There is more to planning a successful retreat than many people think. It's not enough to choose a retreat destination, plan your workshops, decide what activities you are going to include and figure out how you are going to get your participants from A to B, although that in itself is quite a workload.
The biggest mistake I see people making when they plan their retreat is not having a strategic business plan. Yes I’ve said it: it’s a business. You can disagree with me all you want, but regardless of your motivation wanting to run a retreat, the idea of bringing spiritual enlightenment to mankind or spreading the love of yoga to the world does not a successful retreat make. You’ve heard the statistic that 1/3 of all new businesses fail. Same goes for retreats. In fact I’d say probably more for retreats, in my experience in this industry. But why?
With Spiritual Travel being one of the biggest trends at the moment with no signs of slowing down, logic would dictate that if there’s a market for something and you create a product or service to cater to that market, you should be successful, right? There’s a bit more to it than that. These are some of the most important factors to take into consideration when planning your retreat to make sure you don’t fall into that third of the statistic:
It's All in the Promotion
The biggest mistake I see people making when they plan their retreat is not having a strategic business plan. Yes I’ve said it: it’s a business. You can disagree with me all you want, but regardless of your motivation wanting to run a retreat, the idea of bringing spiritual enlightenment to mankind or spreading the love of yoga to the world does not a successful retreat make. You’ve heard the statistic that 1/3 of all new businesses fail. Same goes for retreats. In fact I’d say probably more for retreats, in my experience in this industry. But why?
With Spiritual Travel being one of the biggest trends at the moment with no signs of slowing down, logic would dictate that if there’s a market for something and you create a product or service to cater to that market, you should be successful, right? There’s a bit more to it than that. These are some of the most important factors to take into consideration when planning your retreat to make sure you don’t fall into that third of the statistic:
It's All in the Promotion
Retreat participants often will make their retreat choice based on the teacher they want to be travelling with. It’s important to work your local client base you already have a connection with. Recruiting participants is generally easier for those well-established in their field of practice and have been doing it for a while. But regardless of your popularity or time in your chosen industry, you can advertise in the studios where you teach, make posters and hand out flyers. You can e-mail invitations to those in your student/client database. Having a newsletter that people sign up for via your website is a great vehicle for spreading the word and recruiting loyal followers. If you don’t have one, set that up.
You can also expand your marketing via the Internet to people you don’t know yet. Work the social media and get involved in online community groups of people that share the interest in your profession, be it yoga or holistic healing or naturopathy. In fact, a lot of the alternative healing vocations share ideologies and overlap each other in different aspects, so exploring social groups in fields semi-related to your own may garner you some new contacts. If you are running a yoga detox retreat, a lot of raw foodies who may not necessarily be part of yoga groups would be interested, for example.
It's not just about where, but when. Timing is everything. Advertising a detox retreat pretty much anywhere after the Christmas holidays would also probably get some interest. Even if you are planning your retreat in a tropical climate during the summer months - advertising it in the winter while there's still snow on the ground will give people more of a motivational push. With the New Year also comes the resolutions that people make. Marketing anything health related at the beginning of the year is sure to get takers. Use the different times of year to target your market. And don't feel you need to just post your retreat poster every time. Be different. Make people remember you. After a while all the retreat posters start to look the same. This is an example of something I've posted in a Vancouver based yoga teacher's forum that uses a photo that was taken just a few days before (in Vancouver) during a late snow storm. You could use something like this with modified comments and put a link to your retreat info. Making posts specific to the groups of people you are marketing to, that they can relate to and combining that with relevant timing is a great way to make a connection with your audience.
This is something extremely important to bear in mind: when using social media as a marketing tool, it’s not enough just to post and run – you need to make connections with people. It’s about mind-share not market-share. People will gravitate toward products or services (and the people offering them) that they feel a connection with: the stronger your connection – the better your chances. Get involved! Start and join discussions. ‘Meet’ people. That’s how you network. And whether they’re ‘friends’ or in your ‘circles’ or you’re ‘linked’ to them, they are now part of your marketing database.
Time to promote
The second biggest mistake I see people making when planning a retreat is not leaving themselves enough time to promote it and recruit participants. Again, especially if you are new to running retreats, it’s going to take you longer to get people signed up than say someone who’s had their photo on the cover of Yoga Journal magazine. Realistically, if you’re starting from scratch and you don't have a huge fan database, start planning a year in advance.
