With the widespread popularity of yoga in our generation comes an increase in people qualifying to become yoga instructors. Does there ever come a point when there are too many yoga teachers? We don’t think so, and here’s why.
Because of the vast array of people wanting to practice yoga there is an equally vast array of ways to deliver it to them and a constant need for more yoga teachers. People are all different: some enjoy going to a popular studio and practicing in a packed class, while others prefer one-to-one sessions or online classes. Equally, a lot of us have favourite teachers – people we connect with and similarly, ones that we don’t.
Sometimes yoga training doesn’t even have to lead to physically teaching as a livelihood – it could lead to a successful blog. Here are our favourite ways, outside of setting up your own classes or teaching at a yoga studio full-time, that people are using their yoga training to share their love of yoga.
See Also: Interview: How Asaf Hacmon Teaches Yoga at 30,000 Feet
Teach Yoga Classes Online
People can’t always find a yoga class in their area, and sometimes even if they can, it isn’t always easy to match your schedule to a studio. Many businesses have found success online, and yoga is no different. More and more people are heading online to find their daily yoga fix. Thanks to programs like Google Hangout and Skype, we can now connect with people really easily, so teaching yoga online is a brilliant way of finding clients while also minimising the cost for both parties (studios, equipment travel etc.).
Some people even pre-record a series and then package them up for people to purchase and download. If you don’t want to the responsibility of setting up a website from scratch, sites like YogaVibes.com, Udemy.com and Grokker.com are all great platforms for teaching virtual yoga.
Set up a YouTube Channel
Similar to teaching online but slightly different in the sense that you may never actually see the people you are teaching. Creating a YouTube channel is free and you can upload videos as many times a week as you like. From full yoga practices to more targeted sequences such as ‘five-minute anti-stress yoga’ or ‘sun salutations for beginners’ you can really build your channel into something unique and personable. Look at other yoga channels and make a note of things you think are missing, or channels you particularly love.
Although you aren’t paid for making videos, some people make good money for allowing adverts to appear before or during (in banner form) the video. A real plus of using YouTube for your business is that unlike physical classes, people don’t just stick to one channel: they can subscribe to as many as they like and may pick and choose from different channels depending on what they are looking for each day.
See Also: YogaTube: 10 Videos You Should Know
Specialise Your Teaching
Having something different or unique to offer is a brilliant way of bringing something new to it and maximizing your chances of earning an income. Developing a distinctive workshop means you can indulge your own interests as well as charge a higher rate for your expertise. Whether it is focusing on yoga for people with back problems, incorporating meditation or offering sessions that concentrate heavily on breathing techniques, everyone wants something different from yoga and this can be used to your advantage. If you develop a workshop that really works well you can then pitch it to yoga studios and schools.
Now that yoga is more popular, there is also a generation of parents emerging who are already convinced that it is good for the mind, body and soul; and what’s more important to a yogi parent than their practice? Their children! Teaching yoga to children is a brilliant way for them to learn about focus, about their bodies and to calm them down after a day of rushing around the playground. Offering sessions at people’s homes or running a weekly class only for mothers and their children is a great way to bring something relatively new to the market.
See Also: How Yoga Can Create Magic For Children
Building Retreats and Groups
We’ve all seen the pictures of sunny island retreats, or even attended them, but there is a noticeable lack of city retreats. It is lovely to head to the countryside, or abroad, for a week of yoga but it isn’t always feasible financially or logistically. Offering a day retreat in the city or even a weekend retreat for a small number of people in your home is a good way of meeting possible future clients and earning an income. You could even pair up with a chef or masseuse to offer a more extensive package. There are lots of ways to make your retreat unique – recently I even came across a retreat for ‘Wine-lovers’ – consisting of a day of yoga practice and meditation and followed by an evening of wine-tasting.
Yoga and nutrition go hand-in-hand because once you start looking after your body externally, you care more about how you treat it internally. Yoga supper clubs — offering a yoga class in your own home, or a venue if you prefer, before tucking into a delicious and nutritious meal — is a great way to offer something different, build relationships with other yogis and potential future clients as well as create a real community.
People love feeling they are getting something extra or that they are getting a short cut: in this case the shortcut is that you don’t have to worry about cooking dinner after your class. You could even pair up with someone who could do the cooking while you teach the class, otherwise preparing a raw menu and simply taking out of the fridge after the class means you don’t have to worry about people waiting around for food after the class.
The Business of Yoga
You may have heard that Google offer a weekly lunchtime yoga class at their London campus and many other companies do the same. In recent years there has been a shift in workplace focus — people want more of a work/life balance. We want our lunch breaks back and we value our wellbeing as well as our jobs.
More and more companies are offering ‘extra-curricular’ personal development programmes to their employees to help them develop new skills and manage stress. As yoga is already well-known and popular it would make a great addition to such programmes. Approach organisations and businesses and pitch yoga classes to them – whether it is a discount for their staff or running weekly/monthly yoga sessions in the building – tailor it to the size and nature of the company.
Another idea is to work within a yoga studio, which is a great way of earning a reliable salary and staying involved in a yoga community while you set up your own classes. A yoga advisor’s role is part client concierge and part salesman – and it’s important you know your stuff as new students will come to you to ask questions or help them find the right class.
Help More Yoga Teachers
One of the challenges that yoga teachers face is finding the time to plan their sessions – especially if they are teaching back-to-back or at a studio where they are required to teach a variety of different classes. Planning your own classes and playlists is a great way to help out other yoga teachers and stay involved with the creative aspect of yoga even if you are worried about finding studio work. Contacting studios and individual teachers to sell your ‘class maps’ can be lucrative.
Many yoga studios now have blogs and see them as an important way of generating new business but they need people to write for them. This may be part of their marketing or they may want guest writers to submit articles. Have a look at some yoga school or studio blogs to see who they have writing for them and what sort of articles they post and then contact the company.
Alternatively, you could set up your own yoga blog. There are lots of blogging platforms, such as Blogger of WordPress, which you can host your website on free of charge. This way you are totally free to write about what you want. Again, just like with YouTube, if you build up a readership then Google can place adverts on your blog or you could pair up with an affiliate who will pay to feature. Having your own blog is also a lovely way to build up your personal marketing or for studios and schools to look at when reviewing your applications.
Your Students Are Out There
As you can tell, there is a huge amount of ways that yoga teachers can find work. The latest studies show that yoga has grown exponentially worldwide, and doesn’t show any signs of stopping. With more and more people coming to yoga each and every day there is more and more need for people who have an understanding of it and are willing to work to bring the lessons of yoga into the world!
