How studio owner Christa O’Neill combined her franchising and yoga knowledge to open two Oxygen locations at once.
For most of us, starting one business at a time is a daunting enough task. But when Christa O’Neill decided she wanted to run an Oxygen Yoga & Fitness location, she jumped with both feet, franchising both the Elmwood and Mapleton studio locations. We talked with Christa about how she decided to open two studios and what the process has been like for her.
For Christa, fitness has been a lifelong passion.
“I’ve always done track and field, gymnastics, and then I had children, so I always liked being active with them, so we were always swimming, and then we were in martial arts, […] they played hockey and sports and all kinds of good stuff,” Christa shared. Yoga is a more recent passion of Christa’s, but one that quickly became important to her.
As she started attending classes, Christa explained, she started asking herself a question we’re sure many of you have your own answers to, whether it’s the space to find mental clarity or the rewarding feeling of knowing you’ve accomplished something: “Why do I feel so good after yoga class?” No matter how you’d answer the question, we think the important part is that you do!
Christa’s had a longstanding passion for fitness before she connected with Oxygen; she was working in a completely different industry, franchising bulk barns. But after taking her 200-hour certification and starting a “healing journey post-divorce”, Christa decided she wanted to try something new. The opportunity to combine her past franchise experience with her passion for yoga sounded “too good to be true.”
Christa explained, “One of the biggest things, the reasons why I’m doing this at 52 and starting over again after divorce, is because I want to leave behind a different legacy for my adult children. That’s basically what I’m doing.”
When she met with the team at Oxygen Yoga & Fitness, Christa found it to be the perfect place to build that legacy. Speaking about the franchising structure, Christa explained, “I knew that the system is built for success,” and as for the rest of the business, she shares, “the vision for the company and the values, everything sounded wonderful. It takes care of all four quadrants of your life, your emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual well-being.”
In her first meetings with Oxygen’s team, Christa learned there was an opportunity to buy two franchises and decided to go for it.
“I knew I had two bulk barns, and I knew I had experience with two different franchise locations. So I just signed up for two,” Christa explained. Of course, this decision wasn’t without its doubts or challenges.
“Building two at once, I thought, wow, what do I do? Because I was told nobody’s done that before. And I thought, well, you know what? I have 30-year-old twins, so I’ll just pretend I have twins again.”
Since jumping in, the main challenges Crista has faced have come with securing financing and dealing with that process following a history of financial trauma. But she hasn’t let that hold her back, going forward in part because of how excited she is to see her members walking through the door.
She hopes that the studio will bring members “a sense of relief and release in a safe space where they can come to collect themselves and to regenerate,” and is most looking forward to seeing “everybody’s extremely happy faces after they leave the classes.”
Christa’s main advice to anyone considering opening a franchise would be to go all in.
“Go for it. […] It’s a lot of work, but it’s well worth it, just seeing those happy faces afterwards, and just the feeling and the sensation in your body that you did it and you feel happy about yourself, and proud of yourself.”
Stop by an Oxygen Yoga & Fitness near you to try one of Christa’s favorite classes, like Hot Tone & Sculpt or Hot Candlelight Deep Stretch & Relaxation.