7 Ways to Make Money as a Yoga Instructor

This article aims to present you with the different options available to exercise and transmit your passion to your future students. Whether you wish to make yoga your main activity or a part-time job, for each person the process is different.

Earning the valuable yoga teacher’s diploma is the first step in a long journey of continuous learning. It is the starting point. The foundation.

Once you’ve certified as a yoga teacher, you have a wide range of options:

Working in a yoga studio as a salaried employee
Getting started as a private yoga teacher
Working in a yoga retreat center abroad
Organizing your own yoga trips
Creating your personal yoga blog
Working online as a freelancer
Start your own yoga Youtube channel

If it vibrates in you, there is no doubt that you will find a way to combine yoga and work and to live passionately from it. Keep reading.

What to do after finishing and certifying as a yoga teacher?

Before going any further, it is important to come back to the fundamental question that motivated you to enroll in the yoga teacher training, or that will push you to do so if it is not already the case!

Why am I attending a YTT program? What are my primary motivations?

This will probably give you an idea of the path you want to follow, or experience.

It can be: working in a studio, or association, setting up your own private lessons business and creating your school, working in a yoga retreat center, or organizing your own yoga workshops or retreats.

And of course, you have the online routes, like creating a blog or a Youtube channel, or working as a freelancer on yoga-related tasks…

The possibilities are huge in today’s day and age, let’s get started with the first one…

1. Working in a yoga studio as an employee

Working for studios, yoga schools, gyms, associations, wellness companies, or other organizations, allows you to become an employee with all the advantages that this implies (social security, paid vacations, contributions, payslips, stability…).

By working in a studio, you will gain a lot of experience as a yoga teacher, and be able to focus on the quality of the classes you will give.

Besides, you will probably teach classes to different groups, and therefore, develop the ability to adapt your class to each student, and each group, faster.

You will be able to feel the energy of each group and improve the way you teach accordingly.

This option allows you to focus on the yoga sessions and your “role” as a teacher, without having to worry about the management, and accounting side of things.

If you want to focus on your yoga lessons alone without having to pay attention to anything else, and if you like the comforts and security of having a full-time job, then this option may be good for you.

How much does a salaried yoga instructor earn?

As a salaried employee, the remuneration you will receive is to be defined and sometimes negotiated with the person in charge of the yoga studio you work for.

The salary varies from one studio to another, but in general, you will first receive minimum wage (between $7 to $15 in general), and move up from there.

Also, it is often possible to be remunerated on a fixed basis with a bonus based on the number of attendees to your classes.

2. Starting as a private yoga teacher

Setting up your own business as a yoga teacher, and gradually creating your own company, has the advantage of offering a lot of independence, and the freedom to develop your own project.

Today, several statuses, such as the auto-entrepreneur in France or the Solemember LLC in the US, allow you to easily create your own business and be protected from liability. (always consult an attorney on these matters since laws vary from place to place)

The learning curve to becoming an entrepreneur is long but so rewarding.

With time, experiences, and perseverance, you can create your own school or mobile private yoga lessons.

This brings us to another important aspect of becoming an independent yoga teacher:

How do you find clients as a yoga instructor entrepreneur?

No more stability and a steady flow of students when you work as a private yoga teacher, at least at the beginning…

It is now up to you to use all the communication, and marketing strategies, to seek out and retain your clients.

Several methods are at your disposal:

Word-of-mouth,
Personal contacts
Flyers in libraries or gyms
Facebook groups in your area
Paid online advertising (through Google ads or Facebook ads)
Creating a website

Finding the first customers is certainly the most complicated, but once your marketing is in place, it makes a snowball effect, and soon you have to contact other teachers to help you out!

Once your first students are seduced, they will surely talk about it around them, gradually bringing new followers!

You will also have to learn how to manage all the administration, accounting (expenses, charges, profits…), and management of a sole proprietorship.

Or you can easily hire someone to help you pretty inexpensively on upwork.com (recommended)

3. Working in a yoga retreat center abroad

Combining yoga and travel is a third option that appeals to many of the recently graduated teachers.

Some people who validate their certification in Asia, for example, take the opportunity to be on-site to continue the journey, and work occasionally, or even for a whole season, in a yoga and meditation wellness retreat center.

