Levi Morehouse is not a yoga teacher, a yoga studio owner, or a yoga entrepreneur. He is a small business owner though, and his small business is an accounting + book keeping company called Ceterus. Ceterus’ slogan is “let us do the rest” +  they provide services for small business owners doing their accounting or book keeping.

You may be curious why I wanted to talk to Levi. The reason is that I think that book keeping + accounting is something that many people in the yoga industry lack, and that’s fair enough. We, as yoga teachers, are great at educating and sharing our knowledge of yoga. We are not accountants, we are not book keepers, and we are not (usually) super knowledgeable in the area of accounting + book keeping. And we shouldn’t be. We should be focusing on the things that we are great at, and let someone else do the things that we aren’t. This is exactly what Levi and I chat about on this episode of the podcast.

Levi shares his passion for accounting + book keeping, his recommendations for yoga studio owners, and the services that Ceterus provides, as well as industry tips + tricks.

Business Lessons

• Accounting + book keeping is necessary, BUT you don’t have to do it yourself if it’s not your thing
• Outsource the things that aren’t your specialty – focus on what you’re really good at
• Are you ignoring your book keeping because you don’t know how to do it?
• If you want yoga to be your full-time job, you do have to consider the money side of it
• You should keep some sort of books for your business / studio
• You shouldn’t spend much of your time on your book keeping – if you don’t like doing it, partner with someone who does
• Keep your books in place where a CPA can get in a look – make it cloud based + shareable
• Understand a few key numbers:
  • Sales mix – memberships, drop in classes, retail / products
  • Cost centers – costs of the products, cost of your instructors, facility costs (rent + utilities + insurance + taxes), general + administrative expenses
  • Keep track of your cash
  • Where do we break even?
• Always file your taxes!
• Do your research on tax exemptions – there are a lot as a yoga teacher
• Don’t let the business side of running a business scare you away – there are ways to set it up so that it’s minimally invasive
• Set things up right from the beginning!
• 80/20 rule – let somebody who is really good at something do it if it’s not what you’re good at
• And much more… Here’s the episode!

The services that Ceterus provides:

• Book keeping + accounting for small business owners
• Analyze aggregate data in the industry, allowing you to see if your business is on the right track
• Best practices for the industry, based on what other successful studios are doing
• Dashboard specifically for yoga studios that look at sales mix, cost centers + cash
• Can work with Mind Body Online to pull key metrics
• Taxes OR can work with your local CPA to get your books together

Promotion for M.B.Om Listeners:

Do you need help with your book keeping + accounting? Ceterus has offered a super awesome deal for listeners of the show! If you sign up here, you can get your first 3 months working with Ceterus for FREE. This is an awesome deal, so don’t miss out!

Learn more about Ceterus + how Ceterus helps yoga studios here!