In the Warehouse Block business district of Lexington on North Ashland Avenue, Centered (centeredlex.org) represents three different industries under one roof: A small café, massage therapy and counseling, and a yoga and movement studio that also includes a boutique offering yoga and wellness supplies.
Owner and director Lauren Higdon opened the holistic community center in 2013 as “a physical space to bring community together.”
Kinga Mnich
Lauren Higdon, pictured above, opened Centered in 2013 as “a physical space to bring community together.” Hidgon says Centered will continue to offer virtual classes after the studio reopens for in-person instruction.
The brick-and-mortar business transitioned to online retail sales and curbside delivery of products in March. Offering virtual classes through Zoom brought in new customers from other cities and states. “We’ve also seen a rise in our senior clients and those in the special needs population,” Higdon said, adding that Zoom classes will remain even as the building opens back up. “We intend to create a library of online offerings and eventually full programs for students who are unable or uncomfortable joining us in person,” she said.
Higdon is elevating Centered’s sanitation standards and safety practices because they represent another way of “meeting our clients with kindness and compassion and an understanding that we have all been deeply affected and traumatized by this worldwide pandemic,” she said. “Whether our small business is a healing center or a print company, it’s important to remember that we are all extra sensitive right now and will need be extra patient and present with each other.”
Herself a licensed massage therapist, birth doula and a trauma-informed certified yoga teacher, Higdon’s business model of operating Centered as a collective of independent contractors has worked well over the years because it has helped practitioners and teachers maintain autonomy.
But because the 20 team members of Centered aren’t employees, they haven’t been eligible for many of the government grants and loans in response to the coronavirus crisis. “This has certainly caused me to rethink our structure moving forward and investigate ways to maintain our free-flowing model while safeguarding Centered and our awesome team,” Higdon said.
"The decisions and steps we are taking now will very well define the business practices, economy and public engagements for future generations."
She learned during quarantine that productivity is possible without the stress and pressure typically associated with work and business systems, and she has come to view small-business owners as pioneers, “ushering in a new era of commerce and business models,” she said. “Our worldwide systems and practices are rapidly changing and the decisions and steps we are taking now will very well define the business practices, economy and public engagements for future generations. I feel it is so very important to highlight our values of honoring people over product as we step into this new age.”