Chapters
- 01. Bank On Your Experience As a Yogi
- 02. Tell Your Family and Friends About Your Yoga Courses
- 03. Using Personal Ads to Attract New Students to Your Yoga Classes
- 04. Don’t Forget the Internet: Using the Web to Advertise Your Yoga Lessons
- 05. Word-of-Mouth: the Best Way To Spread the News About Your Yoga Classes
On the Internet, you will find a lot of posts by people looking for “yoga classes near me”. In fact, yoga is becoming increasingly popular in the West. Our hectic lives and the resulting stress encourages more and more people to turn to activities centred on spirituality and listening to what your mind and body have to say.
And what about the yoga instructors? What are the quickest ways to find students when you are a beginner yoga teacher?
Since you have chosen to live your passion, you now face with having to generate enough income to pay the bills.
Without any clients, that can be difficult. This is the harsh reality of coaching and teaching jobs.
So here is everything you need to know to get started and run a sustainable business.
Bank On Your Experience As a Yogi
More than anything else, you need to learn to sell yourself. For some, this term may have negative connotations. The commercial is linked to consumerism, a concept quite alien to the principles of yoga. Yet you will soon learn that selling yourself is at the heart of the battle to live your passion (and eat).
In fact, knowing how to sell your skills is a validation of your experience and your diplomas, not a sell-out.
You are a yoga instructor. This means you have taken part in a yoga teacher training programme (and if you haven’t, we highly suggest you do.)
The experience you have gained through this professional yoga training will help you find your first new students.
What is your speciality:
- Vinyasa Yoga?
- Hatha Yoga?
- Karma Yoga?
- Ashtanga Yoga?
- Prenatal Yoga?
Have you trained in India, the cradle of yoga, under a well-known yogi who has introduced you to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali along with the art of relaxation and meditation? Emphasize this when advertising your yoga course.
Choosing name of your yoga studio is important, and this information should go on your ad materials. Especially if you have studied under a well-known Indian yoga master.
This will reassure interested potential new students and encourage them to contact you.
Did you decide to pursue yoga lessons to better manage your stress levels or do you practice your yoga for flexibility? Have achieved the inner harmony you so desperately sought?
Say so. That way, people thinking about learning yoga for the same reasons you did will know that you have the tools (and the experience) to help them vanquish their demons.
Selling yourself is, in fact, nothing more than using your life experience to give your future students confidence in your abilities.
Tell Your Family and Friends About Your Yoga Courses
Before even thinking about taking your yoga lessons public, we suggest telling your family and friends about your new job. Learn how to prepare your yoga lessons here.
Nothing better than having a few drinks with friends to bring up your news.
Your family provides the ideal guinea pigs for trying out your first yoga lessons and fine-tuning your breathing exercises as well as the flow of your asana sequences for improving flexibility and calming the human psyche.
When out with friends, don’t hesitate to drop it into conversation and mention that you are looking for students.
Are you a member of one or more clubs? A sports club, for example, is ideal for making contacts. Tell your fellow athletes and see if they are interested.
Have you left your previous job to focus on a carreer as a yoga instructor? Tell former colleagues that you have means of helping them relax after a stressful day and insist on the benefits of yoga when talking to them.
Some beginner yoga teachers hesitate to use their personal network to kickstart their careers, probably not wanting to appear needy or pushy. That is certainly to their credit, but to launch your new yoga studio, you will need all the help you can get.
And don’t forget - when teaching people you already know, you will be more relaxed and can test your concepts for your Power Yoga, Kundalini Yoga or Raja Yoga classes in perfect serenity.
Using Personal Ads to Attract New Students to Your Yoga Classes
Even today, with the explosion of the Internet, personal ads are an excellent way to find new yoga students.
When waiting in line at the baker’s, you might have noticed the posters with tear-away numbers advertising all sorts of private tutoring. Then, at the counter, there might be a little stand with cards or prospects. If you ask the shop owners, you will find that most of them are quite willing to accommodate professionals starting their own business.
So now it’s your turn to make people search for "yoga classes near me" by this old—fashioned but efficient method.
Stand out from among other, similar leaflets by adding colour or putting some effort into the design and layout.
The first thing to do is to comb your town and surrounding country and try to identify the strategic places to leave your ads.
