How to Become a Successful Yoga Teacher: 11 Top Tips

If you’re interested in, or already are working as a yoga instructor, it makes sense that you want to know how to become a successful yoga teacher. 

That’s why we have compiled a list of our top tips to help you either enter the industry with a bang, or up your game and take the next step in your yogi career. 

Before we get straight to it, if you’re looking for a starting point, check out OriGym’s level 3 diploma in yoga teaching. 

Check out our full range of health and fitness courses here in our downloadable course prospectus.

11 Tips on How to Become a Successful Yoga Teacher

Tip #1 Secure the Correct Qualifications of a Successful Yoga Teacher

If you’re totally unqualified and are looking to start your career as a yoga instructor, our first tip is to complete a level 3 diploma in yoga instructing as this will provide you with all of the necessary knowledge to pursue this career. 

The key is to look for a course that is regulated by Ofqual (The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation), the UK government department responsible for regulating qualifications in England.

Having an Ofqual-approved course does so much more than giving you the title ‘qualified yoga teacher’, it provides you with all of the tools you need to be confident in your ability to teach a class and do so safely. 

Plus, it opens up your employment opportunities - how do you expect to be hired if you’re not qualified as a minimum requirement?

It is within this course that you’ll learn the fundamental elements of becoming a successful yoga teacher. From the anatomy of the body to the delivery of a season, you’ll acquire all of the knowledge that potential employers look for. 

Plus, being Level 3 qualified will also help when it comes to getting yoga teacher insurance. 

Tip #2 Provide Students with Constructive Feedback to Make Your Yoga Business Successful

As a yoga instructor, one of your main goals should be to impart wisdom from an area that you’re educated in to benefit the student. One of the best ways to succeed in this goal is by offering constructive feedback. 

Offering feedback will help your students to identify and overcome any barriers to improving their practice, as well as giving them a good idea of how far they’ve progressed.

Yoga can be extremely demanding and there are huge jumps from each level of advancement. This is why you need to encourage your students that the road to improvement is subjective for every individual, whilst also offering actionable advice to help them get there.

You can do this by consistently encouraging and praising your students' efforts throughout the class, creating a welcoming environment so that any feedback you do offer is appreciated and well-received.

One way to really stand out as a great yoga teacher, and to ensure that your feedback actually helps the students to improve, is to make this feedback really relevant and personalised. 

That said, there’s no need to shout out names to the class and potentially make one of the students feel embarrassed or alienated.

For example, if you spot a student struggling with a pose, you should reiterate to the class as a whole key things to remember like:

“Ensure that you have your foot flexed and a slight bend in your knees”

This approach can still point out the things that the client is struggling with, without calling them out - plus, it ensures the rest of the class is focusing on the key factors of the pose.

If the client is still struggling, you can go up to them quietly and help them get into the correct positioning, if they need assistance you could pass them some yoga straps, or a belt, whatever it is they need to feel accomplished.

So long as you continue to speak to the class as a group, they should feel happy with your physical feedback and assistance without feeling alienated as long as you offer this feedback to plenty of clients throughout the class and treat everybody the same. 

Tip #3 Successful Yoga Instructors Acknowledge That Not Everybody is a Pro 

If you’re a yoga instructor and have been in the job for a long time, it can be easy to forget that many of your students won’t know sanskrit or find certain poses as easy as you do.

The key to being a good yoga teacher is acknowledging that not everybody is a pro and adjusting your teaching style accordingly.

For example, by always demonstrating how to do a pose, and talking your way through it, rather than simply instructing your class to do something. 

You should verbally lead your students while also physically guiding them too. Similarly, you just remember that whilst you might know the sanskrit word for an asana (or ‘pose’), your class may not.

So, communicate this efficiently. Instead of simply saying:

Flow into the Vrikshasana asana

You may want to say:

Next we are going to flow into the tree pose, also known as Vrikshasana

This is a simple change that, when accompanied by a demonstration of the movement, can help your students both to perform the pose better and feel more confident that they are executing a movement or pose correctly.

