Yoga business is not for everyone. There are lots of challenges in the business side of yoga and the yoga teachers struggle to balance it as a service for the community and to be financially sustainable also. Many yoga teachers look for another side of the business or a source of income. 

Many yoga studios have larger spaces and they have other ways of supplementing things financially like offering yoga apparel and yoga props for students.

The basic challenge that yoga teachers face is consistency in their finances and leveraging their time on other things. The other thing is the marketing strategy that would drive more earnings for your business.

Australia Fitness Professionals has low pay and lack of opportunities: There are currently around 35,000 people employed as fitness instructors (ABS Census 2016). And only 32% are working full-time (ABS Labour Force Survey 2016).

What do teachers do to maintain their yoga business?

1. Take Side Jobs

Often yoga teachers take side jobs within their yoga space or otherwise. Side jobs can be taking private yoga classes, selling yoga products, host yoga workshops or yoga retreats. Also, you can be creative and print your yoga apparel and accessories and sell them on Amazon.

You can also join some yoga businesses or studios and offer your services as a yoga teacher.

2. Expand Studio

Many yoga teachers prefer expansion in Yoga classes to workshops or personal coaching yoga tours.

According to research, 55 per cent of yoga practitioners prefer out of the studio teaching yoga at various exotic places hotels, beaches or resorts.

Also, 75 per cent of yoga students want to travel to such venues to escape the mundane. Many people love the idea of leaving the ordinary and experiencing the peace of practising yoga in a different venue.  By marketing a yoga retreat, you can tap into this large market of people who would like to connect publicly with other yoga practitioners and make a difference.

3. Teach Live Online

Apart from traditional yoga classes at studios, you can go for online classes. Current webcam technology allows you to offer either live-streaming classes or recorded podcasts.

Find here how to take classes on Zoom

You can design your yoga sequence and teach yoga online. If you don’t have your website then create one. Here’s how to do it.

You can even use Google Hangouts to stream your live courses. According to research, 33 per cent of yoga practitioners have begun studying yoga because of a friend. Consider using a “refer a friend” program to market your services.

4. Find the Best Marketing Strategy

Many new yoga teachers find challenges and struggle to become successful yoga businesswomen/men. As said above you don’t have to quit yoga but find another income stream in yoga.

You might feel the brunt of competition and difficulty in finding students or classes. What you need is to know how to market your yoga business. For that market research is important to understanding the margins – like rate of return doing retreats, workshops, studio, online, private, etc want a stable income stream without burning out.

You should thus have sound business knowledge, which is also critical for people who have expertise in finance and marketing.

5. Use Facebook Tool

There are many online tools to market your business and a popular one is social media Facebook Marketing. Create Facebook Pages for your business and targeted Facebook ads. You can frequently boost ads from your studio’s Page and utilize geo-targeting. Every time someone interacts by sharing, liking, or commenting, you are promoting your yoga events and bringing awareness to your studio.

Here are links to an in-depth tutorial to up your Facebook

1. Facebook Marketing Basics for Yoga Studios
2. How to grow your yoga studio’s presence on Facebook

What are the challenges in the business side of Yoga?

According to Candy Osborne in her article in Medium, the top six challenges yoga studio owners face are:

• Competing with other facilities
• Attracting new students
• Retaining students
• Staying cash flow positive
• Finding good teachers
• Preserving the integrity of yoga

Laura Richardson, owner of Bikram Yoga Nashua USA, says, “These days, boutique exercise places have become popular. Just in this plaza alone, where Bikram Yoga Nashua is, there is a yoga studio, an aerial yoga studio, a barre fitness studio, and a fencing studio. There’s just so much competition.”

Most yogis, 79% in fact, also practice other forms of exercise. Because of this, there may be an opportunity to team up with complimentary fitness centres to help drive more traffic.

Simply imagine a yoga studio teaming up with a boutique fitness centre and offering referral discounts or opportunities to win a raffle if they have memberships at both facilities. As they say, “If you can’t beat them, join them!”

Also differentiating your yoga business is a critical step in keeping a toehold in the market.

Besides yoga asanas or poses, you can include mantras and meditation as well as fun yoga classes for kids.

How to retain your students?

To retain your students you need to treat them the way they want to be treated. Find what they want in their yoga class.

You can give introductory offers and discounts. According to wellness business consultant and yoga teacher Andrew Tanner, to encourage retention, you want committed long-term clients. This means that you want drop-ins to feel uncomfortable about paying a higher price to the point where they voluntarily convert to a membership or class card. He urges you not to undervalue your services, citing burnout as a possible outcome.

Find more about this here “Promo Lessons from a Studio Makeover” by Andrew Tanner for the Yoga Alliance.

Also, you should introduce Motivational programs for your students. That can be offering guest speakers, career counselling programs, fitness program music lessons, or even martial arts.

How to find the best teachers for your studio business?

You cannot run your studio business alone. You need to have more yoga teachers involved if you have a large business.

• Getting the best teachers is what is a daunting task. You can see that the teacher fits your studio’s culture and is passionate about yoga and caring for students.
• You can find local yoga teachers from small yoga businesses and mingle with them or take the freshers who are desperate to teach. Even professionals with the right mindset are proven to be an asset to the yoga business.
• The perfect yoga teacher is loyal to you and your business. You can even train them for free to become an outstanding teacher which can boost your studio to higher levels.

Best platform to host your website Squarespace vs Wix vs Weebly

There are several platforms where you can easily create, maintain and host your business website. Squarespace and Wix are among the most popular ones. Check Squarespace for theme details and pricing.

See also How to create a Yoga / Pilates website in Squarespace in 10 minutes.

Conclusion

Finally, remember that challenges will be there, in fact, life itself is a challenge to face with a smile. Define your goals and try to concentrate more on yoga practice as a service to humanity. With the right approach to yoga teaching and applying the best marketing strategy, you can be successful.

Any business is always a learning path. Each day you learn something new and grow better. With persistence and patience, you can achieve. Why not?

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