Yoga Teacher Training: How to Find a Job?
Yoga teacher training is a great first step to becoming a yoga teacher, but if your intention is to bring your wisdom to others and actually make a living from teaching, then how do you find your first yoga teaching job? How do you make enough money to eat and put a roof over your head and still do what you love?
The western approach to supporting yoga teachers is very different than how many yogis are supported in places like India. For some of these yoga teachers, they are born into a lineage that is supported generously by patrons, much in the same way that artists were supported in the 19th century. In the west, there are a few yoga teachers who are lucky enough to have this set up, but most of us work by the hour on a commission basis, or start our own studio, and essentially create our own jobs.
If you are starting your own studio you can set your own prices and decide when to have classes and what kind, but you will also have to worry about replacing the soap in the bathroom when it runs out, correct credit card billing when it goes wrong, send out e-mail reminders to your students when payment is due if they are not automatically billed, pay for rent, utilities, and so on. There is a lot of overhead in going it alone. Teaching with others or finding a co-op of teachers can help.
If you would rather work for someone else, you can contract with a studio to teach a few classes a week, but don’t expect to get paid as much as you would if you were offering a yoga class out of your own space, since the owners of the studio have to pay you but also over their overhead for keeping the studio open.
You can also offer private yoga lesson where you travel to someone’s home or office. Most people are willing to pay a premium for private lessons for the convenience of you traveling to them, and not having to fit a ‘class’ into their busy schedules. They also get the luxury of a true guru and sadhak or teacher and student relationship because you as their teacher can provide them with invaluable insight into their practice one-on-one in ways that cannot be gleaned in a regular group class environment.
Finding your first job teaching yoga is easy if you are willing to stay open minded and you don’t expect to make $100 an hour or even $20 for the first six months. Think of it as on the job training. The better job you do teaching at the local Y or community center, the more experience you will gain and eventually you will have a large enough student base to start offering classes of your own or privates. Also consider visiting hospitals, retirement homes, and gyms in addition to yoga studios to find your first teaching job.
