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 but also often low profits.
So why is this?
Why is it so difficult to make a living wage as a yoga teacher? Here’s some relevant points.
First, delivering a service such as yoga teaching is very different from being in business. Business and yoga are two different skill sets. So the yoga teachers that set up yoga studios don’t necessarily have the skills required to make their business sustainable – i.e. able to pay for itself. Same goes for community teachers – they’re having to market their classes as well as teach them.
Second, everyone wants to be a yoga teacher, so there is an over supply of teachers on the market, which devalues what’s being offered. And despite the low rate of pay for yoga teachers, more and more trainees are being churned out by teacher training programmes up and down the country.
Third, yoga has exploded on the internet, usually available for free or for very little, so students don’t even need to go to class anymore. This overabundance of available yoga also devalues what’s on offer.
“Yoga? Who needs to pay for that? YouTube’s got it for free!”
Fourth, the market has pegged the cost of a yoga class at somewhere between $10 – $20 a class, irrespective of what it might cost to produce that class.
Four, teaching yoga has a low billable hours rate. What does that mean? For every hour I put into myself as a yoga teacher (practice, study, planning, marketing, etc), I can only charge for maybe every 3rd or 4th hour or even fifth hour. That’s the hour when I teach.
Fifth, yoga teachers are limited in the number of students they can serve in one class – usually 20 or so (to be able to safely monitor the alignment of all students), so the business model is not easily scalable. You can’t just pile in 50 students to make it worth you while to show up and teach.
What does that all mean?
It’s bloody difficult to make money teaching yoga.
The truth is, yoga teachers are paid far less per class than the true value of what they are offering, and in most cases, less than even the true cost of what they are offering.
Here’s an example.
Let’s say Surya teaches a community yoga class every Thursday night for 90 minutes, which involves being on site for 2 hours.
She has an average of 10 students show up every week, and she charges them $12 for the class. That’s $120 for 2 hours work. Some people might think that’s pretty good going. But remember Surya is self-employed, so this isn’t her take-home-pay, this is her revenue. And it’s not really 2 hours work to deliver that class either.
Surya pays $15/hr for the room, and books it for 2 hours each week. $30
It takes Surya an hour each week to plan her class and choose her music. (She’s already got a great selection of play lists and class plan templates to work from.)
Three times a year, Surya creates posters advertising her classes, prints them out, and posts them up around town. She gets a deal from a graphic designer friend so only pays $100 all up for each print run. As Surya teaches 48 weeks a year, that’s $300/48= $16/wk It takes her an average of 15 minutes a week to keep posters up (2 or 3 hours each print run to put up new posters, and then occasional maintenance of posters on random weeks).
Surya also has a website advertising herself a yoga teacher. It’s difficult to break down the cost of her website on a weekly basis. But assuming fixed costs of around $300 for hosting, URL and occasional help with design, it’s another $15/wk.
Getting to and from class each week takes twenty minutes, and is a 15 km round trip, so costs $0.73 x 15 = $10.
Every year, Surya continue to up-skill and train, spending at least a week or two on various trainings and workshops. She spends about $1000 a year doing this, or $20/wk.
Total time spent to deliver her weekly yoga class: 3 hours
Average revenue per week: $120
Total cost to deliver that class: $91
Income: $29 gross
Now, out of that $29 that Surya has received for 3 hours of her time, she still has to pay tax. She needs to buy yoga clothes, and music to run her classes. As Surya is self-employed, she also needs to run all her own business accounts, and receives no holiday or sick pay.
However, some of Surya’s costs are fixed, so if she added another class per week, it would probably still cost her the same amount to design, print and distribute her posters.
This gives you an idea of the costs of delivering a community class. And raises the question, as a yoga teacher, why would you bother? Less than $10 an hour, before tax, with no holiday pay or sick pay? That’s if you can maintain at least 10 students every week – how many times have you been to a yoga class with less than ten students?
