10 Questions for Worlds Yoga Owner Dr. Mohammad Ketabchi

Worlds Yoga, 12988 B Saratoga-Sunnyvale Rd., opened in mid-June in Saratoga's Argonaut Place Shopping Center. It offers more than 40 classes a week. Its mission is to provide the community with a platform for positive life transformation through integrated wellness grounded in the tradition of yoga and supported by expert teachers. The studio also strives to cultivate innovative approaches to yoga practice and support the yoga community of practitioners, teachers, educators, and entrepreneurs through the development and offering of a comprehensive yoga curriculum. The studio's hours and classes are 6-7 a.m., 8:30 a.m.-2 p.m., 5:30-8:45 p.m., Monday; 6:30-7:15 a.m., 9 a.m.-12 p.m., 4-9 p.m., Tuesday; 6-7 a.m., 8:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., 3:30-8:45 p.m., Wednesday; 6:30-7:15 a.m., 9 a.m.-12 p.m., 4-9 p.m., Thursday; 6-7 a.m., 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m., Friday; 7:45 a.m.-2:30 p.m., Saturday; and 8:30 a.m.-2 p.m., Sunday. The business also has a location in Union City. Details: 408-741-YOGA.

Saratoga Patch: What did you dream of being as a kid?

Dr. Mohammad Ketabchi: A nobel prize winner for a scientific/technological invention. 

Patch: How does your personality play into your business?

Ketabchi: I do what excites me and I am passionate about what I do. This enables me to work hard and to motivate my employees to like and enjoy what they do. They achieve results they could not achieve before and enjoy it, too.

Patch: At what moment did you decide to open a business?

Ketabchi: I have always been an entrepreneur and Worlds Yoga is my latest venture.

Patch: What inspired you?

Ketabchi: I practiced Yoga for several years and benefited from it tremendously. I decided that if I was benefiting from it, many others would, too. So, I decided to dedicate some of my time and resources to building a Yoga business that would make yoga readily accessible to many others.

Patch: Describe the biggest challenge of owning a business in Saratoga?

Ketabchi: Things take time and it is hard to accelerate them. When I want to do something, I have a sense of urgency about it and want to do it ASAP. Sometimes I feel there is a bit of speed mismatch between how fast I want to go and how fast everything else moves.

Patch: Describe the best thing about owning a business in Saratoga?

Ketabchi: Community support: people who embrace new things and give new businesses a chance to succeed. 

Patch: What is one thing you would never change about your business?

Ketabchi: On going innovation about everything we do. We continuously search and find better ways of everything we do in our business to serve our customers and the community better. 

Patch: What is your business' greatest asset?

Ketabchi: The vision and know how about how to develop and make high quality safe yoga available to many.

Patch: What is your favorite spot in the area?

Ketabchi: Vasona Lake County Park in Los Gatos! 

Patch: What's one thing the community should know about you?

Ketabchi: As a serial entrepreneur and a lifelong business man, the most important thing I have learned is customer focus: how to communicate with, understand and serve my customers. Whether it is teaching college students as a university professor, developing enterprise software systems for large companies, or building and running yoga studios, customer focus is the invariant.