8 Workshop Ideas for Your Holistic Business

Workshops are a great way to add another revenue stream to your holistic business. They provide alternative ways for your clients to work with you and are a great way to build a community around your services.

Workshops can be created quickly and efficiently in lots of different ways from online to in-person, taster sessions to in-depth ones. They offer a specific outcome for your clients in a very practical way.

Workshops are Different from Training

A workshop is different from training (or a lesson or lecture) as the person attending, gets to do practical things. Whether it’s cooking, creating a vision board, or making hand cream, if they’re not doing anything, you are asking them to a class, and not a workshop.

Here are 8 ways to deliver workshops for your clients:

1. Taster Workshops

These are great ways to introduce someone to your work at an affordable price. Pick a specific problem that’s relevant to your ideal client and something that they can achieve a small win towards resolving. Your client will both get to experience your approach and have achieved something in the process. It’s a way to inspire people to take the next step to work with you further.

2. In-Depth Workshops

These are a bigger version of the taster workshop and you will be able to help clients achieve more. You still have a very specific problem you’re addressing for your client and work through it in a practical way during the workshop.

This can be over a day, a weekend, or longer depending on the topic and the work involved. You need to provide your clients with something of value that they have completed by the end of it.

Try and keep this simple and don’t overwhelm the attendees with over-providing. I was guilty of doing this with the first workshop I ever delivered! I wanted to provide as much value as possible and included far too much information for the time we had together. The next time, I prioritised what was needed and simplified the information included and it was a much better experience for everyone!

3. Collaborative Workshops

Collaborating with other holistic practitioners who have a similar client group to you is a brilliant way to introduce new clients to your business. They’re a way of building great relationships and can be fun if you find the right person to work with.

A friend who’s a Pilates teacher specialising in rehabilitation teamed up with a medical herbalist to run a taster workshop on joint health. This was a great option to share the work and costs but also for them both to find new clients. Because each practitioner works in a different way, their approach complements the other and they both benefited from finding new clients.

4. Online Workshops

Technology has given us the ability to deliver something in real-time, and have people work along with us. You will need an audience to sell the workshop to as well as understanding how to use the technology but most of what you need, you probably have. The benefit is you can reach a much larger audience than just working locally.

Online workshops can be delivered in the same time frame as an in-person event. Simply plan your day and build in breaks for the participants.

What do you do that you could create an online workshop around?

5. Workshops for Peer Groups

Running workshops for local groups is a great way to introduce more people to your approach. Identify groups that include your ideal clients and approach them about running a workshop for their members.

A great example of this could be a nutritionist working with a mums group on how to create healthy, easy meal plans for a young family. Another could be a mindfulness practitioner helping an office of stressed professionals understand how to find pockets of calm in their day, or a medical herbalist showing a group of friends how to make traditional remedies from store cupboard ingredients.

6. Workshops for Colleagues

We’re all unique and have skills our colleagues don’t necessarily have but admire in us. You could offer a workshop for your fellow holistic practitioners to help them upgrade their skills. If they’re from different disciplines, you could teach them how to do something from your approach that’s appropriate.

For example, an NLP practitioner could run a workshop on using language to support working with clients. Or if you’re super organised, you can others create structure and process in their business.

7. Workshops for Other Businesses

What businesses do you know whose customers would benefit from a workshop with you? This is another form of collaboration, and you are providing a workshop specifically for their customers. It is helping them provide a great service for their audience but in return, you’ll raise your profile and introduce people to your approach at the same time.

An example could be a workshop for your local health food store on foods that boost your immune system.

8. Workshops at Conferences

More and more exhibitions and conferences are introducing workshops into their offerings. What conferences have you attended where you think you could run a workshop for the attendees?

Finding Inspiration for Your Workshop

Finding a great topic that resonates with your audience is key to you filling a workshop. You need to make sure it’s practical and solves a specific problem for your client, so they have a reason to attend.

A great place to start is with the questions you get asked regularly. These are the things playing on your clients’ minds and the things you can help with. What questions would translate into a good workshop?

Is there something seasonal you could offer such as making homemade skincare products for the summer?

What else is being offered as workshops both inside and outside of your discipline? Use these as inspiration for what you can create in your own business.

Here are a few ideas to get you thinking:

• Nurturing healthy relationships
• Creating seasonal remedies from your garden
• Self-care for stressed professionals
• Creating a winning mindset to improving your golf
• Building your confidence
• Finding calm in the chaos of life
• Foraging and making lunch from your gathering
• Creating a vision board
• Seasonal herb walks
• Making traditional home remedies
• Mindfulness for beginners
• Good posture for office workers
• Avoiding the afternoon slump
• Using coaching skills to support client work
• Creating a personalised morning routine

Workshops are a great way to add another income stream to your business and build relationships with clients. They provide a specific result for your clients and are a brilliant and practical way for you to demonstrate your skills.

If you want to create a workshop for your business, book a discovery call and find out how I can help you.