Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in health and wellness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Hannah Knapp, Co-Founder of WITHIN Meditation, located in San Francisco, CA, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

WITHIN is a meditation community for people who want to know themselves more deeply. We offer live online guided meditation sessions 7 days a week that are open to the public, as well as private meditation sessions and workshops for companies. We specialize in creating a warm, welcoming environment that encourages both people who are new to meditation and long-time practitioners to settle into stillness and gain insight into how to live their lives with more joy and purpose.

Tell us about yourself

In my late twenties, I was looking for alignment between what I was doing with my life and what mattered to me. At the recommendation of a friend, I went on a 10-day silent meditation retreat and was astounded by how much clarity came from that experience. In a culture that emphasizes action, it's pretty radical to sit still and see what happens! I came out of that experience looking for ways to share the gift of meditation, especially with people in the San Francisco tech world where I was working.

A few years later, my co-founder Megan Parker and I started WITHIN Meditation as a drop-in meditation studio in downtown San Francisco. When the pandemic pushed us to an online format, we discovered that we could reach even more people and have an even wider circle of teachers leading our classes. Now, we have students and corporate clients across the country and internationally. I love knowing that our classes are helping so many people find stillness and clarity for themselves.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Navigating the pandemic was the biggest shift we've ever made as a business - as I imagine most small business owners would say these days! In our case, it was a positive shift. We suddenly had the opportunity to reach many more people because of being online rather than in person, and at the same time, the stress and isolation of lockdown were causing people to turn to meditation in numbers we'd never seen before. Our online classes had more people in them than we ever had in person, and we had twice as many companies set up sessions for their employees in 2020 than in 2019. We needed to move quickly to expand our teaching team and our offerings to meet that demand - and we did it. I'm really proud of how we seized that moment and brought meditation to so many people who needed it.

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

I carry the weight of every decision we make about the business - our offerings, our communications, our hires, our prices, you name it. Even though there are many other people involved, ultimately, I'm the one who's responsible for the direction those decisions take us. Sometimes that's really fun and creative, and sometimes it leads to all kinds of second-guessing and worries about whether I made the right decision. In my best moments, I'm able to see that all decisions just lead to another opportunity, but in my worst, I look back and agonize over how I could have made a different decision that might have led us to a better place.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Align everything your business does with what matters to you. You're not going to want to keep doing it every day unless every aspect of it lights you up and is in alignment with your sense of purpose. That means that it's very helpful to start by getting clear on what matters to you before you launch your business.
  2. Be open to learning from absolutely everything that happens with your business. There will be things that go exactly as you thought they would and many more that surprise or disappoint you. To keep going, you need to be able to treat those surprises and disappointments with curiosity and honesty, for yourself and for your team.
  3. Let your business evolve at a pace that makes sense for you personally and for the traction it's getting. When there's a mismatch between how fast you want it to move and how fast it's going, it's a mess! I've experienced this both ways - when I wanted to move faster than the business, and it wanted to move faster than I did. They're both hard. When I'm able to strike a balance, that's when the work is exciting and satisfying.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.withinmeditation.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/withinmeditationsf/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/within_meditation/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/within-meditation/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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