One of the main takeaways from this is that it allows you to avoid making any students feel alienated or not good enough for not knowing the sanskrit name for a pose, or forgetting exactly how to do a particular pose.

This is often the biggest barrier to individuals returning to practice yoga so by overcoming this, you’ll be able to create a steady group of regular students. 

Tip #4 Diversify What You Offer Like Other Successful Yoga Entrepreneurs

Yoga is one branch of many related practices all connected to health, wellbeing and spirituality. So why not take advantage of that?

By branching out in terms of what you offer, for example by pursuing related disciplines like pilates or mindfulness, you could create a diverse space that offers complimentary services to your yoga class.

This is hugely beneficial if you want to grow your brand and maximise your income, but also gain some transferable skills that will improve the experience of your yoga classes. 

It makes your brand stand out among the masses, you’re no longer an average yoga studio, you could become a wellness centre that offers a range of diverse treatments.

For example, below you can see a yoga studio that also offers other areas of wellness that are correlated to yoga.

You can see that among the varied styles of yoga, there are workshops, sound baths, and physio led sessions. 

This is a prime example of diversifying what you offer and ultimately allows your yoga studio to grow into something much bigger. This could even provide you with the opportunity of hiring employees and though you are a yoga instructor, you would also be a wellness centre business owner.

If you’re wondering how I can make my yoga business successful on a financial level, this is a great way to do just that. 

You could even get qualified in other areas like sports massage therapy to offer after your classes, we will talk some more about taking advanced qualifications next but related qualifications is how you as an individual can diversify what you offer, besides hiring employees of course. 

Tip #5 Explore More Advanced Qualifications

As we’ve just mentioned, diversifying your service is one of the yoga secrets for business success and one of the best ways to achieve this is by exploring more advanced qualifications. 

This is because you are going to struggle to offer more services if you aren’t qualified in them and you shouldn’t really be offering anything that you aren’t knowledgeable about. 

We briefly mentioned how offering a specific yoga discipline can be hugely beneficial to your business and your mission into becoming a successful yoga teacher, the way to do this is through further advancement courses. 

Let’s talk about how this course can help you to become a successful yoga teacher in the industry.

Level 4 Course in Yoga Instructing

Becoming a level 4 master yoga teacher doesn’t just provide you with a more prestigious title, but it grants you the opportunity to learn more and land yourself the job roles that you may have otherwise missed out on - but why?

9 times out of 10 yoga classes will often be led by an instructor who is specialised in that discipline and by taking a level 4 course, this is what you would learn.

By focusing on one area of yoga, you’re able to offer a more than exceptional level of teaching.

In fact, you’ll find that most successful studios offer a range of yoga disciplines and there will be various instructors assigned to each type. 

Though this isn’t mandatory by any means, it is certainly a good way to direct your attention to your preferred style of yoga as they can vary greatly in technique and intensity.

Just to highlight this, we took a look at Liverpool Yoga Studios timetable and as you can see below, you find that the Hatha discipline is assigned to one specific instructor. 

Even if it is a beginner style or advanced it is the style that the yogi has disciplined in that they teach.

Ultimately, the opportunity to take further education courses allows you to maximise your income and become a much more successful yoga teacher. 

We spoke about the importance of being able to choose a discipline earlier, but just to reiterate that this is the way forward if you want to be as employable as possible - especially if you’re somebody who wants to open their own discipline specific studio.

Tip #6 Research The Practice Outside of Educational Courses

In any career, you should always strive to learn more to avoid a plateau in what you do. 

In this case, yoga is consistently evolving. There are variations of different yoga styles being revolutionised and more research into the practice is evolving more information on the pros and cons of yoga are arising.

With this in mind, you should be keeping up to date with all of these aspects and acting on them if necessary. 

Research into yoga has never been easier with the internet ploughing out information consistently on various styles of yoga. All it takes is a Google search to find out plenty of information about the specifics of your discipline or yoga as a whole. 

