Thinking of quitting your job to teach yoga? 10 questions to ask first

Teaching yoga - all blissed out on the beach-time?

by guest author Louise Thompson, Positive Balance Are you working in corporate but dreaming of jacking it all in to be a yoga teacher? Do you fantasize of days wafting about from class to class, no rush, and no hurry? It seems like nirvana as you struggle to focus on yet another board presentation. But, (as you can see from Kara-Leah’s excitement over her new job), is it? Is teaching yoga all leisurely days and packed classes and a blissed out existence? Having escaped corporate and … [Read more...]

The Yoga of Business: Goals, Clarity, Values & Commitment, Part 4

Greeting students at the front desk of Healium, a holistic health centre and yoga studio on Lambton Quay

by guest author Jenifer Parker, business owner of Healium, Wellington Consistency Makes It Happen Once you have all of these elements coming together -- a specific, defined goal; clarity around the values on which the business is formed; and a commitment to that goal as a business -- then the only thing that prevents a person from becoming successful is a lack of consistency. I have a friend who set up a yoga studio, hiring other teachers and running a beautiful little business. Things … [Read more...]

The Yoga of Business: Goals, Clarity, Values & Commitment, Part 3

Greeting students at the front desk of Healium, a holistic health centre and yoga studio on Lambton Quay

by guest author Jenifer Parker, business owner of Healium, Wellington Committing to Your Goal Of course, a lot of people have goals, even specific ones with well-laid plans and a great deal of clarity around their purpose, that still don't succeed. Why is this? A lot of people look at goals as rather personal endeavors that are easy-come, easy-go -- like New Year's resolutions. They don't affect anyone but you, right? So, you don't get the goal, it doesn't really matter. You can … [Read more...]

The Yoga of Business: Goals, Clarity, Values & Commitment, Part 2

Greeting students at the front desk of Healium, a holistic health centre and yoga studio on Lambton Quay

by guest author Jenifer Parker, business owner of Healium, Wellington Clarity Drives the Process As we have all experienced, sometimes goals do not come to fruition even when they are specific. They can be ridiculously detailed and give a clear way to success, but still fail spectacularly. And sometimes -- as many of us have experienced in the yoga world -- these businesses succeed financially, while undermining the very values that we claim to hold and espouse as yoga … [Read more...]

The Yoga of Business: Goals, Clarity, Values & Commitment, Part 1

Greeting students at the front desk of Healium, a holistic health centre and yoga studio on Lambton Quay

by guest author Jenifer Parker, business owner of Healium, Wellington In recent weeks, numerous blogs around the web have brought up issues around yoga and business. For many, the common perspective is that yoga and business don't mix, and that going into business with yoga not only denigrates yoga but makes it impossible to be a "true" teacher of yoga. My perspective, however, is that by running any yoga teaching as a business, you better embody the principles of yoga in practice, or … [Read more...]

Economically, yoga doesn’t make any sense at all

Can yoga teachers make a decent income?

We've all heard about those wonderful yoga studios delivering fantastic yoga to the community, but struggling to pay their overheads, let alone make any profits. On the flipside of the coin are the corporate yoga studios and centres paying yoga teachers as little as possible in order to maximise profits for the business owners. Somewhere in the middle are the yoga teachers that schlep themselves all over town teaching in community halls, gyms, offices and other studios, with low overheads … [Read more...]