Risk
Retreat planning carries risks – both financial and professional. All venues require deposits to guarantee your space, from several hundred dollars to thousands, depending on the length of stay and number of participants. You need to enlist enough participants to cover your investment (and ideally to make some on top), otherwise you will lose money. Even if you’re not doing it for the money, sunshine and rainbows and a positive outlook on life doesn’t pay the bills.
But it’s not just about the money. If you run a retreat, even if you do get your numbers, and your retreat doesn’t meet your participants’ expectations, your professional reputation could take a beating as well… which brings us to our next point:
Managing Participant Expectations
No one can create a retreat that is meant for everyone. Don‘t get stuck in the trap trying to be everything to everyone. It’s not possible. Instead, decide what you are going to do and market that. If someone doesn’t like it, then it’s not the right retreat for them. Don’t try to persuade someone, if you know it’s not what they're looking for. You are not doing yourself or your participants any favours by having someone there who is disappointed. Negative energy is contagious. There are 6 billion people on the planet – surely you can find 10 that really want to be there.
When you choose your location, you want to know about the place you are going, not only so you don’t book your retreat at the height of monsoon season, but so you can prepare your participants; especially for things they might not be accustomed to if it’s in a foreign country. Are there special cultural considerations they need to be aware of? If you’re doing your retreat in a tropical climate, you might want to warn them that yes, you may get an ant in your room… it’s the tropics. There may be gekkos living on the roof of the workshop space because it’s open. You’d be surprised at how many people are out-of-touch with nature and come ill-equipped to deal with it. It’s your job to prepare them. If people are made aware of the situation before hand, they will be okay with it. If you let them know and they choose to come – it’s their choice.
Part of your pre-retreat preparation should include spending some time with each participant individually getting to know them and what they look to get out of the retreat and letting them know what to expect. Now you can do this by email, but Skype (or something similar) is a much more effective and personal way to do that, if your participants don’t live near you.
Pre-Retreat Contract
Although this falls under participant expectation management, I though it was worthy of its own sub heading. Clarifying financials and other technicalities in the form of a contract can help smooth things out in the case of conflicts and in most cases, avoid them altogether. As the retreat leader, you have to front the money to book the venue. If someone books the retreat, you can't sell that space to someone else if they cancel last minute. The participant should be responsible for a portion of your lost income in case of cancellation.
Your contract or sign up form should list cancellation and refund policies. It can remind students to be responsible for getting health insurance if their home policy doesn't cover them. It can also include a waiver that reminds students that their safety is their own responsibility. The contract should spell out what the fee does and does not include: which meals are covered, which optional activities are included, whether any airfare or ground transportation is included, etc.
You should also have emergency contacts for everyone and ask about allergies or medical issues that could potentially be an issue.
And for the love of god, DO NOT ask them about their dietary requirements! You are never going to be able to feed people on a vegetarian/vegan/gluten-free/no soy/no dairy menu. Unless it’s a specific kind of detox retreat revolving around the diet for which you made the menu, there is no way your venue will be able to cater to everyone’s preferences. All you’ll have is really crap food and unhappy participants. Doesn’t matter how fantastic your retreat is – if the food isn’t good, that’s what they’ll remember. Regardless of the latest diet trend, if you say: “hey, this retreat is vegetarian” (for example), they’ll all be okay with that. Just pick a food style and stick with it. The only exceptions that should be made are for serious allergies… and I don’t mean the latest fashionable “intolerance” to things (lactose notwithstanding) - I mean real allergies.
Venue Booking
Booking a venue abroad you’ve never seen based on photos from their website is a giant leap of faith. This is where the bulk of your retreat investment will be parked, so you want to make sure you know what you are getting. When we first started our retreat planning business, our initial thought was to get as many venue partners on board to have a huge selection for our retreat leaders to choose from. But once we started doing site inspections, I was shocked at what we’d found - from pools that were green, to staff who were poorly trained, couldn’t speak English and had no idea about customer service. We saw places in desperate need of maintenance, and others that were just plain dirty, workshop spaces where you could hear the traffic, eating areas directly beside a busy main street, and there’s nothing better to give you that feel of being in a penitentiary than barbed wired fencing. Not to mention all the places that had photos on their website of the beach that I thought they were overlooking that they were nowhere near. From this learning experience, we decided to offer a much shorter, select choice of venues instead – places we know that would be able to host a great retreat. Choosing the right venue for your retreat sight unseen can be a real gamble.
Unfortunately, not everyone has the luxury of being able to hop on a plane and go down to the country of their choice to check out the venues. One of the best ways to find out about a retreat venue is to talk to someone who has led a retreat there. Just keep in mind, not every retreat venue will be perfectly suited to your retreat. Depending on what you are doing in your workshops and also on your participant demographics, certain venues will suit your retreat better than others.
