Hyp-Yoga co-founder shares lessons learned, looks toward ...

Carly Cummings?spoke at the Midwest Entrepreneurship Conference (MWEC), held March 30-31 in Omaha.

For Carly Cummings, like many business owners, her journey has been a rollercoaster ride. However, through the years, the current director of the Omaha Yoga School and co-founder, president and CEO of Hyp-Yoga has learned many lessons that helped shape and strengthen her as an entrepreneur.

Cummings started Hyp-Yoga classes in her Omaha apartment in 2006 as a way to merge her love for yoga and her interest in hypnosis and hypnotherapy. She started the business with Becky Grabner, her mother, and Kim Isherwood. The classes have since moved, and now take place at the Omaha Yoga School studio. Through Hyp-Yoga, clients can work to change behaviors or habits, lose weight, achieve goals and live a healthier lifestyle through hypnosis and yoga.

?I?m really excited about taking care of the balance between mind, body and soul,? Cummings said. ?I love to teach and be a part of other people?s transformations.?

Cummings first started teaching yoga in 2001 while in college at the University of Nebraska ? Lincoln. As a sophomore, she helped start a non-profit coffee shop, which in turn sparked her interest in entrepreneurship. She also worked at the Center for Entrepreneurship at UNL and participated in business competitions. In 2005, Cummings earned her BSBA in entrepreneurship and management.

After college, she explored the areas of hypnosis and hypnotherapy, later earning her hypnotherapy certification. Though it was useful in helping people live healthier lives, Cummings felt that hypnosis lacked a physical element. Then it occurred to her to incorporate yoga, and Hyp-Yoga was born.

To help spread the word about Hyp-Yoga, Cummings and her business partners turned to public relations firms in New York City to create an infomercial. They also put together a DVD for the Hyp-Yoga weight loss program that people could purchase and practice at home.

Carly Cummings - CEO of Hyp-Yoga

As the list of customers grew, so did media attention, with articles in magazines like ?Self,? ?Glamour? and various local publications hitting the newsstands. Local news stations also aired features on the company. When country music artist Taylor Swift requested private lessons in Hyp-Yoga, it came as a ?big break? for the Omaha company, Cummings said. International DVD sales have also helped the company immensely.

By working with various outlets, like video, print and online media, Cummings said a business can put itself ?as many places as possible all the time,? and work to expand the company?s audience.

Though her college studies and work helped to prepare her for her post-collegiate business journey, Cummings admitted that??nothing really prepares you completely? for real-world experiences as an entrepreneur.

One life lesson came when the Hyp-Yoga founders started creating their infomercial. The first public relations company they used went under, costing thousands of dollars for Cummings and her business partners. Nevertheless, they picked themselves up, found another company and started moving forward again.

Cummings also noted that as Hyp-Yoga has grown over the years,?her team?has had some problems with hiring, and on occasion firing, staff members. With yoga, Cummings explained, she has learned to ?love everyone and accept people,? but realized over the years that this is not always the best strategy for hiring employees.

As a business owner, there is one resource that Cummings values, in addition to her co-founders. She has found an unbiased third party to go to, whether?for direction or just to talk. Cummings hired a business coach to help guide her through the responsibilities and decisions that come with running a company. She feels it has been one of her best choices.

?Everybody needs a guru,? Cummings said. ?No one knows everything.?

There is no one to ?complete you? as a business owner, Cummings said. As a leader at Hyp-Yoga, Cummings finds that she has to work to embody her passions for the company and project it into her business plan and for her staff. A business coach helps her to maintain this focus, while keeping her accountable as well. The coach also steered her and the other co-founders of Hyp-Yoga through the many steps it took to start a new chapter for the business: franchising.

Over the years, Hyp-Yoga has provided training to potential instructors who can purchase a license after they learn how to do the program. Now, the company is making the move to franchise out Hyp-Yoga and its natural weight loss program, HY Natural.

Cummings and her co-founders created HY Natural to work alongside Hyp-Yoga. This program corresponds with yoga?s sister science, Ayurveda, and focuses on the connection of mind, body, soul and the environment. Hyp-Yoga instructors work with clients on how to base their diet on natural foods. Cummings said the benefits are long-term, unlike a ?yo-yo diet.?

Taking Hyp-Yoga and HY Natural into a franchise format is the next step for Cummings and her co-founders. It was about a two-year process for the company to begin franchising out to different locations. To choose which areas to target, the business owners looked to what first helped launch the company: DVD sales.

For fans of Hyp-Yoga who live outside the Omaha area, the first franchise locations may be opening in Florida, New Jersey and California, where the workout DVD sales were the highest.

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