Once you have them, make up a concise flyer containing:
- Your name and surname
- Your experience
- Your diplomas
- Your fees
- And example of how your yoga sessions are set up (mention whether you offer Hatha Yoga, Iyengar Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga, Nidra Yoga, Bikram Yoga, etc.)
- Means of contacting you (telephone and email)
- Your hours (if you don’t want to go full-time)
- Your geographical situation and how far you are willing to travel
- You can also indicate if you are willing to give online yoga lessons via webcam.
You won’t have a lot of space, so be as concise as you can. Don’t hesitate to offer free first-time yoga classes as a way to entice new students and inspire confidence. Learn to how to plan your yoga classes here.
As the medium for your ads, you can choose between:
- A single-sheet poster, handwritten (if you have a nice hand) or typed out on the computer, with contact tear-offs
- Leaflets or brochures (A6 format, for example) printed on both sides
- Post cards or business cards with your information
In addition to the cork-boards or flyer stands at the local shops, you can go mailbox to mailbox or put them on the windscreens of cars. Or why not distribute them in schools and universities?
If you have some near you, students studying for tests might decide to try out your yoga lessons to help them concentrate and deal with examination stress.
Take the time to make your ad look inviting. Tip: recycled paper goes well with the image most people associate with yoga.
It may seem like an insignificant detail, but this is just the sort of thing that will make you stand out from the competition.
Don’t Forget the Internet: Using the Web to Advertise Your Yoga Lessons
Over the past decades, the Internet has invaded our daily life. It is becoming more and more difficult to do without. If you are looking for specific information on anything at all, Google is your friend.
This is just as true for prospective students hunting for “yoga classes near me” for group or private classes. This is why you should post your lessons online.
Here are some addresses we can recommend for you:
- https://www.bwy.org.uk/find-a-yoga-class/
- https://www.yogahub.co.uk/
- http://www.localyogaclasses.co.uk/
- https://www.yogaclassnearyou.co.uk/
- http://www.integralyogauk.org/
- http://www.yogauk.com/teachers
- https://www.kundaliniyoga.org.uk/class-finder/
- http://www.ishayoga.org/hata/teachertraining/teacher-finder/find.php
And, of course, Superprof, which we have created especially as a means of helping students and teachers find each other.
Yoga courses are generally offered by freelancers - no reason you shouldn’t add your file to the others on our sites (for free!).
Unlike personal ad sites where you get lost in the mass of information, superprof offers you your own page.
There, you will have all the space you need to present yourself, your fees, your availability and your location. Some yoga teachers add a short video explaining their philosophy and showing a few beginner yoga exercises.
Take the time to explain your therapeutic approach to your potential students and how this spiritual quest is able to bring inner wisdom, better physical condition and mindfulness in a stressed-out world.
Word-of-Mouth: the Best Way To Spread the News About Your Yoga Classes
Many studies and various testimonies confirm that word of mouth is one of the most - if not the most - effective way of finding new clients.
The most difficult part is getting your first students. After that, word of mouth will do (most) of the work for you.
Various studies underscore the importance of word of mouth in making decisions. Most people consult their friends and family before deciding on something; social media is generally a last resort.
You may yourself have been in a situation when a friend has suggested a specific product or professional. Since you trusted him or her, you followed their advice.
It is also interesting to note that word of mouth encourages fidelity - you are more likely to keep on with someone who was recommended to you.
So you see how important it is to talk of your Ashtanga Yoga, Vinyasa Yoga, Hot Yoga or Bhakti Yoga courses to as many people around you as you can.
Then, once you have found your new students, take good care of them and listen to their needs. If they appreciate what you do, they will enjoy bringing their friends with them to class - thence snowballing the attendance to your yoga classes.
That’s right: it’s difficult to find students when you are a beginner yoga teacher. Attractive prices for your yoga classes should help. But once you have a hard core of participants, your will see that your yoga lessons will fill up with time.
A last tip from a yoga instructor: in the long term, concentrate on niche markets. Everyone does Hatha Yoga. But Kid’s Yoga or Prenatal yoga classes are rarer.
It’s true that you will not be targeting as many people. But by becoming an expert in the field, you can raise your fees and free up your timetable.
Find yoga tutors all over the UK on Superprof. From Yoga in London to Yoga Edinburgh & yoga Manchester, we are yoga mad.
The platform that connects tutors and students
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