Organize it yourself or get someone else to do it?
There are retreat organizing agencies in different countries that take a percentage of retreat sales for their planning and organizing services. So it goes to argue that you’d make more money if you organize it yourself.
That being said, it’s always good to have a partner on the ground in the location you’re running your retreat because they are there and have (presumably) done site inspections so you don’t end up in a dive that had pretty pictures on their website. They should have all the contacts to help you organize all the logistics, which can be a bit of a nightmare if you’re trying to do that from abroad.
But what if you have a place in mind that your good friend has been to and you’ve got it all sorted on your own? Don’t forget - sometimes sh*t happens. What if someone loses their passport, has a medical emergency, you’re having problems communicating with the venue staff because their English is not so good, if a participant rented a motorbike during their free time and hit someone? Having a team there that is well versed in procedure of the country you’re in and speaks the language, can be invaluable and give you the peace of mind that whatever happens, you’ll have the help you need to handle it.
Now specifically speaking about Bali, as this is the ‘Bali Retreat Planning Blog’, there is only one full service retreat organizer on the island. That’s us: Bali Biu Retreat Company. Now the difference between us and all the rest is that we don’t charge for our consultation, planning and organizing services. We don’t take any commission and all the retreat leader pays for are the things they would pay for if they were organizing the retreat on their own (i.e. the venue, activities and transport). We have all the contacts for any activity you can possibly dream up that you want to include as part of the retreat and we deal directly with them, if we don’t run the activity ourselves, so there’s no one in between taking their cut off the top. We have special contract rates with our venue partners and in most cases can book your venue at a better price than if you tried to book it on your own. Some of the venues give us better rates than others, so some are the same price, but it’s never more than booking it on your own. We have all of our own drivers, all of whom speak English (which should be a given, but you’d be surprised).
Not only do we handle logistics, at the discretion of the group leader, we will also handle the pre-retreat management for the participants for anything that is not directly related to the retreat workshops. So instead of getting 100 emails asking if there is an ATM nearby, if they can buy razors here, do they need to take malaria tablets, what kind of Visa they need, etc., etc., having to find out, then having to write back and respond, we handle all of that so you can focus on planning your workshops. We also fill them in on the “things you need to know about travelling to Indonesia”, which includes things from Visa info, to weather, to suggested packing list and things like warning your bank and credit card company you’ll be travelling abroad so they don’t freeze your account when your cards are used in another country - stuff they might not think about.
We are also on-site during the retreat to make sure everything runs smoothly. If there are any problems or requests, like the a/c isn’t working, where can I find nail clippers/plug adaptors/tampons/mosquito repellent?, why can't I connect to the WiFi? We will take care of that so the only thing you need to worry about is leading your retreat. We will also organize any free time activities for the participants - again, one less thing you need to worry about.
In short, we handle the details, you lead your retreat. It’s so much easier and it’s more cost-effective than doing it on your own. So back to the question – organize it or get someone else to do it? For Bali, can you think of a reason not to let us help you take the load off?
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us at:
info@balibiuretreatcompany.com
or visit our website: www.balibiuretreatcompany.com
Come and join our Bali Retreat Planning group on Facebook.
You can also expand your marketing via the Internet to people you don’t know yet. Work the social media and get involved in online community groups of people that share the interest in your profession, be it yoga or holistic healing or naturopathy. In fact, a lot of the alternative healing vocations share ideologies and overlap each other in different aspects, so exploring social groups in fields semi-related to your own may garner you some new contacts. If you are running a yoga detox retreat, a lot of raw foodies who may not necessarily be part of yoga groups would be interested, for example.
It's not just about where, but when. Timing is everything. Advertising a detox retreat pretty much anywhere after the Christmas holidays would also probably get some interest. Even if you are planning your retreat in a tropical climate during the summer months - advertising it in the winter while there's still snow on the ground will give people more of a motivational push. With the New Year also comes the resolutions that people make. Marketing anything health related at the beginning of the year is sure to get takers. Use the different times of year to target your market. And don't feel you need to just post your retreat poster every time. Be different. Make people remember you. After a while all the retreat posters start to look the same. This is an example of something I've posted in a Vancouver based yoga teacher's forum that uses a photo that was taken just a few days before (in Vancouver) during a late snow storm. You could use something like this with modified comments and put a link to your retreat info. Making posts specific to the groups of people you are marketing to, that they can relate to and combining that with relevant timing is a great way to make a connection with your audience.
