- Growth is three different things and they lead to different lives. Most people drift into one and find out afterwards.
- More hours has a ceiling you can see from here, and the last evenings you add are always the worst.
- More value per hour is the shape most teachers underuse.
- Other people teaching under your name is a change of profession, not a change of scale.
- How you approach one thing under pressure is how you will approach everything under pressure.
Teachers ask us how to grow. For me that is the wrong question on its own, because growth is not one thing. It is three, and they lead to completely different lives.
In my experience most people never choose between them. They drift into one, usually the loudest, and find out afterwards.
What are the three ways a teaching business grows?
More hours. The default, with a ceiling you can see from here. There are only so many evenings, and the last ones you add are always the worst — the far venue, the awkward slot, the class you dread. Growth by exhaustion.
More value per hour. Same week, different work. Courses instead of drop-ins. A specialism people travel for. Small groups at a higher rate. Teaching stays the thing you do, and this is the shape most teachers underuse.
Other people teaching under your name. A second teacher, a studio, a timetable. This one is different in kind.
Why is hiring other teachers a change of profession?
Because the moment somebody else teaches under your name, your job changes.
You are now recruiting, training, covering, scheduling, quality-checking, and handling it when a student complains about somebody who is not you. Those are real skills. They are also not the skills you trained for, and they will eat the hours you used to spend in the room.
That is a legitimate choice, made deliberately by some of the best people in this sector. But it is a decision to stop being primarily a teacher, and it deserves to be made rather than arrived at.
How you approach one thing under pressure is how you will approach everything under pressure. If you already avoid the difficult conversation about a rate, running a team hands you one of those every fortnight.
What is the mechanism, whichever shape you pick?
Smaller than people expect.
Two or three deliverables. Not ten. Written on paper, in enough detail that you would know whether you had done them.
Then everything you touch gets one question: is this taking me towards that, or not? If not, there are only three ways out. Automate it. Delegate it. Eliminate it. There is no fourth, and “I’ll get to it” is not one of them.
Is standing still an option?
You are never treading water. While a teaching life sits unexamined, the venue changes hands, the demographic shifts, the class that always filled stops filling.
Choosing not to grow is fine. Choosing not to look is different, and it is the one that catches people out around year seven.
Where this sits
YogaPros has been the professional body for yoga teachers since 2006, with over 10,000 members across 100+ countries.
*This article is general professional guidance. It is not a substitute for professional legal, tax, or insurance advice specific to your situation.*