Where your income comes from
Most yoga teachers don’t earn a salary from one place. They teach a mix of studio classes, their own classes, private sessions and the odd workshop or retreat, and their income is whatever that mix adds up to.
For a class of your own, the number that changes most is how many people come. That tends to go up and down a lot in the first few months, so it helps to look at a whole term rather than a single week.
How you’re paid for a class
How you’re paid decides how much of each class’s takings you keep. Most arrangements are one of three: the studio pays you a set fee to teach, you hire the room and keep what people pay, or the studio keeps a percentage and you get the rest. Our guide to starting your own yoga classes explains each one in more detail.
Working out your own year
Most classes don’t run every week of the year. If you teach in terms, you might teach something like 36 to 40 weeks, with breaks at Christmas, Easter and over the summer, and those weeks off are usually unpaid.
Put in your own numbers below to get a rough idea of what a year of teaching might come to.
Over a year, you’d make about
£2,202
That’s roughly £184 a month on average, and about £23 for each hour of your time.
It’s only a rough guide. It uses the same number of people all year, and new classes usually take a while to fill up, so your first term will probably come in lower than this.
The time each class takes
An hour-long class takes up a lot more of your week than an hour. There’s getting there and back, setting up the room, chatting to people afterwards, planning the class and replying to messages. In the estimate we’ve allowed two and a half hours for each class, and for a new class that’s probably on the low side.
If you only count the hour you’re teaching, a class can look much better paid than it is. If you make £45 from a class and it takes two and a half hours, that’s £18 an hour, and that’s before tax, insurance and training.
Teaching more than one class
Many teachers who make a living from yoga teach several classes a week rather than relying on one. If you can teach two classes back to back at the same venue, you only travel and set up once, so the second class takes far less of your time.
It’s usually easier to add a class once the first one feels steady. It’s worth asking your regulars what time would suit a second class, as some of them might come to both.
If a class isn’t paying
Give a new class a fair run, ideally a full term, before you decide anything. If it’s still not covering its costs after that, it’s often worth changing one thing before giving up on it, like moving to a cheaper or smaller room, trying a different time, describing more clearly who it’s for, or running a short course instead of drop-ins.
Calculator
How many people do you need?
Put in your price and what the room costs, and you’ll see how many people you need to cover it.
Try the break-even calculatorIf you’ve tried a couple of those and it’s still not working, it’s fine to stop and put that time into a class that’s going better.
Ready to take bookings?
Macadamia gives you a free booking page for your timetable, passes and payments.
See how it works