July 2023 update
Join my online course The Art and Business of Teaching Yoga One-to-One
Back in my early twenties, yoga was just a hobby of mine, I sometimes thought it’d be nice to teach yoga or even be able to make a living from yoga. But is this possible?
According to the UKs National Careers Service, the average salary of a yoga teacher is between £12,500 (to start with) and £25,000 (experienced).
I’m pretty sure most yoga teachers don’t go into the profession to make loads of money, but I find the figures above misleading.
I actually think we need to rethink how you can make a career from yoga which is the purpose for writing this post.
Many students won’t go on to teach yoga after finishing a Yoga Teacher Training.
There are now thousands of them all over the world. I don’t know the exact numbers but I’m pretty sure there are now way more qualified yoga teachers than actual jobs for them.
However, this isn’t to say that there aren’t opportunities out there (there are!). I just don’t think yoga teaching should be pursued in the same way you might approach other jobs.
The demand for yoga is really high and it continues to increase in popularity, yet we forget that not everyone who practises yoga does it at a yoga studio or gym, where you would typically get employed to teach yoga.
A short discussion on yoga teacher trainings?
The next thing I want to address is the purpose of a yoga teacher training.
With the exception of my 300 hour training, where everyone there was teaching yoga regularly or full time, in my other trainings, many didn’t have a regular personal practice, and a few others were relatively new to yoga. Did everyone want to teach at the end of it. No. Should these people be doing a teacher training? Yes and no.
I think there’s clearly money to be made from yoga teacher trainings and so lowering the bar of entry is obviously appealing and will naturally attract more people.
On the one hand, this is a good thing. On a yoga teacher training you have the opportunity to learn a lot more about the history, philosophy, anatomy…of yoga. You go so much deeper than you might at your local studio’s asana class. And then, maybe for some it acts as a kind of retreat.
So, what about the people who do want to teach yoga at the end or even those who know they would like to make yoga a big part of their career, and make a sustainable income?
The truth is that you’re unlikely to walk into your local yoga studio or gym and then be employed solely by them.
On my first yoga teacher training we talked about yoga CVs or resumes and how to approach gyms for work.
While many yoga teachers do make their livings being employed by gyms and yoga studios, in order to make this sustainable you’d have to teach quite a lot per week, with the average pay in London being between around £30 an hour for a class.
You might think that sounds quite good — especially when you compare it to how much you make per hour in a typical job. But, chances are you’ll be teaching one or two classes at one venue and then be travelling to another and so on. When you factor in travel times and expenses, it doesn’t amount to much.
Personal practice
I think one of the best things you can do is to start a regular personal yoga practice if you haven’t already. You can check out my short video below on YouTube if you’re never sure what to practice or you’d like some inspiration. This will also help a lot if you decide to teach yoga one-to-one.
How to start a home yoga practice
How can a new yoga teacher make money from yoga teaching?
I think if you seriously want to make a living from yoga — full or part time, you have to look at creating your own opportunities which means working for yourself.
By all means, take up some gym or studio classes which can be a good way of getting to know your local community, building experience, and actually starting! But, I believe the real key is to become your own boss. You then control how much you earn.
I sometimes think that at one end of the scale you have the broke yoga teacher, teaching for free and barely making ends meet, and at the other end, there’s the 6 figure yoga teacher and you’re left wondering how they actually did it.
Money had never been a huge motivator when I started teaching yoga, but because I had previously quit my job before my teacher training had finished, I was keen to make enough money to live on. I just didn’t know how.
I wasn’t intending to focus solely on private sessions, but an opportunity came up and I was really grateful. From taking on one couple, I grew to having a full private yoga teaching practice in London teaching around 10 to 12 sessions a week.
This style of teaching shouldn’t be just taken up for the money though — you have to love it and genuinely want to teach in this way. I think it’s ideal if you have a personal practice and you prefer interacting with individuals and small groups over larger groups.
I think there’s a huge misconception that new yoga teachers shouldn’t take on one-to-one clients, but with so many yoga teachers looking for work and eager to share what they love, why can’t this be an option?
In fact, if you’re reading this and you have a personal yoga practise, I’m actively encouraging you to teach yoga one-to-one — even if it’s just a few sessions a week. The price is obviously going to vary but with a one-to-one yoga session, you can charge much more than what a typical yoga studio or gym might charge.
Of course, if you decide to put on your own local regular classes, there’s probably scope for earning more money.
What did I earn in as an average yearly salary in my first two years of
teaching yoga and blogging full time?
So, what was I earning in my first few years of teaching yoga? When I was teaching yoga and blogging full time before I had my baby, I was making an annual salary of £36,000. This was actually my financial goal which might not sound like a lot to some people but for my first few years of yoga teaching, I was over the moon. It had taken me almost a decade since graduating from my degree to earn anywhere close to this, yet a year after finishing my first training, this was what I was earning.
This of course is just one way of making more money than you might at a yoga studio or gym.
In a way I’m still a relatively new yoga teacher myself and still have a lot more opportunities to explore.
My goals have changed again and I recently created my own online course where I share everything I’ve learnt about the art and business of teaching yoga One-to-One. Once again, I feel like a complete beginner, but the course does genuinely work and will give you everything you need to set up as a personal yoga teaching (even if you’re new). You can check it out here:
Online course: The Art and Business of Teaching Yoga One-to-One
I also have a video on YouTube which you might find useful below. If goes into detail about where you can actually find personal yoga students to teach.
Video: How to find private, personal or one-to-one yoga students
And of course, if you’re a yoga teacher reading this, I’d love to hear your thoughts too. What is a typical yoga teacher’s salary? What’s the best way for new yoga teachers to make a living? How else might you monetise your expertise or make a passive income as a yoga teacher?
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