The 4 Pillars of Yoga Teaching as a Business

Chrissy Chung
Jan 20, 2021
3 min read

Updated: Jan 21, 2021

With the current lockdown many yoga schools find themselves transforming their yoga teacher training into an online training. This move has been endorsed by the Yoga Alliance and provision have been made to register and certify those who complete online training before December 2021.

I have been working remotely assisting the Akasha Yoga Academy since August 2020 with their marketing and sales. In the past six months they have created their online academy with a successful rebrand of their 200-Hour Online Yoga Teacher, workshops, events, and Yoga Alliance Continued Education Programmes YACEP are being developed for 2021.

Recently I joined the teaching team at Akasha Yoga Academy and coached the class on the topic of “Yoga as a Business”. This module I created is to enable students to transition from student to teacher with some business insight into the Yoga industry with some business fundamentals when they graduate.

"My 4 Pillars of Yoga Teaching as a Business" is based on analysing the Product, Placement, Personal Brand and Price.

PRODUCT

The “PRODUCT” is your teaching.

What are you teaching? As a teacher you need to consider is it asana, meditation, breath work, blend of all three or a combination of your yoga knowledge and other skills.

Why are you teaching this and how will your students benefit from this? This will come from your passion, beliefs, knowledge, and desire to share with others.

Who is my ideal student? Once you know who your ideal student you can tailor your teaching and marketing to attract them. Knowing your student is one of fundamentals when curating your "PROUCT".

What is your teaching style and how is it influenced? It is important to understand your teaching style and how it is influenced. Simply copying your teacher may not come across as authentic and genuine. Practice and perfect your own and understand everyone have different learning abilities and you may need to be able adapt your teachings.

Your yoga journey is unique to you, share your journey as there is a possibility your student may well be going through the same obstacles and your experience could help them.

PLACEMENT

The “PLACEMENT” is where will you teach.

Traditionally yoga is taught in person in gyms, yoga schools, church halls, outdoors in the park, at retreats and private classes. More recently we have seen yoga classes available in corporate offices, co workspaces and drop-in centres, rehabilitation centre and even in retirement homes.

Now since 2020 we have online graduates who are familiar with the virtual learning and teachings of yoga, we have had an explosion of online yoga. Teaching live or pre-recorded. There are many platforms to share your classes on the web, social media, zoom, YouTube and many more.

PERSONAL BRAND

The “PERSONAL BRAND” is you.

Yoga is personal and what you are sharing is your own experience and knowledge. There for this should reflect you as a person, your beliefs, and values. Your yoga journey is unique to you and will influence your teaching. Be you be authentic and teach from your heart.

PRICE

The “PRICE” is the value to hold to what you are teaching.

Many yogis are sensitive when it comes to the topic of money. We have had many class discussions around this and what to charge.

Basically “PRICE” is what you are willing to charge or take as a reward or exchange for your teaching or what you are sharing.

I encourage teachers to value their work, they have invested time, money, and effort in building up their yogic knowledge, practice and experience. The "gift of yoga" can be in many forms. Some common practices of charging:

- Contribution based.

- Free / complimentary

- Charge per class

- Bulk passes

- Individual cases at teacher’s discretion – what the student can afford.

- Work exchange

- Barter

- Discount for certain groups i.e., unemployment, retired, children etc.

- Sponsorship

- Scholarship

- Mentoring/ coaching

Price should not be an obstacle – ensure you charge what feels right for you.