International teachers are generally welcome, but fluency in English is highly recommended.

Retreat organizers often offer accommodation and full board, or even a little pocket money for your working hours.

This is an opportunity to expand your experience.

It’s a great way to ask all your questions to the organizers, to see how these centers work, and start your contact book.

To differentiate yourself from other yoga teachers, it can be interesting to have a specialization or extra hours certified by Yoga Alliance for example.

Look at this alternative as an internship.

You will have access to the yoga retreat organizers (your boss/es), and you will be able to ask them any questions and to see how the operations of currently working yoga retreats are from the inside!

This insight will be invaluable if you then decide to organize your OWN yoga retreats!

This takes us to option number 4…

4. Organize your own yoga retreats

Organizing a yoga retreat can be the pinnacle of lifestyle design for many yoga teachers.

You travel around the world, visit amazing settings, practice yoga, and share your passion with like minded individuals.

There are many options to go about organizing your own yoga retreats:

You can choose the option to organize yourself,
Or in collaboration with others,

Organizing your own retreat allows you to create the yoga holiday you have always dreamed of living, and to fully share your passion for yoga, travel, and discovery with your clients.

For this, you will have to develop new tools related to organization, marketing, and sales.

How to find the place of the retreat, what program to offer, how many days, how much to charge for a yoga retreat… are all questions you will have to answer when creating a group trip.

You will also have to use different marketing strategies to promote your yoga retreat (creation of a site or a page specific to the retreat, creation of a Facebook group, distribution on yoga retreat platforms, online marketing – Google Adwords, Facebook Ads…).

In this article 👉 How to market your yoga retreat, you will find a lot of useful information, techniques, and actionable tips to effectively promote your yoga retreat.

5. Create your personal yoga blog

The creation of a blog can be a complement to one of these options or be a project in its own right.

Creating a blog online, and living from your blog, allows you to work from anywhere in the world, and in complete independence.

You can offer online courses, develop a list of subscribers, sell affiliate products, or create your own!

Once you have an audience (a blog with traffic), you can serve them as you like.

It allows you to create an amazing source of income based on what you like doing serving people that resonate with your message.

It’s an amazing way to build an income source, but it can take some time to take off.

Usually, you can expect to work on your blog 1-2hs every day for a year until you start receiving some decent traffic AND income from it…

But is amazingly WORTH IT because it allows you to work from anywhere and to earn income semi-passively once your traffic is coming in.

You will learn how to use all the tools of online marketing (website/blog creation, social networks, pay per click, partnership and writing articles for other sites, SEO, etc…)

6. Find a job online as a freelancer

Working as a freelancer also allows you to go on traveling while working at the same time.

You become what is called a ‘digital nomad’ or location independent.

If you like traveling and exploring new places this is an amazing way to generate revenue as a yoga teacher.

It usually involves writing content or filming videos related to yoga and wellness for example and you typically get paid per word count or per hour.

You can find this kind of gig signing up as a freelancer on upwork.com (Note this is different from when you sign up as an employer to hire freelancers to help you with your own projects).

7. Start your own yoga Youtube channel

Youtube can be a great way to earn income as a yoga teacher.

As a content creator for the platform you get paid depending on the number of views you get on your videos.

You typically get paid $5 to $20+ per 1000 views. However, keep in mind this changes dramatically depending on:

The language of your audience. English being the highest paying of all
The location of your audience. USA being the hughes paying
The content of your site.

You can also earn revenue from your yoga Youtube channel by:

Promoting affiliate products
Promoting your own paid courses
Creating sponsored content with brands that will pay you to review physical products or something they offer
Selling/promoting your own retreats!

Again, just like building a blog, creating a Youtube channel around yoga will take some time until you get that mass of viewers consistently watching the videos you put up.

But this is another way to build a semi-passive income source related to your passion that will allow you to work location-independently.

In conclusion

Whatever path you are thinking of taking next, I can only advise you to stay tuned, and open to the proposals and opportunities that will be proposed to you along the way.

Remember that LIFE IS MAGIC AND MYSTERY.

It is not a problem to solve, but an experience to live.

To your success!

Read also:

How Much Does a Yoga Retreat Cost?

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