It also raises the question of whether or not there is a better way to do it. Can Surya structure her classes so they are more financially viable for her?
Generally, there’s only a couple of ways to increase the profitability of what you’re doing.
Reduce costs.
Or increase income.
Now Surya’s costs are already pretty low.
She could ditch her website, or find a cheaper way to do her posters. She could give up planning her classes and teach on the fly… but all of that is either going to make it harder to market her classes, or reduce the quality of the classes she delivers. She could stop training every year, but then she wouldn’t have new energy and knowledge to teach from.
She could increase the number of students in her class. That would require more marketing, a better strategy, more promotional material, more time… and cost more.
Surya could increase the cost of her classes. But in her area, $12 – $14 is the going rate for yoga classes so if she upped her prices, she’d lose students.
All of which makes me wonder…
Is yoga inherently “unprofitable” unless you deliver it on a scalable model (more students, lower costs)?
Do we undervalue a yoga class?
Do we undervalue yoga teachers?
Are yoga teachers doomed to have second jobs in order to support their families?
How can we as a yoga community collectively enhance our business skills so we can deliver yoga in a way that supports us?
I don’t have any answers to these questions right now.
How about you?
Got any answers?
Yoga is a hobby and to be a teacher of a profession you usually need many years of training, experience and peer reviews eg teaching architecture, any of the trades, etc. Being a yoga teacher you are an artisan – you are offering your unique perspective on a given topic. When being a professional yoga teacher you will of course compete with people truely skilled in the business of the corporate model – corporate yoga. Its a choice – corporate or artisan.
I think you bring up many valid points, and I do think that many yoga teachers would benefit from developing their business acumen. It would make a world of difference in both how sustainable and/or profitable an individual yoga business is as well as how yoga is perceived in general.
Running any business can be difficult, and running a yoga business has it’s own unique challenges. But that doesn’t mean we have to let go of our yoga values. Instead, we can actually use those values to create real sustainability and profitability that doesn’t take advantage of student, teacher, or environment.
I think that my business is a good example of this. For years, I have taught high-quality, “artisanal” yoga classes. And, I have attracted many clients. Now, I run a studio/holistic health center. This is the largest scale business that I have run.
After 1.5 years in business, we have been sustainable (supporting the business and our household) for the past six months. We are developing our business in a way that is both ethical and sustainable, and moving toward a profit margin.
I still provide high quality yoga classes. I run my business with yoga principles as the foundation. I work diligently to make sure that the growth is sustainable, and that each growth opportunity is carefully considered, planned, and appropriately developed so that it can grow.
It is possible. It just takes — as you said — a different skill set. It also takes planning, dedication, and consistency.
These are skills as well as attributes/practices that can be developed. It does take practice and mindfulness. The Yoga of Business, maybe?
Great article, and I thank you for being honest. I speak from personal experience, that of doing a year-long teacher training for purely personal reasons – in my case, anxiety. I did this because 1) I enjoyed the benefits from my regular yoga classes and 2) I was interested in the philosophy/spiritual side of yoga. After a year of training, I had a 200 hour certificate which essentially meant that I could teach, however I eventually chose not to because I felt I was not ready to. I have witnessed quite a few students and teachers not fit to teach, though there are also exceptions to the rule as well. For me to be a confident teacher, I do not feel that 200 hours is sufficient to start teaching and would only add to the over-saturated market of yoga teachers. Ultimately, if I had the choice to see someone who has spent two decades learning versus someone with a year long diploma, I know who I would pick.
You can say, well, would you choose to see a young doctor or someone with experience? But that question is not valid since you are not comparing like with like. A young doctor (engineer/architect/lawyer etc) has spent a substantial amount of time learning, then training under a cohesive and well organised body that provides a strict code of conduct all professional members are required to sign (here I also speak from experience). This does not exist in the yoga world – you can cite the international yoga alliance, but that is very loose and does not come close to the strict requirements and training of other professional fields.
