3 Costly Yoga Business Mistakes: Mistake Number 3
In this, the final part of this series looking at the business mistakes a number of yoga teachers make, we’re moving away from the finances in a way to the strategies new teachers often employ once they graduate from their Yoga Teacher Training Course.
If you missed parts 1, 2 and 3 of this series, and you’re generally not too hot with the money side of things in your yoga business or career, then I highly recommend you read those first three posts before you read this one!
Part 1: Visit: “3 Financial Questions All Yoga Teachers Should Be Able To Answer If They Are To Survive.”
Part 2: Visit “3 Costly Yoga Business Mistakes: Mistake Number 1.”
Part 3: Visit: “3 Costly Yoga Business Mistakes: Mistake Number 2.”
So, what is the third costly business mistake I see yoga teachers make?
Mistake number 3:
Hoping the experience of working for gyms and studios will get you on the “ladder.”
Before I explain this a little more, let me ask you a couple of questions – which have, to a certain extent, been a thread throughout this whole series of posts, but which I’d like to ask in a more direct way now.
Question 1: Do you want to earn some extra money through teaching yoga? Was this part of your hope when you took the yoga teacher training course – that you might be able to supplement your existing income?
Question 2: Where would you like to see yourself in terms of what you are doing with your yoga teaching skill in 12 months, 2 years or 5 years down the road?
If teaching yoga is and always will be just something you want to do “on the side,” then seriously – read no further.
Instead, if you haven’t already found work at yoga studios or at gyms, then use this time to start your research and ensure your CV looks good! Good luck!
If, however, you hanker after being able to make your yoga teaching a more sustainable income,
if you’d like to be your own boss, gather your own following, and make a bigger impact through your love of yoga, then read on.
Starting out working for a studio or a gym can be a good idea, but they have – as most things do - their pros and cons! (See “Yoga Teacher Jobs: The Pros And Cons Of Working For Studios Or Gyms”).
However, some people are attracted to this as they perceive it as the “easiest route,” or they lack the confidence right now, both in their own teaching experience and in their ability to be able to set up anything on their own. They feel developing a business of their own is too overwhelming, a little scary, and something perhaps to do further down the line.
Tell me - have you ever found yourself stuck in a job you weren’t particularly keen on, maybe even unhappy in, yet you felt stuck and didn’t leave?
That’s what can happen when you start working for gyms or studios!
I’ve heard a number of teachers in my own area, and on yoga teacher groups, complain about the conditions, their pay and the way they are treated working as an employee of a gym or a yoga studio.
Yet, they put up with it! They are not fulfilled. It is not particularly rewarding – yet they stay stuck. Or, they quit teaching altogether.
What’s even more scary is if they read the first few articles in this series and got a grip on the money they were really making from working in those conditions, they’d probably be shocked and resign!
Now, of course, not all employers are like that. And for some, this route can be a really useful springboard to something more fulfilling.
But I want to ask you again – where do you see yourself in a year, 2 years? What was the dream you had when you did your yoga teacher training?
The reality is too many potentially great yoga teachers end up stuck on a
yoga path which is unlikely to get them where they want to go.
This is not a career ladder - it’s a road to nowhere.
Hoping teaching in the studio or gym will help you start this new career will only work if you consciously and carefully plan the steps you take. If you make sure you get the right kind of experience. If you take opportunities to learn from other teachers. If you start to get to grips with the finances.
Hope doesn’t build a career in anything.
Careers need planning. They need a strategy.
They need you to think about how what you are doing now will help build you up for the next step.
So, take some time out to reflect on the journey you would like to create.
You’re a yogi – use your time on the mat to reflect.
If you’re already teaching and you haven’t got a handle on the numbers, take some time out to get a grip on that side of things and make your choices about what steps to take next from a position of power and control and conscious choice.
These 3 mistakes we have covered in this series can completely derail an enthusiastic yoga teacher leaving them disheartened, cynical and frustrated to the point where they quit teaching.
And for me, there’s nothing more disheartening than seeing a good yoga teacher end up giving up because they feel they can’t make any kind of living from what they’re doing.
Not only do they lose out – but the hundreds of students they would have taught and who would have benefited from their teaching, lose out too.
Don’t let that happen to you.
Namaste,
Shona
Actions you can take:
If you'd like to learn more about how to build a successful yoga teacher career, join our Facebook Business Community.
