Ann Arbor, MI- A new trend has been sweeping the city over the past few years: Bikram yoga.

Bikram yoga is a type of hatha yoga practiced in temperatures up to 105 degrees Fahrenheit. It is designed to cleanse and detoxify the human body. The heat opens up ligaments, muscles and tendons and is used to promote healing.

Once Lora Rosenbaum completed her teacher training in 2000, she returned from Los Angeles to her hometown of Ann Arbor. After having taught a class she realized how much she loved teaching yoga, more than just practicing it. She decided Ann Arbor needed it’s own Bikram Yoga Studio.

“[My business] was solely driven by the love and the passion for yoga,” Rosenbaum said. She had little to none business experience learning mostly from trial and error. Even though she does not have the traditional business, marketing or financial training, her yoga studio has flourished through hard work and not being afraid to ask for help.

However Bikram Yoga West was not the first business that Rosenbaum had owned. “I was a hairdresser for seven years and I had a salon, just for a short time, with two people that I worked with for many years,” Rosenbaum said. But once she began to learn about and teach yoga she decided a career change was in order.

Not only is Rosenbaum the owner of a successful business but she is a single mom with three kids. Her children have always been a constant throughout her yoga career. “I was pregnant when I started the Bikram Yoga Studio so I’ve have kids since I started this,” Rosenbaum said.

While raising kids and managing a business at the same time isn’t always easy, it’s not far fetched for her. “It divides energy to have career and family but most people in our culture do that,” Rosenbaum said.

In fact, out of all of her kids friends only two of their mothers don’t have jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics 74.7 percent of women with children are in the workforce. This trend seems like it will continue in later generations.

However owning and managing a business is quite different than just working for someone else. “When you work for other people often times you’re working for their passion and their dream and their vision,” Rosenbaum said. But Rosenbaum didn’t wait for someone to come along and make a Bikram yoga studio for her. She took a risk and built it herself.

Rosenbaum admits that if she was not passionate about yoga her job would drain her energy, but as it is she finds finds it fulfilling to be in charge of Bikram Yoga West and all of the people who work for it. “I get to be apart of leading it[the yoga studio] and guiding it and watching other people come on board,” Rosenbaum said.

“I can’t imagine doing it[owning your own business] if you don’t really love what you’re doing,” Rosenbaum said.

Yoga has been Rosenbaum’s passion for over 17 years. She made the choice to make a business out of that passion. The looming hours and many obstacles didn’t stop her from carrying out her dream because Rosenbaum’s drive and love of what she was doing and what she would be creating overpowered her worries.