Also from my experience, a lot of people enter yoga who have either deep personal issues and are looking to heal, or are looking for a spiritual/god seeking experience, or want to “get fit/flexible/strong” (ie purely exercise) – or a combination of these three aspects. I do speak for myself when I say I was exploring my own psychological issues when I started yoga, but I also know a lot of other people who started yoga because of this. If such issues are not addressed with honesty and dedicated work by the person themselves, you end up with a dogmatic teacher who ends up doing more harm than good (storied abound on elephant journal and plenty other sites). This is important because it dilutes the essence of yoga teaching overall and brings negative views for the profession. I know friends who stay away from yoga classes because of “flaky hippies” perception, or teachers who thought they knew better and damaged their student’s hip/back/knee etc.
I realise I sound negative – however I do believe yoga is an incredible path, and I continue to pursue it. I am just very careful whom I train with, and I won’t start to teach until I have a good amount of training and maturity to foster other people’s paths. I’m not saying one needs two decades for this, but I also don’t feel a 200 hour certificate is adequate either.
Need to market the benefits of yoga for example rather than paying a GP four consultations a year when ur sick time off work prescriptions etc the maintenance of your body mind etc is achieved through yoga also helps to reduce chances of cancer and mental disease etc etc
And your body looks great ! No plastic surgery here !
We created this monster when we westernized yoga and monetized it. It is supply and demand. There are more yoga studios,virtual yoga classes, yoga videos and teachers then the market has really demanded resulting in a gross undervaluing of the service.
I do believe that yoga teachers can make money but the whole model will have to shift. To what…I don’t’ know. But I do know that the current model of opening up expensive yoga studios with high overhead, paying your teachers very little, and constantly churning out more yoga teachers through teacher training programs is not going to work.
To address someone who was talking about seniority, that doesn’t work in the yoga world. Due to the increase in teacher training programs, Yoga teaching is really now valued like unskilled labor. Many people are no longer interested in the more advanced yoga techniques that take years to learn. As long as a yoga teacher can teach a good class with butt kicking physical asanas, they look cute and sound strong, they don’t care. Any teacher trainee with a script can do that. Anyone can mow a lawn and anyone can teach yoga. Just because someone has mowed lawns for 20 years and the kid next door started yesterday, doesn’t mean people pay them differently.
I work at two studios and have worked at many others. 3 years or so ago, people used to be paid more if they studied longer. Now everyone gets the same pay regardless and they are all given the same parameters for their class and expected to follow the script. Just like you would if you made McDonalds hamburgers.
We have to think outside of the current paradigm to find change. Trying to thrive in the current system of yoga studios and yoga “artisans” is not going to work.
Hey Shanna,
Yep, we’re responsible for the way it is…
…and we’re responsible for coming up with a brand new model that works for everyone involved.
Which is exactly what I’m chasing up right now – new models!
Wow – some fantastic well-thought out and thought-provoking comments.
There’s been some great additions to the many reasons why making yoga sustainable is a challenge.
Jenifer – would love to hear more about how you’ve grown and shaped your business. Might be worth an article?
I’m going to contemplate everything that’s been written about, and maybe come back with another article next week – feels like it deserves it!
KL,
I’m not sure how to get it into a blog form, but I will think about it. 🙂
I don’t know the answer either. I am in the lucky position of having my own studio with no overheads so money does not have to be my driver. I keep a part time day job as well, that I really enjoy. This was always my grand plan as I move toward my 60’s – to be able to do something that keeps me healthy and happy and is energy-giving rather than energy-draining. I also have an extremely supportive husband who continually reminds me that it’s not about the money – it is providing a much needed service to the community. But as I said, I am fortunate to be in this position where money (or lack of it) doesn’t have to get in the way of my enjoyment of yoga. There is a Canadian woman who has a thriving on-line yoga business. I have done some anatomy and kinesiology courses with her and she’s good. She also runs an on-line “attracting more yoga students” course that is specific to yoga and is based on her wealth of personal experience and success. I haven’t done it myself but it might be of interest to others. Her company is called functional synergy (functionalsynergy.com) if anyone wants to check it out.