For example, you could head over to a fitness website like ours that is dedicated to keeping users up to date on different areas of fitness to keep on top of yoga news, trends and information from a reliable source.

You can even narrow down your search on the likes of OriGym’s blog and search for only yoga and pilates posts which can not only help you keep up with current affairs surrounding yoga but it will help you to understand different disciplines of yoga that you could be considering as a career. 

As you can see, there is information on various subjects so it is a good place to check regularly or even subscribe to blogs that can give you regular information on your yoga discipline.

Learning more of course comes from things like accredited courses, but this should be accompanied by regular research of your own whether that's through books, yoga retreats or the internet. 

There is so much information available so the effort needs to be put in if you’re serious about being a successful yoga teacher and offering more than just average this needs to be a habit of yours. 

Tip #7 Expect Nothing, Work for Everything

We have two views, expectations and reality and when it comes to pursuing a yoga career you should aim big but stay realistic about what is actually possible.

This doesn’t mean that you can't, or shouldn’t dream big, it means that you should be well aware that high expectations don’t appear out of nowhere and that you need to work hard for them to become a reality.

This is a good way to stay humble and grounded and as we mentioned previously about getting discouraged - if you stay realistic, the small wins are going to mean a lot more.

So how do you ensure that you do this? 

You could set small achievable goals like SMART goals for example which will help you visualise how far you have come even if it is baby steps.

You should get a journal and track your progress so you can see that your hard work is paying off. Plus, it is a good way to see where you could improve too.

It is highly beneficial to track your own career progress and set your expectations realistically to become successful so ensure you’re doing this and putting the hard work in!

Tip #8 Be Patient & Don’t Get Discouraged 

Being patient is an important aspect to remember when on the road to success. 

It doesn’t happen overnight, it takes hard work and it is very likely that you will encounter some setbacks along the way. If you’re new to the industry and are either trying to start up your own business or get hired - you aren’t the only one.

This is why you should be doing your best to go above and beyond to increase your chances of success. 

Of course the reality of staying positive 24/7 simply isn’t realistic, especially if you’re experiencing setbacks. So how can you overcome this? 

Try to implement some wellbeing hours into your schedule. Yoga is of course the perfect way to wind down so don’t neglect your own practice, make time for you to enjoy yoga so it doesn’t become ‘work’ all of the time. 

Nonetheless, if you do want to detach from yoga for a day, find other ways to unwind and keep the encouragement up. 

Some ways you can do this include:

• Listening to a podcast
• Heading to the gym
• Reading a book
• Taking yourself out for a coffee

If you are looking for words of encouragement, a motivational podcast is a great way to relax while also attempting to raise your spirits. In fact, there are podcasts out there designed specifically for yogi’s that run a business. 

You can see below some popular examples of these:

M.B.O.M

Support + Strategy for Yoga Teacher

Yoga Girl Daily

Among many others, yoga podcasts are not rare. So if you’re feeling discouraged why not try listening on a long walk to refresh and reclaim your energy that may have dipped.

For some more information on successful yoga careers and how to get there, head to our articles below:

• Best Yoga Studio Software Options 
• Yoga Studio Names: Ideas for Every Style
• Yoga Studio Manager Job Description Explained

Tip #9 Start Planning to Move Your Business Into Your Own Studio

You will have to work up the finances and client base before you can consider implenting this tip, but success evolves over time. 

We don't know about your defintion of success, but we'd say that it looks something like experiencing these benefits of opening your own studio: 

• Unlimited career expansion opportunities
• Full control over finances and income
• The chance to pursue your own speciality
• You can create a unique environment & set your own rules

Nonetheless, whether it is right away or a couple years down the line, when you find that the time is right, opening your own studio is one of the best ways to maximise your income and build a successful brand. But, where do you start?

To begin, you want to find a suitable space in your area. You should do some research in your area on the yoga studios that are doing well and ask yourself:

• Where are they located?
• How do they structure their timetable?
• Do they have any USP’s?

