10 Ways to Make Money Teaching Yoga
I’ve been teaching yoga in Seattle for 8 years. For the unfamiliar, Seattle is one of the most yoga-saturated markets in the country. This means that we have as many yoga studios as coffee shops, and also that yoga teacher trainings usually pump out more students each training cycle than studios can support.
Here’s the thing that nobody ever wants to say: it is very hard to make a reasonable living teaching yoga. I could go on about this forever (another blog post, perhaps?) but in my opinion, it boils down to a few reasons:
There are usually way more certified yoga teachers than teaching spots available at studios. Because of this, studios can be picky about who they hire and decide how much they want to pay per class. Which often… is not much.
Most yoga teacher trainings only spend a few minutes going over the business side of teaching. Yoga teachers aren’t given much insight into how to create a sustainable, profitable yoga business.
This blew my mind when I started. I graduated from my training and then was just… sent off into the world! No guide on how to get my name on a schedule, no idea of how much I should be charging, and no idea of how I could make money outside of teaching classes. I love yoga, but I also know that I love having control over my own schedule, and the idea of being tied to studio availability forever made my skin crawl. When I started asking around I realized that nobody else really knew what they were doing, either. I’m fortunate to have a corporate background (and an obsession with Googling everything under the sun), so I’ve been able to find an assortment of ways to make income teaching yoga that is strategic, sustainable, and profitable. Also, there are so many ways to provide value as a teacher beyond the traditional class setting! I created the list below because I wish I had it when I started teaching. I hope that this inspires and empowers you. Good luck!
10 ways to make money teaching yoga
In-person classes - In terms of teaching experience and building a relationship with students, nothing beats an in-person studio class. The feeling of being in a gorgeous space moving with a bunch of like-minded humans is just… *chefs kiss*. In-studio classes are the most obvious way to make money teaching and often are the only real “option” presented during teacher training. Don’t get me wrong, I love (and miss!) teaching in a studio. I will say, though, it’s easy to feel like you’ve hit a wall with your business if you are only offering in-person classes in a studio. Studios typically set prices and schedules, which usually leads to teachers juggling multiple studio spots to make ends meet. Things like commute time, class prep time, and opening/closing duties often aren’t factored into class pay, which means you might end up breaking even (or often losing money) at the end of the day. If you are teaching in-person classes, remember that you can negotiate your pay!
Private lessons - Private lessons are one of my favorite methods of teaching. I LOVE creating close relationships with my students, creating custom plans for their bodies and goals, and watching them make progress each session. In a studio class, I might only see one of my students a few times a month and definitely can’t give them my full attention for the entire class. Private lessons allow you to hone in on your specialty and get real-time feedback from your students. I personally also love the freedom of not being tied to a studio schedule; you can decide the hours that you want to teach. The standard beginning rate for private lessons in Seattle is $100/hour. A lot of newbie teachers feel intimidated asking for that number but remember; if somebody wants 1:1 access to your time they should be pay appropriately. This rate also includes and equipment and/or space that you have to provide.
Online classes - I think that this goes without saying in COVID-times, but pre-pandemic teaching online is honestly not something I had given much attention to. Teaching online has a lot of benefits: you can teach from anywhere, you aren’t constrained to a studio schedule, you don’t have to pay to rent space, and you have full control over your pricing. I teach online through a platform called Moxie, specifically because I like how you can view schedules, book classes, teach, and accept payment all in one place. That being said, don’t overthink it. Teaching on Zoom (or even live on a social platform) is a GREAT way to reach your students. However you decide to teach online, make sure you have a clear way to collect payment and you are constantly sharing your class schedule. If nobody knows, they can’t sign up!
Workshops - Workshops are an opportunity to showcase your expertise and dive wayyyy deeper into a favorite topic with your students that you can’t usually get to during class. I usually choose my workshop topics based on frequently asked questions for students. Since I also am an athlete, I get a ton of questions about how athletes can get into yoga. So… I turned it into a workshop! And… pretty much every single person that had asked me that question in the past signed up. Workshops usually cost more than regular classes because of the amount of content and specialized experience provided. The term “workshop” in the yoga world really refers to any specialized event; handstand workshops, yoga and wine tasting, restorative poses mixed with a sound bath, etc. Unlike classes, you can typically make a decent amount of money from a single workshop. Make sure that when you are planing out the event that you factor in things like space rental costs, supplies, and marketing.
