- Other professions put a firm, a practice or chambers between the practitioner and the market. That institution holds the cover, the terms and the record. Yoga teaching has no equivalent, so the teacher is the institution.
- The apparatus usually goes unbuilt for a reason that isn’t ignorance: doing it properly means calling the work a business, and that feels like admitting you teach for money.
- Turn it round. The floor is not how you get more out of teaching. It is what keeps the teaching going through a bad year.
- Six things hold a teaching life up: what you are, what covers you, what you charge, what finds you, what holds your week, and what happens if you stop.
- Write one honest sentence against each, count the blanks, and close the one that would cost you most in a bad month. One, not all six.
Teachers ask us how to run the business side better. For me that’s the wrong question, because it assumes there’s a business there to run better. Usually there isn’t. There’s a teacher doing two jobs and only counting one of them.
So the one worth asking is simpler, and slightly uncomfortable.
Ask a yoga teacher who she works for and she’ll usually say herself. Or the studio, if most of the work is in one place. Neither is quite right, and the gap between them is where a lot of teaching careers quietly go missing.
A solicitor has a firm. A doctor has a practice. A barrister has chambers. None of that is an accident, I’d say — it’s what a profession builds first. Most of them couldn’t tell you how any of it works. But that institution holds the insurance, sets the terms, arranges the cover, and vouches for them when a stranger rings up asking whether they’re any good. It’s the floor, and it’s just there.
Yoga teaching has no equivalent. So the teacher ends up doing the work of the institution and the work of the teacher at once, and only one of those is the thing she trained for.
Why doesn’t anyone build it?
Not ignorance. That’s the usual assumption and it’s wrong.
Most teachers have skipped the agreements and the numbers because doing them properly means calling the work a business, and calling it a business feels like conceding you’re in it for the money. You know that’s not why you teach. So it all stays in a drawer marked *not really me*.
Which is understandable, and it costs a lot.
The way through is to turn it round. The floor isn’t how you get more out of teaching. It’s what keeps the teaching alive through a bad year. A teacher with cover, terms and a real number can absorb a studio closing and carry on. A teacher without them loses the year, and sometimes loses the teaching. The apparatus protects the craft. That’s the whole job of it.
What are the six things a yoga teaching career needs?
Write one honest sentence against each. Not what you intend to do — what’s true today.
- What you are. Your employment status at every place you teach. It’s decided by how the work is actually done, not by what the studio calls you on an invoice.
- What covers you. Your insurance, and the things it doesn’t cover. Most teachers hold a policy and have never read it.
- What you charge. A number you can say out loud without adding a get-out at the end — connected to what an hour of your teaching actually costs you, travel and planning included.
- What finds you. How a stranger checks you’re real. A venue about to reply to your email will look you up first.
- What holds the week. A timetable that survives a bad month. Not the fullest week you can build. The one with some give in it.
- What happens if you stop. Six weeks off, for any reason. Who teaches the classes, what students are told, and what you live on.
What do the gaps mean?
Count the blanks.
None is unusual. One or two is normal. Four or more isn’t a crisis, but it’s worth knowing, because it means the teaching is being held up by nothing except things continuing to go well.
Then pick the blank that would cost you most if next month went badly, and close that one. Not all of them, and not in order. One.
Is this the same as treating yoga like a business?
It’s the opposite of what most people mean by that phrase.
There’s no growth plan here, nothing about scaling, and no suggestion you should be teaching more. Several of the six are about having *less* on — slack in the week, a plan for the term you can’t work. It’s a professional floor, the same one every other qualified profession takes for granted, and it exists so the teaching can survive the years that don’t go well.
Where the floor comes from
Some of it you build. Some of it is what a professional body is for.
YogaPros has been the professional body for yoga teachers since 2006, with more than 10,000 members across 100+ countries. Membership carries insurance, a published professional standard, a verified record a stranger can check, and a legal helpline for the questions that turn out to be legal rather than physical.
Which is the honest answer to who you work for. You work for a business with your name on it that’s been running for years, and part of the floor under it is something you can join rather than build.
Six blanks is normal. So is one. You don’t have to close them all, and trying to is how people abandon the whole thing by February. Close the one that would cost you most in a bad month, and leave the others until it’s their turn.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to set up a company to teach yoga? Most yoga teachers in the UK work as sole traders and never need a limited company. What matters far more than the legal wrapper is whether the basics are in place: your status at each place you teach, the right insurance, records, and terms with your venues. Whether a company would suit your circumstances is a question for an accountant.
Am I self-employed or employed as a yoga teacher? It depends on how the work is actually done, not what the studio calls you. Who sets the timetable, whether you can send a substitute, and who supplies the space all feed into it. The answer can differ between venues, so it’s worth checking place by place.
What do I need in place before I start teaching yoga? Professional and public liability insurance, current first aid, and whatever the venue requires. Read your own certificate rather than assuming — teaching abroad and activities that aren’t plain yoga are the two things most often outside a standard policy.
How do I make yoga teaching sustainable long term? Slack in the week, and more than one thing holding the income up. A week with no give breaks the first time anything goes wrong. Both are structural and both can change without teaching an extra hour.
What happens if a self-employed yoga teacher can’t work? Nothing automatic. No sick pay, no cover arranged for you. What you can sort out this month is a reciprocal cover arrangement and what students are told. What you’d live on is a regulated question for a qualified adviser.
*This article is general professional guidance. It is not a substitute for professional legal, tax, or insurance advice specific to your situation.*