Once that love of yoga is born, it can never be quashed … so much so that you might want to take your hobby of yoga to the next level by teaching yoga to others. However, many yoga enthusiasts who want to pass on their love of this holistic health practice have concerns over whether it can really pay enough, so let’s consider whether making a living through teaching yoga is a real possibility … or a real stretch!
Where to start
Finding out how to become a yoga instructor in your local area is one of the first things to consider. Doing some research right at the start will inform you of what yoga teacher training courses run in your area, as well as how many fitness centers, spas or health retreats are around which may actually employ yoga instructors. This way you can find out the viability of yoga teaching as a career choice first, before depending on it for your living.
Train to gain
There are many different yoga instructor training courses around and with luck you will have options in your local area. There is a high level of commitment to learning required as part of any course (approximately 200+ hours) and as well as this, all official courses cost money. It might be necessary to consider the fees as a way of investing in your future career because without the proper yoga teacher training, you will not be able to get a job in a fitness center or a yoga retreat, for example, nor will you be competent and qualified to start your own yoga business.
How to make a living
Once you’ve sussed out how to become a yoga instructor in a way that gives you the right type of qualification and you’ve started to complete your course, you’ll almost certainly begin considering that next step: making some money from your yoga skills. There are several ways to do this:
- Working in a health / fitness center or spa: Many qualified yoga instructors earn their money through giving classes in health / fitness centers or spa facilities. Payment depends on the contract offered – some might be employed as ‘staff’ and receive an hourly wage, whilst other instructors might be ‘freelance’ or working for themselves and receive a payment per class. Your preferences as to whether you want to be freelance or not might be limited, depending on how many health facilities need yoga teachers in your area and it’s worth considering that you may end up working on a freelance basis, at least initially, just to gain some classes of your own.
- Working in yoga retreats: Yoga retreats are excellent places to work and the better the level of your yoga instructor training certification, the more likely it is that you will be able to gain the more prestigious job of instructing in a yoga retreat. However, by the ‘retreat’ nature of their appeal, many of these are located in outlying areas, so travel to work costs may need to be factored in, particularly if your classes run on a sporadic morning / evening basis.
- Working as a freelance yoga instructor: qualifying with an appropriate 200 hour program of yoga teacher training means that no additional qualification is required to ‘set up’ as a freelance yoga instructor. If you have good local contacts and can pack out a local community centre hall for a few sessions a week, then you could make a good living this way – although you would need to spend a little on flyers and advertising, as well as the hall rental. Many freelance instructors then supplement this income by running classes within fitness centres, spas and yoga retreats as above, as this is often cheaper for the venue than to have a ‘staff’ instructor.
So, plenty of potential for making your living from teaching yoga, just do remember to:
- Conduct thorough research first, before you stretch yourself to make the move from yoga enthusiast to yoga instructor.
- Allow for the cost of yoga instructor training in your ‘start up’ budget.
- Allow for travel costs if you are working across different venues.
- Allow for business costs such as marketing, tax and insurance if you are working as a freelance instructor.
By preparing thoroughly and considering all of your options in the context of viability in your chosen location for work, there’s no reason why you wouldn’t be able to make your living by doing the thing you love – yoga!