 |
| Do
you really think your participants would need another reason to sign up
for your retreat? Come and connect with us to find out your options and start planning your Bali retreat for next winter. |
This is something extremely important to bear in mind: when using social media as a marketing tool, it’s not enough just to post and run – you need to make connections with people. It’s about mind-share not market-share. People will gravitate toward products or services (and the people offering them) that they feel a connection with: the stronger your connection – the better your chances. Get involved! Start and join discussions. ‘Meet’ people. That’s how you network. And whether they’re ‘friends’ or in your ‘circles’ or you’re ‘linked’ to them, they are now part of your marketing database.
Time to promote
The second biggest mistake I see people making when planning a retreat is not leaving themselves enough time to promote it and recruit participants. Again, especially if you are new to running retreats, it’s going to take you longer to get people signed up than say someone who’s had their photo on the cover of Yoga Journal magazine. Realistically, if you’re starting from scratch and you don't have a huge fan database, start planning a year in advance.
Risk
Retreat planning carries risks – both financial and professional. All venues require deposits to guarantee your space, from several hundred dollars to thousands, depending on the length of stay and number of participants. You need to enlist enough participants to cover your investment (and ideally to make some on top), otherwise you will lose money. Even if you’re not doing it for the money, sunshine and rainbows and a positive outlook on life doesn’t pay the bills.
But it’s not just about the money. If you run a retreat, even if you do get your numbers, and your retreat doesn’t meet your participants’ expectations, your professional reputation could take a beating as well… which brings us to our next point:
Managing Participant Expectations
No one can create a retreat that is meant for everyone. Don‘t get stuck in the trap trying to be everything to everyone. It’s not possible. Instead, decide what you are going to do and market that. If someone doesn’t like it, then it’s not the right retreat for them. Don’t try to persuade someone, if you know it’s not what they're looking for. You are not doing yourself or your participants any favours by having someone there who is disappointed. Negative energy is contagious. There are 6 billion people on the planet – surely you can find 10 that really want to be there.
When you choose your location, you want to know about the place you are going, not only so you don’t book your retreat at the height of monsoon season, but so you can prepare your participants; especially for things they might not be accustomed to if it’s in a foreign country. Are there special cultural considerations they need to be aware of? If you’re doing your retreat in a tropical climate, you might want to warn them that yes, you may get an ant in your room… it’s the tropics. There may be gekkos living on the roof of the workshop space because it’s open. You’d be surprised at how many people are out-of-touch with nature and come ill-equipped to deal with it. It’s your job to prepare them. If people are made aware of the situation before hand, they will be okay with it. If you let them know and they choose to come – it’s their choice.
Part of your pre-retreat preparation should include spending some time with each participant individually getting to know them and what they look to get out of the retreat and letting them know what to expect. Now you can do this by email, but Skype (or something similar) is a much more effective and personal way to do that, if your participants don’t live near you.
Pre-Retreat Contract
Although this falls under participant expectation management, I though it was worthy of its own sub heading. Clarifying financials and other technicalities in the form of a contract can help smooth things out in the case of conflicts and in most cases, avoid them altogether. As the retreat leader, you have to front the money to book the venue. If someone books the retreat, you can't sell that space to someone else if they cancel last minute. The participant should be responsible for a portion of your lost income in case of cancellation.
Your contract or sign up form should list cancellation and refund policies. It can remind students to be responsible for getting health insurance if their home policy doesn't cover them. It can also include a waiver that reminds students that their safety is their own responsibility. The contract should spell out what the fee does and does not include: which meals are covered, which optional activities are included, whether any airfare or ground transportation is included, etc.
You should also have emergency contacts for everyone and ask about allergies or medical issues that could potentially be an issue.
And for the love of god, DO NOT ask them about their dietary requirements! You are never going to be able to feed people on a vegetarian/vegan/gluten-free/no soy/no dairy menu. Unless it’s a specific kind of detox retreat revolving around the diet for which you made the menu, there is no way your venue will be able to cater to everyone’s preferences. All you’ll have is really crap food and unhappy participants. Doesn’t matter how fantastic your retreat is – if the food isn’t good, that’s what they’ll remember. Regardless of the latest diet trend, if you say: “hey, this retreat is vegetarian” (for example), they’ll all be okay with that. Just pick a food style and stick with it. The only exceptions that should be made are for serious allergies… and I don’t mean the latest fashionable “intolerance” to things (lactose notwithstanding) - I mean real allergies.
