You have experience in yoga, and have an education for teaching, and now you’re getting ready to start your own business as a yoga teacher - that’s exciting!
You might have all the qualifications, and motivation, but unfortunately that is not all that is required in order to start a business. Why not? Because starting a business means that you are an entrepreneur, and now it is also your responsibility to deal with all the associated ad hoc tasks (both in the classroom, and behind).
But not to worry! When it comes to the business side of things, it's not rocket science, and all the necessary knowledge and skills can quickly be acquired through research, training, and professional help.
To jump right into things, we will first discuss the most important aspects to starting a business as a yoga teacher.
Career opportunities as a yoga teacher
Nowadays, many people looking to balance out the stress of their busy working days and use yoga as the stress reliever and healthy, trendy, sport it is.
With this in mind, there are a lot of potential career options as a yoga teacher. But with this, also means there is a lot of competition. One should therefore consider how to stand out, and distinguish yourself.
Establishing yourself as a yoga teacher
To really stand out from the competition, it helps to create a strong profile. To do so, ask yourself:
- What are my strengths?
- Which areas am I particularly interested in?
- What is my unique selling point? For example, do you want to offer yoga to companies? Do you want to do private yoga classes, at your customers homes? Or maybe you are interested in yoga for pregnant women? Once you can decide on these things, then you will be able to market yourself accordingly.
How can I market my activities as a yoga teacher?
Since self-employed people often do not have access to the financial resources for online marketing and advertising or campaigns, it is a good idea to explore various creative and low budget self-marketing strategies.
This includes the following strategies:
- Create and maintain an aesthetically pleasing website
- Run a blog while focussing on SEO content
- Be active in various social media platforms
- Build a strong network
When you start a new business, it is also important that you clearly define your target audience. From here, you can design your marketing strategies to fit this audience. For example, if you offer pregnancy yoga, you should cover relevant topics for pregnant women in your blog.
Which finances do I have to pay attention to as a yoga teacher?
Typically, not all self-employed yoga teachers are pursuing this career for materialistic reasons such as money - but rather for the non-materialistic benefits such as finding balance within the body, mind, and soul. However, money is a crucial factor in the equation, and if you want your business to succeed and grow, you need to have some sort of revenue coming in.
In order to do so, you first need to design a pricing strategy. Ask yourself:
- Will you charge hourly, or per course, or create a package deal?
- Will you offer any discounts or loyalty programs? Bear in mind that you will have many business expenses such as insurance, software, equipment, income tax, living expenses, studio rent, and gas (if you do home visits) and more. Try and find out how much you need to charge per class in order to break-even the average fixed and variable costs.
In order to fund these start-up expenses, you might consider taking a loan, but you should also consider various other creative ways to fund your new business.
How do I do my accounting as a yoga teacher?
And now perhaps the most annoying task of an(y) entrepreneur - accounting. This includes, among others:
- Creating, writing, and sending invoices
- Recording sales and expenses
- Documenting all ingoing and outgoing payments
- Creating and sending financial reports to the tax authorities (VAT reports, cash flow forecast, profit & loss statements etc.)
Before we start scaring you off with all these financial accounting terms - we also have something with will help you! Thanks to the digital age we live in today, invoicing software such as Debitoor can help you save time and money, and give you all the tools you need to keep track and stay on top of your bookkeeping! :)
