Durham Student Puts Theory into Practice with Yoga Business of Her Own
Child and Youth Studies student Courtney Ayres runs successful yoga studio, instructing classes for local Port Perry kids
In May 2018, second year Trent U Durham GTA student Courtney Ayres set out to simply spend her summer pursuing her passion: working with children. Discovering that there was a gap in the market for extracurricular activities for children in her hometown of Port Perry, Ms. Ayres decided to fill that gap by offering a few yoga classes over the summer for local children. It didn’t take long for the business to catch on.
Starting with a small group of four, Ms. Ayres’ classes have now grown to 16-20 kids per class, running three days a week. Thanks to the attention of buy-and-sell Facebook groups and word of mouth referrals, her business is now booming in Port Perry.
Ms. Ayres has utilized her two primary areas of study at Trent Durham – in both Child and Youth Studies as well as Business Administration – to inform the way that she operates her business.
“The Child and Youth Studies courses have helped me to understand how children learn through play, as well as how children work, think and how they react to certain situations differently,” Ms. Ayres says. “I have learned many tools on how to work with all children that I apply every day to my yoga classes. Taking business courses has helped me to be able to keep track of the financial side of things as well as being able to market my business and grow it from nothing to where it is now.”
As her business grows in the Port Perry region, Ms. Ayres hopes to expand in the next few years with more studio space and bring in more instructors. She looks forward to being a teacher once completing her undergrad and knows that the experience that she gains now with her business will help her grow as an educator in the future.