A few weeks ago, one of my coaching clients reached out for help with an issue she was having with a class that was a lot of work for very little money.
After her Yoga Teacher Training program, she took on this private class not really knowing what to charge or how to negotiate her rates. She agreed to a rate that was....less than sustainable, yet continued to teach the class even as her schedule filled. Now she finds herself in a difficult situation.
Maybe you have been in this boat too. Have you taken on a ridiculously low paying class simply because you felt that the hundreds of hours you spent training to be a teacher and years before that building a personal practice weren't enough? When you were new, I bet that you would have been willing to teach for free, heck some of you probably did!
There is a popular misconception in the spiritual world that if you love doing something the money will just show up. I don't know about you, but the universe has never sent me a cheque in the mail or paid my rent. Hard work and saying "yes" to the right opportunities is what pays the bills. You also have to be willing to be a business person and negotiate rates that are sustainable for your lifestyle.
My personal slogan for teaching and getting paid is this: If you can't eat, you can't teach (Click to tweet)
There is nothing inspiring about a message if it is coming from someone that doesn't have their sh*$ together. And yoga teachers (let's be brutally honest) are some of the worst culprits of expressing beautiful, inspiring messages about self-empowerment while constantly sacrificing their personal basic needs for others.
While I am not suggesting that it is possible to live up to every ideal all the time, but yoga teachers tend to devalue their contribution and their own worth more often than not. Spiritually this is a problem (and one we can examine in another post), but practically, it is a disaster.
As a teacher, if you never ask to be paid what you are worth, you will instead go out and try to teach twenty classes a week just to make ends meet. Worse still, as you add more classes to your schedule, the quality of your teaching will diminish (trust me on this friends, it will happen, slowly or quickly, but it will happen).
So, before you go out and hustle to find new classes and erase all hope of having a few days off each week, consider increasing your rates. If you aren't sure if this makes sense for you at this point, I have made a free 2-part email course to help you sort it out.
Part 1: How to Make More Money Teaching Yoga (Without Adding Classes) - Video
In this short lesson, you will learn:
- A tool to show you how much you are really making per class
- When and how to increase your rates
- How to speak professionally and unapologetically about your rates
Part 2: Increasing Your Rates - A Script for Yoga Teachers
In this email lesson you will learn:
- A tried and true script you can customize and use when you increase your rates
- How to keep your clients happy even when the price goes up
The New Year is the perfect time to repackage your rates, but you need to give your students advance notice which is why I am sharing this with you now.
This course is only for Aquin Yoga Teacher Blog subscribers, so simply subscribe to the blog right here on this page and I will enroll you in the free course, plus you will be the first to know when we have more helpful articles for you.
Do you have a question for our team about the Art or Business of teaching Yoga? Ask away in the comments below or by emailing: erin{at}aquinyoga.com
Photo Credit: Pink Piggy Bank by Ken Teegardin