
Starting at
2.9% + $0.60
per credit card transaction
Starting at
2.9% + $0.60
per credit card transaction
Starting at
2.9% + $0*
per credit card transaction
for first 10 transactions/mo

Send invoices, estimates, and other docs:

  • via links or PDFs
  • automatically, via Wave
with online payments
with online payments
Automate late payment reminders
with online payments
with online payments
Add your logo and brand colors
Remove Wave branding from footers
Add attachments to invoices and estimates (NEW!)
Create reusable message templates (NEW!)
Invoice and estimate in the mobile app
Accounting
Unlimited bookkeeping records
Auto-import bank transactions
Auto-merge and categorize transactions
Add users to your business
businesses already auto-importing bank transactions and/or that already have users added to their businesses as of May 1, 2024
Digitally capture unlimited receipts
with receipts add-on
with receipts add-on
Manage accounting transactions in the mobile app and sync with desktop (NEW!)
with receipts add-on
with receipts add-on
Other Wave features
Dashboard and reports
Live-person chat + email support
with any optional add-on
with any optional add-on
Optional add-ons
Receipts
nothing changes
additional fee
included
Payroll
nothing changes
additional fee
additional fee
Advisors
nothing changes
additional fee
additional fee
Invoicing + payments
Option to accept online payments
(and create unique links with checkouts)
Starting at
2.9% + $0.60
per credit card transaction
Starting at
2.9% + $0.60
per credit card transaction
Starting at
2.9% + $0*
per credit card transaction for first 10 transactions/mo
Send invoices, estimates, and other docs via links or PDFs
Send invoices, estimates, and other docs automatically, via Wave
with online payments
with online payments
Automate late payment reminders
with online payments
with online payments
Add your logo and brand colors
Remove Wave branding from footers
Add attachments to invoices and estimates (NEW!)
Create reusable message templates (coming NEW!)
Invoice and estimate in the mobile app
Accounting
Unlimited bookkeeping records
Auto-import, -merge, and -categorize bank transactions
businesses already auto-importing bank transactions and/or that already have users added to their businesses as of May 1, 2024
Add users to your business
businesses already auto-importing bank transactions and/or that already have users added to their businesses as of May 1, 2024
Digitally capture unlimited receipts
with receipts add-on
with receipts add-on
Manage accounting transactions in the mobile app and sync with desktop (NEW!)
with receipts add-on
with receipts add-on
Other Wave features
Dashboard and reports
Live-person chat + email support
with any optional add-on
with any optional add-on
Optional add-ons
Receipts
nothing changes
additional fee
included
Payroll
nothing changes
additional fee
additional fee
Advisors
nothing changes
additional fee
additional fee

*While subscribed to Wave’s Pro Plan, get 2.9% + $0 (Visa, Mastercard, Discover) and 3.4% + $0 (Amex) per transaction for the first 10 transactions of each month of your subscription, then 2.9% + $0.60 (Visa, Mastercard, Discover) and 3.4% + $0.60 (Amex) per transaction. Discover processing is only available to US customers. See full terms and conditions for the US and Canada. See Wave’s Terms of Service for more information.

By Wave
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The information and tips shared on this blog are meant to be used as learning and personal development tools as you launch, run and grow your business. While a good place to start, these articles should not take the place of personalized advice from professionals. As our lawyers would say: “All content on Wave’s blog is intended for informational purposes only. It should not be considered legal or financial advice.” Additionally, Wave is the legal copyright holder of all materials on the blog, and others cannot re-use or publish it without our written consent.

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