This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Today, we hear from a yoga teacher who decides to offer a class at a nearby community center. Now, great idea, and the class actually goes well, all except for one problem. She offers the class by donation. You know, people don't have to pay upfront. They can just come and pay what they will.
But guess what happened? Well, it didn't go so well. In fact, well, you're gonna hear more from her, but to avoid featuring her on Failure Friday, what can we do to turn this ship around? In situations where your primary or your only means of payment is by donation, are there things you can do to increase those donations? Welcome to Recital School.
My name's Chris Guillebeau. Got some good news for our listener today. The answer is absolutely. There are absolutely things you can do. So let's get on the mat and work it out and help out this yoga teacher who's trying to do donation-only yoga.
Detailed question and my answer coming right up. [Music]
Hello, Chris. This is Melissa and I'm a yoga teacher. I have been hosting a weekly yoga night at my local community center. I've done it for three weeks now and last week more than 15 people came.
The class is donation-only, but this brings me to the problem. Almost no one donates. In fact, in the first two classes, I had two people pay a small amount, but in the last class, no one did. I know that they could afford at least something, but I don't wanna be pushy. Is there a way to gently encourage more donations so that I'm not always teaching for free?
Thanks for any advice you can share with me. [Music]
Hey, Melissa, thanks for being out there. Good news. I don't think you have to teach for free. It's definitely possible to do a couple of things to increase those donations without being pushy.
And maybe the best way to explain is with a story. So a few years ago, I was in Sydney, Australia, pretty much my favorite city in the world. And I went on a walking tour. Like I had been to Sydney many times, but I thought, oh, I'll go on this walking tour. I'll learn some history.
And I did. It was a great experience. And the tour was offered on this donation only model. Now I went in kind of expecting to pay, I don't know, maybe five or $10, but by the time I left, I actually gave $20. And I felt like it was a fair price.
And the reason I increased my donation was because of the tour guide. A couple of times throughout the tour, he would gently mention that comparable tours were at least $20. I think he even said some were higher than that. And he just said, hey, if you feel like you're getting a good experience, that's a good comparison to look at. But of course, we're always happy for people to pay whatever they're able.
So it wasn't pushy at all. But I just began thinking about that comparison. And I thought, well, this is worth at least $20 to me. And so I paid that much and I was happy to do it. So what I would do in this situation here with Melissa is I would just mention the donation model at the beginning and then at the end of class as well.
Probably just quickly mention it at the beginning and then explain a bit more at the end. Just to kind of make sure it's on people's minds. And also make sure the logistics are really easy. Like it should be very simple to pay that donation. Not everybody has cash.
So do you have a square reader or some other mobile payment device for everyone who doesn't have cash? Make sure you greet people upon entrance and exiting so that there is an obvious moment where they can donate. You don't usually have to say anything at that point. It's just like, that's kind of what other people are doing. So then they feel some, again, gentle social pressure to do so.
You can do this in a way that welcomes everyone. In this situation, it sounds like everyone who's attending can afford to pay. So I don't think it is pushing it all to be more strategic about increasing those donations. So good luck, namaste. Let us know how it goes.
Listeners, if you've got a question, let us know what you're working on, sidehustleschool.com/questions. We'll continue to feature them throughout the year, along with updates from other listeners. We are now in the 2000s of episodes. I am so excited, so honored as well. And also looking forward to producing much more for you.
So tune in tomorrow. New episode coming up. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Sidehustleschool. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