Venue Booking
Booking a venue abroad you’ve never seen based on photos from their website is a giant leap of faith. This is where the bulk of your retreat investment will be parked, so you want to make sure you know what you are getting. When we first started our retreat planning business, our initial thought was to get as many venue partners on board to have a huge selection for our retreat leaders to choose from. But once we started doing site inspections, I was shocked at what we’d found - from pools that were green, to staff who were poorly trained, couldn’t speak English and had no idea about customer service. We saw places in desperate need of maintenance, and others that were just plain dirty, workshop spaces where you could hear the traffic, eating areas directly beside a busy main street, and there’s nothing better to give you that feel of being in a penitentiary than barbed wired fencing. Not to mention all the places that had photos on their website of the beach that I thought they were overlooking that they were nowhere near. From this learning experience, we decided to offer a much shorter, select choice of venues instead – places we know that would be able to host a great retreat. Choosing the right venue for your retreat sight unseen can be a real gamble.
Unfortunately, not everyone has the luxury of being able to hop on a plane and go down to the country of their choice to check out the venues. One of the best ways to find out about a retreat venue is to talk to someone who has led a retreat there. Just keep in mind, not every retreat venue will be perfectly suited to your retreat. Depending on what you are doing in your workshops and also on your participant demographics, certain venues will suit your retreat better than others.
Organize it yourself or get someone else to do it?
There are retreat organizing agencies in different countries that take a percentage of retreat sales for their planning and organizing services. So it goes to argue that you’d make more money if you organize it yourself.
That being said, it’s always good to have a partner on the ground in the location you’re running your retreat because they are there and have (presumably) done site inspections so you don’t end up in a dive that had pretty pictures on their website. They should have all the contacts to help you organize all the logistics, which can be a bit of a nightmare if you’re trying to do that from abroad.
But what if you have a place in mind that your good friend has been to and you’ve got it all sorted on your own? Don’t forget - sometimes sh*t happens. What if someone loses their passport, has a medical emergency, you’re having problems communicating with the venue staff because their English is not so good, if a participant rented a motorbike during their free time and hit someone? Having a team there that is well versed in procedure of the country you’re in and speaks the language, can be invaluable and give you the peace of mind that whatever happens, you’ll have the help you need to handle it.
Now specifically speaking about Bali, as this is the ‘Bali Retreat Planning Blog’, there is only one full service retreat organizer on the island. That’s us: Bali Biu Retreat Company. Now the difference between us and all the rest is that we don’t charge for our consultation, planning and organizing services. We don’t take any commission and all the retreat leader pays for are the things they would pay for if they were organizing the retreat on their own (i.e. the venue, activities and transport). We have all the contacts for any activity you can possibly dream up that you want to include as part of the retreat and we deal directly with them, if we don’t run the activity ourselves, so there’s no one in between taking their cut off the top. We have special contract rates with our venue partners and in most cases can book your venue at a better price than if you tried to book it on your own. Some of the venues give us better rates than others, so some are the same price, but it’s never more than booking it on your own. We have all of our own drivers, all of whom speak English (which should be a given, but you’d be surprised).
Not only do we handle logistics, at the discretion of the group leader, we will also handle the pre-retreat management for the participants for anything that is not directly related to the retreat workshops. So instead of getting 100 emails asking if there is an ATM nearby, if they can buy razors here, do they need to take malaria tablets, what kind of Visa they need, etc., etc., having to find out, then having to write back and respond, we handle all of that so you can focus on planning your workshops. We also fill them in on the “things you need to know about travelling to Indonesia”, which includes things from Visa info, to weather, to suggested packing list and things like warning your bank and credit card company you’ll be travelling abroad so they don’t freeze your account when your cards are used in another country - stuff they might not think about.
We are also on-site during the retreat to make sure everything runs smoothly. If there are any problems or requests, like the a/c isn’t working, where can I find nail clippers/plug adaptors/tampons/mosquito repellent?, why can't I connect to the WiFi? We will take care of that so the only thing you need to worry about is leading your retreat. We will also organize any free time activities for the participants - again, one less thing you need to worry about.
In short, we handle the details, you lead your retreat. It’s so much easier and it’s more cost-effective than doing it on your own. So back to the question – organize it or get someone else to do it? For Bali, can you think of a reason not to let us help you take the load off?
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us at:
info@balibiuretreatcompany.com
or visit our website: www.balibiuretreatcompany.com
Come and join our Bali Retreat Planning group on Facebook.
No comments:
Post a Comment