Owners Rosa Montiel, left, and Margi Montgomery.
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| Bikram Hot Yoga studio. |
GIG HARBOR, Wash. – Yoga is a path to mindfulness and personal growth, says Rosa Montiel, co-owner of Bikram Hot Yoga in Gig Harbor. But then, so is opening your own business.
“All your issues come up from childhood,” Montiel says, and laughs. “Everything.
“It can be the best thing, or it can be the worst.”
Fortunately, as she and her partner, Margi Montgomery, head into their second year of business, the studio is hot, literally, and Montiel couldn’t be happier.
“I am so in love with this place,” she says.
‘I believe in it’
Lemon yellow walls that are 14 feet tall and floor-to-ceiling windows give the 1,700-square-foot studio an open, airy feeling. The entire space is 3,800 square feet and includes spotless showers and changing rooms.
Showers and changing rooms are important because Bikram yoga requires students to work through 26 poses in a studio heated to about 105 degrees with 40 percent humidity.
“I believe in it,” Montiel says. “It totally changed my life. I’m 44 years old and I look and feel better than I did when I was 20.”
Passion and perseverance
When she first met with Steve Burke, a certified business advisor with the Washington Small Business Development Center (SBDC) in Tukwila, Wash., Montiel explained that she was passionate about Bikram.
Yes, Burke responded, but are you passionate about business?
Two years into their endeavor, Montiel – who manages the business end of the studio – can honestly say “yes.” In order to run a successful studio, she has had to become as knowledgeable about best practices for small businesses as she and the other Bikram instructors are about yoga.
“I followed all (Burke’s) advice and read all the books he recommended,” Montiel says, including “The E-Myth,” by Michael Gerber. She took classes offered through Washington C.A.S.H., an entrepreneurship training program for women, minority and low-income business owners.
Comfortable, supportive advisor
Montiel started meeting with Burke in 2010, while she was still working on her business plan and long before she’d found a space to lease.
Burke is one of 28 SBDC business advisors and four international trade specialists working in SBDC centers across the state to provide no-cost advising to small business owners who want to start, grow or transition their business. The Washington SBDC is supported by Washington State University, the U.S. Small Business Administration and other institutions of higher education and economic development.
“He made me feel comfortable,” Montiel says of Burke. Together they worked through her business plan, her application for an SBA loan, her search for suitable space to lease and difficult negotiations with her landlord.
“He was with me the whole way,” Montiel says of Burke. “He always called me back immediately and he was willing to meet in person, talk on the phone or communicate through email.”
Successful negotiations
Burke, who has more than 30 years of experience in commercial real estate, recommended that since the heating system was so crucial to her business, Montiel should make sure the lease stipulated that she needed to be able to heat the space to 105 degrees. According to Montiel, the landlord thought he was installing a furnace that would fit the bill, but it didn’t. The hottest they could heat the space was 90 degrees.
Fortunately, that added clause in the lease gave Montiel leverage to negotiate with the landlord, and they eventually reached a compromise that worked for them both.
It was a stressful time, Montiel says; but again, Burke was a trusted advisor looking out for her best interests, even in her negotiations with her landlord.
“Steve put it to me very simply,” she says. “He said, ‘You don’t want to have the landlord from hell.’”
And she doesn’t. In fact, she says, her landlord’s wife is a client at the studio.
Getting what you need
The instructors at Bikram Hot Yoga in Gig Harbor tell their students to “make sure you get what you need” during their yoga practice.
Working with Burke and the SBDC, Montiel says she has gotten what she needed and it has allowed her to share her passion for Bikram and give others the tools to change their lives.
“At the end of the day, we are doing the right thing,” she says. “We are on the right path.”
For more information about Bikram Hot Yoga, go to http://www.bikramyogagigharbor.com
For more information about the Washington SBDC, go to http://www.wsbdc.org