There is a reason that yoga instructors and their studios are successful so you should analyse them and replicate techniques in your business without actually duplicating their brand. For example, if you find that your area is oversaturated with yoga studios, why not look for somewhere that is missing a studio?

You should look for places where there is a demand but is not oversaturated. Apart from this, if you live in or near a city centre, this is a great place to situate yourself. 

Though this can often be a more expensive approach, there are some ways to get around this. 

For example, you can rent a space for X amount of times per week without actually owning the studio itself. This is a budget friendly way to work your way up to owning a studio yet still operating in an accessible space like a city centre.

Take a look below at The Yoga Hub Liverpool and how they set their rates for those who want to rent their space.

As you can see, they have an easy approach to letting other yogis know how much an hour it is to use their space which is located in the heart of Liverpool. This leaves margin for huge profits, especially if your yoga class is popular. 

For example, if you had a class filled with 15 - 20 people, you could be taking home a profit of £60 - £90 per hour - after taking away your surcharge for the space.

If you made this a regular class for a couple times a week, you would be earning a healthy profit and eventually work your way up financially to open your own studio.

If you build a loyal class, your clients will come with you if you choose to move the studio to your own space. Plus, you can start to maximise your income even further by hiring other disciplined yogi’s to offer a range of classes in your own studio while charging them rent space.

Building your way up to opening your studio is challenging but extremely rewarding and is a popular way that successful yoga entrepreneurs can make a consistent and reliable career as a yogi.

Tip #10 Successful Yoga Teachers Tend to Build a Brand with Meaning - You Can Too!

Learning how to become a successful yoga teacher covers many angles, it is of course about your practice, your clients and your knowledge but like any business - you should build a brand with meaning. 

Yoga is an emotive practice and there are many different reasons why people attend from general fitness to mental health. 

With this in mind, you want your brand to reflect your intentions and energy of your classes. From the yoga business name to the interior design of your studio - every detail portrays the energy of your brand. 

This is why you should pay attention to detail. One way to provide clear direction for your potential clients is to finalise a yoga studio mission statement. Mission statements are a staple part of your business, you should use this to distinguish yourself from the rest and communicate what makes your studio unique. 

You can discuss why you started your business briefly, which provides the opportunity to help you clients feel related to you and your history. 

Building a brand in any industry is a timely task but you should remember to take your time. Don’t rush and think about every aspect from your logo to your uniform. Everything matters and adds to your professionalism or even damages it if you try to cut corners.

The point is, your brand is the identity that you’re putting out to potential clients. So when it comes to yoga it must be; emotive, meaningful, relatable yet professional all the while.

Tip #11 Don’t Lose Touch With Why You Started

Finally, we end this list of tips to becoming the successful yoga teachers you want to be on an emotive note. 

Among all of these tips are instructions, things to remember and how success only comes from dedication and hard work yet, you should never lose touch with why you wanted to become a yoga instructor in the first place.

This is the only way that you’re going to be successful. If you lose touch with your love and passion for the practice, your career will suffer the consequences. 

You can’t force yourself to enjoy your practice if you have lost touch with all of the reasons why you fell in love with it in the first place, so how can you avoid any pressure taking over?

You should always make time for your own practice, whether that is independently or at a class. You should detach your work life from your free time and change the environment and style of yoga to keep your passion intact.

For example, maybe you teach Yin yoga as your discipline, why not instead visit some Ashtanga classes a couple times a week to keep your schedule exciting and to also ensure that you’re constantly learning new teaching techniques and styles.

The idea is to keep your schedule exciting and keep the fire alive when it comes to your passion for yoga as this is the only way you will excel into a successful career.

Before You Go…

We hope to have provided the motivation and tip to a successful career in the yoga instructing industry. 

It is hard work but a rewarding career that is seriously going to make a difference in people's livelihood. 

If you’re only just getting started with your instructing journey, congratulations! Find the more details on our level 3 diploma in yoga instructing here for the best entry into the sector. Or, find advancement courses and more in our downloadable course prospectus.