Digital products - Digital products fall into what’s considered to be “passive income”. Passive income comes from products that, once you’ve done the work of creating them, can continue to be sold for as long as you want. Essentially I currently offer two different digital products: my gratitude journal and on-demand video classes. These are both things that I promote regularly (and get income from!) but don’t have to put much work into anymore. Just like workshops, digital products are a great way to answer questions that you get often. Instead of replying to the same DM for the 500th time, you can send the link and get paid.
Corporate wellness - Corporate wellness is any workplace health promotion activity or organizational policy designed to support healthy behavior in the workplace and to improve health outcomes. This is a growing industry, particularly at giant tech companies known for burning out their employees. There are endless ways for yoga teachers to fit into this, but some examples are; teaching lunchtime yoga classes, leading meditation sessions, or teaching mindfulness skills for high-stress situations. If you want to go the corporate wellness route, reach out to a company that you’re interested in and/or somehow connected to and ask them about the wellness needs of their employees. From there, you would create a menu of offerings and contract with the company outlining your services. Obviously, that is the very simplified version, but it’s an awesome option for yoga teachers with a corporate background.
Event partnerships - Specialized events are a fun way to bring yoga to new audiences and event organizers love being able to list more features on their event details. When I say event partnerships I’m not referring to yoga festivals, but outside events that could benefit from a yoga tie-in. I’ve been hired to lead a guided warm-up stretch before 5K runs, to give a talk about mindfulness at corporate conferences, and to lead yoga classes at wine tastings. There are so many ways to provide value to events and (once we are all vaccinated) so many events!
Sports teams - My first official teaching gig outside of practice teaching at my training studio was leading weekly yoga to a high school rowing team that my friend coached. As a yoga teacher and former collegiate rower, I was able to merge my background to create effective conditioning and recovery plans for 60 teenage boys. That being said, you don’t need an athletic background to bring value to a sports team. Athletes are notoriously bad at not taking stretching seriously until it’s too late, or not really understanding how to recover. You can partner with sports teams in lots of ways like teaching weekly classes, leading a guided recovery workshop, or creating a standard warm-up and cool-down stretch sequence, for example. In my experience working as a yoga teacher (and rowing coach!), most coaches are interested in bringing a yoga teacher but don’t know how to find one. I suggest reaching out to teams in your area (start with high school before going to the big leagues!), introducing yourself and your teaching style, and asking if you can teach a sample class to their athletes.
9. Referrals - Coaches aren’t the only people looking for good yoga teachers, this also extends to physical therapists, chiropractors, preventative care specialists, and beyond. Since I’m not a medical professional, I have a handful of specialists I LOVE that I refer my students to if they need specialized care. Once my student visits them, I get a kickback. This also goes the other way, if one of these specialists refers a patient to me, I give them a kickback. Obviously only refer patients to professionals that you’ve had a positive experience working with and genuinely align with. Be transparent with your referral relationship with your students, too. Building trust is everything for continued business.
Brand partnerships - Waaaay, way back before social media, sports apparel companies would pay teachers to wear their clothes during class, effectively getting their products in front of a rapt audience. The original influencer marketing! Brand partnerships have evolved since then, but the core idea is still there - if you have access to their target demographic, brands want to work with you. I can’t tell you how many pairs of yoga pants I’ve bought after seeing one of my favorite teachers wear them, it really works! If there’s a brand you’d like to create a partnership with, reach out and suggest a few mutually beneficial ways you could work together. The most obvious example of this is on social media, but there are still plenty of opportunities to partner with brands offline.
To give you an idea of what paid brand partnerships looks like, here are a few yoga-relevant partnerships that I have and how I weave their products into my offerings:
I have a partnership with Fabletics where I feature their clothes in real-life settings to showcase their versatility. They have partnerships with a lot of popular fitness instructors to help grow brand recognition and associations.
I recently partnered with my friend Kate to promote her (incredible!) new avocado mat design. I use her mats in most of the fitness content that I share on social media, and usually, teach my online classes on it as well.
Brand partnerships don’t have to be super literal to “yoga”. In December 2020, I worked with Not Milk Co. to share a dairy-free, adaptogenic hot chocolate recipe. It was seasonally appropriate but also tapped into the greater healthy lifestyle category that most yoga practitioners fall into.
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