The yoga industry has a financial honesty problem. Studios pay $30 a class in many cities. Teachers cobble together privates, festival circuits, and side gigs. Most are one health emergency away from quitting.
The polite version says “abundance mindset.” The honest version is that the math doesn’t work for most people, and the people telling you it does are either selling something or already wealthy.
What actually moves the needle: budgeting like a business, not like a hobby. Knowing your hourly rate after self-employment tax and expenses. Pricing privates correctly instead of apologetically. Diversifying β recordings, online courses, retreats, a small subscription base β so a single studio closing doesn’t end your career.
Community helps too, but not in the soft way it gets pitched. Other teachers can refer privates, share retreats, split rentals, swap subs. That’s a network effect, not a vibe.
The other piece nobody likes to talk about: a long teaching career almost always rests on some form of cushion β a partner’s income, a paid-off house, savings from a prior career. People who pretend it doesn’t are usually being dishonest about their own setup. That distorts the advice they give.
If you’re going to teach yoga for twenty years, you have to treat the money side seriously. Not because the practice is about money β it isn’t β but because survival is.
From Video: How Yoga Teachers Can Thrive Financially! on michaeljoelhall.com