Yoganomics: How do yoga teachers make money?

A friend just emailed me a link to an interesting question posted by Emily Bazelon on the "double X" blog addressing the question of how yoga teachers make money. After five years of teaching yoga I do have some experience in how, as a yoga teacher, to make money - and how not to make money!

#1: Teaching classes. For a Bikram yoga teacher, the pay for teaching a class probably ranges (all prices in US dollars) from $30 to $75 for about two-and-a-half hours work (though at Bikram Yoga Headquarters no teachers are paid - teaching is offered as a service to the guru and the organization). Classes are taught on a freelance basis with benefits like health care being the exception if they exist anywhere at all. At the very best - teaching a loaded schedule of 15 classes a week at a $75 per class rate - a freelance instructor can break $50,000 in annual earnings. A more typical rate would be $50 per class, and in the current economic climate where some studios are having to cut back on classes, 5 -6 classes a week puts a teacher at poverty level where it's feasible that, like the teacher Emily mentions in her blog post, a yoga teacher would find the need to go on food stamps. The US is expensive to live in - one of the reasons why, wanting to focus on and develop my teaching, I moved to Manila, Philippines, where I make about $40 a class/10 classes a week with housing paid for. I'm doing pretty well and have a high standard of living here. Long term, however, my health insurance isn't sorted - one of the largest monthly expenses I have is the COBRA coverage on the health insurance I have from my previous employer, which I hang on to (to the tune of about $400 per month for NOTHING, I'd have to be sick enough to be airlifted to the US to get any benefits as they don't cover routine medical expenses outside the USA) just to avoid having a gap in coverage in the US when I return.

#2: Owning a studio: More risky, but more potential for reward. There are many studios around the world that are really thriving. It takes excellent teaching and excellent management, as well as a location with good numbers of affluent students. I purchased a studio as a new teacher in a location that was overcrowded with yoga studios and sold it for a considerable loss about a year later, that was 2005 and the studio today is still kicking and, after the oher nearby Bikram studio went out of business, profitable. Anyone wanting to know about running a thriving, profitable, and wellness-creating yoga business would be well served to contace Mike Winter and Joani Nunez of Bikram Yoga Houston. They have incredible passion for the yoga, teaching talent, and business sense - the whole package - and they are extremely generous in sharing information on running studios successfully.

#3: Supplementing yoga income: (more to follow!)

#5: Running a teacher training / teaching seminars / guru stuff: (more to follow!)

Warmly,
Carol