Hey Jude,
Thanks for the link – important stuff to be sharing!
This post is timely for me. I own a yoga and pilates studio and just today had a teacher quit as she is “coming from a place of wanting to teach to share with and help people, and i just don’t think you are compassionate in the way you run your business”. this comes after i wouldn’t extend the validity on her friend’s concession card. the woman hadn’t been ill or had anything unexpected crop up, just hadn’t used ten sessions in 3 months and thought i should make an exception for her.
Said teacher is a full-time mum, with all financial support provided by her husband. I am a single mum, and while i would love the luxury of being able to do what i do for love alone, it’s just not realistic. I don’t think that wanting to make a living from what i do makes me a bad person, or not a “true” yogini!
Interesting to see what others have said about this.
Well done for having compassion for yourself and family you are trying to support Michelle, being able to run
a viable studio that pays other peoples wages as well as your own does not make you a bad yogini in the least.
I agree with Linsey here.
Concessions are really about boundaries.
What people forget is that the boundaries are inherently compassionate. It’s not just about the individual, but the community as a whole. The boundaries are considered and designated to create a pleasant experience for everyone — teacher and students. They include natural fail-safes — such as being willing to put a hold on a card for injury, illness, or emergency. Thus, boundaries take into consideration the larger needs of the community, and the fail-safes exists to safe-guard the needs of the individual should they arise.
Understanding this for yourself makes it easier to handle these sorts of “accusations” against your person and business.
What these two fail to understand is that they were asking you to be specifically not compassionate by eschewing your responsibility to the community as a whole by making an exception to the boundary for no reason — thus creating a less pleasant experience for everyone — while simultaneously allowing them as individuals to eschew personal responsibility for allowing the card to expire without using it, rather than having it extended for a real need (inappropriately using the fail-safes).
I can think of no ethical circumstance would this be considered “compassionate” behavior.
Beautifully put, Jenifer. I wholeheartedly concur 🙂
Thanks to all three of you for your thoughts and insights :o)
Great point about the way in which dodgy yoga idealogy can infect transactions… there’s two sides of the pillar, Love & Boundaries. They have to both be working otherwise the Love becomes martyrdom and we get walked all over! We need to be clear so people know what the rules of engagement are per se… like having expiry dates on concession cards!
Krishnamacharya held degrees in all the six Vedic darśanas, or Indian philosophies – was a teacher and a scholar
TKV Desikachar started his career as a civil engineer.
BKS Iyengar started yoga aged 9, started teaching in private after 10 years and in the public after 34 years of practise (and then only with Krishnamacharyas approval)
Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois was a Professor.
The lineage of most western Hatha yoga goes back to these people who either had a professional life previous to being a yoga teacher or a very long career as a practitioner of yoga before their teacher encouraged them to teach publically.
We in the West seem to think we can ‘buy our way’ into being a successful yoga teacher and then expect monetary gain from it.
That is a quantum leap in yoga ideology from that practised by ones teachers or teachers teachers.
David,
Great information, and fabulous point.
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head.
To truly teach yoga requires something far more than any 200 hr Certificate is going to give you. The fact that people set themselves up as teachers with very little background has totally devalued “yoga teachers”.
And I am one of those guilty of this. I started teaching because the teacher didn’t show up to class, and then the gym I was at asked me to take over her classes. No training at all, and barely five years practice, perhaps two of those semi-regular.
Food for thought indeed.
And yet if there is a need ?, I guess it depends on your honesty, and not teaching those things for which you have no real knowledge and training .I see a need in my community for a teacher for over 60’s women, all three who have suffered bad falls and injurys due to lack of balance, stability .Do I stand by and say oh yes, yoga is great, it will help you, just go to this great teacher in blah de blah , like many hours drive, a lot of time , when those people are generally poor . I am not qualified , not even a 200 hr certificate, although started Iyenger training a few years, but have been doing yoga on and off for 30 years ,and try and keep up a daily practise .I value it hugely even just for keeping me injury free and having good balance/fitness into my 50’s . Apart from all the spiritual/ psychological benefits as well all know or hopefull have experienced !
