Updated July 2023
In this seven minute video I share with you all how to find private or personal yoga students to teach one to one — whether this is in person or online.
*You can check out my online course here: The Art and Business of Teaching Yoga One-to-One*
In this post I’m going to share with you six ways you can find private or personal yoga students — whether that’s online or in person. While this post is for any yoga teacher looking for more one to one yoga teaching work, I think it will particularly benefit newer yoga teachers as I focus on ways you can find private clients without teaching lots of group classes first.
Reach out to your current network and community
One thing you can do right now very easily and for free is reach out to your current network of friends, family, acquaintances, or even current students if you’re teaching. Can you write down the names of five people who might be interested in trying a half price private yoga taster session with you or know people who would? This could be in person or online via Zoom.
If you already have private clients, they may not be aware that you’re looking to take on anyone else. Reach out to them and ask if they have any friends who would like to try a taster session with you.
When you’re reaching out to people who aren’t your current students, keep it personal, and emphasise the benefits of a private session — whether it’s an in person or online session. You can even say you’re new to this and you’re looking to find just one or two people you can teach right now.
Lead generation websites
I found one of the best places to find private clients was through the UK website Bidvine, which is a lead generation site which simply connects service professionals with potential clients. What’s great is that you set your prices and once you’ve connected through the site, the client is now yours and you can operate on your own terms.
Bidvine operates all over the UK, but there are similar sites in other parts of the world such as Thumbtack in the US, and Star of Service which operates in over 130 different countries. I, however, only have personal experience with Bidvine.
It does cost a small amount of money to contact a potential client, but this has definitely been more than worth it for me.
The key here is to offer potential clients a discounted yoga taster session and make sure that you have a complete profile with some photos and testimonials up of you teaching privately. It also helps to be fairly quick to respond to potential clients. I would also avoid using template responses — instead tailor each message you send out.
Connect with another local private yoga teacher
I highly recommend reaching out to at least one other private yoga teacher in your area. I know on the surface it might seem like there are more yoga teachers than people who need yoga, but this isn’t true when it comes to private sessions. There are only so many people you can teach a week as a private yoga teacher. Naturally you teach fewer people. So what happens when you get enquiries you can’t teach?
I’ve given private sessions I can no longer teach and initial enquires to other local yoga teachers who I know. Only one of these teachers actually contacted me. I therefore, highly recommend you reaching out to at least one private yoga teacher in your area, with the intention of building a relationship first though.
They may well have private sessions they can no longer teach or get enquiries that they could refer to you and vice versa. Try not to see other local teachers as your competition — they’re not. There really are enough private clients for everyone.
I’ll also reiterate here — I have a friend who gave her whole private pilates client base to another pilates teacher when she went on maternity leave indefinitely, so don’t underestimate the power of this one.
Connect with related wellness professionals in your area
Another way of finding your next private client is to reach out to related wellness professionals in your area to see if they’d be interested in collaborating. These could eb people who already have private clients such as physiotherapists, life coaches, nutritionists, osteopaths etc. You could offer your taster sessions to their client base and if anyone signs up to a package of sessions with you asa result of this, the other wellness professional could receive a percentage of the package cost.
Do a Google Search for Private Yoga in your location
One of the first things potential private clients might do is to do a simple Google search for private yoga in their location. You can try it now for where you live and see what comes up.
This will give you a good indication as to where potential private clients are going. Depending on where you are in the world you are going to see different websites appear. For example, you might see yoga directory sites appear such as yoga hub or yelp, or even Airbnb. If so, can you also list your services and taster sessions here too?
The key is to get in front of the people who are searching for private yoga in your area. And the websites on the first page of a Google search give you a good indication as to where some of these people might be going.
Ask who are your private yoga sessions for and where are these people?
When you’re going through a lead generation website like Bidvine, you can be a bit more general about who you teach. I have naturally taught a wide range of people, however, I strongly encourage you to think a bit more specifically too about some of the people who will benefit most from your private yoga sessions.
For example, let’s say one of your focuses is pregnancy yoga. You can now ask, where can I find these people? Doing a quick Google search will help. For example, key into Google antenatal classes followed by where you live.
Automatically, you have a whole list of places where you might find your next private client. For example, you might find a local antenatal Facebook group and if it’s OK to do so, you could offer people your taster sessions here.
Similarly, if one of your focuses is busy professionals, you could reach out to local workplaces to offer small private group lunchtime sessions. Here you’re going directly to the HR director of a specific company.
Maybe you enjoy working with athletes, simply ask where are these people, how exactly can I help them, and then reach out to offer your taster sessions.
The takeaway here is, that while yoga is absolutely for everyone, when you reach out to offer your taster sessions, it’s much more effective when you know who you’re talking to, as opposed to trying to speak to workplaces, those who are pregnant, and athletes with sports injuries all at once. The message gets confusing. You could teach all these different groups, but the key is to personalise your communication to them and say how your private yoga sessions will benefit them personally.
Interested in teaching more private yoga sessions?
If you want to know more, check out my online course The Art and Business of Teaching Yoga One-to-One
Finally, I’d love to know how you get on. Which methods worked best for you? Are there any other tips not covered in this post that you think would be useful for other yoga teachers?
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