Are you already teaching yoga classes?
If you can't answer the next 3 questions you need to read this article!
Here's the questions:
- What income did you generate from your yoga teaching last month?
- What profit did you actually make, once you had deducted any and all of your costs?
- Do you think you have a handle on the money side of your yoga teaching?
If you don't know the answer to questions 1 and 2, even if you have time to go away and check your records (or you're thinking "what records?"), and you answered "No" to question 3, then perhaps this article is a useful one for you.
The truth is, if you don't have a handle on the money side of your teaching, you will NEVER have a business that sustains you.
What you'll have is an expensive hobby or a charitable act!
Here are some of the mistakes I see yoga teachers make:
MISTAKE 1: Have no idea what your costs are!
What are the TRUE costs of you doing your current teaching? Do you actually have any idea? Or is it a rough guess?
Do you buy incidentals like candles or incense, but find yourself not keeping receipts or saying things like: "Well it's just a couple of pound." Doesn't matter if it's not in my accounts.
Do you teach solely in other studios or gyms - so you don't really count your travel costs or your insurances when you calculate how much you're actually making for your teaching time and commitment?
Do you teach your own classes, but not really keep receipts or check your accounts regularly?
Do you find yourself feeling a little resentful - then feel "bad" becasue you're a yoga teacher - and this is about giving and being a caring person - so somehow the money side makes you feel uncomfortable?
KNOWING THE TRUTH ABOUT WHAT YOUR YOGA FINANCES ARE DOES MATTER!
Because chances are, if you're not counting all those little things - as well as the more obvious bigger things, those little things add up! And you could be horrified to learn you are actually paying for the privilege of teaching your students!
Now if you're in teaching with NO aspiration to make any money from it - then that's fine. Presumably you have some other way of surviving and paying your bills - and this is your "give back" activity.
But if you were hoping this new found skill and passion, for which you are likely to have invested thousands in training, would help Yyou to transition you to a new career, which could sustain you AND your students - then you REALLY need to get a grip on the maths!
Here's some of the things I've seen yoga teachers discount:
- Their insurance
- Yoga magazine or other subscriptions such as your membership for a recognised body.
- Your petrol/travel costs!
- Your props - and material costs - right down to the tea bags!
- Your printing costs - paper/office materials you need
- Any software you need to run your business - for your mailing lists; booking students onto classes etc;
- Your bank charges
- Further training
- Telephone charges
- Advertising costs
- Music license
MISTAKE 2: Have no proper accounting system (which you check monthly at a minimum if you're running your own classes)
One yoga studio I helped hadn't done their accounts for the whole of their first year!
They had not set up even a basic paper set of books - no-one had been checking their receipts and their bills were all over the place - and I can only imagine their accountant would charge a fairly hefty amount to try to sort all that out into the basic figures they'd need to submit for their end of year accounts.
And they were also missing out on understanding exactly what was happening in their business - how many students did they have enrolling for full memberships? How long did they stay? Which classes were more popular? Who took up offers? This lack of anlysis of what was actually going on in their business meant they couldn't even plan effectively - what to keep doing - what to stop. Crazy!
If you kept your own personal finances with no idea of how much was coming in and going out might you be heading for trouble?
I've been there - ignoring money until it turned round to bite me on the bum because I was in debt I needed to fix! It's not pleasant.
And whether you're teaching yoga to be charitable or not - if your teaching takes away from your ability to be able to respect and support your own living needs then you're not going to be able to give for much longer.
We are in a better position to help others, when we are strong and stable ourselves. I call it self care - not self-ish.
I call it "respecting" our own needs - as well as those of others.
I've learned if I don't master money - it masters me - and thats' why getting this right is SO important.
So get a proper accounting system!
Paper based if you're not aspiring to anything other than "pocket money" - a proper system such as Quick books or Sage if you would like to make this more of a career.
If you're teaching solely for other studios etc - then at the VERY least, keep track of everything you spend which is yoga related. Everything!
And at the end of a month - or 3 months at a stretch, take an hour or so to work out what you've earned, minus your costs - and work out your hourly rate of pay - because that's what it boils down to.
I've had some teachers tell me they could earn more at McDonalds per hour than as a yoga teacher.
Again - you might be happy with that - you just love teaching yoga. And that's fine.
But isn't it better to know - and then choose if that's what you want or not?
.MISTAKE 3: Hoping the experience will get you on the ladder....
My own business mentor calls this a "spray and pray" type of approach.
You try out working for a few gyms/studios - to build your confidence, (which is fine for a short period) hoping this will lead to more and then you'll grow.
Hope doesn't build a career in anything. Careers need planning. They need a strategy. They need you to think about how what you're doing is helping build you up for the next step.
There is nothing more honest than the numbers. Numbers no only don't lie - if you know how to read them right, and what numbers to focus on - you can build something worthwhile, which is sustainable and helps hundreds of students in the process.
There's nothing more disheartening than seeing a good yoga teacher end up giving up because they end up feeling they just can't make any kind of living from what theyre doing.
Not only do they lose out - but the hundreds of students they would have taught - who would have benefited from their teaching.
Don't let that happen to you.
Get on top of your numbers!