Interesting question Mike.
What if there is a need and you’re the only one able to supply it in that moment?
I guess that’s the difference between demand-led yoga (when the teacher responds to the demand) and supply-driven yoga (where the teacher offers what they’ve got regardless of whether there is a need for it or not).
I suspect though this is a different kettle of fish from the economics of yoga… this is about meeting needs, or way or another. Those three women need yoga. Do they want yoga though? Are they prepared to go out and find it, and offer what they can in exchange? No yoga teacher I know would ever turn away a dedicated student, even if they couldn’t pay for yoga.
Yes, kind of off topic . But thanks anyway , do they really want it , sincerely, and will they appreciate it more if I give it for free ? .I will think hard about this one ….
I resonate so well with every points you have mentioned. Recently I launched a lunchtime mindfulness at a bank I worked for years, thoughts it would be a good way to help with my colleagues on stress reduction. As much as I had a lot of positive feedback, I am still making a loss, the room rental needs to be paid upfront, and bank couldn’t not financially sponsor this movement, and people don’t turn up regularly. The class is located 2 mins walk from the bank.
I’ve recently resigned from the bank, so I can spend all the time and effort to continue pursue what I love to do. The turnout become even less from the bank, not sure if it is my marketing strategy, or people just don’t like commitment to yoga/mindfulness practise.
One thing I am certain, is that, there are still a lot of corporate people out have a the wrong perception about yoga, and struggling to incorporate this into their busy life.
In my struggle as a newly full-time yoga teacher try to survive just on yoga income, I have realise the importance of collaboration with other yoga business. Often there is a say, the big giant don’t want to help the new kid in the block, hope this is not the same in the yoga community.
Thank you very much for a great read. I concur with everything you’ve said. However, I think there’s one more thing to mention that makes it challenging to run a yoga business and that’s retaining customers.
I once attended a workshop with Simon Borg-Olivier, a very senior and knowledgeable teacher over here in Australia. It was a great workshop. But sadly, the one thing that stuck out in my mind was when he said (paraphrasing), “Half of the people who come to your class for the first time will not return. Of those who choose to return, only one out of 20 will be with you after a year.”
When he said this, I think my jaw dropped. Not because it shocked me, but because I knew he was right. Here was a very senior teacher, who I respected and admired, and he too had experienced the same thing as me.
At the end of every year I send out a survey to everyone who’s ever been to my classes and I ask them to select and/or detail the reasons why they may not have returned to class. Although the survey is anonymous, no one ever says it’s me. It’s always logistics (time/day/location) or they lack the motivation to get to class (laziness).
Sadly, I make a good chunk of money from people who purchase a 10-class pass, but do not actually attend class. I don’t like this and I contact them 2-3 times as the expiration approaches, but sometimes they just write it off.
This is a fitness industry (whether we like that idea or not), and to get someone into yoga is an exercise in changing their habits. I’m trying to tell someone get out of bed earlier than usual on the weekend and come to yoga. Don’t go home straight after work, come to yoga. Don’t go watch TV after feeding the kids, come to yoga. Step away from your desk at lunchtime and come to yoga. This is hard for people to do.
I hire a dance studio, so my costs are relatively low. My business is profitable, but only on a very small scale. I teach 12 classes a week, on average I take in over $1000/week, but that doesn’t include my expenditures which is over $300 on venue hire fees and more for FB ads, flyers, trainings and more (as you listed).
I am in the enviable position of having a husband who earns enough income to support our family. I run this yoga business because it suits our family so that I can look after our children before and after school. I love what I do. But it is a part-time job and I’m okay with that.
That’s $300 per week for venue hire.