Te acher zone
Fourth lesson:
Classes are not how you make a
living as a full-time yoga teacher
This is it. The crux of the whole ‘I am a full-
time yoga teacher.’ Classes are not how you
make a living. Classes are pocket money.
Classes alone don’t pay the mortgage/
bills/childcare/car/holidays. Classes feed
into everything else that you are running
which bring in more income – private tuition,
working with corporate clients, retreats,
workshops, teacher trainings. Classes are
essential but they are not the main game
if you want to be a full-time yoga teacher.
I know some teachers who run 10, 14, even
18 classes a week. They burn out quickly.
Trust me, there are better, easier and more
profitable ways of making a living as a yoga
teacher. I worked this out early enough so
that when I decided to make the leap into
teaching full-time I already had a number of
yoga-based income streams.
Fifth lesson:
I am running a business.
My product is yoga
Like it or not, if you are a self-employed
yoga teacher, you are a business owner.
Yoga is your product. I see a lot of part-time
yoga teachers who have full-time jobs and
can’t see how they can make the transition
into the full-time yoga world. If you are going
to make the change then basic business
rules apply. Even if you don’t want to be ‘full
time yoga’, you can still apply basic business
models to your class and make it profitable.
Sixth lesson:
Charge what you are worth.
Don’t work for buttons
(chocolate or otherwise)
Oh the number of times people (mainly
who work in the private or public sector)
think yoga teachers work for nothing or
for copper coins. As a self-employed yoga
teacher I am not a charity. I have paid a lot
of money for my training, I continue to pay
for continuous professional development, I
am good at what I do and I have outgoings. I
deserve to be paid what I am worth.
‘Wellness’ in its widest sense is a huge
growth industry, and I have had many
approaches from local companies asking
me to run yoga classes and workshops for
their staff. If you take on corporate clients,
behave as if you are a training agency
- charge a good hourly rate and ask for
payment up front and be clear on your
cancellation policy. I remember from my
days in local government that some trainers
are getting over £1,000 a day so don’t
charge £20 an hour for your services. If you
are running a weekly class for a company,
make sure part of the deal is that they do
the admin for the bookings, not you.
With my own classes, I worked out very
quickly that most of the people who wanted
to come to my classes were time poor
not money poor. My classes were priced
competitively in comparison to other local
classes, but whether I was £1 or £3 deareror £1.75 cheaper was not an issue for 99%
of the people who came to class. If my class
fitted into their schedule then they came to
class. Pricing my classes at £7.50 instead of
£8 an hour doesn’t make a difference. Also,
if you are going to take cash payments and
you charge £7.75 be prepared to carry a lot
of change around. Keep the pricing simple,
work in pounds not pence, preferably paper
money not coins, and it will save you a lot of
time and effort having to carry around lots
of small change, trust me!Seventh lesson:
Hours vs pounds
Be clear on your most profitable income
stream. I have only very recently (I’ll admit
it, last week!) sat down and worked out
exactly where my income vs hours worked
comes from in each area of my business. I
wanted to know the bottom line – what is the
most profitable income stream for the least
amount of hours worked. I already had a
really good idea about this, but when I looked
at the actual figures it provided me with a
clear focus on which income streams to
further develop over the next 6 to 12 months.Eighth lesson:
People need to know where
you are
If people are going to come to your class
or workshop or retreat they need to
know about it. This is not a paragraph on
marketing top tips or using social media.
The gold for me is Facebook advertising.
I only discovered this recently but one
thing I wish I had started using when I first
began teaching. It’s easy to do, it’s very
competitively priced, and they also provide
you with very useful insights on your advert
in terms of who has looked at it, their age
and location.Ninth lesson:
Look after yourself
Self-care is so important, and is also
becoming very popular in the media. You
need to look after yourself properly. If you
look like you haven’t slept for a week and
you are stressed out and on your last nerve,
your students may question if yoga is good
for your health! You are your own advert.
Rest your body. I know that every three
or four months I need a week off from doing
yoga as old injuries start to flare up or I
start to get new ones. I’m 45 and I know that
my body is changing, my energy levels are
decreasing and if I am going to continue to
teach yoga on a full-time basis I have to take
care of myself. And I’ve had to sadly accept
that I am no longer 25. Try at least one day
a week where you don’t do any physical
asana as this works for me; maybe you don’t
need to but listen to your body.
You also need mental rest, stepping away
from computers, mobile phones and social
media and I also get to the point where
I just don’t want to say inhale, exhale, or
forward fold for a few days. Teaching can be
mentally tough, especially if you are tired or
stressed. You are ‘on show’ when you teach
so if you are having a bad time it is much
harder to deliver a class and engage fully
with your students, and it can also become
exhausting. Time out gives you a chance
to recharge your batteries so take this into
account when you are doing your weekly or
monthly schedule.Tenth lesson:
Work for nothing
What? This whole article has been about
making money! Yes, but as a small business
owner, I decide when I want to work for
nothing. I’ve run charity events, I’ve given
people free classes when I know they can’t
afford to pay, I’ve given free classes /
private tuition/places on retreats as raffle
prizes for local fundraisers. I will continue to
do so because I like doing it.Bonus lesson:
How much are printer cartridges?
Oh how I wish someone had told me how
many printer cartridges I would use and how
much they would cost me! I did my financial
projections, but I really underestimated on
printer cartridges. However many you think
you will need, times it by 10 at least!Claudia Brown is a writer and yoga
teacher based in the Staffordshire area
(yogabyclaudia.com)“I envisaged flocks of
yogis pouring through
the doors for my classes.
Here’s what I know now.”