The Collective, a new way to look at life
“The Collective relies on the local market and community of Waterford for clientele and new students”, Sheila Kearney, founder of The Collective believes that supporting local business is vital to Waterford’s future.
‘Look for Local’ is a new campaign by the Local Enterprise Offices, launched by the Tánaiste Leo Varadkar which asks consumers to look local when they are shopping for products, services and experiences this Summer.
The Collective Yoga & Ayurveda Studio is based in Waterford City and is committed to providing a comfortable and friendly environment for all. It has teachers of all disciplines to suit any form of yoga the public would like to explore, from beginner to expert.
Sheila spent her 20’s in London and travelling the world. These days you will find her in Waterford running her yoga studio with a vision to bring Ayurveda to the community. Sheila believes in a strong soul, soft heart and is ready to share her knowledge with those ready to embark on a healing journey.
They have had plenty of help from the Local Enterprise Office Waterford explains Sheila, “We couldn’t have been happier with the amount of support from the LEO. We received the restart Grant which helped us keep up the premises. We also received two Online Trading Vouchers which allowed us to update our website
with new products, added functionality and video content. Our website is now number one for Yoga & wellness on google searches. Although we do have visiting workshop teachers from other counties, all of our business is aimed at supporting Waterford based people for Yoga and wellness in their daily lives.”
Since January, the Local Enterprise Offices have approved over 11,000 Trading Online Vouchers for small Irish businesses, helping them to create or adapt their online trading presence under the National Digital Strategy. This was one of the most significant supports for local businesses, along with the Business Continuity Voucher, enabling them to trade online, when physical trade was reduced or restricted.
Covid had a big effect on what is a relatively young business explained Sheila, “Our studio was closed alongside many businesses at a crucial time, we reacted by creating a Collection of ”Yoga At Home” on demand videos to support our students in these times. We also took to Instagram in a series of IGTV interviews with workshop teachers giving plenty of health advice along the way.
We are excited to reopen at the end of July back in studio with indoor yoga and summer workshops.
We hope to return to a full schedule of classes come September.”
The Look for Local campaign, supported by Enterprise Ireland and the Local Authorities, aims to raise awareness of the benefit of spending in your local area. This campaign seeks to strengthen that sentiment and to educate consumers on the domino effect that local spending has throughout their community.
For more information on the campaign go to www.LocalEnterprise.ie/LookforLocal and agencies, businesses and consumers will also be encouraged to use #LookforLocal on social media to help support the campaign.