Are You Aiming Low?

[Administrator]

On Sonic Yoga's teacher training page in a simple formula.

4 private clients a day = $400.

5 days a week = $2000

50 weeks a year = $100,000

And yet, when our survey asked, "what is your financial goal for teaching
yoga?" most people answered between $20,000 and $30,000.

Am I missing something here?

You can barely live in this country for that amount.

Please enlighten me.

Why do so many yoga teachers WANT to live at that level when - for very little work - they could be making six figures a year.

I'm clueless on this one folks.

Someone help me out.

I'm confused.

Peace

Harlan

[MarleensYoga]

Hi Harlan

I can't speak for anyone else, but I am choosing to work less right now because I have a 3 year old who is in preschool only two mornings a week. I have him in daycare another day when I see clients, but 3 days is about the maximum I want to spend away from him. He is growing up too fast as it is. In a year and a half he'll be in kindergarten and then I'll be able to put in more hours.

So I work 3 days a week. I am at 2 to 3 clients a day right now but let's say I aim for 4. I charge $75 an hour, more or less. That would make $900 a week for me right now. But I visit my home country for 4 weeks each year and then there are a few more weeks that I don't teach (Thanksgiving is dead, so is Christmas, and when my kids are sick they can't go to school or daycare and I have to cancel clients, and then there is a yoga conference or two). Say I teach 42 weeks a year, that would make $37,800. Not bad, but not quite 6 figures. I can live on that because my husband works too.

The choice I am making is to grow my business slowly as my kids grow. In 3 years, when they are both in school fulltime I want to make as much as my husband does, which should by then be very close to those 6 figures. And that is when we are going to move out of our rental house and buy a nice house with an in-home studio for me to teach clients in. See, I do have goals .

[Administrator]

Marleen, you follow the suggestions I make.

You're going to be a star some day.

Namaste.

Harlan

[alice9pgn]

Hello Harlan.

I too would like to make a living teaching yoga, but I see no way I can charge what you are talking about. I live in small town Arizona, a Right-to-Work-State, which simply means you don't get paid much.

How do you determine how much to charge? I'm tired of working for $20 per lesson. Do I just need to move to a larger city, or another state? I'm really at a loss here.

alice

[Administrator]

Alice,

It's not a factor of where you live - unless there are only cows for 20 miles around.

People pay for things they value.

You have to teach them to value yoga.

Do dentists and doctors make $20 an hour?

Do massage therapists make $20 an hour?

I don't think so.

Why is yoga different?

At least in your mind.

Please give me the area where you live and let's see what we can find...

Namaste.

Harlan

[alice9pgn]

Hi there Harlan. For me personally, yoga is priceless. Maybe I just doubt other's desire because I don't see a very healthy yoga community already in place. I'd like to incorporate some meditation and pranayama into the program on a regular basis. From what I've seen meditation seems to be not more than once a month, and pranayama is almost non-existent.

I recently moved from WPB, FL, to Cottonwood, AZ, about an hour from Flagstaff, and about 20 minutes from Sedona. There are a couple of yoga teachers here, but no actual yoga studios. Also, I teach Sivananda yoga, which no one around here does. There are a couple of studios in Sedona, but on the positive side, people don't seem to want to drive that far. In talking to a teacher there, apparently the classes aren't that fully attended.

Reading the posts, I'm starting to think that the right advertising might get me the private students I need. There are plenty of people here retired, or here to get out of the Phoenix heat, or Flag's snow. My part time job is at a golf-oriented housing development, in the clubhouse, and I was wondering about getting students from here. How would I approach that? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Eventually I would love to make my living from teaching yoga, I just haven't figured out how to do it yet. But with your encouragement and brilliant ideas, I'm sure I will. Thank you.

Bright blessings, alice

[Administrator]

Hi Alice.

The first thing that's clear - and you admit - is that you don't know your market.

Yikes.

How can you offer them services if you don't know what they need.

In a retirement community, I'm betting there's a large market for yoga for golfers and restorative yoga.

These are going to be huge.

First thing I would do would be to contact the local physical therapists in the area and make a deal with them.

For every referral, give them 100% of the first private session you do with their clients.

Because in the case of restorative yoga, you'll be seeing them frequently.

I'd also start looking in to the golf yoga market. It's huge.

The typical golfer is older, out of shape, and has injuries all over.

Yoga can help them tremendously.

Oh, did I forget to mention something?

Golfers have money.

Let us know what happens.

Peace.

Harlan

[alice9pgn]

Hi Harlan.

Maybe I'm just thinking negatively here, but won't physical therapists think you're trying to take their business away from them? Anyway, I'm making a list of them and am going to give it a shot. Everything you said makes perfect sense, so I'm going for it. Old golfers.

Restorative does have lots of merit. Over the last 25 years people have ruined their knees with tennis, racquetball, running, high impact aerobics and not wearing the right shoes. I've read that joint replacements are going up and up, so that could also help fuel their need for restorative yoga.

I work part time in a gated community's clubhouse, right next to their exercise room, and there are so many complaining of bad knees, etc. and talking about trying yoga. Now I just have to talk to the manager and see if I can somehow advertise through here. They don't really have a good space to do yoga, but I could maybe go for the privates, right? I'll talk to her when I see her tomorrow.

See, Harlan, I kind of have a clue about the market I'm seeing and looking for, I just never would have thought of going to make a deal with physical therapists. You're a genius. Thanks.

alice

[Administrator]

No. Physical therapists should see you as an adjunct to their work.

My local physical therapist wants to refer people to Sara.

(And he wants to do yoga himself.)

Go for it girl.

There are a lot of books on yoga for golfers. Videos too.

Don't pretend to know as much about golf as they do. Be the yoga teacher.

Namaste.

Harlan

PS. And keep me posted!